My Week: Hanlie Perry

Carer Hanlie Perry, who is with the squad for the Tour Down Under, looks back at an eventful seven days in Adelaide.

Each week we'll be featuring a different member of Team Sky's staff, to see exactly what their job entails. This week it's carer Hanlie Perry who has been busy looking after the Tour Down Under squad in Adelaide:

Monday 11 January Team Sky arrived in Adelaide for the Tour Down Under on Saturday 9 January. As the race is in Australia and our Team base is in Europe we have come to the event with all the necessities that are individual to our team (energy drinks, feed bags, clothing, mechanic bits and pieces etc). Since there is a weight limit on supplies we can bring from Europe we had to be quite selective on what to take to Australia, and today is the day to find the generic items that we didn't bring to Adelaide. First thing in the morning the breakfast box (a plastic container with oats, cereal, jam, milk, soya milk, dried fruit, nuts) is taken down to breakfast, and left on our designated table. This is additional to the buffet style breakfast that is offered by the hotel. I have a quick breakfast, and make my way down to the Race village across the road where we prepare bottles for the guys' training ride. We make a cooler box full of extra bottles, water and cola, that will go in the team car as the temperature today is way above 40 degrees. As the guys arrive to go on their ride we put bottles on their bikes, offer them sunblock, bars, gels, bananas. The guys go off on their ride, we put their shoes away, fetch the breakfast box from the dining room, and it's time to go find what we need from the shops. On our shopping list we have: - Towels that the riders can use to clean up after each stage. - A big cooler box (we found a 125l box). - Small boxes to keep gels, bars, sunblock, organised in our race car and transporter. - Freezer blocks to keep the riders' food cool for after the races. - First aid supplies from the pharmacy. - Food for my room that the guys can snack on between meals (fruit, nuts, dried fruit, yoghurt). Once we found all of the above, we make our way back to the hotel and wait for the guys to get back from training. Once they arrive back in the village we make them a recovery drink each, take the used drinks bottles from their bikes and from the team car, wash the bottles, and put the unused bottles back in the fridge. We unpack the extra bars and gels, towels, bananas etc from the car. For lunch we take olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard etc to the table. After lunch we have a half an hour break, and after that we start with massages. After massages we all went for dinner in a Chinese restaurant - good times! Tuesday 12 January Today we were invited by Jacob's Creek for lunch. The guys are riding from our hotel in Adelaide to Jacob's Creek (about three hours away). We prepare bottles for the ride, and pack what the guys might need after their ride in the van (towels as they're showering upon arrival, recovery drink, plastic bags for their wet kit etc) We follow them in the van and car today as we are all travelling back to the hotel by car. We leave the hotel at 9am, and follow them to Jacob's Creek, stopping at the side of the road every so often after training intervals to give them bottles. Once we arrive at Jacobs Creek the guys carry on past the wine farm, and we make our way to the main building to check where they will be having a shower. We find out that it's in cottages not at the main building, and we take the transporter there. All their bags get taken into the cottages, and a towel and plastic bag for wet kit is placed on top. We check that it's warm enough inside the cottages since they would have been riding in the rain for more than three hours when they get to the cottages. Once the guys arrive we give them recovery drinks and help Kenneth [van de Wiele,our mechanic] to load bikes. After lunch we drive back to Adelaide. Back at the village we unpack the cars, put everything away, collect the wet washing that will later be collected from my room by the hotel, and get ready to do the massages. After massages I deliver the clean washing from the day before, and take condiments to the dinner table. We make the bottles after dinner since the next day will be an early start as they are doing long ride. Wednesday 13 January The guys will be doing a lot of miles today, so I take the breakfast box down before breakfast opens at 7am. Just like the other mornings we prepare the cooler box for the ride. There wasn't any time to sort out the bottles from their previous ride yesterday because we arrived at the hotel late afternoon and massages had to be done before dinner. So we wash used bottles, throw out energy drink that wasn't consumed, and make new bottles for the five-hour ride. While they guys ride I go to the airport to see if there is any information on the luggage that didn't make it to Adelaide. When I get back to the hotel I take a pair of Kenneth's shorts to get stitched where a seam has come undone. Today there is time to go for a run since the guys will be gone for a long time. When the guys come back one of the riders tells me he has some indigestion problems so I go to the supermarket and pick up some bicarbonate of soda. After getting back I go to reception to find out whether our Gatorade powder had arrived at the hotel. I am told that it is kept in the catering department, so make my way up to the first floor to speak to them. Since we had been sent a palette of Gatorade and Pepsi I ask if they could keep the drinks with them and how we will be able to access it on a daily basis. I take some of the drinks to my room, some to the village, and put some on the table. After that it's massage time. Thursday 14 January I do my usual thing - breakfast box, bottles for the ride etc. The guys open their washing from the day before and find that riding in the rain had stained the white on the back of their shirts. I collect all the shirts that didn't come back as they should, and once the guys had left for their ride I go to the supermarket and pick up some stain remover. Back at the hotel I soak and scrub the shirts until they look white again, and hang them up to dry. I wait for the guys to get back, make the recovery drinks, sort out the bottles, pack everything away, take the condiments to lunch. The guys went to the city centre in the afternoon for a few hours, so I went for a run. When they get back we do the massages. After dinner I make sure with the hotel that rooms are booked for the correct dates for Dave B [Brailsford], Shane [Sutton], Brian [Nygaard, Head of Communications] and Corin [Dimopoulos, Sky's Director of Cycling] who will all be arriving in the next few days. I also speak to Helen [Mortimer, Operations Manager] to clarify how she would like that to be organised with the hotel, and I order some extra undershirts and shirts from her for some of the riders. She gives me the tracking number for one of our parcels we are expecting and I go online to see if there is an update on its whereabouts. Friday 15 January Race day is approaching now. Today I joined Sean [Yates] and Kenneth and followed the guys' training in the car. There is a definite buzz in the team. Other than the usual (bottles, condiments, breakfast box, recovery drinks, massages, washing etc.), I do a round and ask each of the guys whether they have any prefereances regarding race food, and nutrition after the race. I find out that we have a rider that is sensitive to gluten, so I contact Nigel [Mitchell,our nutrition expert] to ask some advice about this. Nigel sends me some information via e-mail as to how we can give the rider exactly what he needs before, during and after the race, and I go to the supermarket to see if I can find what Nigel suggested. After this I go to reception and make sure that Dave B's room is available as Sean is picking him up from the airport, and I pick up Dave's key. Upon Dave's arrival we discover that his non-smoking room wasn't that non-smoking after all, and I go back to reception to change his room for a different one. Saturday 16 January Today is the last day before race day. We are still waiting for our parcel containing our Oakleys that had been sent from Valencia (where the rest of the team had their training camp), so while the guys are out training I go to DHL to see whether I can find out where it is. I am told that customs hadn't cleared our parcel yet, so I call customs, but the office was closed. I can only chase this again on Monday. I go to the health shop to see if I can find any other snacks that are gluten free that I can possibly put in the feed bag during the race. Just before lunch we go to Subways to order sandwiches for the staff and riders for race week. We would normally make these sandwiches ourselves, but since the stages start quite early at the Tour Down Under we make other arrangements this time. We also go past the bakery and order 15 small rolls per morning that we can pick up at 6:30 every day. These will be used as race food. We also order a fresh loaf of wholewheat bread per day that we can put on the table at breakfast and have a look at the pastries for Kenneth and Sean. Then it's time for lunch, massages, dinner, and after dinner I check e-mail, and have a catch up with Helen. Sunday 17 January Race Day. I wake up at 5.45am as two of our riders might go on a charity ride this morning, so we are in the race village by 6.30am to make sure they have what they need. As the weather wasn't great they don't go on the ride, so we have breakfast instead. After breakfast I go past reception and pick up Brian's key as he is arriving from Kuala Lumpur this morning. I leave the hotel at 7.30am to pick Brian up. At the airport I go past the Qantas desk to see if there is any news on our missing luggage - no news. Brian arrives right on time, and we go back to the hotel. I drop Brian off in front of the hotel and go park in the village. In the village we start preparing bottles for the race. The race is a criterium around a 1.7km course here in Adelaide, so the guys will go for a ride in the morning as well. While the guys do their ride we make a list of what we might need from the shop today, and plan what needs to be packed for the race. Once the guys are back Maarten Mimpen [my colleague, another carer] and I split up - Maarten goes to the camping shop to find some fold up chairs that the guys can use at the start and some extra towels, and I go to the supermarket to get snacks for staff and riders for before the race, since there is a bit of time to kill between team presentation at 2pm and the race start at 4.15pm. Only the car is allowed to enter the race circuit, so we have to fit all the mechanic spares, cooler boxes and other supplies in the race car. We also have to start thinking about the race food next week, and get some supplies for that too. Back at the hotel I go past the accreditation office and find out whether there is a way to do Shane's accreditation without him being present (Shane is arriving at the airport at 1.50pm from Perth, and we don't want to miss any of the action at the race, so we want to get there as quickly as we can) I am told that if I send a photo they could get it ready for me before, so I e-mail the race office a photo of Shane. I go to reception, and pick up Shane's key, and make my way to the race village to check on everything that we packed for the race. The guys arrive in the village at 1.30pm, all the riders leave in convoy for the start that is 1km from the hotel at 1.40pm. Once they've left I go to the airport to pick Shane up. We go back to the hotel, leave the transporter there, and walk to the start. When we get there the guys are just about to get on the stage for the team presentation - a proud moment for all of us! After the presentation the guys go back to the hotel to get out of the sun and off their legs, and we wait for them at the start. They get back just before the start, and we offer them gels, and change the bottles on their bikes for cold ones. They're off! We start our first race as Team Sky - this is definitely a really special moment that I will always remember! I watched the race on the big screen and looked for the guys in the bunch every time they came past the designated team parking just after the finish line. With a few laps to go we make the recovery drinks, and get the finish bag (a bag with towels, water, podium hats, branding to stick on the jerseys on the podium, and some extra kit inside) ready. We see the guys lining up in their lead out train with two laps to go. We're watching it on the big screen, and all we can see is six guys, lined up, with the blue line continuing on their backs (starting with Russell, then Mat, Davide, Swifty, CJ and finally Greg) It is a textbook lead out! Perfect! Greg cross the line first, with CJ second. I grab Greg's recovery drink, the finish bag, and his riding jersey and go to the podium to wait for him. He comes to the podium on his bike, I take it from him, pass him his jersey, clean his arms and legs, give him a podium hat, and give him his recovery drink. Once Greg is done on the podium he goes with Brian, and I go with Sean, back to the hotel, to empty all our supplies out of the car. I start with massages as soon as Russell has finished his shower. The whole team has dinner together. After this I go to the village to pick up some water for my room. I deliver the clean washing, and it's time for bed. My week has come to an end, time to rest up for the busy week ahead!