Rather than focus on the actual race itself, bike bag & box specialist Scicon has shared some of the logistics behind its sponsored cycling teams at this year’s Amgen Tour of California.
Starting this weekend, and running from 10-17 May, the Amgen Tour of California seeks to emulate the European Grand Tours with a demanding course that traverses hundreds of miles of California’s iconic highways, byways and coastlines each spring. The pro cycling event is divided up into eight grueling stages with a cumulative distance of around 700 miles.
Scicon notes that the majority of World Tour and Continental cycling teams are based in Europe and the ‘journey to victory’ starts a long time before the race itself.
Scicon currently sponsors nine professional cycling teams – of which, four are racing at this year’s Tour of California: Cannondale-Garmin, Trek Factory Racing, Tinkoff-Saxo and MTN-Qhubeka.
Scicon, as bike bag manufacturer, plays a key role in facilitating safe transportation of thousands of bikes every year to and from races and training camps around the world. Each of the eight team riders has three bikes: 1 road, 1 TT and 1 spare. Cannondale-Garmin also takes a couple extra spares on top of that.
Henriette Greenwood- Logistics Manager of Tinkoff-Saxo said, “We currently book an average of 1,100 flight tickets per year and that includes 240 bikes in bike bags to races like the Tour of Down Under, California, Colorado, Dubai, Qatar etc. and of course, also to our training camps.”
MTN-Qhubeka Team Principle Douglas Ryder explained that travel logistics play a huge role in his team as they are flying a lot further than other teams, as many of their riders live in Africa. “60% of our riders live outside of Europe where the majority of races are held, meaning we have to fly to races that other teams don’t have to.”
He went on to state “This is why having a good bike bag is so important. The AeroComfort is the best in the business and we want to get our riders out to races like the Tour of California in the best shape.”
Something that all the teams seem to echo is the huge increase in the number of races outside of Europe. Head Mechanic at Cannondale-Garmin Geoff Brown noted, “The globalization of professional cycling is great for the sport, and it is critical for teams to get the equipment we need where it needs to be, safely – so we are lucky to have a sponsor like Scicon that helps ensure our equipment arrives in great condition for racing and training.”
www.sciconbags.com
www.amgentourofcalifornia.com
