Tour of Utah Diary – Day 0

Team Type 1 mechanic Chris Davidson is a veteran of the road scene, having wrenched for teams such as Mercury, TMobile, Nurnberger, Navigators and USA Cycling in the past. 2008 and 2009 have found Chris in the service of the UCI Continental squad, Team Type 1.

Today is officially ‘Day Zero’, as the race does not start until tomorrow night, but there is always plenty to do, so day zero of race prep. For five stages plus a prologue here in Utah; we will have six riders, two mechanics, two soigners, and a director. Add one caravan car, one 15 passenger van and team box truck. We could also probably add the UPS driver to the team as well, as he has been delivering quite a bit of race equipment for this race as well. It seems the schedule leading up to this race, and the concurrent Tour of Ireland race, have us working to coordinate an array of equipment from various places to be ready to race simultaneously in Utah and Ireland.

It is always fun [sarcasm] to open bike boxes/flight cases where the rider has packed their bike to fly to a race. It seems like all rider paced bikes were accomplished in the 5 minutes before they headed to the airport, with whatever they could get there hands on as packing materials. Case in point, Dan Holt’s road bike, pictured here packed with what looks like a hotel towel in a knot and a tee shirt engulfing the rear derailleur. Creative.

The bike ended up needing a new derailleur hanger and some lubing of the cables, but it successfully went out on a training ride late in the day, so all is well.

This race includes a prologue and a medium distance TT, so we need to box truck with the full array of equipment, aero wheels, etc. I always feel more comfortable when we have the truck at a race, as it means that we will have all the supplies that we might need if/when something goes wrong.

So today was a slow work day it the hotel parking lot. The ‘glamorous’ jobs were attended to. These include scrubbing dead insects off the front of the box truck, and checking measurements on the spare bikes for the riders in this tour. The work was interspersed with intervals of consuming chips and salsa on the rear deck of the box truck. You have to take the slow days in, because they come too few and too far in between.

Prologue TT tomorrow starting at 6pm, followed by a 10am start [in a town an hour away] the following morning. We will burn the midnight oil soon enough.

We are going to take the box truck to the start of the TT tomorrow, so we will have the full assortment of time trial weapons for the race. Also, nothing gets the fans excited like a peek in the back of the box truck at the race. More TT bikes, aero wheels, tubular tires packed into 200 square feet than one bike enthusiast could imagine. Come by and check us out if you are at the race. And for the insider angle, my name is Chris and our other mechanic’s name is Doug. Impress your friends when you ask us questions by name.

See you at the race-

Chris Davidson

Tags: chris davidson, cycling, Dan Holt, Team Type 1, time trial, tour of ireland, USA Cycling, Utah