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The Ken Ilegems Diary
Telekom mechanic Ken Ilegems provides an occasional look behind the scenes into the mechanic's truck at the races.
Index to Ken Ilegems diary entries
From the classics to the Giro
My program for the last few weeks went:
March 30: E3-Prijs Harelbeke
April 1: Rund um Koln
April 7: Tour of Flanders
April 10: Ghent-Wevelgem
April 14: Paris-Roubaix
April 17: Fleche Wallonne
April 21: Liege-Bastogne-Liege
April 24-28: Niedersachsen Rundfahrt
May 11: Giro d'Italia starts
After a hectic Setmana Catalana, I switched from the southern program ('small' tours) to the northern program (Classics). Our base for the whole Classics period was set a hotel in Drongen (Ghent), near our normal team base. It was fun to do some races in my own country, finally! In between the races you get a chance to go home, (although it was just for sleeping), meet some friends and speak your own language in the hotel.
Harelbeke
Harelbeke was fun. Because I wasn't following the race in the team car (Francois Verleysen was the mechanic in the car), I decided to drive around and try to see the race as many times as possible. After the start I took off together with Frederik Pollentier (soigneur and son of Michel) and our team manager Walter Godefroot. We managed to see the race 13 times, thanks to Walter. He knew the way to every point without any maps, this being on his old training grounds. In between we watched the race on a small TV, inside the car.
Watching the race from another point of view was a nice thing to do, but at that moment I never could have guessed that this was going to be the start of a series.
Rund um Koln
Koln was a small sidestep from my Belgian program. It's one of the biggest races in Germany, so very important for our team. The other teams knew we were going for the win, and in the race it was obvious that they all adjusted their tactics and counted on the work of our guys. That is probably why an early breakaway made it to the end. We had three guys in it, so Mario (Kummer) decided to give it a shot with those three, instead of letting the rest of team lead the chase in the peloton. It didn't work out as we hoped, but Kai Hundertmarck's second place was a good result. So we weren't disappointed at all.
Flanders
The next race was my, and many other Belgians, favourite race of the year: the Tour of Flanders. We were using the special Classic bikes again. This year's Classic bike was a new model (still no name) made for us by Pinarello. An aluminium frame, with relatively small tubes, build up with regular Campagnolo Record and hand-made wheels in it (32 spokes and Campagnolo Barcelona rims, old model). My job in the race was to go to crucial points with extra spare bikes for Zabel, Wesemann and Klier, our most important riders in the race. Sometimes the team car in the race gets so far behind the leaders that if something happens with the bike, everything is lost, so most of the teams have someone driving around with an extra car.
You try to prepare everything as well as possible, but there's always something you don't count on. One of my crucial points was just after the famous Koppenberg. Until that point in the race everything worked out very well. Wese seemed to have good legs and was in a small breakaway group with Hincapie and a few others, so we were hoping for the best.
I see the group pass in front of me, but no WeseÉ 15 seconds later a small chasing group with Zabel and Klier passes, but still no Steffen. And then I see him coming, I start yelling at him, asking if he needs a new bike and a few seconds later he stops in front of me. I looked at him and saw blood running down his arm and leg. I knew enoughÉ
The Koppenberg had taken another victim. His shoe was broken so there was no point him trying to continue the race. My race to get to the next point in time ended also here, and I drove Steffen straight to the finish. Without this we might have managed a top three, but now, no way.
Ghent-Wevelgem
Our next attempt to win a classic. No big changes for this race, same bikes only different wheels. We decided to let them ride on the Campagnolo Neutrons since there are almost no cobbles in this race. My job was almost the same, only this time I only had to be in one place, just after the dangerous Kemmel descent. The race made a loop there, so they passed twice. I wasn't the only one there, Mapei, Aqua e Sapone and Domo guys were next to me. For Domo even Patrick Lefevre himself turned out. Everybody wanted to give some bottles to the riders, and so did I. It seemed a good decision, because everybody from the team took a bottle with me. Lucky for me, it was the only thing I had to do since there were no crashes in the descent this time. I watched the rest of the race on television and saw a superb Cipollini win.
Paris-Roubaix
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The next days we were quite busy changing the bikes' set-ups for Paris-Roubaix. Wese had a cyclo-cross frame with cantilever brakes, the other seven were going on the normal Classics bike.
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Special on the set-up for this race were the 53/46 chainrings, 11-21 sprockets (normally we do every race with 11-23) with the rear derailleur adjusted so 19 was the lightest gear possible (to prevent the derailleur from getting knocked into the spokes by hard shocks) and 25 mm tubulars with an extra layer of Kevlar inside. And of course the handmade wheels.
The team trained a last time on Belgian soil on Saturday morning, and in the afternoon we moved to Compiegne.
Again my job was driving around with some extra spare bikes. The week before it didn't rain, and the weather forecast said dry with a small chance on rain. And indeed at the start it was cold but dry. I left early to go to my first p
oint and after 50km the first rain came downÉ When I arrived at the first cobble section it was already raining cats and dogs. I decided to try out the cobbles and discovered you have to be sort of a stuntman to stay on the bike here. Everything was covered with mud and was very slippery. I immediately called our sport director in the race to warn him. A while later the field passed me, already split up in a few smaller groups. Suddenly someone on a Mavic (neutral support) motorbike yelled at me : 'Telekom' and he threw a wheel in my direction. First I was a little surprised, but soon I realized this was the way of giving back a wheel whit a flat tire in this hectic race.
A few points later, I was standing in Wallers and there I got company: Danilo Hondo, completely frozen, left the race and got into my car. I asked if it was okay for him that I stayed with my original plan instead of bringing him straight to the finish and he agreed.
A little later we were joined by Kai Hundertmarck. With the two of them in the back of the car I drove from point to point, sometimes there was no other way to go to a point than going over the course and the cobbles. I had to use all my driving capacities to keep the car going in the right direction. I even slipped off the road a few times. It's a strange feeling to drive over the cobbles with thousands of people on the side. Both riders told me they were having fun ending the race like thisÉ
My last point was 13km from the finish and there I saw Museeuw flying by, his supporters cheering him to victory. Wesemann came through in third position only 100m behind Boonen. This time it was my turn to start cheering. A second place was the best he could do, considering the circumstances. First of all there was a super Museeuw that day, but I think the difference between him and Wese was the amount of luck (or bad luck) they both had.
Wese crashed a few times, had a few flat tires and needed a bike and shoe change that cost a lot of time, but even so I think it was one of the most heroic races I ever saw, and Museeuw was a great winner for it.
In the evening we brought everything to our team base and cleaned it there. Afterwards we celebrated the second place with a nice dinner.
Fleche Wallonne
Only three days later was the next important rendez-vous on the list: the Fleche Wallonne.
Totally different scenery and also a totally different field. It was back to our normal Prince bikes too. I was back in the team car for this one, so no more nice field trips.
It was an easy day for me, nothing much happened and even the weather was good. Normally it rains every time for the Fleche.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege
The second part of the Ardennes races was Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Again we had big hopes of winning a World Cup race. That's normal if you take part with riders as Vinokourov, Kloden, Julich, Bolts, Heppner and Kessler. They proved to be in a good condition on Wednesday, so why not hope for the big win ?
For me it was again a nice race with no real work, except at the start where I had to do some last minute changes. I got in the car one minute before the startÉ Walter and Rudy were laughing and said they would have left without me if I stayed out a little longer.
Very early in the race Kloden attacked, together with Salanson, and they made a gap of 22 minutes. One time we went to the front to give Klodi some bottles, and then we waited again for the peloton. 22 minutes is a long time to waitÉ
Eventually we didn't win, but with Kessler finishing sixth and Vino tenth we couldn't complain.
Doing the hotel at Niedersachsen
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Immediately after I went to Germany for the Niedersachsen Tour, where it was my turn to 'do the hotel' as we call it.
Doing the hotel means that a few hours before the start of the stage, you collect the suitcases and drive to the next hotel with the team truck. I did it together with Johan Van Impe, one of our soigneurs. It's common in every team that a mechanic and a soigneur do this job together.
The soigneur arranges the rooms, puts the right suitcase in the right room, prepares some muesli and fruits for after the race and makes arrangements for dinner in the evening. The mechanic arranges water and electricity for the truck, helps carrying the suitcases, makes some repairs to the material if necessary. Sometimes the hotels are really helpful, but sometimes they refuse to give you somethingÉ and then it's a struggle to get what you need.
If there are a few teams together in one hotel, we help each other to find some solutions.
And if everything is ready, you just wait for the arrival of the bikes and riders, so you can start working again.
I had a good time there, except that I rained every dayÉ Especially a barbecue late in the evening with some guys from Gerolsteiner and CSC was fun. And of course Bartko's stage win. It's always nicer when you get the victoryÉ
I'm now into preparation for the Giro, the first Grand Tour of the year. I'm counting the days!
Ciao
Ken
