Pros and shared hotel rooms

neeb

Just been watching the Sky documentary "Road to Glory". One thing that puzzles me - the team go to a huge amount of trouble to ensure that the riders sleep well, even replacing mattresses and bedding at hotels, installing air filters etc. And yet the riders still have to share rooms. I know this is a big tradition in pro cycling, but why? It strikes me that the one thing that is most likely to stop you sleeping well is having to share a room with someone else, putting up with their snoring and movements, trying not to wake them up if you are restless yourself, etc. Do any advantages of sharing really outweigh all this, or is it just down to cost, even with a team like Sky?

graeme_s-2

I imagine its a combination of cost and availability. Certainly during the GTs they won't have the luxury of a room per rider. No point having your own room all year if you have to share at the Tour de France. This way when they have to share in July they can say "we've trained for that"

durhamwasp

Yeah exactly, most finish/start towns wont have enough hotel rooms for every rider/staff/officials to have their own.

greasedscotsman

The teams don't sort out their own hotels for the GTs, it's done by the race organisation. And the hotels aren't always in the finish/start town, they can be around an hours drive away.

neeb

Makes sense, I hadn't thought about availability. I guess if it is standard practice for a team to have a certain number of rooms based on the assumption of sharing, it would be next to impossible to double that number during a GT...

rebs

If they don't share rooms how will they be able to play soggy biscuit?

cougie

These guys spend months in hotels - aside from the logistics - I'd imagine it would get boring very quickly.

Now just dont get me started on my company trying to make us share rooms with people from the organisation we may not know for business workshops....

MrTapir

Also it seems that it provides the riders with a mate to get to know, i know this can go wrong but you've got Cav and Bernie and also Luke Rowe was saying he likes rooming with Michael Barry. I would imagine that its quite good when you are away from home for so long.

rick_chasey

team leaders often get their own hotel rooms.

Especially when they do stuff they don't like their teammates knowing about/seeing.

*ahem*

MrTapir

Rick Chasey wrote:

team leaders often get their own hotel rooms.

Especially when they do stuff they don't like their teammates knowing about/seeing.

*ahem*

It must coincide with having a very good internet connection in that room.

rick_chasey

Or a refrigerator.

MrTapir

yes yes i was just making a lude reference

RoadPainter

Rick Chasey wrote:

team leaders often get their own hotel rooms.

Especially when they do stuff they don't like their teammates knowing about/seeing.

*ahem*

An advert for Comeback 2.0 appeared just below that. Fantastic ad targeting!