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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.
September 5, 2007
Sharing the love
Hi Cyclingnews.com readers,
Chris Davidson here, checking in from a swampy Greenville, South Carolina on the eve of the US Professional Time Trial Championships. I am here this weekend in the service of the Professional Congenital team Navigators Insurance. This is a great group - I have not seen some of these guys since Tour de Georgia back in April. In addition, there are some new rider faces I have never worked with before in this weekend's US-only lineup, so this trip presents some new opportunities. I am really excited to be here, there is some beautiful rolling terrain in South Carolina so if someone here could please turn down the humidity, things would be great!
I am going to try something new this weekend with my reports. My idea starts something like this: I love bike racing. I love the competitive angle for the sport, the teamwork involved, the physical exertion in beautiful and challenging settings. I like the epic struggles that could not be scripted before hand, but can only evolve on the road or trail when luck, determination, suffering and opportunity collide. I love the technical side of the sport, obviously, but one thing that I love most about our sport is the access. There are no stadiums [excuse me trackies], no admission tickets, no security barriers [well at least for me when I am washing bikes in the hotel parking lots], and no pit passes.
People, both unintended spectators and die hard fans, can walk up to me in a parking lot at night, at the team car before and after the stages, to the athletes before and after the race, to their favourite corner at the local criterium, and interact with professional bicycle racing directly. I have met the greatest people on earth through this sport. Some of them have started this process by walking up to me, gazing at the bikes and making the simplest comment like, 'those sure look light weight'.
I try, given the constraints of my work, to interact with each of these individuals and answer their questions and see where they are coming from. I have found a lot of love for the bicycle exists out in these people that have taken the time to spend just a few minutes with me at a race somewhere. I really enjoy these aspects of the sport, the joining of like minds - The shared interest, the appreciation for human-powered, two-wheeled machines.
With this in mind, I wrote about meeting a guy named Glenn Kalnins at the NMBS race at Sugar Mountain last year. Glenn came up to me while I was working on the Ford team bikes and asked me if he could look around and ask a few questions. It was obvious from the start that he was really enthusiastic about the professional racing that weekend, but he was also there to compete himself. His enthusiasm showed right away in the questions that he asked and his interest in the professional bikes. It was a great experience for me visiting with him because he shares the love for bike racing.
Fast forward to this weekend, I have kept in touch with Glenn over email over the past year. When I knew that I would be coming to South Carolina for this race weekend, I asked him if he would be interested in coming up, checking out the race form the inside. He was very enthusiastic about the opportunity.
I can't think of a better way to indulge his interest in the elite side of the sport other than placing him in it. I think that he can provide a unique prospective, he is a reader of the site just like you. He has a corporate job Monday through Friday and a family, but he still manages to squeeze in enough time to ride each week and stay up to date with the racing happenings worldwide on Cyclingnews.com.
So I have asked Glenn to write about his experience this weekend as a professional mechanic. Not because he has 15 years experience at it, but because he may look at this experience in a way that you may identify with, in way that may be more meaning full to readers of this site everywhere that balance the love for this sport with the constraints of their daily lives.
So this weekend I will offer you Glenn's perspective, I hope that you can find some similarities to it in your own. Glenn is a father of two, and category 4/masters racer and a die hard reader of this site.
Enjoy the weekend through his eyes,
Chris Davidson
P.S. - So why am I really doing this? Am I out of fresh stuff to talk about? Am I burnt out on the diary writing? Neither, rather I have been talking to my editor at Cyclingnews.com about running a contest next year, sort of a 'Be a Pro Mechanic for the Weekend', where the winner will be flown to a race for the weekend, get to work beside me for a pro team, get a ton of mechanic tools/gifts from the leader companies in the bike industry, and get to write about the experience for Cyclingnews.com. Does this interest anyone out there? Do you have the love?
Day 1 - Preparing for the pros
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I love cycling and if you are reading this, you and I share the same love! My name is Glenn Kalnins and I live in Columbus, Georgia with my wife Charla and two kids, Sterling and Stone, and I race in the Masters Category for Columbus Bike Racing Team. I first met Chris Davidson last year at the Sugar Mountain NORBA event in North Carolina. At that point, I had been reading Chris' diary entries for about a year or so and at the end of his articles Chris would always say, "If you are at the races, please stop by and say hello", so I figured what the heck, and ventured over to his team trailer.
Chris and I hit it off immediately and we have been friends ever since. One of the coolest things about the sport of cycling is the fact that pro racers and mechanics are so accessible. When was the last time you were able to stand next to Barry Bonds, Reggie Bush, LeBron James, or Jeff Gordon? My guess is never…but in cycling, there are no barriers or walls separating the "common folk" from the stars of the sport.
I ended up in Greenville, South Carolina for the US Pro National ITT and Road Race Championships via Chris and the Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team. I was originally scheduled to come here to do some product research for my company (don't worry boss, I'm gathering data I need for our project) and a week ago Chris called and asked if I could do him a favour and lend him a hand. He didn't have to ask twice as I jumped at the chance to spend three days with the nation's best.
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My trip to the nationals started on Thursday at 5:00 PM when I left the house bound for Charlotte to pick up Chris from the airport at 11:00 PM. After I met Chris, we drove north to Kannapolis to pick up the team truck with all of the bikes and headed to the race hotel. When it was all said and done, we were ready to call it a night at 3:00 AM.
Friday morning came way to soon as we were up bright and early at 6:30 AM. We didn't waste any time getting ready and by 7:15 AM we were unlocking the truck and starting our day. Today was prep day so Chris wanted to see what bikes were in the truck and what the work-load was going to look like for the weekend.
As we cracked opened the doors, we were happy, strike that, we were ecstatic to see that the bikes from the previous weekend's event were already clean and shiny thanks to Jim O'Brien's efforts after the US Professional Criterium in Downer Grove the previous weekend. Having clean bikes meant that we could immediately go on to the next set of tasks of prepping the bikes for the weekend.
As the morning rolled on I was waiting to have the most important question, at least in my mind, answered - what's for breakfast? At 9:15 AM Chris sent me on my merry way. While we weren't in a hurry, we didn't have time to sit down to a nice breakfast of omelets, bacon, and pancakes so I looked for something quick…Starbucks, perfect!
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I purchased two scones, a venti Chai Tea Latte and a venti coffee with Almond. I was wearing a black Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team T-shirt and as I was waiting for my coffee one of the female baristas asked if I was racing this weekend. While I was tempted to say yes, I figured that lying wasn't a good thing so I gave her the short answer, "I'm one of the race mechanics". She went on to tell me along with a few of the other baristas, how excited they were to have us in town for the weekend and that she and her friends were coming out to watch the race. I was really happy to hear the enthusiasm in her voice…the race organisers have obviously done a great job promoting the event.
By the time I got back to the team truck, Ed Beaman had stopped by and told Chris that he and the guys were going to come down at 11:00 AM and go for a ride on the race course. We finished the last few prep things for their bikes and moved on to washing dirty wheels from the Chris Thatcher Memorial Criterium. As the day went on, we continued to prepare, and clean for the weekend ahead, then when the guys got back from the ride we washed the box truck, and team car. It's so important that everything looks good, the team's sponsors have paid good money and we need to represent them well.
Our sunny, hot and humid day started to draw to a close and Chris did some last minute checks on the Time Trial bikes. He took his hex keys and hit every bolt on both bikes to make sure that every bolt was tight and ready for tomorrow's race. We have two guys competing and both of them have a legitimate chance of being in the top 10.
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We locked up the truck and headed back to the room to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. After dinner Chris and I wrote out a list of everything we had to do to be ready for the TT. At first we were not going to take the box truck and load all of our suppliers in the team camper but after meeting with Ed Beaman and talking through all the "stuff" we would need for the race (trainers, pumps, spare bikes, etc.), the truck's a go.
It's been a long, hot day but a really, really fun day. It's almost 1:00 AM and getting late so I am off to bed. Tomorrow will come all too soon again as we will start our day at 6:00 AM, but that's ok. I can't believe that I am actually here at the Nationals! Somebody pinch me…can it really be true? I'm sure Chris will be doing that to get my butt out of bed in the morning.
Thanks to Ed Beaman and the whole Navigators Insurance staff for allowing me to be here. Thanks also to Chris for inviting me and making all of the arrangements and most of all thanks to my boss for allowing me to work on my market research project.
Thanks for reading!
Glenn Kalnins
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Glenn Kalnins
- We took no chances the night before the National Time Trial Championships: the bikes slept with us last night!
- Gearing up for a training ride.
- I found this beauty kicking around in one of the box truck drawers!
- Chris Davidson unlocking the truck to begin the day.
