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Interview: Eva Barabas
Mechanicking among the blokes
Sierra Nevada mechanic Eva Barabas is, as far as we know, the first woman to pick up the job of wrenching for a UCI-registered pro team. But as she tells Kirsten Begg, it's not really a big deal, as long as you can count teeth better than your riders.
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Yesterday 31-year old Eva Barabas won a dollar and a smile from Sierra Nevada road pro Troy White. He claimed his smallest rear cog was a 12-tooth. Eva, as the team mechanic knows it's an 11, confidently makes the bet and wins $1. Not much in the scheme of things, but a small victory in her daily dealings as probably the first woman mechanic on a UCI-registered men's road team.
Today, the day of the Housatonic Valley Classic, a 120-mile race through southwestern Connecticut, USA, it seems that Troy still doesn't quite believe. We catch him counting cog teeth. Of course it's still an 11 so Eva just laughs and enjoys the moment. Troy is laughing too.
"To be honest with you," she explains. "The woman thing is not really an issue here. This is the first year for the Sierra Nevada team to be pro, so these guys are used to working on their own bikes. The big adjustment for them is realizing that there's staff to do things for them including having a fulltime mechanic."
Cyclingnews: How did you get into team mechanics?
Eva Barabas: The first race I worked was with Pedro's in New Haven, CT – the Junior National Championships – in 1997. I wrenched at a New Haven bike shop, which was involved in the race, so I went down to help.
I met Maynard Hershon at the New Haven race, he was meant to be the moto driver but there was no moto and he ended up in a mini van and I was the mechanic in the van. I had been working at bike shops for about five years before that as a mechanic but that was the first race situation.
CN: What was the reaction working shops?
EB: Some people would come in to the shop and they'd see a guy and a gal mechanic and they just go straight to the guy and start talking to him, that's normal. They'd ignore me initially but when the other mechanic had to ask me the answer to the question then it was pretty funny. The shop was run by a husband-and-wife team so being a female mechanic was no problem for them.
CN: What was your first team experience?
EB: It was in 1999 at Hewlett-Packard (the richest women's stage race held in Idaho, USA). Maynard had been raving about HP and saying what a great race it was and I should try to work it. So two years later I finally decided to go and I worked for the Stonyfield Farms/Potomac team. Man, talk about being thrown to the dogs – it was a two-week stage race, I never slept more than about four hours a night but it was fun and I was hooked!
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(At this point Troy White has come back down to count cog teeth again. "Hmm, you may have got me on a technicality there'" he finally admits. "Yeah," says Eva, "like I was right and you where wrong kind of technicality," she adds laughing.)
EB: So then they asked me to come back and work some races with them. But the winter of 1999/2000 I went out to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado and took the USA Cycling (the US governing body) mechanic's certification and made some network contacts.
CN: Then you bust out of the gate for 2000 with É?
EB: 2000 actually was a tough year. I ended up spending all my savings going out to California and working with all the neutral support programs – Mavic and Shimano, just getting my face out there.
Then at the Tour of Willamette I was working with the Shimano Tech Support and (Shimano's) Andy Stone arranged it so that I was working neutral support during the day and then working with one team in the evening as team mechanic. It worked out well with that team – the Elita women's team – and later I got an email from the manager saying that the team had enjoyed working with me and wanted to have me work for them at some more races – the World Cup races and Hewlett Packard again.
CN: Who where you with in 2001?
EB: I was with the Intersport team – another women's team in Canada. That was the first full-time gig. We had Pia Sunstedt and Cathy Marsal, a very strong team.
CN: Didn't that team fold for this year?
EB: Yep, this year I was left without a job. It looked like I would have a job but that fell through in February, which is a bad time to find work on a bike team. All the teams are set by then. So I emailed all the team directors to see if they needed anyone. Most of them got back to me saying sorry but they where already set for this year.
CN: But Mike Neel and the Sierra Nevada team needed someone?
EB: Yeah, Mike was the only one who was like "Call me!", and he had only just started working with the Sierra Nevada pro team himself. You know the past few years he's been managing women's teams so although we had been on competing teams we knew each other. He'd seen me out there and knew I could do my job.
He was psyched that I needed a job, as he wanted a pro team mechanic for the team and not a bike shop mechanic. Because it's a different deal working for a team. So I'm the first female mechanic with a UCI men's team, which is kind of funny as back in Mike's 7-11 team days he hired the first female masseuse (Shelley Verses) on a UCI men's team.
CN: So you had to leave the east coast?
EB: Yeah, he said you'll have to move to Chico (in northern California). I had no idea what Chico was like, and believe me it is not the east coast!, but I didn't know that, but I spoke to Mike on a Tuesday and I was loaded up and in California within the week. Drove all the way. Fortunately, I was working in a shop owned by friends in Fairfield, CT so they understood when I said "Sorry, gotta go!"
CN: How is Chico, CA?
EB: Well let's just say you can take the girl out of New England but you can't take New England out of the girl!
CN: What's your dream mechanics gig?
EB: I'd have to say Europe. I went to the Worlds as Pia's mechanic last year and being there in Europe I was like, "wow, this is bike racing, this is where it's at". That's what I'd like to do.
CN: Any particular team?
EB: Well, I think the ultimate goal for anybody – riders or staff is the Tour de France. But yeah, just Europe – the way people look at the sport there, the respect, the excitement and the level of racing.
CN: And how do the other mechanics treat you?
EB: I tell you, I am just one of the guys. They've all been super-supportive. We're all really good friends. Last year, at the Altoona stage race, a bunch of us – soigneurs and mechanics – were out having a beer, and one of the male soigneurs referred to me as a soigneur and all the mechanics were like "No way, man, she's one of us!"
CN: What's your favorite bike tool?
EB: I'd have to say my Stein Hyper Handle – it's a lock ring tool but it has a built-in beer bottle opener – always comes in handy when the team sponsor is a brewery!
