Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Mont Ventoux Photo ©: Sirotti |
 |
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 du Grande Montreal and Montreal World Cup - May 27-June 2, 2005
Day Seven - June 1: One to go
|
|
|
|
Second to last stage of the Tour today and Nurnberger is motivated to make the race. The team was the race yesterday and today's stage held some bonus seconds that will prove to be valuable at the conclusion of the race tomorrow.
Late start tonight, the stage started at 6:15 with a total of 80km in 8 circuits. In our team car Petra was interested in the two time-bonus sprints. Oenone Wood is only a handful of seconds out of the overall lead and the time bonus sprints are definitely part of her skills. Once rolling the course a counter attack goes after a KOM sprint and when we get the numbers on the race radio, the group have a Webcor, a Quark, a SATS and a Nurnberger rider. Bingo, we made the break! It turns out that Oenone is the one that made it and the break has a good combo that forces Jeanson (RONA) to chase. Despite the fact that Jeanson is doing a ton of work, the splits keep increasing and quickly the gap is over one minute. This is great for us, as Oenone becomes the virtual leader on the road. The is some confusion on the time bonus sprints, Oenone goes on a lap where there was not a sprint and later the SATS rider sprints for another time bonus that did not exist. After the stage, the times are sorted out and the GC race is down to the four in the break, as the next rider is almost 4 minutes down. Oenone ends up in the leader and the sprints jersey tonight.
Tomorrow we will have the responsibility of controlling the race and making sure we take care with the time bonus sprints, tonight's confusion cannot continue. The team is not only strong, but motivated for tomorrow, and Wood's current form makes her very capable on any terrain. Hopefully tomorrow will end with an overall success.
We have had good luck and bad luck on this tour and tomorrow is a chance to get it all right.
Due to the late start and post race dinner, we got back near 11:00pm tonight, bikes will wait until tomorrow. Sleep, eat, wash, lube, tune, race. Hopefully we can add 'win' to the end of that run-on sentence tomorrow.
Mont St-Hilaire, the blue train is coming to town.
Chris Davidson
