“It is extremely difficult in this period to supply a team, even if only on wheels. Today, for a cyclo-cross tour with our riders, we are not in a position to provide equipment to 40 riders. ” Marc Madiot, Groupama-FDJ team technician, announcing the supply problems that professional teams are facing since competitions stopped last year, back in March, due to the health crisis.
The different brands that supply professional squads, both in the World Tour and in the ProTeam category, have been giving ever-increasing and sometimes even imprecise delivery times. That is why teams have had to reinvent themselves to extend the life of the different components of bicycles and other materials.
“We endure the wear of the parts a little longer, we have to make them last over time”, explains mechanic Nicolas Daniel In the portal franceinfo. And he adds: “The chains, which we normally maintain 2000 kilometers, and that’s a lot, we drag them up to 2,500. It’s a bit like a car that has to go to the oil change, and we delay 1,000 or 2,000 kilometers. Often times We disassemble used bikes from cyclists who have shortened their season and reuse parts of those bikes. We try to juggle. “ The uncertainty is total and one of the assets of the teams, such as the sale to the public of the runners’ bicycles, is paralyzed in many squads due to the shortage of material.