For most riders, team leaders and cycling fans, the Tour de France is the annual highlight on the calendar. Sjors Beukeboom from Eelde-Paterswolde is part of the cycling circus on behalf of the Spanish Movistar. Beukeboom is part of the team’s media team. He keeps the fans informed, links journalists to riders and is Bodyguard.
Tired and empty, Enric Mas will pass the finish line in Rouen on Tuesday, half a minute behind the winner Tadej Pogacar. There are quite a few climbs in the end of the stage and the classification men have been full. Beukeboom comes into action and runs to Movistar’s Spanish leader. A dozen journalists do the same. “Then it’s up to me to play a little bodyguard.”
Reporters with cameras, recording devices and old -fashioned with notepad and pen are displacing around Enric Mas. “Enric, especially in such a stage, is very tired. I have to ensure that the journalists do not immediately jump on Enric, that he has a short time to recover and drink. As soon as Enric gives a nod, I tell the journalists:” Now you can ask two or three questions. “
A day earlier the chaos is bigger. “Each stage has its own dynamics. Monday was a sprint stoke, almost all of the riders cross the finish in the peloton. All soigneurs and all the accompanists of all teams are in a very small zone. And then a group of 180 riders arrives at once in the small area. Keeping a distance.
Welcome to the Tour, the three -week cycling round through France, is also a media spectacle in addition to a cycling race. “My role within Movistar is that I am responsible for all media and communication. That means that I take a lot of photos and videos, I assemble and publish them on social media. And I am a lot in contact with the media, with the journalists who want to speak to my riders.”
Beukeboom studied journalism at Windesheim Zwolle, worked at the NOS and then ended up with cycling team Israël Premier Tech. “For that job I moved to Girona, a city near Barcelona.” There he came in contact with Movistar, the largest Spanish cycling team. What helped with this is that he speaks a ‘a little’ Spanish. “It seemed like a great challenge to work again for a team with a different culture and a different identity than the Dutch.”
And so he has been having coffee with his parents in Eelde-Paterswolde one week, and a week later he will dinner for hours with riders listening to the names Iván Romeo, Nelson Oliveira and Ivan Garcia Cortina.
“Those are sometimes long lunches. How much time they spend on lunch is very long compared to the Dutch standards. One day before the first stage of the Tour we might sit at the table for three hours. Then I think: guys, I have something better to do.”
“So many different conversations are conducted at such a dining table, with different accents. I find it difficult to follow it all. Then I occasionally feel a bit of a smell.” But he also enjoys it. He writes all the culture classes, together with other experiences. In September his book ‘The Tour from the inside’ must be released.
Time to take some notes, he has full container when the riders are full. Beukeboom’s working hours are precisely the opposite of those of the riders. Before and especially after the stage it is to be tackling. In the morning he drives the team to the gathering place where all team buses are. The team discussion takes place on the bus. Sometimes Beukeboom is there to determine its own strategy. Because where can he shoot a good picture for the social media channels along the route?
“But I don’t try to show myself there often. It is a small space, with eight riders, four team leaders and also masseurs. In addition, I have to walk to the Mixed Zone fairly early, there all the interviews between journalists and riders take place. That is often a walk.
If the riders are on their way, Beukeboom can in principle keep siesta. But he always finds something to do. Editing videos, taking photos, taking vlog on the bus, praying sponsor products. As soon as the finish approaches, it is all Hens on deck again. “Then those journalists come to my riders and I really have to guide them well. Then of course we want to quickly publish ourselves about what happened in the stage. So yes, after the stage my day really starts.”
Less than a week the Tour is on the road, but in the hectic pace the first stage in Lille already feels like a vague memory. “When I finished the parking lot in Lille last Saturday, I felt that energy from the Tour. I got goosebumps, and now that I say it, I get that again,” says Beukeboom.
“The amount of people, the sound, the noise. That makes the tour. The pressure, stress and work pressure too. I would almost say that the Tour might be a different sport than cycling itself, because of the size of the event. It is not comparable with another big round.”