Every missile needs a launching device and for Englishman Mark Cavendish, cycling's greatest sprinter, his trigger happens to be a softly-spoken man from Pretoria.
Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg, the 29-year-old rider on South Africa's Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka, is known as the best "lead-out" man in the peloton, and in the coming weeks will work hard for his money.
Cycling is about hierarchy and sacrifice and as talented and ambitious as the man known as "Reinie" is, his personal zeal will be set aside to deliver the Manx Missile (Cavendish) into winning positions.
"My job here is total sacrifice," Janse van Rensburg said from the team's base in Vendee before the start of the 105th Tour de France.
"This is a specialist job. You have to be a good sprinter, have a lot of power over a short time and jostle with all the other teams' best men."
Cavendish has won 30 stages at the Tour de France and needs five more to overtake the great Eddie Merckx for most wins at cycling's biggest event.
He cannot do that without his lead-out men, and particularly Reinie. Last year Cavendish crashed in a controversial incident with Peter Sagan that ended his tour early. Sagan was disqualified too, and the duo will resume hostilities this week, with Reinie key in setting his man up.
Winning bunch sprints comes down to team effort, skill, anticipation, talent and luck. Because for a few seconds it's mayhem as lead-out men touch shoulders and avoid barriers by lycra-thin margins in an effort to put their man in a prime position.
"Oh, it's helluva scary," Janse van Rensburg says. "You always feel the fear when coming into a bunch sprint. But you have to take the adrenaline and stay calm and trust the plans you have made. "Riders have an aura and you have to use that to help you."
Obviously Cavendish's reputation as the best finisher yet presents that aura, and makes him a marked man. Which makes Reinie's job that bit harder because the responsibility to the team, and to Cavendish, is that much greater.
Team Di Data have also picked their eight-man team with a specific goal to winning flat stages in week one and after the Alps late in week two. There is no overall general classification contender on their roster, so the glory and success of the tour will be in winning stages. That means Cavendish winning stages.
"I think Cav still has the speed, but he needs confidence after what's happened recently because he thrives on confidence," Janse van Rensburg says. "If he can get one good result it will all come flowing back."
Van Rensburg's own form is still unknown after missing nearly four months earlier this year following groin surgery at the end of 2017. He has been fast-tracked back into the team, and says he didn't think he'd make the Tour two months ago...