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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.
Giro della Toscana - Italy, September 13-18, 2005
Everything in Italy happens slowly
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Wow, today's stage was the prologue; a total of less than three minutes of riding, and we spent 10 hours at the stage. Traffic in Italy moves on all the roads at a snail's pace. Our stages are in these small towns in the Tuscany region, which are hard to get to and impossible to get out of when the stage is finished in the early evening.
This evening we decided to take a 'short cut' in order to miss the small roads on the way to the autostrada. We ended up going through Lucca and around the old walled city. Here was a walled encampment that was over 500 years old. The living history around me is pretty impressive.
Tomorrow is a double stage day - two road stages, with the first starting at 10am. I'm stuffed from today's work, and I finished in the dim light of the hotel parking lot…it made me miss the Days Inn in Silver City, New Mexico. I also took a number of photos today - they can tell a better story than I can at this point...take a look. More from the races tomorrow.
Good evening,
Chris Davidson
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Chris Davidson
- Cycling in Italy is summed up best in this photo - a view on the side of our hotel
- The Buitenpoort-Flexpoint team has their setup next to ours in the parking area
- Susanne's car... Susanne Ljungskog of Buitenpoort has her own car decaled up
- This must look good driving around Susanne's hometown
- This is the back of the USA team truck, which is Chris' new home, complete with washer/dryer
- Chris has to look after riders from various trade teams, so everyone has a different bicycle manufactuer
- The race has its own wine... only in Italy
- The finish line in Pescia waiting for the prologue
- The US National team girls in the warmup area
