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Some special photos of Team Sky. When you have big budget, why not show off
Team Sky delivered yet again. Tour de France is a Team sport and you MUST have a strong team to win this prestigious sporting event.
They were there supporting Froome at every moment (except when he was involved in the unfortunate crash with camera bike). Their team selection was spot on having mix of strong men and climbers. Wout Pouls shined this year more than Geraint Thomas.

Ford motors specially delivered this custom painted Mustang for the final stage. Wicked.







Chris Froome's bike for the final stage in Paris. A thing of beauty from Pinarello



Custom embossing showing previous three Tour wins of Team Sky



Specially designed jersey's for entire team





Celebrations started early



















Meeting family





Standing at the top step



This team made it possible

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Tour De France and Automobiles

Watch a stage of the Tour de France and you’ll inevitably see a swarm of cars and motorcycles in front, behind and sometimes in the midst of the riders. It takes a veritable army of support to drive the Tour, but who are all these people, and what do they do? Here’s a look at the race support convoy, from front to back.


Police Moto

First comes a race motorcycle escort, from the Guard Republicaine’s motorcycle division. There are 48 of them in the race total. Thirteen go with the publicity caravan; the rest are with the riders.








Official Cars

There are three that precede the front of the race: assistant director, race steward, and race director. These guys are the heads of state, so to speak. In the case of a breakaway, the race director’s car typically goes with the break and the assistant director stays with the pack. The race steward’s car typically has a race commissaries in it to watch for rules violations. After the riders comes the official car, containing the President of the race jury, who will rule on regulations violations like illegal feeds, hanging on to cars, etc. There are other commissaries in other cars and on motos as well.

Skoda is the official sponsor of the tour. All the official cars are Skoda Superb in red hot color.












Press Cars and Motos

Accredited media can drive ahead of or behind the riders in the convoy, with these conditions: Only cars with green accreditation stickers are allowed (which means three accredited journalists in the car); the cars must not leapfrog the breakaway (ie. Repeatedly jumping ahead, stopping to let it pass and tucking in behind); and no filming from the cars. A press car can drop behind the breakaway only when the gap is more than two minutes.




These are Kawasaki 1400 GTR


Mavic Neutral Support Car and Moto

There is one neutral service car and one to two motos. The cars have the yellow bikes on top; the motos carry at least one set of wheels, and if they use one, they re-stock while rolling, from the car. They stay ahead of the field, but will drop behind the break if one emerges.

These are mostly Skoda Octavia or Superb.














Regulateur Moto

The regulateurs are the traffic cops of the convoy. They determine the circulation—who goes where and when. They will give cars and motos the signal to pass on the left or not pass at all, and if you don’t obey, you’ll be thrown out of the race. These guys are no-BS types, and they have jurisdiction over every vehicle in the race except the red directors’ cars, which means you can expect curt hand signals and the occasional Gallic finger wag. Their role is essential, though, as they have to make the call for when to send vehicles through the pack (say, a team car to get up to a rider in a breakaway). There are typically several at the front, to go with breakaways and chase groups as they may happen.






Neutral Water Motos

A fairly recent edition, you'll see these mostly on mountain stages where the pack splinters and guys can be a long way from their team cars. They have a custom pannier setup on the back that holds multiple water bottles.






Photographer Motos

The motorbikes that carry still photographers. There are typically 15 or so in the race on any given day. Only a few chosen outlets (like AFP, l’Equipe, AP and others) get a moto bib every day; the others circulate between photographers. The photo motos can circulate in the convoy at the regulateurs’ discretion. They can also jump ahead, stop to shoot the pack, and then rejoin the convoy and pass through the pack to the front again.







Continued...

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Video camera Motos






Information or Timing Moto

This is the yellow-liveried moto and riders which delivers the time gap information to the riders in the break.










Race Doctor Car

The official race doctor treats all in-race injuries, although team doctors are known to ride in the caravan as well in team cars. The race doctor’s car is always a convertible—he’s the only one allowed to really hang out the side to treat riders (although mechanics do it all the time).







Team Car

There are two sets of team cars, and each team brings two cars in the convoy. The order is determined by the team’s highest-placed rider on GC to start the stage, so it switches up almost daily. The first set of cars stays behind the pack, unless there is a breakaway. If a breakaway emerges, once the time gap hits one minute, the regulateur will, at his discretion, signal the team cars of riders in the break to pass through the field.

*Note: Will post separate details on team car


The Broom Wagon

The Broom Wagon is the vehicle that picks up any rider who is unable to finish the race.







Fin du Course Vehicle

This car signals the end of the race caravan.



Reference: http://www.bicycling.com/racing/tour...france-caravan

[unk9ja]

Thoroughly enjoyed the pics along with good information. Never knew about the broom and the fin de course wagons although the broom wagon was seen in couple of stages when the race concluded. Thanks for keeping us informed and updated.