Tour De France Cars and Motor Bike Question

spursdave
spursdave Posts: 10
edited July 2012 in Road general
Hi all,this is a really daft question:

How do the entourage of back up cars and motor bikes cope with such slow speeds????

I can't imagine they often get above 40mph most of the time so how do they avoid overheating???

Comments

  • bails87
    bails87 Posts: 12,998
    Does your car overheat if you don't drive at over 40mph?!
    MTB/CX

    "As I said last time, it won't happen again."
  • bottom_bracket
    bottom_bracket Posts: 76
    spursdave wrote:
    this is a really daft question

    :roll:
  • spursdave
    spursdave Posts: 10
    Oh dear!!!!!!!!!
  • alihisgreat
    alihisgreat Posts: 3,872
    bails87 wrote:
    Does your car overheat if you don't drive at over 40mph?!


    ** in 30mph zone **

    "err... sorry officer but don't you know cars overheat at low speed?"

    :lol:
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    Perhaps spursdave still has a 1970's VW beetle with air cooled engine - in which case how do you make it get to 30mph :-)
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • giropaul
    giropaul Posts: 414
    I'm not sure now, but some years ago when I was in team cars, I recall some being fitted with extra oil coolers, especially for use in tours with mountain stages.

    Nowadays I'd be pretty sure that, e.g. Jaguar (Sky) have specialist technicians on hand. A car breaking down on a stage wouldn't be the sort of publicity they want.
  • scazzer
    scazzer Posts: 254
    Seem to remember (last year i think) that a motorbike over heated on 1 of the mountain stages with steam spewing out ,so does happen occasionally...
  • BillyMansell
    BillyMansell Posts: 817
    I imagine in a manual that having to keep the revs up and ride the clutch on long ascents at low speeds with little or no passive cooling can't do the cars much good.

    I remember stories in the old days of cars breaking in the mountains but don't know if it's still relevant today.
  • essjaydee
    essjaydee Posts: 917
    I think the speeds they are travelling on the climbs are well above the speed where you would need to ride the clutch on any vehicle :|
    Share The Road Event http://www.sharetheroadride.co.uk
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  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    As said, they do tend to modify the team cars with extra fans, oil coolers, sump guards and uprated suspension to cope with overheating and rough roads.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • rpd_steve
    rpd_steve Posts: 361
    Overheating should be a non-issue - when going at speeds that don't put sufficient air flow through the rad to cool the engine then the fan will run and that is fully capable of cooling the engine under load. If it is not then there is an underlying issue with the engine.

    Water temp stays high even in low-load, i.e. slow speed, but oil temp does not climb unless the engine is operating under load, so at slow speed/load then oil temp isn't a problem.
  • spursdave
    spursdave Posts: 10
    See!!!!It wasn't such a daft bloody question!!!!
  • giropaul
    giropaul Posts: 414
    It's not the speed itself, or load; but on a mountain it would be usual to go instantly from just rolling along to full gun in 2nd to get past groups of dropped riders. Coming back after service you'd often be doing 70-90mph on a flat stage (I remember a certain UK team manager getting banned from driving in a Milk Race (or maybe Tour of Britain) for overtaking the police motorbikes coming down the Cat at over 80mph!)

    Coming down is just as interesting, again gunning between groups and having riders moving back up going past on both sides. Sean Yates used to have a few words whilst passing, and then move away, overtaking even the Gendarme motorbikes! It's not unusual to see team cars with glowing brake discs after a technical descent.
  • dragonontheedge
    dragonontheedge Posts: 496
    Slight thread drift but dont those Sky Jaguar XF Shooting Brakes looks the mutts nuts !
    Hey, maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!
  • StefanP
    StefanP Posts: 429
    scazzer wrote:
    Seem to remember (last year i think) that a motorbike over heated on 1 of the mountain stages with steam spewing out ,so does happen occasionally...

    I think that was Giro d'Italia, Monte Zoncolan

    1BikeBurn114482456Wegb.jpg
  • spursdave
    spursdave Posts: 10
    Case dismissed!!!!!!
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    I'm thinking he's just dumped all his coolant on the road, which would explain the steam cloud :D
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    it must be quite hard for the drivers to drive at those speeds and keep a high level of concentration going to avoid damaging cyclists and spectators and still manage to react to sudden emergencies. im amazed that noone is injured by the support vehicles and the bikes
  • keyser__soze
    keyser__soze Posts: 2,067
    Mikey23 wrote:
    im amazed that noone is injured by the support vehicles and the bikes

    Err... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYPDAry-A-s
    "Mummy Mummy, when will I grow up?"
    "Don't be silly son, you're a bloke, you'll never grow up"
  • Trickyh
    Trickyh Posts: 50
    Actually, I was surprised to see that most TdF deaths had been caused than the entourage than the riders... Source Wiki, so must be true :wink:

    Cyclists who have died during the Tour de France:

    1910: French racer Adolphe Helière drowned at the French Riviera during a rest day.
    1935: Spanish racer Francisco Cepeda plunged down a ravine on the Col du Galibier.
    1967: 13 July, Stage 13: Tom Simpson died of heart failure during the ascent of Mont Ventoux. Amphetamines were found in Simpson's jersey and blood.
    1995: 18 July, Stage 15: Fabio Casartelli crashed at 88 km/h (55 mph) while descending the Col de Portet d'Aspet.

    Another seven fatal accidents have occurred:
    1934: A motorcyclist giving a demonstration in the velodrome of La Roche Sur Yon, to entertain the crowd before the cyclists arrived, died after he crashed at high speed.[174]
    1957: 14 July: Motorcycle rider Rene Wagter and passenger Alex Virot, a journalist for Radio Luxembourg, went off a mountain road near Ax-les-Thermes.
    1958: An official, Constant Wouters, died after an accident with sprinter André Darrigade at the Parc des Princes.[175]
    1964: Twenty people died when a supply van hit a bridge in the Dordogne region, resulting in the highest tour-related death toll.[176]
    2000: A 12-year-old from Ginasservis, known as Phillippe, was hit by a car in the Tour de France publicity caravan.[177]
    2002: A seven-year-old boy, Melvin Pompele, died near Retjons after running in front of the caravan.[177]
    2009: 18 July, Stage 14: A spectator in her 60s was struck and killed by a police motorcycle while crossing a road along the route near Wittelsheim
  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    Given the size of the TdF, the fact that it runs on public roads, and the length of time it's been going, that's a remarkably short list of fatalities.

    Back to the original topic, there's a fair bit in Ned Boulting's book about how the cars they hire to cover the tour are absolutely destroyed when they return them, particularly with knackered clutches. There's also a great account of the one time they let one of the team members drive the car up a mountain ascent. As the others yelled advice at him to stay off the clutch, and just whack it quickly into neutral and pull on the hand brake every time he stopped, he continued to completely ignore them, and rode the clutch until the inevitable happened
    Ned Boulting, How I Won the Yellow Jumper wrote:
    He stared fixedly ahead, sweat running in rivulets down his temples, as the car filled with the distinctive acrid smell of smoking clutch plate.
    Suddenly as we rounded a tight, steep corner, from somewhere underneath the bonnet a volcanic cloud of white smoke billowed, large enough to ground temporarily all fights in and out of France. We came to a halt.
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    Reminds me of the Skoda ad from last years TdF the premise of which was:

    "Our cars are so tough they can last a whole 3 weeks and 2000 miles without falling to bits".

    It didn't tempt me :lol:
    Faster than a tent.......
  • jagx400
    jagx400 Posts: 132
    dragonontheedge wrote:
    Slight thread drift but dont those Sky Jaguar XF Shooting Brakes looks the mutts nuts !

    They look great, I am bias I worked on them.
  • BelgianBeerGeek
    BelgianBeerGeek Posts: 5,226
    Do the cars have manual gearboxes? Surely it would make more sense to have auto gearboxes, where you can hold the gear if you wanted. No more burnt clutch.
    Ecrasez l’infame
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    Rolf F wrote:
    Reminds me of the Skoda ad from last years TdF the premise of which was:

    "Our cars are so tough they can last a whole 3 weeks and 2000 miles without falling to bits".

    It didn't tempt me :lol:

    Saw a billboard ad for the new Vauxhall Astra VXR it read - Shortens Straights, Straightens bends.

    Indeed they do as the bloody things understeer like a pig on roller skates.

    Should read Shortens life expectancy, goes straight on at bends :D
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • jagx400
    jagx400 Posts: 132
    BelgianBeerGeek wrote:
    Do the cars have manual gearboxes? Surely it would make more sense to have auto gearboxes, where you can hold the gear if you wanted. No more burnt clutch.

    The Jaguar XF's have auto gearboxes
  • bottom_bracket
    bottom_bracket Posts: 76
    Mikey23 wrote:
    it must be quite hard for the drivers to drive at those speeds and keep a high level of concentration going to avoid damaging cyclists and spectators and still manage to react to sudden emergencies. im amazed that noone is injured by the support vehicles and the bikes

    not sure which YouTube clip is referred to above as I can't use it at work but every time they showed Johnny Hoogerland fly into the barbed wire last year it didn't half make me wince! Poor bloke :(

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