A crazy car chase, the peloton pee break and how the stars stay at a €90 Novotel: MailOnline spends the day with Team Sky to reveal the surreal sights never shown on the Tour de France coverage... and the secrets of Chris Froome's success

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TV stations covering the Tour de France only ever show the elegant ribbon of riders streaming around corners as the helicopter camera pans away to reveal the idyllic French countryside.

From afar, it is a beautiful spectacle. But up close it is far more gritty, far more dangerous, far more fascinating and utterly thrilling.

During Stage 13, MailOnline spent the day with Team Sky to get an unrivalled behind the scenes look at the inner workings of the Tour.

We were given a glimpse of the military precision that goes into organising the staff who look after Chris Froome and his teammates for three weeks along the gruelling three-week 3,360 km (2,087 miles) race.

And we rode in a team car following behind the riders which is plunged into a hair-raising high speed battle all of its own each day in a dizzying blur of motorbikes and fans on narrow French roads. 

THE SPORTS DIRECTOR: WELCOME TO THE WACKY RACES

'Wear your seatbelt, I hope you don't get car sick', said Nicolas Portal, Team Sky's senior Sports Director as he fired up the car at the start line of the 198km stage from Muret to Rodez.

'I have whiplash after whiplash', came the refrain from mechanic Gary Blem, as he struggled to make space for himself in the back among a pile of spare wheels and his tool box. 

Portal and Blem didn't speak with any hint of exaggeration, but instead with a weary resignation to the wacky races that now lie ahead. 

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Multi-tasking! Team Sky Sports Director Nicolas Portal has to drive, communicate with the team and make constant calculations about how the team should ride depending on the route and what rivals are up to

Nature break: At one surreal point during the race, the riders all decided to call off hostilities so they could do their bit for French agriculture and fertilise the roadside en masse

Portal took off at pace as we joined a roaring, roiling convoy of innumerable other team cars, motorbikes carrying cameraman and race officials in a riot of colour past the cheering of flag-waving spectators under the searing midday sun.

Portal's job is to manage the game of high speed chess being played out on the road ahead. Alliances between teams and individual riders are formed then broken, while breakaway groups are chased or allowed to take the lead depending on how much they pose a threat in the overall rankings. 

To steer through the multiple hazards would take the full concentration of the best of drivers. But Portal does it while doing a multitude of other mental tasks. He is akin to a fighter pilot, making constant mental calculations while flying through a warzone.

The car resembles a police car, minus the flashing lights. There's an iPad (the cars have their own wifi), a TV screen to feed live footage of the race, a portable SatNav, and three different radios. 

In the boot is the cool box to carry the spare bidons (water bottles) for the riders. On the roof is a spare bike for each rider and a bulbous TV/radio antennae. 

At one point during the race Portal was writing some intelligence about a risky sharp turn ahead he had been texted from the recon car ahead with his left hand on a map balanced on his knee. One eye was on an iPad that had route information on it.

He was also listening to the official race radio about the latest timings of the leaders and the crackling demand for more water from a Team Sky rider up ahead who was coming back to collect it.

This was all being played out at 35mph, with cars overtaking, pulling over, motorbikes braking suddenly to stop for a picture and featherweight riders whizzing by on their even more fragile bikes.

And on it went for a wince-inducing five hours.

Relentless heat: Temperatures topped 40C on the route and the nine Team Sky riders would down more than 100 water bottles - with each having to be passed from a moving car or in food bags at assigned feed stations

Domestique: Here Luke Rowe loads bidons down the front and back of his jersey to deliver to the team ahead

Sacrifice: The constant dropping back and catching up of the domestiques means they expend their precious energy on behalf of the team leader Chris Froome

Hydrated: At the front of the peloton Yellow Jersey Chris Froome is handed his fresh water at high speed

When Portal was irritated that another team car had taken his spot ahead of him, he accelerated viciously back round it with the front right wheel spinning in nothing but air over the precipice of a VERY deep ravine. 

There is code of etiquette that brings some sort of order to the chase behind the race. As the DS of the yellow jersey's team, Portal should have the plumb spot behind the race official's car.

Just like with Froome at the head of the peloton, the other teams are trying to take a bite out of Portal's position with cheeky attacks.

The drama was met merely with a French 'tut' from Portal in nonchalant recognition doom had been avoided again and a rival team's move had been countered.

On another occasion a rider from another team came off his bike. Portal said this is when it is most dangerous because the flow of the cars is thrown into disarray. 

The rider's team car accelerated to get to the scene and then stopped suddenly beside him with the mechanic flying out the back to pick his bike up off the road. But at the same time the cameramen stop their bikes suddenly to take pictures or capture the footage of the poor soul.

The race doctor's car in front of us stopped. As the medic began to open the door to attend to the rider, it was crunched by another passing team car trying to stay with the peloton.  

To the outsider this seems like a form of madness. Why not have a separate driver so the 'DS' can concentrate on tactics? The answer is that no-one else can do it. 

Even Top Gear's Stig wouldn't know how to navigate the roads and hazards like Portal, a five times Tour de France finisher, who has the flow of the race hard-wired in his brain so it is now instinct. 

For example, he knows not to brake suddenly but instead accelerate out of danger, as a rider right behind him catching a lift in his slipstream might find himself eating the back windscreen wiper.

The near-constant thrill of the chase was punctuated by visits from the Team Sky domestiques (the riders who sacrifice their own chance of success to support the team leader) who would drop off from the back of the peloton to replenish the team bidons. 

Make do and mend: A rival team rider has his radio fixed by a mechanic popping out the window as the race cars steam on through the countryside. Each rider is connected by radio to the team car and each other

Ouch: The convoy of cars and motorbikes comes to a shock halt after a rider goes down and his mechanic rushes out to help

Each rider drinks 12 to 14 half-litres of water/electrolyte drinks per race. That's 131 bidons for a team of nine - a lot to ferry around and transfer by hand out of a moving car. 

At one point Team Sky's Luke Rowe dropped back from the pack to collect fresh water. While maintaining the same pace as the car, bottle after bottle was handed out to him. 

He put two in his bike bottle cages, three in the pockets of his cycling jersey, two down the back of his jersey neck and three down the front... and he was off, furiously pedalling through 174 riders to deliver the water to the rest of the team sweating it out at the front of the peloton in 40C heat. Rowe quipped he felt like 'fried chicken'.

There was a panic early on when one rider, who shall remain nameless, came alongside the car and exclaimed 'I need a sh*t'. Not an easy thing to do at that speed in front of countless cameras and fans. 

And who had forgotten the toilet roll? A handy pack of wet wipes were handed out the window and the rider stopped and disappeared into a bush, counting the seconds that he had to make up after his unfortunate call of nature as the peloton continued to power past the picturesque sunflower fields.

And the French never show this on TV: At one point during the race, nearly the entire peloton called off hostilities to stop and relieve themselves, neatly cocking their collective legs on either side of the road. They must time the advert breaks for that.

The Jaguar swept into Rodez with Froome safe. But there was an uncomfortable amount of booing from the French crowd on the approach to the finish and one inventive fan had even dressed himself up as a giant paper-maiche nose, declaring 'Froome = dopeur' on a makeshift sign. 

Tactics: Portal prepares for the high speed game of chess in the office on the Team Sky bus before the stage

It was an omen of the nasty mood that was to follow on the next day's stage when a cup or urine was thrown over Froome.

Froome paid tribute to Portal and the other DS, Servais Knaven, who was following in a car further behind. He said: 'Nico and Servais are the eyes and ears of the team on the road helping manage the logistics of each stage on the Tour and ensure we stay on race strategy. As ex-riders we trust them implicitly and we know their judgement is excellent.' 

However, there are perks to the job. After the car pulled up by the Team Sky bus a topless female fan with yellow jersey body paint asked for a selfie with Gary. It can't all be work, work, work. 

THE 'CARER': CHRIS FROOME'S PROTECTIVE BUBBLE

Life for a rider on the Tour is far from glamorous. The race organisers assign hotels for the teams during the competition. And don't be fooled into assuming that these star athletes, adored by millions world-wide who push themselves to extremes every day, live in five-star luxury. 

When MailOnline stayed with Team Sky, they were at a €90-a-night Novotel on the perimeter of Toulouse airport. The walls are paper-thin so every toilet flush was shared and every lover's tiff broadcast to neighbouring guests. The air conditioning is woefully weak to deal with the French summer heat.

Team Sky have demanded to be allowed to put the riders in their own mobile homes, but their requests have been rebuffed. Organisers argue that allowing a rich team like Sky to provide their own accommodation would be unfair on other teams unable to afford it.

Feed station: Christian Olonzo making wraps for the whole staff in the Team Sky truck's built-in utility room

And this is a good day. Every other night they are assigned a 'budget' hotel.

After each day's muscle-twanging, soul-destroying ride, Froome and his teammates sleep from about 10pm to 9am. The last person they are likely to see every night and the first person they see every morning is a 'carer'. Team Sky has four with them this tour. It is their job to make the strains of competition - and the Novotel - more bearable.

The French were upset when the upstart British team started calling them carers instead of the traditional 'soigneurs'. It is like calling the peloton the 'bunch' or 'bidons' water bottles. One has to admit that 'carers' is rather less romantic and conjures up images of old people's homes, dribble and bed pans.

But it is a very apt description for their job. After four to six hours in the saddle, many riders are in a worse state than Aunt Mabel and aren't capable of talking much more sense than her either.

People like Marco Dzalo, 28, from Slovenia, massage the riders before they crash out, exhausted in bed. 

And the carers literally make their beds. Team Sky has a mattress and anti-allergen pillows for each rider that they take around France with them because they are fearful that they may fall ill from dirty hotel rooms. They also install air-con units and air filters in their rooms each night as the dust in the air can irritate their lungs.

As Oli Cookson, performance co-ordinator explains: 'We try to keep a protective bubble around the riders', adding that if any member has 'any sign of a cough, you are out'. 

As Chris Froome told MailOnline the riders 'would be lost without them'. He called them the 'unsung heroes' of the team.

The carers fill their bidons every morning. They provide security at the team bus parked among the throng of fans at each day's start line. They accompany the riders to dope tests. They help them undress. A rather sweaty Christian Olonzo, from Spain, was making wraps for the whole staff in the Team Sky truck's built-in utility room as he laundered their clothes in washing machines and dryers packed into the same room. 

Anticipation: Rod Ellingworth, head of performance operations, stands with mechanics and a carer outside the team bus ahead of the long, flat and hot stage as the crowds and TV cameras are reflected

The carers carry the riders' suitcases from their hotel room to the team bus every day - not because the riders have an ego as pumped as any Premier League footballer - but simply because the competitors must conserve as much energy as possible.

The carers are also driven to the pre-assigned feed stations along the route and hand them their 'musettes' , which of course they have packed earlier in the day.

The operation is as stripped of fat as any Tour de France rider, all sinew and bone, which means the carers do a multitude of jobs; they are the grease of Team Sky's wheels.

THE MECHANIC: THERE'S A LOT RIDING ON THEM

Chris Froome's Pinarello Dogma F8 race bike is as stiff as a three-day-old baguette and at 6.8kg, it's not much heavier. 

The bike itself is worth around £12,000. For this year's race, the team have partnered with Jaguar, who provide the teams cars, using their engineers and wind tunnels to make the bike more aerodynamic. 

The front is fatter, the space between front forks and wheels wider, the bottle cage has been lowered and the seat clamp has been integrated. Over such a great distance, every second shaved off counts. 

In recent days, the febrile French press who are convinced there is something sinister behind Froome's form have diverted from throwing around accusations of doping to claiming that he has a motor hidden in his bike that helps him power up the hills. 

The Pinarello, like most of the TdF bikes this year has electronic gear shifting, dispensing with the cables of more traditional gear systems in favour of a signal sent to the derailleurs - but MailOnline certainly didn't didn't see or hear the whirr of an engine hidden in the frame.

Race machine: Mechanic Ryan Bonser shows off Chris Froome's £12,000 race bike all prepped for the stage

Ryan Bonser, 29, from Manchester, lifts it out of the Aladdin's Cave that is the Team Sky truck. Bonser has been with Sky for two years and also works for British Cycling. 

Like many of the support staff, he was a talented rider once. In Bonser's case his career was cut short dramatically when he broke his back in a crash on a descent of a Pyrenean mountain a few years ago.

Gary Blem, 42, Froome's personal mechanic who was in the team car that day with Portal was a racer in South Africa. But he couldn't take his career to the next level because it was during the apartheid era and international sporting competition was banned. 

Blem was Mark Cavendish's mechanic, but when he left Team Sky, Froome took him on after a barbecue at his house. 

Froome told MailOnline: 'Their attention to detail is phenomenal. Riders can be quite fussy with their specifications based on variables of the stage, terrain, and the weather, but their patience and the integral role they play within the team working closely with the DS’s gives us great confidence to just go out and perform without worrying about anything else.' 

The mechanics don't really start the business end of their day until around 7.30pm - after the race and the team have transferred all the equipment to their next hotel car park, near the start of the next day's stage.

They can be working until 10pm every night; washing down the bikes, changing gears and wheels to match the terrain of the next day's race, checking tyres and setting up the position of the bikes to each rider's exacting demands.

Hitching a ride: Chris Froome leads the peloton behind the Team Sky Jaguar team car with his mechanic Gary Blem in the back with spare wheels in case of mishap or mechanical failure

Convoy: The team's truck in the Novotel car park. In the back are the bikes and spare parts and the front has a utility room with small kitchen and washing machines for the team's kit. Their luggage is ready to be loaded

Rod Ellingworth, head of performance operations, added that the riders' bar tape is changed most nights, so paranoid are they of picking up germs from the crowds mingling at the start line. 

During the day, the team of three mechanics aren't given a rest. One drives the truck and the other two drive in the two team cars following the peloton.  

THE DRIVER: KEEPING THE WHEELS SPINNING FOR 3,700 MILES

In the caravan of organised chaos and carbon that is Team Sky, there are a total of 15 cars, supplied by Jaguar, two trucks, a team bus and a selection of motorhomes. This includes 12 Jaguar XF Sportbrakes that are the team cars, two of which are driven by the sports directors following the riders during the race. 

Another is used as a recon vehicle half an hour ahead of the riders on the course which feeds back any dangerous roundabouts and turns, road furniture (like speed bumps), the wind strength and other weather conditions.

Froome also has the use of the 'podium car'. If he is still in yellow at the end of the day he will be delayed. The other riders will board the bus and start their transfer to that night's hotel. On it they can shower, change, eat and relax.

On the starting line: Three of the team's 12 Jaguar XF Sportbrake's loaded for the race day ahead

Room for one more? All the kit that fits in and on top of the team car for each race. Nine bikes are usually loaded on top -one ofor each rider... then there are the bidons and a cool box, spare wheels, kit and tools

Froome meanwhile, will stay with his carer, a doctor or PR manager to victoriously hold aloft his flowers in one hand, that bizarre winner's cuddly lion in the other and get a kiss from the two podium girls.

As the overall leader, he will also undergo a mandatory urine drugs test and a round of media interviews before he can rejoin the team.  

There is also a Land Rover Discovery to carry the supplies to the feed station, a catering truck, the motorhome of Team Sky boss Sir David Brailsford, two old motorhomes which the team hoped to use for the riders, and a Jaguar XE saloon to drop off and pick up guests.

It is Martin Ayres' job to keep the cars on the road during the punishing schedule and he gave MailOnline a tour of the specially adapted vehicles. 

All aboard: Inside the Team Sky bus where the riders are ferried to and from each race. At the top is a projector for each day's team briefing on the route and tactics. There are showers and fridges inside and an office at the back where the race is monitored by the staff

Leader of the pack: Chris Froome will usually ride back to the team hotel in a 'podium car' as he will have to stay longer for the presentation, doping control and a round of media interviews

One can't underestimate how important cars are to the team. The staff spend almost 200 days a year sitting in them in different races around the Continent. If you're not a rider, life on a cycling team is one spent endlessly on the move, either in car or truck.

In less than three years, the Jaguars used by Team Sky have done 120,000 miles each. While the riders will be on their bikes for 3,360km during this year's tour, Team Sky would have collectively driven a total of 6,000km (3,700 miles) if you include all of the transfers from the hotels to the start and the finish to wherever the next day's stage is.

THE CHEF: SERVING UP MICHELIN-STARRED PASTA

Not so long ago Henrik 'The Chief' Orve was cooking for Swedish society's elite in a top Michelin-starred restaurant in Stockholm. Now he serves up pasta, rice, omelettes, salmon fillets and more pasta to a load of emaciated riders who have spent most of their lives trying their best to not enjoy food.

He only cooks for riders (the rest of the team eat in the hotels) in a specially designed catering truck.

Meals on wheels: Team Sky chef Henrik Orve outside the catering truck. Inside is a kitchen better than many of those in the hotels in which the team stays and a nice little cafe for the riders to eat and relax

Team Sky, wanting to cut down on the risk of stomach bugs and irritated by the lack of facilities at some of the hotels they were assigned, brought the truck to the Tour this year. 

With its cafe feel, complete with anonymous paintings on the wall, it provides an anchor on the ever changing and confusing whirlwind journey around France. 

In the morning the riders will have porridge or omelettes. On a hard stage they'll have pasta or rice for the extra energy.

After the race, they'll eat some pre-cooked salmon or chicken, perhaps with some rice or quinoa, all washed down with a recovery shake. They may also have some Greek yoghurt with berries. It is important for the riders to eat as soon as they get off the bike.  

Fuel for the fire: Luke Rowe, left, and Pete Kennaugh, right, sup some coffee in the back of the catering truck. The riders will consume around 8,000 calories (and burn off!) each race day

At night, they'll choose from a buffet of fish, steak and four types of carbs: pasta; rice, quinoa or potatoes. All the food is cooked without using butter or cream. And if they want to break the monotony, they have a selection of condiments, balsamic glaze and olive oil. Oh, there's some vegetables too.

In total, Chris Froome will consume on average 8,000 to 9,000 calories a day. And the Team Sky leader said that Henrik's is a 'vital role' as 'food can keep our spirits up during a hard Grand Tour'

THE BOSS: KEEPING STAFF HAPPY... THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

With so much potential for a spanner to be thrown in the works of this immense machine, how do you keep Froome on his bike and a staff exhausted from so many miles and late nights focused? 

Sir David Brailsford leads Team Sky's management with includes...

Anyone who knows of Sir Dave's reputation for being absolutely obsessed with finding technological solutions for every problem will not be surprised to learn he has invented an app for keeping the team on track. No joke.

Reinventing the wheel: Sir David Brailsford has revolutionised British cycling with his scientific approach

Before the start of Stage 13 he whips out his iPhone to show off the app that he uses to gauge what he calls the 'winning and losing behaviours' of his staff.

He expects them to answer a range of questions with a series of multiple choice answers from an angry emoji to an ecstatic emoji and report them daily.

The questions include 'I am in control of my emotions', 'I am consistent and robust', 'I proactively solve problems'. 

The general manager said it is imperative to firstly provide a way for his staff who are living on the road with each other in a pressure cooker environment to take a step back and think about their behaviour. 

By making them think, he said provides a 'filter'. It also means that he and other management staff can nip potential problems in the bud early - particularly if someone puts in a string of angry faces.

Sir Dave said it allows everyone to resolve conflicts early, rather than let them fester, and think about the performance of the team first, rather than them as an individual.

He said: 'The team has many unsung heroes. There is a lot of grunt work. The smoother that happens the better people can perform.

For a man famous for his Marginal Gains programme - of improving the performance of his team in tiny increments, whether it be a more aerodynamic bolt to a motorhome for the riders to sleep in during the Tour, his adage for his staff seems to be no different: 'It's about seeing progression, not perfection.'

Froome described Sir Dave and others in the performance team as 'the best in the world'.

He said: 'Sir Dave, Tim Kerrison (head of performance), Rod (Ellingworth), Fran Millar (head of winning behaviours and sister of pro-cyclist David Millar) and Carsten Jeppesten (head of technical operations and commercial) have created a culture that all of the riders and staff have bought into. 

'Everyone works together, understands their each other’s roles and support each other every step of the way. We consistently challenge ourselves, evaluate our own performances to achieve the big goal, which at the moment is to win the Tour de France.'

They'll all be hoping that Froome putting a smiling emoji into his app questionnaire as he cruises down the Champs Elysees in less than 24 hours time.