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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 6, 2007
Sharing the love part two
Chris Davidson has generously allowed a guest diarist to share his experience as a pro mechanic at the USA Cycling Professional Championships. The diary below comes courtesy of Glenn Kalnins who worked with the Navigators team at the race. Read part one.
Day two
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As I figured, 6:00 AM came way too soon! We beat all the teams and even the morning sunshine to the parking lot and we were cracking the back door of the Navigators team truck at 6:20AM. Since the TT bikes spent the night in our room last night, we carried them, a set of rollers and trainer to the truck to get loaded for the race.
Phil had trouble shifting into the higher gears when he rode the trainer last night so Chris worked on straightening his rear dropout. As he was working on Phil's bike, I made two trips up and back to our room with four bikes for the riders who were not racing the ITT so they could go for their morning training ride. Since we had prepped the training bikes the night before, all I had to do was pump the tires to 110psi. The last thing we did before heading to the course was put the "TEAM" decal at the top of the windshield of both cars. Chris and I finished all of our tasks with plenty of extra time to spare so we set out to the race course with the box truck and team camper at 8:25AM.
The ITT was held at a beautiful gated community called The Cliffs. Team parking was located on a set of rolling hills with only two flat areas. We were the second team to arrive and claimed the last piece of level ground. Within five minutes of parking the truck and camper, the rest of the teams began to show up. (Small life lesson: Error on the side of having too much time and being prepared as opposed to waiting to the last minute and rushing.) At this point, all that was left to do was pull the bikes from the trucks and pump up tires. Once Phil and Bernard arrived with Ed and Vasilli, we put Bernard's spare bike on top of the car with a set of wheels inside and I put Phil's spare wheels in the other car.
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Since we brought the big box truck, we had all the supplies we needed and more. The first guy to stop by our truck was a Rite-Aid rider who needed some air for his wheels. I gladly pumped them up and within a few minutes, he returned with a few more sets of wheels for me. Before it was all said and done, I had pumped tires and sealed TT wheel valve holes with black tape for a number of guys including Bobby Julich. Remember that little line about preparation? Without a doubt, Chris is a Pro and he knows all that needs to be done to have the Navigators ready to race.
As I was pumping and taping, Phil was warming up on a trainer and Bernard was riding the rollers. Across the way was Team Slipstream, who was the only other team parked on a level piece of ground, and next to us just down the hill was Dave Z, his lovely bride Randi and the rest of his entourage. Dave was wearing a blind fold and listening to music... I'm not sure if that sort of warm-up would work for me, but you can't question one of the fastest TT men in the world.
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Phil's start time was at 11:44 AM and ten minutes before he finished his warm-up, got dressed and rolled down to the start house. I was Phil's "mechanic" for his race so I accompanied him down to bike inspection and weigh in. Before each rider starts, they have to have their bike measured on a jig, their saddle measured fore aft measured and the bike weighted. Other than throwing the bike on the jig, the officials never bothered with the other measurements.
Phil took his bike to staging and we hung out for the few minutes before he went off. Ben Jacques-Maynes and Michael Creed were in front of Phil and Tony Cruz was behind him. Michael left the start house and I walked Phil's bike up to the gate and handed it to the official. The riders were staggered at two minute intervals and I stood at the foot of the start house until one minute before he was scheduled to leave.
At that point I got in the car with Vasilli and waited for Phil to leave the gate. Phil was off and we were racing. The course was deceivingly difficult with consecutive rolling terrain with very few sections of flat roadway. Phil's ride was trouble free and 42 minutes later, we were back at the finish line. Shortly after, Bernard finished and we loaded the bikes on top of the team car, drove back to the truck to put away the bikes and headed to the hotel for the evening.
On our way back, Chris and I stopped for lunch at the Atlanta Bread Company. During lunch (at this point it was 3:00 PM), we discussed what we needed to do to get the six race bikes and four spare bikes ready for tomorrow's road race. We decided to wait for cooler weather later in the afternoon so once we got back to the hotel, we parked the truck and headed to our room to relax for a bit. I was slap worn out and fell asleep.
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When I woke up, Chris was gone and I found him prepping the race bikes. Phil had asked Chris to change out his black tape and put on a fresh new roll of white Benotto tape. Ed stopped by shortly after and dropped off the race numbers that needed to be placed on each rider's race bikes. I cut down the long rectangular numbers into smaller, square like shapes, punched new holes and then used Chris' Bahco pliers and screwdriver to mount them to Chris' custom number plate holders. After that was done, I moved on to wash the training wheels from the morning's ride.
For some reason, the brake pads that are on the bikes left this ugly, black residue on the rims. Chris told me that I would need to use Scotch-Bright to clean the rims and I thought I would be done in a little while. Boy was I wrong... it took me the rest of the evening to clean the wheels and at 7:45 PM, we packed it in to go get ready for dinner with Ed and Vasilli. I still had two sets to wash in the morning before we headed to the race. Good thing the race doesn't start until 1:00 PM in the afternoon tomorrow. We ate dinner across the street at Longhorn and then headed back to our rooms.
It's midnight and both Chris and I are wiped out. We are getting up 7:00 AM to make final preparations for the road race. I can't wait until the race as I will have a chance to ride in the team car tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
Glenn Kalnins
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Chris Davidson
- Phil's new Benotto tape
- The BMC boys are making final preparations for the ITT
- Are those some sort of new Shimano wheels? (They are actually Zipp 808's)
- Note to self... don't hit the brakes!
- SRAM made custom one-off yellow brake hoods for the Mavic Neutral Support bikes.
- I aired-up this rocket here to 120psi
- Just in case you didn't know... this bike belongs to Bobby Julich
- Focus Dave, focus... use the force!
- Cool clock! 1:10 before Michael Creed leaves the start gate.
- Phil in the start house
- DZ coming down the finishing straight
- DZ's rocket
- The small yellow sticker reminds him and everyone else how fast he really is
- Mr. & Mrs. Z post race
- My list of names, race numbers and the Bahco pliers and screwdrivers I used to put them on the race bikes
- The numbers are mounted and the bikes are ready to go!
