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The Chris Davidson diary
Chris Davidson is a former mechanic for Bontrager Racing Service, now in the service of Shimano Multi-Service.
Chris' diary entries will show you what life is like inside the pits and an insight into the mind of a mechanic.
On the road with T-Mobile
Day 5 - May 31: The inside scoop
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We have now finished the first day of the Tour of Greater Montreal, and as I sit here and type this my hands are sore, or more correctly my skin is dry and tight from the constant cycle of washing - cars, bikes, wheels, etc. Here is the inside scoop on the three races we have done since I last wrote.
Montreal World Cup
We drew caravan position number 10 for the race, meaning our car is pretty far back in the caravan. Riders started to get dropped the first time up the climb, so that meant that we were so far back that we could not see the race. Our riders rode well and we did not have any mechanical issues; our best finisher was Amber Neben in fifth place.
A couple of interesting observations from in the car during the race. 1) When Lyne Bessette flatted in the race, Rona went to the front and made the race really hard. Interesting choice, as Lyne and Genevieve are two of the biggest hometown rivals for this race. 2) The doping controls are announced over the race radio just past halfway in the race; these usually include the race winner and the overall World Cup leader, then some random selections. Well, it turns out the four random numbers for this race were 1, 21, 81, 121. These were all the team leaders for some of the stronger teams, noted by the '1' designation in the series of numbers. I wonder how the UCI comes up with their random numbers. Hmmm...
Le Tour du Grand Montréal
Today was the TT in the morning and the crit in the evening. We had a good series of rides in the morning, highlighted by Dede's second place. A little further down in the standings was a really interesting ride turned in by our Kim Anderson. Kim did not bring a TT bike to the race, but this morning she rode Dotsie Cowden's TT bike around for a few minutes then lowered the saddle and went out a recorded a 16th place. Amazing on a completely new setup. Kim is riding very well right now, yet she maintains a very modest approach.
The crit tonight was interesting, no one high up on the GC likes a crit in a stage race. Too much risk. Tonight they kept it interesting by have a couple of time bonus sprints and a lot of cash primes. For us, we had a nervous moment when Dede (second overall) came into the pits with a piece of paper wrapped up in the chain and cassette. She did not go down, but could not pedal. I got it untangled with the help of a Mavic neutral service guy and I pushed Dede back into the race. No loss. The Euros were all over the cash primes, even showing the North American riders a few things about prime sprinting. In the end, Petra showed everyone that she is still one of the fastest women anywhere.
Tomorrow gets serious as the weather forecast is 70 percent chance of rain. And that is the conservative estimate. The race is a circuit in western Quebec with a serious hill on each of the three laps. The T-Mobile women were split evenly between 12-25 and 12-27 cassettes for tomorrow's stage. We move up to caravan spot number 4 tomorrow with the team car, thanks to Dede's overall placing. Hopefully that will put us closer to the action.
Until then, thanks for reading,
CD