Michele Primaro
For nearly 40 years, Michele Primaro has seen cycling from almost every angle, racer, mechanic, sports director, team manager and guide, and the thread through all of it is making sure the rider in front of him can simply get on with riding.
Michele Primaro learnt to work on bikes because, as a kid, buying a new one or paying somebody else to fix it was not really an option.
That practical beginning grew into a life inside cycling. He raced in Australia and Italy, opened his first bike shop at 21, worked as a professional mechanic at the highest level, became a registered sports director and ran professional teams. He has worked at races such as the Giro d'Italia, helped manage the UniSA team to overall victory at the 2004 Tour Down Under, and spent decades learning what happens behind the scenes when the smallest detail can decide a race.
These days, Bikestyle guests get the benefit of that experience in a very different setting. Michele might be checking a bike before the Stelvio, calming a nervous rider, fixing a problem before it changes somebody's day, or explaining what is really happening inside the professional race passing up the road. The pressure is different, but the instinct is much the same, prepare properly, understand the person and make the complicated look simple.
The Road To Bikestyle Tours
Cycling arrived early. Michele was around 12 or 13 when he and his younger brother entered a local interschool roller competition run by Mike Turtur after the Los Angeles Olympics. They both won their age groups. Michele won a new bike, their names appeared in the local newspaper and cycling clubs started taking an interest.
He joined Port Adelaide Cycling Club, the club he still belongs to as a life member more than 40 years later. At home, the brothers learnt to maintain their own bikes because money was tight. Another important influence was Gordon “Pud” Brooks. Michele would spend afternoons in Pud's back shed, quietly watching him repair bikes hanging from an old tubular tyre. Michele describes those hours as his apprenticeship. By 21, he had opened his first bike shop.
Racing took Michele to Australia and Italy before injuries ended that path earlier than he would have liked, but cycling kept opening other doors. He became a professional mechanic, then a sports director and team manager, working across professional cycling and travelling to more than 70 countries. Around ten years ago, Patrick Jonker put Michele in touch with Adam Gill, and he joined Bikestyle as a guide and mechanic.
Nearly Four Decades Inside Cycling
Michele started working as a professional mechanic more than 30 years ago and later became a registered professional sports director. He has worked inside team cars, service courses and race operations where preparation is measured in minutes and a small mistake can have a very large consequence.
He also knows the human side of the job. Professional riders can be particular about setup, confidence and routine. Michele learnt that the bike may be mechanical, but the rider is not. Some people need numbers and repeated measurements, others need reassurance, humour or simply somebody calm beside them.
That carries directly into guiding. Michele says every rider comes from a different background and is on tour for a different reason. Reading that matters. If somebody is nervous, he talks to them, jokes with them, stays close and helps them feel safe. If the day is going badly, he looks for another option rather than forcing the original plan.
Why it matters on tour: Guests have somebody beside them who can diagnose a bike problem, understand a rider problem and tell the difference between the two. Michele's professional standards mean he notices details early, while his years working with athletes and teams help him adapt to the person in front of him.
A Spare Bike, A Motorbike And Monte Zoncolan
Of all the unusual jobs Michele has had inside professional cycling, one day at the 2018 Giro d'Italia is difficult to beat.
Tom Dumoulin was fighting for the general classification and the race was heading to Monte Zoncolan. The final climb is so steep, narrow and constricted by tight tunnels that the normal race convoy could not follow the leaders all the way to the finish.
The organisers had a solution. Each team could position a mechanic at the bottom of the climb. When the leaders arrived, the mechanic would jump onto the back of an organiser's motorbike and follow the race carrying spare equipment.
For Team Sunweb, that mechanic was Michele. His cargo was Tom Dumoulin's spare bike, carried over his shoulder as the motorbike made its way up one of the Giro's most feared climbs.
The gradients meant the motorbike was not moving particularly quickly, which brought Michele extraordinarily close to the spectators. Fans tapped them, touched them and grabbed at the bike and wheels as they passed. At moments, Michele wondered whether somebody might knock the motorbike over.
But the noise, the atmosphere and the perspective were extraordinary. Instead of watching the Giro from the roadside or following from a team car, Michele was in the middle of the mountain, behind the leaders, carrying a race-winning contender's spare bike through thousands of fans.
“It's one of the stages that I will never forget in my career.”
Preparation Is The Job
The Zoncolan story is spectacular, but Michele's career was built just as much on the unglamorous work that happened before anyone was watching.
At a Grand Tour, mornings could start at 5:30am. Around 24 bikes and more than 30 wheelsets might need to be prepared across race and support vehicles. After the stage, the mechanics could still be washing, drying, inspecting and repairing bikes at 8, 9 or 10 o'clock at night. Then they did it again the next day.
His workshop still reflects that mentality. The tools he uses most sit closest to the workstand. Everything has a place. Unnecessary movement wastes time, and poor preparation creates problems later.
As Michele puts it, “The preparation is always the most crucial thing about any job that you do.” That philosophy travels well from a WorldTour service course to a Bikestyle tour.
A Day In The Life Of A Grand Tour Mechanic
Michele's Grand Tour days rarely ended when the riders crossed the finish line. From early starts and race-bike preparation to team cars, roadside pressure, bike washing and late-night repairs, there is a huge amount of work guests and cycling fans never normally see.
In our companion story, Michele takes us behind the scenes of a professional cycling team and explains what a Grand Tour mechanic's day really looks like.
Seeing the rider being happy on the bike and enjoying themselves, especially if there was a problem before the ride and it's been fixed, that's what makes me feel good about what I do.
Life On Tour
Michele likes that Bikestyle groups bring together people from completely different backgrounds who share one common language, a passion for cycling.
One guest moment he still remembers came on the Stelvio. The rider reached the top, sat down to absorb what had just happened and became emotional. For Michele, it was a reminder that a famous climb can mean far more to somebody than the gradient, distance or number on a GPS screen.
Those are the moments he feeds off, a guest meeting a cycling idol, getting close to the race or reaching the top of a climb they have dreamt about for years. His aim is for guests to feel they are in safe, experienced hands while still having the freedom to enjoy the moment in their own way.
There is plenty they do not see. Route planning, logistics, preparation, bike checks and the small problems being solved before the day begins. Michele spent much of his professional career in exactly that unseen part of cycling, so the rhythm feels familiar.
Michele's Advice
Enjoy the moment, pace yourself to your ability, eat and drink, and don't make cycling more complicated than it needs to be.
Michele thinks experienced riders can become too focused on numbers. Sometimes the better answer is to go back to basics, listen to your mind and legs and enjoy where the bike has taken you. And if it all goes badly, he adds, there is always the van.
Quick Spin With Michele
Off The Bike
Michele's Italian roots run well beyond cycling. He was born in Puglia, where his family has lived since the 14th century, and he remains passionate about the region's history, food and traditions.
He loves cooking southern Italian recipes handed down through generations, along with making his own liqueurs such as limoncello. Pasta is the easy answer for favourite food, while the drinks list ranges from red wine and Belgian beer to espresso and espressino freddo.
There is also one skill guests may not expect from the man carrying the bike tools. Michele can cut hair. His father was a barber for more than 50 years, his younger brother followed the same trade, and Michele has been known to carry the accessories himself.
A perfect day without riding apparently still involves the bike, cleaning it, then watching old races from the 1980s. Cycling's grip is fairly complete.
What Michele Brings To Bikestyle
It is great to have Michele back with Bikestyle Tours.
Michele originally worked with us as a guide and mechanic before the WorldTour came calling and took him back into professional cycling. We kept in touch over the years and it was always great to see a familiar face when our paths crossed at races around the world. I was also fairly consistent in reminding him that when he finally finished travelling the world as a professional mechanic, there was a spot waiting for him back at Bikestyle.
So I am pretty happy that time has finally come.
Michele brings an incredible amount of experience to the team, but what I value most is how he goes about things. His attention to detail and professionalism are obvious, whether he is setting up a guest's bike, solving a problem on the road or working through the logistics of a tour. Add his ability on the tools and years working at WorldTour level, and it gives our whole team another level of experience to draw on.
But there is another part that matters just as much to me. Michele is simply a great guy to have around. He enjoys a laugh, loves talking cycling and is good company at the end of a long day.
You can have all the experience in the world, but on a Bikestyle tour you are spending a couple of weeks travelling, riding and sharing experiences with our guests. Being someone people genuinely enjoy being around is essential.
Michele ticks both boxes, exceptional professional experience when you need it, and plenty of fun when the bikes are packed away.
Owner, Bikestyle Tours
Primaro Service Course, Adelaide
When Michele is not guiding with Bikestyle Tours, you will often find him at Primaro Service Course in Adelaide. It is where decades of experience from professional teams, Grand Tours and WorldTour service courses come back to the workstand, whether that means servicing a bike, solving a stubborn mechanical problem or helping a rider get their setup right.
Ride With Michele
Michele works across Bikestyle's Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and French and Italian cycling tours. In 2027, he will be part of the team on our French & Italian Alps Cycling Tour, bringing decades of professional cycling, mechanical and guiding experience to the mountains.
