It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. Perry Moerman has been at it for 20 years on the professional cycling tour, serving star riders past and present such as Erik Zabel and Mark Cavendish.
Behind the glitz and glamour of the Tour de France, the 50-year-old mechanic for the Astana team chugs away quietly at a daily work routine that begins hours before the riders get flagged-off and ends well after the stage is done.
For the Belgian from Flanders who once aspired to be a top-level cyclist, it's a dream job. 'It's the second best thing you can do on the Tour if you fail as a rider,' he says.
Mechanics are an integral part of every team, much like the pit crew of a Formula One outfit. They ensure glitch-free operation of the machines that riders use to propel themselves to the finish line, and, on a good day, victory.
Chris Horner, an American cyclist with Radioshack-Nissan, says mechanics are a 'huge' part of the team's success. 'The bike has to work and it has to work perfectly. So you've got to have good mechanics to keep the bike functioning correctly and keep us in the right place.'
On stage 10 on Wednesday, a gear-shifting problem with Horner's bike on the tough climb up the 17.4km long, 1,501-metre high Col du Grand Colombier meant he had to ride his big chain ring to the top. 'The amount of energy I had to expend was enormous to stay with the front group and all that energy was spent because of a bike problem and not because of legs or anything like that. So yes, [the part that mechanics play] is huge,' Horner said.