From the outside, a mountain-bike World Cup is mostly about racing: starts, technical sections, crowds and results. Inside a team, the week begins much earlier, and it is far less glamorous than it looks (building the pit, eating together, waiting, observing, treating, riding, preparing and communicating).
This is what a week with SUNN Factory Racing at the Les Gets World Cup looked like from my perspective as the team physiotherapist.
This round had an extra layer of pressure because it came immediately before the World Championships in Val di Sole, with selection still very much on the minds of several French riders.
Tuesday: arriving before the racing starts
I arrive in Les Gets on Tuesday while not all the athletes are there yet. The first job with the staff is very practical: building the pit.
The pit becomes our base for the week. We eat there, mechanics work there, athletes come and go between training sessions, and I set up my treatment area there as well.
Once everything is set up, I still have time to ride. Les Gets has an amazing bike park, so I take the chance to try the SUNN Radical. A few hours of simply riding (no schedule, no treatment table, no race pressure) before the week becomes much more structured.
I normally do not schedule physiotherapy on Tuesday unless someone has an urgent issue. If nothing needs attention, I would rather let the riders arrive, settle in and recover from travelling.
Wednesday: taking the temperature
There is no official XCO or Short Track course practice yet. The athletes therefore ride in the area at their own pace, for example towards Col de la Joux or Pré-la-Joux.
This week I mainly work with Electa Gallezot, Tom Perrin, Vita Movrin and Yannis Musy.
After lunch together, the first massages begin.
For me, Wednesday massage is about much more than muscle recovery. It is often the first longer one-to-one moment of the week, and you learn a lot there (fresh or tired, relaxed or tense, physically comfortable or already carrying small issues).
Just as important is the other question: how do I need to position myself around that athlete? Some want to talk. Others need quiet. Some want information; others just want to switch off. There is no standard answer.
That deserves a separate article of its own: what do you actually talk about on the massage table with a high-level athlete?
Thursday: course practice, coffee and final adjustments
On Thursday, the race weekend starts to feel real. Riders begin working on lines, technical sections and course rhythm.
My mornings are often still relatively calm, and I like using that time to have a coffee with the athletes.
Those coffee moments matter precisely because they are not treatment sessions. I am not assessing anyone. We do not have to talk about pain, recovery or performance. And sometimes that is exactly why the conversation becomes more useful.
In the afternoon and evening, I carry out the last important massages before Friday’s Short Track. At that point, less is often more. I want the legs to feel available, deal with what genuinely needs attention and avoid creating a reaction simply because I could still “do something”.
Sometimes the conversation shifts from physical sensations to confidence: am I allowed to think I can ride inside the top ten? Can I picture myself on the first row? What happens when I start believing that possibility?
Friday: Short Track and the moment everything suddenly stops
Friday changes the rhythm completely.
Electa rides the U23 XCC in the morning and finishes 24th. Later, my main focus is Vita for the Elite Short Track.
Short Track suits her profile very well: high power, repeated accelerations and almost no time to recover from a mistake.
Then comes the call-up.
The athletes are still on the rollers. There is music, crowd noise, mechanics, staff moving everywhere. One last gel, one final drink, the last layers of clothing come off.
Then someone whistles.
And everything changes.
Names are called and the athletes move towards the grid row by row. The crowd gets louder.
About a minute before the start, everyone else has to leave.
“Riders, watch the light.”
From that moment, there is nothing more we can do. The athlete does her job. We watch, shout, enjoy the intensity and get ready to be there at the finish.
Vita finishes 21st in the XCC.
Saturday: a quiet day that is not really quiet
There is no XCO race for our four riders on Saturday.
They do a light session, usually a couple of laps to keep the course fresh in their mind, followed by some road riding or easy pedalling to clear the head.
The weather has changed completely during the week: sunshine and dust from Tuesday to Thursday, heavy rain on Friday, then cooler and more comfortable conditions on Saturday as the track starts drying again.
For me, Saturday afternoon means the long massage block: around four hours almost without stopping.
Strangely, it is often one of the most relaxed parts of the whole week.
One rider is on the table, someone else is sitting nearby, another might be getting a haircut. People talk, scroll through their phone and simply spend time together.
At this point of the season, team contracts and the uncertainty around the following year are also part of the conversations.
The day ends with the team meeting, planning and the final organisation for Sunday.
Sunday: four races back to back
The alarm goes at around 6 a.m.
From there, the day barely stops.
- Electa Gallezot – Women U23: 21st;
- Tom Perrin – Men U23: 12th;
- Vita Movrin – Women Elite: 30th;
- Yannis Musy – Men Elite: 58th.
Electa rides a strong race on a course made much more technical by the rain.
Tom then produces an excellent performance, finishing 12th in the U23 World Cup after starting a long way back and working his way forward throughout the race.
In the women’s Elite race, Vita starts very aggressively and rides close to the front positions early on before gradually losing ground and finishing 30th.
Yannis closes the day in the Elite men’s race after a difficult season affected by injuries, finishing 58th.
What does the physio do during the races?
I am definitely not sitting around waiting for the riders to come back.
I spend much of Sunday in the technical and feed zones: preparing and handing out bottles, managing ice and cooling, encouraging, observing each rider and relaying useful information to the team manager.
Depending on the race situation, the staff can remind an athlete to drink, give time gaps, offer tactical information or provide technical feedback.
This looks very different from the classic image of physiotherapy. It is observation, communication, logistics and a strong understanding of each athlete.
That is exactly what I enjoy about athlete support: physiotherapy is only one part of the whole performance system.
5 p.m.: a Coke, a sandwich and packing everything away
After the final race, the tension finally drops.
A Coke. A sandwich at around 5 p.m.
And then the pit has to come down.
Everything we built on Tuesday goes back into the vehicles. A few hours earlier the area was full of spectators, riders and noise; now it starts turning back into an empty car park.
The week usually ends with dinner together.
A World Cup week is not “just doing massages”
Massage and recovery are important, of course. But supporting a mountain-bike team at World Cup level is mostly about creating an environment in which the athletes can do their job.
Sometimes that means treating pain. Sometimes listening. Sometimes preparing ice. Sometimes handing out a bottle. Sometimes simply having coffee together and not talking about physiotherapy at all.
This experience naturally shapes how I work in sports physiotherapy in Basel.
More stories from behind the scenes
- What do you talk about on the massage table with an elite athlete?
- What does a physio actually do during an XCO World Cup?
- Massage and recovery 24–48 hours before competition: what helps and what should be avoided?
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