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Wrenchin' in the USA: The Chris Davidson diary 2007
Chris joins us again in 2007 to report on life on the road turning the wrench for a variety of teams both in dirt and on the road. Formerly with Ford Cycling in 2006, Chris has also worked for such teams as T-Mobile, Equipe Nurnberger, Quark and Mercury in the past, as well as neutral support programs with Shimano, Pedros and Trek.
As 2007 holds some new challenges for Chris, some things will stay the same. One of those will be his informative diary contributions on Cyclingnews, where you'll often receive the inside scoop on all things tech and a look at life behind the wrench.
July 25, 2007
TT day at US Road Nationals with TEAm Lipton
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I was up late getting TT rigs dialed in. Specifically, I was done TT bike prep just after midnight last night and cleaned up and was inside just before 12:30am. Kristen Armstrong's bike was last in the stand, the last one to be rolled into my room, and the last thing I saw before I fell asleep. To my relief, it was also the first thing that I saw this morning at ~6:00am. I don't often keep rider's bikes in my room the night before an important race, but it does not get more important that the current national and world champion's bike the night before her country's TT championship. Kristen not getting a chance to compete because of a stolen bike was not an option. More correctly, I had all five Lipton TT bikes in my room last night, and the real story of the day was the team's performance.
After some other early morning prep work, I took our team trailer and drove the 30 minutes to the TT course and dropped it off in a decent parking spot and set out some cones to give us and area to park the van and caravan car next to the trailer when we returned later with the riders. I then returned to the condo and spent two nervous hours trying to fill my time with things that would keep me calm. I was nervous, I just wanted to get back to the race course and start the final prep work. Going through the motions of setting up the racks, trainers and spare equipment puts me in a more relaxed state. Sitting still was driving me nuts. So I finally leave plenty early for the race course and start the team warmup area preparation.
While working the skies are darkening and the winds are shifting, the signs are ominous. The girls arrive and the more serious preparation starts. Now I must be more focused and on task. I try to make sure the girls don't catch me looking up at the sky. Rain at a race means two things to a bike mechanic: crashes and flats. The TT course today had five 180 degree turns. I got more worried as the first start times grew near.
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For most the riders starts the skies held out, but as I went to the start line for the last time with our final two riders [Lauren Franges and Kristen Armstrong] the drops started falling. Lightly at first, then in the final two minutes before Kristen started, hard rain. I would have to describe this as the second worst feeling I get at bike races. The first would be when riders crash and get injured, I hate that. Second would be any situation where a rider has opportunity taken from them by something they can't control. Like getting a flat in the rain at TT nationals. It is out of my hands now I thought as Kristen rolled down the start ramp.
But my fears went unfulfilled. Our riders finished unscathed, and one by one they related to me their experience on the course. Kristen Lasasso excitedly told me that she had the best ride of 2007 today and left it all on the course. Then Meredith Miller came in with the second best time so far. Kori Seehafer nailed it with the leading time when she finished. This time would stand up and put Kori on the podium in 5th, her first time on the podium at Nats in the TT. Then Lauren rolled a top ten placing too! Finally we waited for Kristen. She arrived in a 90 second span with the two riders that started in front of her, Amber Neben and Christine Thorburn. Kristen had done it again, the only rider under 31 minutes. More notably, the Lipton team placed all five in the top twenty, three in the top ten, two on the podium and won the jersey again. For me I was relieved as the bikes rolled problem-free even in difficult conditions.
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So I did not get the camera out at the race today, I apologize. For the first half of the day I was too worried about the rain, the second half I was working in the rain. I know that a picture can say a thousand words, so here are a few hundred words on the specific tech details of today's rides by TEAm Lipton:
1. Everyone rolled Zipp 808/disc combos with Continental Podium 19mm tubular tires with 125/130psi front and rear. Everyone but Kristen Armstrong ran a 53 tooth chaining up front, with the race winner running a 54. Kori Seehafer choose a 12X25 cassette, while all the others ran 11X23 cassettes in the back.
2. Meredith Miller[our first rider off] wore a radio in her TT helmet to test the range of our race radios. The purpose of this was to test our positioning on the course to ensure adequate radio range so that we could get splits to Kristen Armstrong, the last starter.
3. Kristen talked to the girls last night about keeping their head positioned during the TT such that our LAS aero helmets did not stick up, but rather laid flat against the rider's back. After the race it was mutually decided that everyone had put this advice to good use and maintained a new level of ‘aero-ness'. Kori Seehafer suggested that good helmet aero position made one look like the fuselage of an airplane; hence the word of the day in the Lipton area was ‘fuselage'.
4. Our team parking area was about 600m from the bike inspection area, which was 50m meters from the start ramp. I prepared one extra set of race wheels[disc, 808] and hung them on the back of my work stand in our team area. I took a second set[disc, 808] with me to the TT bike inspection area and left them there. On both sets I installed 11X25 cassette combinations[made from 11X23 and 12X25 cassettes] to ensure that if we had a last minute flat before someone's start time, that I would have access to replacement wheels that would cover all our riders gear choices seamlessly. Best to prep the wheels and not use them than have to do something less than desirable right before a rider is to start.
5. There are two small holes on the seatpost of Kristen Armstrong's TT bike, but they both run perpendicular to the direction of travel of the bike. Late last night I taped over both with clear packing tape to make sure that the airflow would be completely smooth over them. A small detail, but something I saw Kristen take note of today during her warmup. I did it more for the psychological effect, than any aero advantage, my way of saying to Kristen that I wanted to try to do everything possible to give her the fastest bike out there today. Details.
So tonight we celebrated. And raised the glasses to a great team performance.
Next up is the road race on Monday, and a shot at jersey number two. Time for bed.
CD out.
