“Listen son, stay cool and keep calm, and always use the same tone, because if you start to get overexcited and yell on the radio, everyone is going to go mad.” This was the advice five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault gave Seb Piquet 15 years ago, when Piquet (pictured left, above) started as the speaker of Radio Tour, the ASO’s inside radio channel for the Tour de France.

Broadcasting from the race director’s car, behind the peloton or the break, Piquet’s voice narrates the stage in real time for team cars, race officials, and media. His commentary guides the convoy, enriches information provided to TV announcers, and delivers hard facts to the commissaires adjudicating the race.

We talked to Piquet about what it’s like to be the most important voice at the biggest bike race in the world.

As the speaker for Radio Tour, what functions do you serve in the race?

The number one thing is to give out information to the team cars. Then I give out information to press, and to commentators. I always make sure I have an eye on the guys in front of me in the pack, calling the team car if anyone has a puncture, needs bottles, has mechanical issues, or if they crash. You have to react instantly and call the cars forward as quickly as possible.

In all the chaos of the race, how do you stay informed of everything that’s happening?

I can’t see the front of the race because I’m just behind the pack, so I have three motorbikes up there. Basically, these three guys on the bikes are my eyes on the front, and they tell me what goes on – which riders are up there, and what the time gaps are at specific moments.

How do they do the time gaps?

They start their stopwatch at a specific place where the breakaway is and and they wait for the pack to show up. That’s when you only have one bike. When you have several bikes, the guy on the lead bike will find a mark and radio back to the guy behind him who is with the front of the pack; for example, he’ll say, “Okay right now I’m at kilometre 33.” Then he’ll tell the other guy who’s at the front of the pack to launch his stopwatch. When the second moto hits the mark, that’s the time.

Back of the pack for @lawsoncraddock on Montée de Bisanne @LeTour #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/GnCOnUN54f

— seb piquet (@sebpiquet) July 18, 2018

So there are just a load of guys with stopwatches?

It’s most efficient, because you never know with data and satellites. They’ve tried doing it with TV [footage], but it’s not accurate enough. What works is a good old stopwatch and a guy on a motorbike. It has to be spot-on.

If a commentator says something wrong about time gaps, can he put a Tweet out saying, “Seb Piquet gave me the wrong information?”

Yeah, sure. It happened once – it was a sprint stage on the Tour de France and there was a crash with under a kilometre to go. Someone in the car with me said, “Ah, Cavendish has crashed,” so I immediately – because I didn’t check – said, “Cavendish has crashed.” And then he won the stage. That has repercussions, so now I’m super careful. It’s not the end of the world, but I looked pretty stupid.

Is that the worst thing you’ve got wrong?

Probably, although one day I dropped the cornichon [a small pickle] out my sandwich and [when I was trying to clean it off] I accidently pressed the pedal [which turns my mic on]. Which meant the whole of Radio Tour heard me shouting profanities about my sandwich.

So that’s how you turn your radio on, by pedal? How many different radios do you have?

I work with a pedal and a headset, and when I press on the pedal I speak to everyone on Radio Tour. So I don’t need to use my hands which is great. Then I have four different channels. Race radio is where I give out all the information that everyone has access to, even the photographers and TV directors. [This is a channel open to the public.]

The second channel is what I use to speak to the motorbikes in front of me, which we call the info motos. We have race direction to speak with Christian Prudhomme [the race director] and the heads of ASO. Then we have a special channel for the commissaires [race officials].

Who’s normally in the car with you?

Always the same people. I’ve had the same driver for the last 14 years, Pascal Lance, who is a former rider. More or less, all the drivers of the ASO races are former pros because they know exactly how to react behind a peloton. Then there’s Thierry Gouvenou, the race course director, and the fourth person is a president of the commissaires appointed by the UCI.

What are the stress levels like in the car?

About four or five years ago we were on a slight downhill and there was this massive crash – like 40 riders went down. In those moments there’s quite a bit of stress. But it’s funny, you can’t be stressed because people feel it, and if they do, then they’ll be stressed and will react in an erratic way. It’s always about staying cool and focused and giving out information in a calm manner, like Hinault said.

At that crash, I gave out the bib numbers and rider names if I knew them, and we tried to move as quickly as possible because the race carries on and we have to be as close to the front as we can. Moments later there was another crash at the front of the pack, so another 15 guys on the floor.

That was a real moment of stress in the car because we had no more doctors, they were all stopped on the first crash. We had no more ambulances. Even so, in that moment it’s not too stressful for me because I keep on doing my job. It’s stressful for the race director and the president of the commissaires because they have to make a decision quickly and decide if the race is still safe. You have to make a decision that won’t be too controversial for the riders. In that moment they decided to neutralise the race.

Were you covering the Ventoux stage in 2016 when Froome crashed and ran through the finish line? That must have been a crazy moment.

Yeah, because we saw the crash – it was probably 50 metres ahead of us. But first of all we saw the crowds, and we thought, Shit something is going to happen here, this is not good. There were so many unfortunate circumstances on that day. It was supposed to finish at the top [of the mountain] but there was too much wind, so all the spectators that were supposed to have been on the final 4km were all down lower. And you couldn’t have barriers there because there was too much wind. Add those things together and it lead to that chaotic moment. We were behind and it was unbelievable to see the crash and the crowds, and then to see this guy running in front of us. We were thinking, Shit what’s he doing, is he aware that he’s not allowed to pass the line without his bike?

It must be hard to maintain that level of focus for so many hours.

That you get used to. But you never get used to [not] falling asleep, that’s a battle [laughs]. It really is a battle. Because on long, six- to seven-hour stages there’s always a moment during the day after your two sandwiches and a glass of champagne where you struggle.

What? You’re drinking champagne in the car?

Yeah, we have a bottle of champagne in the car on occasion and have a glass.

So how do you manage to not fall asleep?

It’s a struggle, you really do have to fight against it. You can’t sleep because at any moment of the race things can happen. Kilometre 15, kilometre 50, kilometre 120, anything can happen. There can be a crash, there can be a guy lifting his arm in the air because he’s thirsty, so you have to remain focused the whole time.

As I get older I struggle more with falling asleep, so I found this thing two or three years ago where I try to have power naps. So in that case I ask Thierry Gouvenou to do race radio and I put my alarm on and I sleep for 8-10 minutes. I don’t always sleep but at least I relax, close my eyes, and take a power nap. Don’t tell anyone. But you get used to it, you know, you have your routines – you have your can of Coke and your saucisson [sausage], my sweets and my sandwich.

What if you accidentally skip a part of the routine, has that ever happened?

I’m very privileged because the driver normally takes care of everything, getting the sandwiches, the water, the Coke and all that. But [at the Tour of] California last year the driver, who was a different driver [than usual], forgot my sandwich. Oh my god I was in a panic. I was thinking, How am I going to survive?

Was that a stressful moment?

Oh my god that was the most stressful day of the last 15 years. [laughs].

This article originally appeared on bicycling.com.

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