In my shoes

When I was signing in to my blog account I noticed it said the last time I updated was May 10th. That seems like ages ago and a lot of racing and traveling has happened since then. I wrote this piece below about 10 days ago so I'll wet your appetite with this until I get some time to do more updating. I've noticed I'm not the only one updating that much. Many "cyclist's blogs" are stuck in limbo due to all the racing and traveling that occurs this time of season.

Enjoy my "one day in the life of a pro mechanic" piece.

Tour de Grande Montreal, Tues, June 5, 11:37pm – Today was one of those unique workdays that happens in the life of pro mechanics. Not a typical day but at the same time not unheard of so I thought I would give you a hour by hour, blow by blow of what you could be doing in my shoes (I thought it might help me to relax since I’m a bit wired to go to bed).

6:03 am – woke up not knowing where I was for a second. Oh yeah I’m staying at the University of Montreal dorms. College is cool! Right?

6:15-7:00am – Made myself pretty with a shower and stuff like brushing the teeth. Boy, do I need a haircut!

7:00 – 7:45am – Bacon and cheese omelet with diner coffee. Then on the way back to the University bought a latte to suck on while working.

8:00 – 11:30am – Because the yesterday’s stage started at 5:00pm and ended about 8:00pm I didn’t get back to the trailer until about 10:30pm. Therefore I decided to wash and tune the bikes this morning. And because it was pouring rain yesterday the bikes were especially dirty. Loaded the spare bikes and wheels on the car.

12:00-1:00 – Managed to budget my time wisely and thought I’d put on the chamois for a little spin on the bike. Stopped at Subway for a sandwich to bring back too! Italian BMT for those keeping track.

1:30-2:00pm – Descended the elevator from the 17th floor of the dorm to load the race bikes on the van.

2:00-2:15 – Waited for the 2:15 departure and consulted the map.

2:18-3:30ish – Drove to race venue.

3:45- 4:15pm – unloaded bikes and applied rainy day lube to the chains since it looked like it was going to be another wet one for the ladies.

4:15-5:30 – Joked around with other mechanics about previous days stories from the caravan. Waited in line for the porta-potty. Drank a diet-coke. Adjusted a front derailleur (typical last minute nervous rider adjustments).

5:30-8:20 – Sat in the caravan and watched it get really dark and rain down buckets of water. Puddles were very deep in places. Ran out once for a crash in the peloton but none of our riders were down. Can’t believe there weren’t more crashes. Lots of flats today. For other teams though, not Colavita. We had zero flats. Some teams were getting multiple call ups for service.

8:30-8:45pm – Within 15 minutes I had the race bikes loaded onto the team car so I could bust out back to Montreal while the riders got dressed and got something to eat at the dinner banquet.

8:45-10:00pm - Time to myself to listen to the radio while I drive back to Montreal.

10:00-11:30pm – When I got back to the trailer the weather had gotten really windy and the temperature was down to 45 degrees which was a bit annoying while trying to wash the bikes. Anyways, there was no time to waste and I got them all sparkly clean again.

12:15pm – I’m now drowsy and will take off my coveralls to go to sleep. That’s about an 18 hour day right there in which people were depending on me to do a great job. Pretty amazing stuff. There is even stuff I forgot to mention. 6:00am wake up call will be here quick I suppose. Tomorrow is a double stage. 11;30am Time Trial and a 7:30 criterium.
We are leaving at 9:00am and will need a few hours beforehand to tune the bikes. NEED TO SLEEP NOW!

Thanks for reading,
DOUG