How To Be...

(1) Both. We’re always the first ones up and the last ones down. Depending on the tour or race, your average day can be 16 to 20 hours long. (2) Everyone prefers shaved – a hairy massage is more painful for the client or rider than it is for us, and you need loads more oil for the hair. (3) They are completely different. MTB is easier, I think, as the team dynamics are less – and less demanding. (4) Hardly glamorous! But never really grimy... just hard work. (5) Our job is to do whatever’s needed. But there are some limits… I remember a rider at the Epic asked me to please treat some very bad saddle sores. I’m not that squeamish, thankfully – they cleared up by the end of the race. But at another MTB race, working privately for some international riders, one had caught a bug, and had a case of gyppo-guts on the bike. He was covered in his own vomit and excrement. After the stage, he handed me his kit in a plastic bag to wash… I flat-out refused, and advised him to throw the kit away. There are limits. (6) I use a combination of both. (7) We’re a multilingual international team, with seven different languages... I’m learning every day, but we all communicate in English.