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Wrenchin' in the USA: The Chris Davidson diary 2005
Chris Davidson is a mechanic for Shimano Multi-Service doing neutral tech support at road and mountain bike races..
Chris' diary entries show us what life is like inside the pits and give an insight into the mind of a mechanic.
Grand Tour de Montreal and Montreal World Cup - May 27-29, 2005
Day Three in Montreal: Time to shine
The rain overnight bubbled a couple of the decals on our caravan car, but by sunrise this morning the precipitation had stopped. Dark clouds gave way to sunnier skys as the day progressed, and by race time is was hot in the sun.
Race time was 2:30, so we departed the residence at 1:15 for the course. Breakfast started at 7:30, then the slow process of waiting for 1:15 to roll around started. The bikes were ready to go from last night, I just had to wash the car and prep the spare wheels and bike. Got in a 30 minute walk to Starbucks just before noon. There was a little chaos before the start, as the staging area is about 1km down the hill past the start/finish line. This made it hard to get the car, people, feed stuff back up the hill before the race. It was maybe a funny omen that I got a ride up to the top of he hill with the Rona team director Andre.
The race. The first lap was a little crazy in the team car as our race radio would not work, so we had to yell at commissaires from out the window to relay the problem. Lap three and we got a new radio passed up and were back on Radio Tour. In the middle of the race, Petra needed a nature stop very badly and we took advantage of a caravan stopage during a neutral wheel change to 'stretch the legs'. Back on, the last three laps proved to be the key selection and we put four riders in the final group. The results are posted elsewhere, but we were estatic to hear from the soigneur that Oenone Wood got second. The final climb was a mess of cars and spectators just after the finish, so getting the right information was difficult.
Our 'soldier' for the day was Madeleine Lindberg from Sweden. She lost contact on the climb about lap eight, yet fought back on four times; the last time she went right through to the front and stayed on the gas. She was determined out there today. At the end of the day we had two girls finish in the top ten [Wood second, Arndt seventh] and took the Overall World Cup jersey for the leading individual [Wood]. The team rode as a focused unit today and while were were determined to win, that may come next year [Wood, third in 2004, second in 2005, ??? in 2006].
A day in the sun, followed by drug control for Wood, and it was time to start thinking about tonight's work. A couple of new tubulars need another coat of glue. I had a good day; no problems that required us to service from the car. I can say that I was a little nervous at times today, the stakes are high in a one day race of this magnitude. All I can do is sit and wait for the radio call that our team is in need of service. It did not come today.
Tomorrow is a day off, at least for the riders. Monday starts the stage race with two stages: a prologue and a criterium. Plenty to do for me tomorrow - washing, gluing, lubing, tuning. I look forward to it. I hope to get some pics up soon, my current internet access is primative at best. Mitch Friedman has been here getting a few things up on this site, I had him shoot some pics of World Champ Judith's road bike. I will try to get the details up tomorrow. See you then.
Chris Davidson
PS: Joke of the Day
On one of the laps just after half way into the race, some rider in the pack had a tire explode - it sounded like a shotgun went off. We could hear it back five cars in the caravan. Quickly on our team radio there was talk in German. I got ready to jump out of the car for a wheel change. Petra was on the radio right away speaking loudly in German. She then paused to tell me not to worry. As a joke over the radio, one of our riders was blaming the sound on another one of our rider's flatulence. False alarm on the wheel change - I need to work on my German.
