Penticton to Apex

Climbing for two hours to Apex.


A small child could fall in between these bars. I played it safe and didn't take the cattleguards at speed coming down.


Marie Danais and Dave Harju. Two of my favorite people and impressive athletes.


Race morning swim start.


Here is what our set-up looks like.


Not a bad place to work on bikes for the week! I'd say its better than Hawaii. In Hawaii I can hear the ocean but I'm not looking right onto the beach like this location.

Penticton, BC, Canada – I love this place! We are leaving this morning to head back to Wisconsin (as soon as Ben finally gets out of bed). Ironman events are always busy but you tend to miss it once its over. The week went well. I only had a total of 3 athletes competing so I had plenty of time to dial in their bikes, catch up on gluing tires (I think I finally have all the team Bontrager Discs, Aeolus 6.5 and 5.0, and Carbon Aero’s rubbered up), and help some other athletes with their bikes. Not to brag but the women’s winner, Belinda Granger, received some of my handy work. Oh yeah! Who’s the man? I was hoping she might mention me during her awards speech. Not so. I’m always hoping on behalf of all us mechanics out there that we get mentioned once in awhile. Just as the top athletes make their efforts seem easy, I get the impression that I make my work look simple, so much so that our expertise gets forgotten. I also got to help an athlete friend from back east. I really enjoy helping people like Tanya because she is so grateful knowing that her bike will work awesome come race day (and the fact that she brought me lunch a few times). That is the best example of what we mechanics in the bike world provide for our athletes. Worry free bike operation. The athletes only have to worry about performing their best.

Besides the “work” end of things, the highlights of my week stay in Penticton were the rides I went on. It is beautiful around here and cycling in my opinion is the best way to experience a place. The best ride I did was up to the Apex ski resort. I had heard it was a good ride but I did not know much more than that. It took me about 2 hours to get there with only one climb. The whole ride was uphill. Wow! Climbing for two hours when you’re not prepared makes it an epic ride. After 1 ½ hours of climbing in the heat my bottles were empty, and I began to get that up and down self-talk going. Around each switchback I would hope I’d see some kind of sign indicating a ski area. Finally in the distance I saw a ski lift so I felt like I was getting closer at last. Also along the way I had to turn around a bit and wait for a bear which was walking down the road. Eventually a car came by and he scooted off into the woods. I did a little interval effort and made some babbling noise as I went past his location and saw the brush moving around. The next 50 yards was a high level three effort to put on some distance. Phew! Recover, recover! Okay, so like I said, I got to Apex. The bar/restaurant was the only place I could find to buy something to drink so I saddled up to the bar in full riding kit, including my helmet, and asked for “two cokes please.” Ah! Two pints of cokes on ice in five minutes and I was back in the saddle. The descent back into town was awesome. Two hours up and 45 minutes down. The only thing I had to slow down for was a few switchbacks, a stop sign, and three cattle guards which looked a little dangerous if I would have hit them at speed. One of the best rides EVER!

Time to get in the truck and start driving. I think Ben might be getting up now.

He Has My Clothes On!

Here is another one of those catching up blog entries. My adventures are so numerous and widespread that I hope I remember all the key points of the past three weeks.

After the Altoona race we headed to Winston Salem, NC to stay with one of Shuler’s teammates from back in the day, Thomas Craven. The home stay was great for relaxing. Tom has a cool dog, Pielot, that was fun to play with. He was always up for a good for a game of tug the rope and chase.

Everyone really enjoyed the top of the line espresso machine too. Apparently the ladies went through $100.00 worth of coffee in the 4 days we were there. Wow! I had a few coffee’s myself but not that many. The one thing I remember was how hot the weather was. The heat index was 105 degrees. The newspaper said we were supposed to go to the mall or library, anything other than go outside. I guess no one read the same warning because we were found riding bikes with the rest of the local cyclists. The nice thing about cycling is you create your own wind so it wasn’t stifling hot until you had to stop at a red light to wait.

The whole reason we were down south was to race the Charlotte Bank of America criterium. Tina won again with great support from the rest of the team. She even got one of those oversized checks on the podium. Not every race has those. I consider it a true sign of being a pro when you get one of those (and a hefty bonus for me. Not bad for a few hours of work. That’s like making a lawyers hourly wage. Too bad it’s not like that all the time). The check ended up in the van, which meant I had to take care of it the rest of the way back to Milwaukee. It took on a little personality all its own so I made sure it experienced some of my road tripping lifestyle.


After some celebration of Tina’s victory, I headed out the next morning for a little Doug time on the way back to Team Sports (Milwaukee). I planned on some mountain biking and camping in West Virginia but the weather was quite rainy there so I ended up going to Jim Thorpe, PA. I was a little disappointed with the riding in Jim Thorpe. It was fine but I thought it would be a little better scene wise. Never saw another person riding and the local shop was not helpful at all about where to ride. The weather was good and the camping was fine too. Not a bad time. I just wouldn’t go back.




After the camping I made a quick visit to see some riding friends and do some road riding in Connecticut. Shane and Athena are great friends. We always catch up by going on long rides. This time it was a 5-hour jaunt. Nice! We did manage to get in a one and a half hour mountain bike ride and a one hour rode ride to prove we could do short rides too.




Eventually I made it back to Team Sports just in time for the Tuesday night mountain bike ride. This is one of the coolest rides in such an urban setting. The cast of characters included Eric (Targetraining mechanic), Ben Harper (the Timex Team manger, not the musician), Tom Schuler (the big cheese), and myself (the ?).

The next couple of days were spent at Team Sports getting organized for a Timex trip to British Columbia and one more race with the Colavita/Cooing Light ladies at Crit Nationals in Downers Grove, IL. Boring stuff to write about, but all-important to getting the job done. Most of what I do is inventory management. Making sure the teams have what they need for equipment and what I need to cover any repairs and what not. The actual bike work probably occupies a small percentage at certain times.

Team Sports had some craziness surrounding it one day while I was there. The short version is that Ben and I caught a guy stealing my clothes from the storage area. He was trying to change his appearance by changing clothes because the police were looking for him. Apparently he shoplifted some stuff from the Walgreen’s down the street. What makes it funny is that when I saw the “thief” walking away in my red sweat pants (The Commonwealth Games pants that Audrey gave me), Park Tool t-shirt, and my running shoes, I ran to tell Ben to call the police before confronting him. I believe my exact words to Ben were “Call the police, HE HAS MY CLOTHES ON!” It has become the catch phrase around the office now. “Call the police. He has my clothes on!” The emphasis should be placed on the “he has my clothes on” part to seem funny. After confronting the worst thief in Milwaukee, he apologized for “borrowing” my clothes and changed back into his own jeans, t-shirt, and shoes while I informed him the police were on their way. I bid him adieu with a lecture about how he “just can’t come in here and take my clothes, dude!” The police picked him up down the street and for about two hours they were poking around the neighborhood looking for the stuff he had stolen and stashed somewhere. Since the incident was the talk of the town I had to re-tell it about 10 times that day including at the barbecue to the assembled masses at Schuler’s house. Now that its on the blog I feel I’m done with the whole incident.


For you fans of cycling you probably already know what happened at Crit Nationals. Tina has won this race (and the National Champion designation) the last 4 years. A nasty crash in the last corner before the line kept her from this year’s win. But she’ll be the first to say that’s all part of racing bikes. She is a class act for sure and she’ll be back next year. Once in awhile the team fills in spots with guest riders for an event. Such was the case at Crit Nationals. I had the pleasure of meeting Kele M. and Allison Powers. It was nice to get to know some other riders other than the ones you always see. Excellent job ladies!

Immediately after the race we had a team lunch. These are the times that are fun within the team atmosphere because in effect we are not “working” and can just have some laughs. Great people are everywhere and fortunately they are on this team and we all share some goofy times together. It’s true when they say winning isn’t everything.



After the lunch I said some goodbye to the ladies (It was the probably the last event we’d all be together until next year) and I climbed into the Timex truck to start driving to Penticton, British Columbia, Canada. That’s what I’ve been doing the last three days. Driving with Ben (and typing this entry). There is not enough room in the cab to properly stretch the legs so we are both looking forward to it being over. We are almost to the Canadian border. Which is the last major hurdle because we have to declare all the stuff that’s on the truck and have the proper paperwork in order. Oh please let there be nice border guards!

See ya,
DOUG

Philosophy moment

"A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labour and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both."
-Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubrand

Altoona remembered...I think

Bike racing is all about bleeding from your eyeballs.





Audrey wanted to trade in her bike for Peggy's trike.






I was trying to design a new head cooling system. Granted it is just a prototype right now.






The first one up and the last one to floor/bed. Being a team mechanic is hardly ever having a proper place to sleep.





Real briefly, this is what I remember from the Altoona Stage Race (7 days, Altoona, Pennsylvania).

Arriving Monday morning at 11:15 am and "working" 12 to 14 hour days for the next 7 days. Or so it seemed. Immediately upon arrival I was presented with a broken fork and a request to set up a spare bike for Tina because the airline temporarily lost her bikes. Welcome Doug grab a wrench!

Hot weather and thunderous downpours.

20 second wheel change.

Not eating much. I must have ate something with a dirty hand. I just don't remember. I bought two Lipton Sweetened Iced Teas (blue label) almost everyday.

I remember the blank stare from a rider who crashed. After asking three times if she was okay to continue and eliciting no response, I didn't know what to do except pick up her bike to fix it. (Don't worry, She wasn't bleeding out any body openings or screaming in pain). Its what I do!

Several stage wins and high placings. The green points jersey.

Water bottle thrown in an open window. Good shot Meshy!

Wondering how many times TRIA is going to feed. AAAAAAGH! (inside joke, sorrry)

Tire inflation pumps. 26 wheels. 676 pumps a day. 4,732 pumps for the week. I'm here to pump...you up!

Cheers,
DOUG

Stupid Computer!

Hello all my faithful readers!

This is the second time I've written this little tag line. The first was about 2 hours ago when I first started catching up on the last three weeks of my life. During the spell check something happenned in Microsoft Word and it was taken from me. I had saved it and everything. I'm so disappointed and cannot go back and write it again. I'm going to just post a few pictures from the last few weeks. AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!


Me and my good friends Athena and Shane in Lake Placid. Great people these two. I received the best compliment ever from Athena about my writing (She is a teacher and author). Shane has upgraded to semi-pro mountain bike class. Watch out!


More good friends in Lake Placid. Christine and Jodi. Oh the stories we could tell!


Ironman Lake Placid swim start.


The guy in the helmet is Ben. He is special and runs the Timex Multisport Team.


Cheers,
DJB