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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.
Women's Talent Identification Camp, US Olympic Training Center, Colorado Springs, USA, July 2004
Finding hidden talent
Greetings from Colorado Springs,
It is Chris Davidson on the road again with a report from a national team talent identification camp for women. As I write this, I am on the plane home after six days at the OTC where the 2008 Olympic hopefuls were put to the tests. The camp was organized by director Mike Engleman, one of the most decorated US riders ever and currently in charge of development for the women's endurance side of USA Cycling. The camp hosted 21 female athletes ranging from trade team pros to collegiate stars, offering tools for these riders to reach the next level. Marisa, Michelle, Sarah, Rook, Mackenzie, Grace, Jennifer (x3), Irene, Darcie, Brooke (the little general), Merrill, Kate, Nicky, Candice, Kori, Holly, Kathryn, Chrissy, and Lauren. That should be easy for me to memorize fast. Not. Here's the highlights from the six-day camp:
Day 1: I fly into Colorado Springs with the highest hopes, but on the plane I start to think about the prospects of taking care of 21 riders' bikes for a week, some bikes that do not ever see a team mechanic. This could be some work. OTC shuttle picks me up at the airport and I meet the first of the riders, Jennifer Purcell from Dallas, and she has her bike in a travel case. When we arrive at the OTC, I offer to head down the mechanic's room and assemble it for her. Upon un-boxing her bike and seeing the stack of flight cases in the mechanic's area, I realize the work requirements for this week are going to be 20+ hours a day. Quickly, I get on the phone and call in some favors; I call James Sharpe at Trek and Mike Quileza at Shimano to get some spare parts and supplies for the camp. In the course of assembling the bikes that have flown in, there are a range of things in need of some service. Most of these riders travel and work on their bikes themselves, and not to take anything away from their efforts, things were not looking good.
Day 2: First thing in the morning, 8:00am, V02 max testing for all the camp participants. Not the most pleasant way to ease into the camp, especially for those riders coming from sea level (Colorado Springs is 6000ft elevation). I spent the day changing pedals and adjusting the ergometer for different riders. After the testing, Mike and I drove out south of Peterson Air Force Base looking at a proposed TT course for tomorrow. We found a 10-mile out-and-back course with some good hills in it. Good thing for me is that the girls all have to ride road bikes, no aero bars, no aero wheels.
Day 3: I ride out to the TT course with the group, then the riders complete the TT. Afterwards, we get in a couple of extra hours, taking the long way back to the OTC. In the afternoon, I was supposed to give a lecture about the 'rider/mechanic interaction', but it gets moved back so I can take two riders to the velodrome. Both Candice Blickem (Genesis Scuba) and Kori Kelly (Genesis Scuba) are accomplished road riders, but are new to the track. We fit them up on rental track bikes and took them out for a little velodrome orientation. We rode the track from about 2-4pm and the heat and the sun, in addition to the TT done in the morning, really drained the riders. Kori left the velodrome early to get back to the OTC and from the infield of the track, I saw her ride in the wrong direction. She returned to the track to get directions, indicating that she was really fatigued from the day's activities.
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Day 4: Today's schedule included a six-hour road ride with climbs up and over 10,000ft. We climbed up from Colorado Springs on highway 24 towards Cripple Creek. Some riders were showing the effects from two hard days and turned back after three hours. As we continued up further, dark clouds were starting to form in the sky about the mountain peaks. When we got to Cripple Creek the temp had dropped and we got half of the riders into vehicles as the others donned winter gear and kept going. On the descent out of Cripple Creek, the weather hit us fast and hard. In the course of ten minutes it went from sunny and 80 degrees to hail and 40 degrees. The hail was about a half-inch in diameter and covered the roads about two inches deep. It looked like millions of white marbles everywhere. We were forced to flag down other vehicles to get all the riders out of the weather. Vehicles were sliding of the road with all the hail. It took two hours to get back to the OTC with all the frozen riders and staff. Truly epic summer riding in Colorado.
That night, the rain continued to fall as I had to wash all of the bikes from the earlier ride. It took three hours in the rain to get everything clean. Due to the extreme conditions of the day's ride and the cumulative fatigue of the riders, the ride for tomorrow was moved back to 10am.
Day 5: With a little extra time this morning, we sat in the cafeteria at the OTC and watched the entire two hour coverage of the Tour this morning. It was cool to see elite athletes of all different sports erupt when Lance attacked and rode away with Basso.
The ride today centered around Manitou Springs and Garden of the Gods. Most riders did 2.5 hours, with some others putting in an extra hour. In the evening, there was a round-table discussion with Mari Holden as the star attraction. Mari was a great selection to come and speak to these developing riders, as she explained how she got to the top. She started by passing around her Olympic silver medal and her gold World's medal. It turns out that she keeps these two treasures in a drawer in her kitchen. Her talk was inspiring for the younger riders and was the highlight of the camp.
Day 6: Mari joined the riders for an easy 2.5 hour ride. After that, it was a maze of bikes all over the walkway in front of the shop as riders boxed bikes up for the trip home. A number of riders were heading to Altoona next. I took measurements on all the bikes and provided the riders with a reference sheet. I cleaned out the shop space that I used during the stay as Bernard Kocis (US track mechanic) stopped by. He was just told that he is heading to Athens, congrats Bernard. The rest of the day involved getting bike boxes on shuttles for the airport. I had a little debriefing with Mike on the way to the airport about the camp. We both agreed that the ratio of riders to staff (21/2) was too high, however he was excited about how this initial women's development camp went. Sounds like there will be more on the schedule for 2005.
Next up for me is a trip to Boise, Idaho for the Twilight crit next weekend, then Sandpoint, Idaho in two weeks for the next NORBA stop.
Until then, thanks for reading,
CD