Tour of Utah, Here We Come!!!


Tour of Utah
Right now, I’m on a plane from Phoenix to Salt Lake City, mentally getting ready to work at the 2012 Tour of Utah, once again with Carmichael Training Systems. To the everyday mechanic or bike nut, it may not seem like a lot of preparation would be necessary, but a lot of logistics are involved in an event like this for a freelance race mechanic, like myself.

First, the bikes. Over the course of the week, I’ll work on some really high-quality racing bikes, just like team mechanics do. Unfortunately, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage, because all the equipment I work on is different. Each rider has different wheels, pedals, drivetrain, power meter, shoes, etc. No one bike is the same, and as their mechanic for the week, I have to know the in’s & out’s of every component of every bike. This also requires that, in some cases, I have special component-specific tools on hand, which means I have to know what I’m working with a few weeks ahead of time. CTS is good about getting a list of clients’ equipment, so I can be prepared.

In the event there is something I run into that I need to have to return a bike to proper working order, I may have to make a bike shop run. Before the event, I usually find the two closest, high end bike shops to the race hotel and record their contact info, so I don’t have to chase it down if I’m crunched for time.

Second… travel. Where most team mechanics have a truck and trailer, loaded with the things they need for the Tour, I’ve got to travel with my gear. Because of airline restrictions, there are weight and size limits to what you can bring on airplanes, without getting charged ungodly baggage fees. I have to take my own personal luggage, my tools, and my repair stand. I keep my toolbox around 45-50 pounds, which means my essential tool choices are critical. Today, I got lucky and avoided a $125 fee by gate-checking my repair stand, which I’ve never done before. Luckily, for me, the Feedback Sports Pro-Elite repair stand looks a bit like a camera tripod, which saved me some flack from TSA.

Lastly, finding the prime parking spot.  There are always really great spots around the hotels for team trucks and trailers.  The best spots have very close water and electrical hookups, and since I don’t have a trailer, and most of the bigger teams have beaten me to the hotel by a day and a half, most of the spots are taken.  I’ve been networking my way around the hotel to see if I can sneak in and borrow some water and power when they’re not busy this week.

It’s good to have connections, and to make friends in this industry.  The professional race mechanic arena is very small.  These guys are highly skilled, overworked, caffeine-fueled road warriors… and are all really good folks.  You’ve got to make friends, because if you do somebody wrong, it’ll come back to bite you, for sure.  I’ll get everything figured out.  Adapt and overcome, as we used to say in the Marines… but it definitely helps to have folks that will help you out in a pinch.

More photos and updates to come as the week progresses.  Tomorrow, bike builds and race preparations are on the schedule.  Adios!

Repair Stand Roulette

After working USPRO Championships with Team Exergy in May, I sold my trusty Park Tool PRS-21 repair stand to a buddy back home, so I could purchase a new stand I had seen on some cycling blogs, the Feedback Sports Sprint repair stand.  The SRAM NRS West Coast crew and Josh from Team Exergy had already been using  the Sprint stand since Sea Otter, and being a fan of the fork-mounted repair stand, I wanted to get my hands on one.  I called Feedback, and placed one on backorder to ensure delivery as quickly as possible.

Fast forward a few months… no Sprint Stand yet.  I called back and forth to Feedback to see if there were any updates, and they told me that they had received some feedback (pardon the pun) on the stands from the prototype units that had been sent to the race teams, and were making improvements before they put them to market.  I completely understand that, and as an end-user, I’d rather not hassle with additional modifications needing to be made after the initial purchase.  It should be as simple as pulling the stand out of the box and getting to work.

Unfortunately, the delivery date on the Sprint stand is August 9th-10th, and I’m flying out for the Tour of Utah on the 5th of August, so… I had to make a switch.  This time around, I had to pass on the Sprint stand for the good ol’ Feedback Pro-Elite stand.  I’ve used the Pro-Elite in the past at several events, and used the same clamp in a Park floor-mounted shop stand before.  It works well, and I’ve had no issues with the ones I’ve dealt with on previous occasions, so I don’t mind making the switch.  It will be here next week, just in time for the Utah trip.

Thanks to Feedback Sports for not compromising the integrity of the product by pushing it to market before it is ready, and ultimately looking after the customer.  Even though the outcome isn’t exactly what I had hoped for, I appreciate the honesty and the willingness to work with me to get me taken care of in a pinch.  I look forward to dealing with Feedback Sports again in the future, because of their great products, but more importantly, because of their amazing customer service.

(Another quick customer service note about Feedback Sports:  Earlier this year, at the CTS Bucket List Tour of California Race Experience, we didn’t have any racks to hang the bikes from before or after rides, and were in a bind.  We had been leaning the bikes against the truck and trailer for the first two days of the event, which was not very safe, especially with the quality of the bikes that the CTS clients were riding.  One of our mechanics, Mike Hetrick (Mr. Goodbike, Gainesville, FL) called his friend Doug (founder/president of Feedback) and he was able to ship us two A-Frame portable event stands NEXT DAY from Colorado, allowing us to be safe with the bikes, and to be more efficient in our work for the remainder of the trip.  This is one reason I decided to choose Feedback Sports for my repair stand purchase.  Kudos to the staff of Feedback Sports for all their good work!)

Rapha Rising – Circle of Death Challenge

Rapha Rising - The Circle of Death

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before on this blog, but I’m addicted to Strava.  For those of you unfamiliar with Strava, it’s a cycling/running program that you track ride/run statistics with, and you can use it to compare stats and compete with friends.  You may have seen the television commercials on during the Tour de France coverage, featuring Tim Johnson (Cyclocross stud, multi-time National Champ, and one of my former riders on the Jittery Joe’s Team when I wrenched for them), Jesse Anthony (Optum p/b KBS rider), and others.

The cool thing about Strava is that you can set particular segments of road or trail, and the program keeps track of your times via your mobile phone or GPS-based computer.  I find it extremely fun to challenge myself on particular segments (mostly uphill), and see how this 200+ pounder compares to his 170 pound counterparts.  I’ve pushed myself harder to compete on climbs, even though I’m not a natural climber, and it’s been a good training tool for me, since I’ve started riding seriously again.

Last month, Rapha posted a challenge to Strava users that was to take place last week called the “Rapha Rising Challenge.”  The challenge was to climb 6,881 meters (22,575 feet) over the course of last week, which was equivalent to the “queen stage” of the Tour de France, which took place last Wednesday.  Basically, you had to climb, in one week, the same amount the pros did in one day…

I wasn’t planning on completing the challenge, but I got a good start, getting several thousand feet of climbing in on Monday of last week.  On Tuesday, I pounded out a big ride with the Free-Flite Canton group ride, where I pulled a lot, we broke some records (collectively), and after splitting from the group, I tacked on a few more miles.  Wednesday and Thursday, I figured I’d add a couple of extra rides and see how my climbing was adding up.  We took off for the beach this weekend, so I got a long climbing ride in on Friday morning (3 hours, 3700 feet of climbing) before we took off for Myrtle Beach, SC.

Myrtle Beach is obviously flat, which was not conducive to setting any climbing records.  I was going to do laps in the parking garage to get a little bit of climbing, but I didn’t have any expectations of getting the remainder of my climbing – around 4400 feet) finished by Sunday at Midnight, so I just canned that idea.  We enjoyed our time at the beach and headed home on Sunday.

We rolled into my parents’ house for the night around 6:30pm on Sunday.  I talked my wife into letting me ride some more and see how much climbing I could finish before it got too dark.  I rode about 3/4 mile down the road to Old Six Mile Road, where I did repeats until 9pm.  I rode to my parents’ house and had close to 1200 feet of climbing left to go… only 3 more repeats.

After much sweet-talking and a few bottles of Gatorade, I headed back down the road with Niki in the van behind me, shining headlights so I could see where I was going.  Together, we knocked out three more hill repeats, and finished up with 56.3 miles and 4236 feet of climbing for the evening, all on Old Six Mile Road… and I was cooked.  We got home and I uploaded the data to Strava, and… I was around 15o FEET SHORT!  99% complete with the challenge was not going to cut it…

Since it was only 10:45pm at that point, I jammed my bike back in the van and drove down to Clemson.  It’s a pretty well-lit town, so I felt comfortable riding downtown and around the university for a few miles to tack on the extra few feet I needed to finish the challenge.  I completed an extra 3.8 miles and 259 feet of climbing, and FINALLY finished the challenge with 6,917 meters of climbing for the week.

I had to take a day off after completing the challenge, especially after the strong finish on Sunday.  Would I do the challenge again?  Absolutely, except next time, I won’t plan a beach trip in the middle of it, so I can space out the climbing better.  I think because of the climbing that I had to seek out to complete the challenge, I’m actually enjoying climbing a little more.  I’ve kind of honed some of my techniques and I now look forward to the hills a little more.

Down Time

I’ve had the last few weeks off, and I’ve been collecting my thoughts and trying to figure out what’s next for me.  Last week, Niki and I dropped the kids off at my folks’ house and we spent a couple of days in Asheville, NC.  She surprised me with a ziplining trip at Asheville Zipline Canopy Adventures.  I wasn’t expecting it, but enjoyed it thoroughly.  Our guides, Joe and Jamie were AMAZING!  If you’re ever in Asheville, visit the Crowne Plaza Resort and check them out!

The next day, we visited my buddy Andy Grabowski’s shop, Chainheart Cycling Studio, on Riverside Drive in Asheville.  I’ve been telling him for the last several years that I would come up and visit, and I finally made good on my threat!  Andy and his partner, Chad, run a sweet little cycling studio (not your ordinary bike shop…) that caters to higher-end and professional clients from all over.  Andy’s been a good friend since he worked for SRAM and I was Head Mechanic for the Aaron’s Women’s Team.  The last time I saw him was this year at USPRO Championships, where he and Chad worked for Team Liquigas riders Ted King, and eventual USPRO Champion, Timmy Duggan.  Andy’s work wins races… big ones.  If you’re ever in Asheville, go see Andy.

We had to drive home quickly, because the following day was the Georgia Games Road Race.  It was the Georgia State Championship Road Race this year, and it was the goal I set for riding and getting back into some form of shape lately.  The most fun part for me was that it was going to be my wife’s first bike race… EVER!  We met as a result of cycling and she’s been involved with it for 9 years, but had never done a bike race herself.  She was extremely nervous, but I was proud of her for just starting the race.  The first one is definitely the hardest.  She finished one of two laps, with a very strong women’s field (they averaged 21mph for Cat 4 Women!!!), and I was super-proud.

My race (Cat 4 Men) was a decent race for me.  I was riding with my friend Harvey’s Lifetime Bikes/Loganville Ford team.  Since I left my previous shop, I had no real team affiliation, so Harvey brought me a kit for the day’s racing.  I missed my start by a few seconds because I had forgotten my energy gels, but was able to catch the peloton within the first half mile, so no reason for panic.  We started out with a really fast first lap, in which my teammate and friend, Stephen Baxter, was taken out by a crash.  He survived, but had to pop his shoulder back in place before his race on Sunday…

It was a pretty quick pace throughout the race, and got progressively hotter as the race went on.  At the start of lap 3, one of our Lifetime Bikes/Loganville Ford teammates attacked right before the start/finish, and I was sitting about 4th wheel.  I tried to get on the front and slow down the pace, but he didn’t have the energy to sustain a solo break with 45 other riders chasing not too far behind him.  Right after the last turn on the last lap, some idiot decided to take a drink from his bottle and hit a reflector in the road, causing a massive crash.  We were less than 2 miles from the finish at that point… any smart racer would have already fueled up for the finish by that point and been ready to turn on the gas.  As we neared the finish, our aggressive motoref pulled EXTREMELY close to the field with less than 500m to go and tried to start relegating more people.  It got too dangerous for my tastes, and my legs were worked from the race, so I pedaled across the line for 28th place out of 65 racers.  My goals were accomplished:  Finish with the field, and don’t crash.

A good friend I made at the Carmichael Training Systems Tour of California Race Experience, Will Williamson, came up and raced his first road race and criterium over the weekend.  He and his wife, Jenny, came up from Alabama the previous weekend with the kids to hang out and for us to pre-ride the race course.  They left the kids at home with the grandparents, so we had a chance to hang out with them after the road race.  We didn’t really have any plans on Saturday, so we went down to East Point and watched the action at the Dick Lane Velodrome.  They were having a big race weekend, and Outback Bikes had free tickets available, so we got the chance to introduce them to the track.  Bumped into Jeff Hopkins (one of my former Jittery Joe’s riders, and track operator), Scott Patton (race announcer, and overall good guy), Joe Eldridge (Racer and Friend, Team Type 1), and Jon Woodroof (TwoToneATL.com, Bike Blogger, Instagram hero).  Good times had by all.

Since Monday, I’ve been helping Harvey out over at Lifetime Bikes in Loganville, GA.  One of his mechanics is on vacation, so I’ve been getting my hands dirty a little bit.  If you haven’t made the trek over to Loganville, you most definitely should.  The shop does a little bit of everything, but based on the cyclists coming in the door, I’d say it’s mostly a road shop.  There are LOTS of group road rides that leave FROM THE SHOP (key to a successful road following), and Harvey’s got a passion for getting out there and cycling, himself.  He competed in the road race and criterium this past weekend and pulled off a 2nd place in the Cat 5 crit at West Oak.  Not bad for the owner of the bike shop, huh?

I’ve had a great time over here, and I’ve got one day left.  Tomorrow is my 32nd birthday, and I get to spend it doing something I love.  Working on bikes.  I’ve said enough for now.  I’ll catch up later.

Time for a Change

I’m not going to elaborate on it too much, but as of today, I’m no longer wrenching at Out Spokin’ Bicycles in Woodstock, GA. I have decided to pursue other directions in my life, and decided that staying at that particular place is not the best move for me right now.

I’m not announcing anything dramatic or spectacular in the works, but I do want to thank Kevin Poske for hiring me 5-1/2 years ago and taking a chance on me when I was at my lowest. I like to think I did a pretty good job helping to build his business and developing a good customer base at the same time. I want to wish him well with the shop in the future, even though I’m not a part of it.

I’ll keep this blog updated with what is going on with me and my career. I don’t have anything specific planned as of yet, so I think I’ll go get some miles in on the bike. There’s only better things to come, so buckle up and enjoy the ride with me!