Bike World News

Chris 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.

For the 2009/2010 cyclocross season, Chris is working for Champion Systems rider Chris Jones. Jones opened his season with a dramatic 2nd place at CrossVegas and has consistently been in the top five of the NACT and USGP events.

Mercer Cup – Saturday

Princeton, New Jersey. I have been here in the East Coast since Tuesday; it has rained every day this week. It was still raining this morning, only to stop midday. We joked about the fact that the only dry race this year was back at CrossVegas. The course was a long slog on grass and mud. Chris started both bikes on the Rhinos with pressures in the mid twenties. The big concern for the day was the bike wash.

Bikes needed to be exchanged twice a lap, good thing that the laps were long, because I needed every second of the time between exchanges for washing bikes. I had some help today, one of Chris’ supporters who lives on the East Coast, Dave Chiu, was instrumental to getting the bikes clean after each exchange. It took both of us working together and Troy (Cannondale/ Cyclocrossworld.com mechanic) and his powerwasher to get the mud and grass out of the bikes. Run to the wash, run back to the pit, a little lube and wipe dry the handlebar tape. I was worried all day that we were going to miss one of the exchanges, not getting back to the pit with the clean bike in time. Made all of them.

Chris had an awesome day. He took off last weekend from racing and stayed home and trained. He was relaxed and ready heading to the airport on Friday. He had a midday flight to the East Coast, so he could get in a training ride in the morning before flying. This is always a positive thing for him. His connection got delayed once he got to Denver, resulting in his arrival at the Philadelphia airport last night occurring at 1:20am. We got to the hotel near the race a nearly 3am and promptly got to sleep. No morning easy spin this morning, extra sleep was in order.

Despite the late night, race warm-up went well and Chris had the confidence heading to the start line. First time through the pit Chris was riding easily on the leader’s wheel and spoke to me calmly about the next bike change. This is a good sign considering how hard the race went from the gun. Chris was moving forward better than anyone in the race, save Trebon, until with 2 laps to go; he went down and jammed his chain. This bobble would move him just off the podium [finished 4th], but even with his travel issues, he was riding at the front. Victory won’t elude him for much longer.

Forecast for tomorrow is actually ‘dry’, I won’t believe it until I see it. The mud will still be there from today, it is going to take some time to dry out. I am sure that the powerwashers will still be necessary. Good cross conditions.

See you out there tomorrow-

Chris Davidson

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