What’s it really like to ride the world’s most grueling bike race? Former pros Jaco Venter and Daryl Impey pull back the curtain on the daily grind of the Tour de France – from 6am weigh-ins and bus-ride tactics to post-stage showers with no privacy. It’s a relentless routine of early starts, strict structure, and barely any downtime — where every gram, gear choice and gesture is monitored. Here’s what life inside the Tour really looks like, hour by hour.

Wake up

The mechanics are already at work, prepping bikes. Riders weigh in first thing. It’s all part of the daily ritual.

“The first thing we did was fill in a mental wellness app,” says Jaco Venter. “Basic questions that went to the performance team so they could see where your head was at. Then it was off to the doctor’s room for the morning weigh-in. You’d also pee in a bottle you’d been given the night before.”

Breakfast

Meals are often served straight from the team chef’s truck or prepped in advance and delivered to the hotel. Variety is not key, just consistency: rice with an omelette, porridge, toast, muesli, sometimes pancakes.

“Back then , we weren’t overly focused on nutrition – definitely not as scientific as other teams,” says Venter, who raced for Team Dimension Data at the 2017 edition of the race. “We were a sprinters’ team, and maybe also budget-conscious. The chef would prepare food, then we’d drive to the start, which could be a one or two-hour trip.”

These days, every rider eats precisely-timed and measured meals, developed with nutritionists to fine-tune the fuelling. There’s usually another weigh-in just before the stage.

It wasn’t this precise when Daryl Impey was racing. (He raced the Tour from 2012 – 2019.) “We didn’t carb-count,” he says. “Now the guys weigh everything. 360g of rice for today? Done. It’s robotic.” 

On the bus

For Impey, it was coffee time: “Straight Americano or espresso. Can’t ride without coffee, right?”

The bus ride is also usually when team meetings happen with the sports director: course breakdown, tactics, rider roles. “We were focused on the sprint stages,” says Venter. “Especially the last five kays. Cav and Rensh were very specific about which side of the road they had to be on.”

Race!

The real work begins. Riders race for hours, flat-out, up mountains, into crosswinds, through crashes and chaos.

Post Race

Shower in the team bus. The team leader might head to the hotel in the soigneur’s car. 

“Teams normally have two buses. The best one always goes to the Tour. Ours had one open shower with three heads –absolutely no privacy.”

“Teams normally have two buses,” says Venter. “The best one always goes to the Tour. Ours had one open shower with three heads –absolutely no privacy. There was a big sofa at the back, a small kitchen, and a coffee machine. In the last few years, the seats have really improved. These days, the guys have nice, big, reclining chairs. 

“Depending on the day, we’d have a debrief – either on the bus, or later at the hotel. The director might talk to us all together, or one-on-one. We’d all have to use an app to record what our job had been that day, and how we thought it went. It was private. No one could see each other’s answers, which annoyed me. Some guys got ambitious with what they said they did, because no one could really verify it.”

Evening

Rest, eat, rehydrate, get a massage. Sleep is essential. “I hated it, in the end,” Impey admits. “I fed off the team environment, but once everything got clinical – scales and so on – I was seen as ‘unprofessional’ for not weighing my food. 

“The new guys? They don’t care. They’ll walk around with a little scale like it’s normal. Our dinners were simple and repetitive: plain pasta, chicken or red meat, veggies and salad.” 

It sounds like a relatively simple daily routine, but it’s demanding. “You don’t have time for anything personal,” Venter says. “Between the traffic in the mountains and the long drives, you sometimes only reach the hotel at 10pm. Sometimes I’d skip the massage and go straight to bed. 

“Before riding the Tour de France, you need to make sure that everything is sorted out at home; because once you’re there, you have zero time for anything else in your life.”

 

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