How to build a Tour de France team from scratch: Tudor Pro Cycling’s CEO on reaching the biggest race in the world within three years and creating a squad that’s “here to stay” + Inside the mechanics’ truck at the Tour

Send us Fan MailThis episode of the podcast is in association with Schwalbe...How do you go about building a Tour de France team effectively from scratch? That’s the question I asked when I popped around to the rest day hotel of Julian Alaphilippe’s Tudor Pro Cycling squad, who are making their debuts at this year’s Tour.The Swiss team are relative newbies to the sport, only launching under the Tudor name in 2022, two years after classics legend and national hero Fabian Cancellara took over the Swiss Academy Racing project. The squad then stepped up to the second-tier ProTeam level the following year, and has enjoyed something of a meteoric rise to the top of the sport, making their Giro debut last year, before being invited to the 2025 Tour.On this week’s episode, I chat to Tudor CEO Raphael Meyer about the team’s growth and how you get ready for a race as big as the Tour de France.I clambered up into the team truck, to have a nosey at the squad’s bikes and wheels, and to chat to their head mechanic Diego Costa about what it takes to put together a Tour de France bike.