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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 7, 2007
Sharing the love, part 3
Day 3
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It's show time! Today is the road race and Chris and I were up and out the door by 7:30 AM. We were once again the first guys out before all the other team mechanics (do you see a trend here?). The dark morning clouds looked threatening and it was cool and windy. My job for the morning was to finish cleaning the two wheel sets I didn't get completed the night before. I grabbed the Scotch-Bright, a bucket of soap & water and got to work. Learning from last night's washing, I was able to get the wheels cleaned up in no time as Chris made a few adjusts to the spare bikes and then went across the street to gas up the Audi team car. We decided not to wash the car since it was clean from Friday's washing plus the fact that it looked like it was going to rain so I wiped down the windows and wheels with a clean towel. To top it off, I sprayed the tires with tire shine and the car was looking nice and clean. It's so important that all of the team bikes and vehicles look clean and spotless…Navigators Insurance and all of the team's sponsors pay good money and we owe it to them to portray a professional image.
As usual, Chris built in a time buffer and we were well ahead of schedule so we headed back to the room to clean-up, pack our bags and check out. At 11:00 AM, we got in the box truck and drove to the race course where we were once again the first team to the team parking area and picked a spacious spot for the truck and a good shaded area for our riders to sit under the trees. Since we had extra time, Chris and I went to grab some lunch at Jimmy Johns. By the time we got back, more teams were showing up and our guys were on the way. We woofed down our sandwiches and started pulling race bikes out of the truck and putting them on the rack. I pumped all of the wheels on the race bikes, spare bike, and 6 spare wheels, 13 sets all together. I put 110psi into each tire except for Phil, Matt and Bernard who asked for 120psi. Chris put a gold set of Campy wheels on the roof rack, one set of Campy Bora wheels in the back of the car and one set in the seat between him and me.
The race started at 1:00 PM and at 12:40 PM, Ed, Vassili, Chris and I got in the car and drove to the staging area. We drew number six at the manager's meeting the night before so we were going to be behind the Toyota-United team car in the caravan. At 12:45 PM, the riders were called to the start / finish line and I decided to use the bathroom one last time as we were in for at least five hours of racing. As the "guest" in the vehicle, I didn't want to be the one who had to request a nature break. With the last few minutes before the start, I walked amongst the cars to stretch my legs one last time and at 1:00 PM we were off and racing!
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The race opened up with three starting loops that took the peloton through a park and some small neighbourhood roads. At the beginning of the second start loop, one of the AEG Toshiba (#11) riders called for service from his team car. I'm not really sure what happened but the poor guy went from holding onto the side of the car to taking a horrific fall. We could see and hear the crash from several cars back. His frame was broken, and the front wheel taco-ed beyond repair. We heard the medical car being called to the crash site over race radio and then shortly thereafter, the rider had abandoned the race. That was a big bummer…we weren't even 10 miles into the race!
After that eventful start, we were off onto the race course for four large loops followed by four finishing loops (the same as the start loops). The atmosphere along the entire race route was festive. There were several places on Paris Mountain where people had put out nice spreads…some were grilling while others had sandwiches, chips and sodas.
I'm not sure who was setting the pace up Paris Mountain the first time up but there were several riders who were already starting to come off the back. I knew the road up the mountain was difficult but I didn't realize that it was so steep at the top. The descent down the back side was steep, fast and dangerous with several tight hair pin turns. It's amazing to see how fast these pros descend and the unbelievable bike handling skills. It's even more amazing to watch the guys, who were dropped the first time up Paris Mountain, descend down between the cars in the caravan. One of my jobs for the race was to watch for the riders moving among the cars. As the riders work their way through the caravan, the cars behind honk their horns to let the cars in front know that a rider was coming. Once a rider got close to our car, I would tell Ed where he was…"he's right behind us" or "he's coming up on our left side and is getting ready to come by you right now."
Watching the race from the car is such an amazing experience! There are so many things taking place. Each car is equipped with a race radio and each of the cars have radios for their riders. We were getting constant updates from the race radio like the total number of riders in the break, the race number of each rider, the time split to the peloton, if there were any crashes or mechanicals, and which riders requested service from the team cars (like bottles, gels, food, etc.).
Besides watching for dropped riders, I was also on bottle duty. We didn't feed that much from the car today since the riders had a chance to pick up drinks and food at the feed zone each lap. There were a couple of times when our riders needed bottles so I reached back to the cooler and grabbed several bottles of water, sports drink mixes and Coke's.
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Our riders were doing well and racing great all day but then…the wheels came, figuratively speaking, the third time up Paris Mountain. Several of our guys fell off the pace up the climb and unfortunately, Matt Cooke crashed on the climb. We raced the car up to Matt and Chris immediately hopped out of the car with a set of spare wheels. Chris pushed Matt off and hoped back into the car. Matt's saddle was knocked crooked and Chris worked on it from the car…please, don't try this at home...Chris is a professional and he knows exactly what to do without loosing a finger or knocking the rider over. Chris fixed Matt's saddle and off he rode back up to the chase group. I am glad to report that Matt was not hurt but he did end up breaking his left shifter and his race was over. Matt was riding really, really well so obviously we were all bummed.
Phil and David were the last two guys left in the peloton. When the lead group hit the base of Paris Mountain for the fourth and last time, Levi drilled it and the race was over. Ed told the guys that this was the time to make their move…if the group was going slower than what they wanted, it was time to attack and go for it. Phil and David both put in big digs but unfortunately not much came out of it. The guys rode together the remainder of the race and finished in the main group.
After the race, each of the riders dropped off their bike and Chris and I loaded up the box truck. At the hotel, we secured all of the bikes, wheels and equipment for Chris' long drive back to the warehouse in New Jersey. I wished Chris farewell and said final goodbyes to the rest of the team mechanics at the hotel parking lot. Afterwards, I showered up and headed out with the team to the Hincapie Sportswear party.
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The Hincapie Sportswear corporate office is really sweet! The building is old and rustic and the walls are bare brick on the inside. The office is one large open room and each work desk is separated by a mesh Hincapie screen. On the right wall there are eight yellow jerseys…seven signed by Lance Armstrong and one of George's. The conference room is glassed in and is located in the back right corner. The bathrooms are large and spacious with showers…obviously, people in the office are very active and most likely ride to and from work or at lunch time. There is a basement which was off limits to the public and a deck off the back which leads to a large parking lot. All of the drinks were inside the office and the food was outside in the back. The menu for the evening was rice with a Cajun chicken sauce and sliced pita bread. There was also cake for desert. The food and atmosphere were great! I was hoping to see more riders but I can understand the low turnout considering the length and difficulty of the race. Also, some of the teams were heading to Atlanta for the road race while other were heading home. Mr. & Mrs. Z made an appearance as did Levi and George who showed up with his little girl. At 9:30 PM, I wished the Navigator guys good bye and headed for home.
It's has been an incredibly amazing three days…a racing fan's dream come true! Thanks again to Ed Beaman and the rest of the Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team staff and riders for allowing me to tag along. Thanks also to my good friend Chris Davidson for making it all happen! Lastly, thanks to you, the readers, for tuning in…I hope that I was able to give each of you an entertaining view from an "average Joe's" perspective of professional bike race in America.
Thank you all for reading and I'll see you out on the road!
Glenn
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Chris Davidson
- Airing up the tires on the race bikes.
- Dude, it's hot out here!
- We are off and racing!
- Party in the park
- Even Elvis was at the race and riding his bike while playing the guitar.
- Don't try this at home! Chris out the window straightening Matt Cooke's saddle after his crash on Paris Mountain.
- Party in front of George's neighbourhood
- Phil's bike is the last one to go in the truck.
- The racing is over and it's party time!
- One of my souvenirs from the weekend. Thanks guys for letting me be a part of it all!
