I fell in love with cycling when I bought my first road bike back in 2012. As a runner, it gave me the freedom to go further and faster enabling me to explore more of the countryside and see places I never knew existed. But it wasn’t until I started working for a professional cycling team that I really started to adore the world of professional cycling with its history, culture, colours, cols and the unwritten etiquette that governs the sport.
Photo credit: @MouldyPIX
The Soigneur
As the team’s soigneur (also known as the ‘swannie’), my role was to look after the team so that the team could focus on racing well and producing results. The role was endless including anything from doing airport runs, food shopping, making breakfast / staff lunches / post-race food, washing kit, filling bidons and musettes, handing them out in the feed zone, supporting riders at the finish line, driving team cars and, of course, providing sports massage. It’s not a particularly glamorous or well-paid job and it involves crazy hours - we were often the first ones up and the last ones to bed. So, you really had to love what you did. For me, it was an incredible adventure that gave me the opportunity to travel, make some great friends and see behind the scenes of what makes a professional team work. I revelled in the hard work because it brought with it the benefits of a close-knit team. We were all ‘in it’ together and we all helped each other out. I soon learned that this is paramount in cycling; success is never due to one individual, it always stems from the team as a whole.
Sports and Remedial Massage
Photo credit: @MouldyPIX
Providing sports and remedial massage was a major part of ensuring recovery and performance for the next day of racing. Every rider got a treatment to help reset their bodies after each race. For some, it was a chance to alleviate injuries or niggles so they could continue racing. For others, it was a means of preventing any injuries occurring from the strains of training and racing. For all, it was a key means of aiding recovery. It gave the riders a chance to rest and relax (in silence, or with a bit of banter) whilst we focused on flushing blood, water & nutrients into some extremely tired & depleted muscles. It was also a chance to have a laugh, digest the day and give the riders a much-needed boost after a tough day in the saddle.
Many of the riders had a lack of mobility in their thoracic spines due to being bent over in a saddle all day, every day (a common occurrence also found in desk-based workers). Despite their hips and legs being the powerhouses, I found that restoring some mobility further up the kinetic chain would help with overall performance. After all, everything is connected.
During a stage race, one rider mentioned to me that he was struggling to breathe deeply during the day’s race. As you can imagine, no one wants to worry about this when you are operating at threshold all day during a race. I examined his ribcage and the tension around his intercostals. With a bit of release work through the diaphragm we were able to release some tension and restore some mobility to ease his breathing. I checked in on him after the race the next day. He felt loads better and was able to concentrate on racing rather than on the lack of oxygen in his lungs. Again, diaphragmatic dysfunction is not just confined to elite sports. I also find this type of issue across all walks of life. Often when our posture is not optimal, our thoracic spine, ribcage and breathing is negatively affected.
Nutrition
Regardless of the type of race (crit, one day or stage race), nutrition plays a key role in performance. Most people think that a soigneur’s role is mostly to provide massages. However, this was actually a small proportion of my overall time. Most of my time and energy was focussed on nutrition, which involved providing good sources of carbohydrates for racing, protein for recovery and to maximise rider nutrients after races (eating gels day in, day out isn’t exactly a means of ensuring optimal nutrition). This meant creating various snacks for the musettes and developing new and inventive ways to pack nutrients into a post-race meal. This was always a fun challenge when cooking on a team bus, with limited facilities, or shopping in a foreign country and spending way too much time trying to find what you need. You get pretty good at adapting on the fly!
We created endless variations of snacks for the musettes (essentially a picnic bag for the riders) to keep things interesting. This provided a good source of carbohydrates using real food rather than gels. We would make anything from savoury rice cakes with eggs, onions and bacon to brioche buns packed with cream cheese and jam. The hotel snack box was also another key area. The riders would be hungry at all hours of the night after a race. I used to have a cool box outside of my hotel door, so they could help themselves before or after a massage. However, I often heard little rustlings in the middle of the night when someone woke up hungry. The cool box would be regularly stocked with easy to store food, such as muesli, yoghurt, bananas, Soreen, dried fruit and nuts.
Another key task was preparing the bidons before a race and loading them into the team car. They would contain either water, isotonic or carbohydrates; the proportions depending on what kind of a race it was that day. On a particularly cold, wet race we filled them with hot tea, which would go down well when the riders reached the top of a climb (frozen inside and out).
Breakfast was often supplied at the hotels, but we would also supplement this with some staples to ensure the riders had the same stuff they usually eat at home. You can imagine staying in a foreign country and waking up to find a completely different breakfast spread before a big race; it wouldn’t go down too well! We would often adorn the table every morning with condiments, spices and things like warm porridge or bircher muesli to pad out the breakfast already provided. One of my favourite jobs was always coming up with something different for the post-race meal. After each race, the riders would be served a solid meal whilst they showered and got ready to head to the next destination. I recall pulled pork brioche burgers went down a treat after one race!
In my experience, I find that many athletes invest a lot of time and money on training, coaching and treatment, when required. However, they often neglect the vital role that nutrition has in performance. As Dr. Mark Hyman says, “In a lab, all calories are the same when you burn them. But they aren’t when you eat them”. Our aim was to provide the riders with the right nutrients, to race hard, using real food where possible.
Whether or not you're an avid cycling fan, there are many lessons from professional cycling that can help us feel and perform better. Whether you’re an office worker, maxed out parent or training for your next big race, please get in touch for some help around nutrition or massage (anything from prehab, rehab, mobility to flexibility).