Dwars door Vlaanderen (Bel), 1.1

With most of the big guys in action, this was quite a big race. Mark managed to take a few photos, so I'll put them up now. He's busy washing the bikes so the guys can go training, and will write the text part later tonight. In the mean time, check out what he's been up to in the last week or so...

With a few minutes to enjoy the surrounding scenery, Mark came across an ANZAC war memorial. These races are in the Flanders part of Belgium, commonly known to us for the ANZAC history at Flanders Fields, near Ypres. Hence the memorial. Not just a photo, but a bit of history we don't think about all that often.



Just some of the wonderful scenery in the area:



The race peloton making their way through Flanders Fields region:





Crowds lined the roads (On a Wednesday too!), this crowd moved to the next vantage point immediately after the race passed, in order to get to see it again.



The race was televised live, I found out who won before Mark did because I got to watch it at home on tv while he was dealing with the crowds. You ever wonder how they get those birds eye views??? It's from a heli of course!



With so many narrow roads, when the race comes out to a big road chaos begins as team cars try to get up to service/talk to their riders. DFL-cyclingnews-litespeed drew car 2 this race so didn't have to go too far.



The peloton decided it was time for a pit stop mid-race. Here is the boys who did stop making their way back to the front of the peloton:



Mark took this photo special for me... Tom's bum. Yet to see it for myself, hopefully soon. Tom is here getting bottles apparently. Quickstep drew car 1.



Hard day at the office? Clearly not out to win this one...



One of the famous climbs in Flanders region, the Pattisburg (I think that's how you spell it). Shortish, steep, cobbled climb the region is famous for. Mark got to drive up it:





The chaos at the finish. So many people.



Check out the photo album also for some shots of his workshop at our house, storage of new parts and photos of the tt bikes...

And stay tuned for Mark's story

~Linds

A day of nothing.

I've just returned from our midweek race,the Nokere Koerse,a 196km circuit race.
I always try to do as much as i can the night before,so i loaded the bikes from the boys in the teamhouse,changed some brake pads for the use of carbon wheels and packed my tools.i then had to check if i had enough wheels for the day as we are on a bit of a wheel shortage at the moment.Fortunatly we had a couple of guys pull out due to sickness,which has gone thru most of the team by now.So with everything done the morning is easy with just two bikes to load,one of which was Glen Chadwick from team Navigators,who was bummin a ride with us for the day.
We decided to go a slightly longer way and head around Antwerp to avoid the heavy morning traffic of Brussels.After the 2 hour drive down the motorway we arrived at the start with a good 2 hours to spare,which we needed to fight our way thru the early morning fans that were already there.It was a little strange not having any marshalls there to direct you in as in most races you go to.I guess some are better organised than others,wherever you are in the world.
So we parked the truck,this time wherever the hell we wanted to,and started unloading.Now the boys all turned up with clean bikes[which thier responsiable for during the week while training]so my job is just to fit race wheels,check brakes and gears and also make any adjustments the rider requires,like Haro wanting a new chain on and Rhys needing his headstem raised 3mm,all normal tasks.Once the bikes were ready it was time to pump up some tyres.Now some riders like more,some like less.So you put in what they ask otherwise you might not be to popular if something was to happen,like too much air on a wet road with cobbles in the race aswell.But it never happens cos you know what to put in for each race in what conditions,wet or dry,cobbles or no cobbles.Today it was a mostly dry day and only about 2km of smooth cobbles[yes smooth cobbles],Nico wanted 6.5 bar in the front and 7 bar in the rear,keeping in mind he's on tubulars,clinchers would pinch at that pressure.So the rest of the guys all took 8.5 bar,but Haro took just a bit more with Kane been the only rider on clichers.
Now your proberly wondering why im telling you all this.Between a awsome tyre like the Schwalbe tyres and correct tyre pressure,besides organising the race car with my spare wheels for the day,this,is all that happened for the day.Not one puncture or mechanical,nothing.The race split early into 3 groups with the second and third groups rejoinging,while the 29 escapees rode to a gap of over 6mins,with every big team represented,the main bunch were in no hurry.So it was so far the most boring race ive done,with only Nico dropping back for a chat and Haro for a rain cape,of which i didnt even get to hand him and Kane flying past [after been dropped] pulling faces at me.Then at 2 laps to go they pulled out the main field out,race over.
So we pack up and head home.In the morning i clean all the bikes,Friday i'll wash all the wheels and load the truck to go to France,where hopefully i'll have a more interesting race.
See ya later and keep riding
Funky

Some quiet time, at long last

It's been a much slower week for me this time around.After returning from 3 days West Flanders i've had some time to work and relax[a little].But let me tell you about the 3 days race,there's a day i'd rather forget.
We headed off to a place called Menen, in the south east of Belgium near the French boarder.A nice hotel,but not like a hotel,more like a school camp or a rehab centre.Needless to say,the place was fantastic,nice spacious rooms and great food,proberly the best i've had in a hotel so far.Normally the hotels would be better if say we were a pro tour team, but for us this place was pretty sweet.
Now i had most of the work done but there was a couple of bottom brackets to regrease along with the regular check over.After quickly parking the truck,finding water supply and starting on the bikes,Eddy and i were finished up by about 6.Then it was time to shower,eat,drink a glass or two of red and relax.Tonight would be a early night for me.
The next day we would be up early to load the cars and head off on the hour drive to the start for a wet race.I only had the one wheel change for the day but there were some dirty bikes to be washed.Eddy took care of the washing while i did the mechanics.Once this was done the bikes were stored in a loft the hotel let us use.
We finished up around 8 pm which is not bad as we only started at 8 in the morning.By the time we came into eat, the riders were almost ready for bed.
This is when the staff of the team can unwind,and this was done by a game of pool,so to speak.Five balls each at either end with obstacles in the middle.The game is more about tatics than sinking balls.A game i really enjoyed though,despite losing all three games to Raoule and Patrick,Eddy and I then played Eric and Patrick and won,once.After that,it was midnight,so time for bed.
Stage 2 was a real quiet day in the car.Apart from the riders bringing jackets back to the car,not much was going on.The feed station got a little busy though,with over half the race stopping for a piss and riders coming to the car for food cos they missed thier bag.It becomes a game of musical team cars.Everything calms down when the car horns stop.Oh,and Daniel Lloyd went off the road and into a ditch.By time we got there he had pulled himself out of the ditch and rode on his merry way looking like a drowned rat.I hung out the window to check the bike[and a slight push],but everything was ok.Not one single flat today,must be those Schwalbe tyres.
That night after our work was done and eaten a fantastic meal,all us staff headed off to the local pub.According to Raoule,it was my introduction night,lets just say,two mid strength beers and three very full strength beers later,and i was feeling pretty crap.
The next morning i awoke to the chef banging a pot in my ear which would give me a headache for the rest of the day.I couldnt even eat breakfast.I was not much help in the morning has i slowly went about my jobs.After a couple of chunders and some flat coke i came good half way thru the race.For the day i only had to retrieve some jackets,hand out some bidons and do one wheel change,luckily i was feeling heaps better by that stage.Raoule later said to me that im part of the family now,im broken in.Still a day i'd sooner forget.
By the end of the 3 days Jens had finished 9th overall and we had all 8 riders finish in the main bunch of about 40 or so riders on the final stage.We had a good strong team.
Wednesday we had the kermesse[14th March] which Lindsay has wrote about,the rest of the week for me has been building race bikes,building TT bikes,gluing up tubular wheels,truing some wheels and modifying my workshop truck a little more.We have another race this Wednesday so i will now try to keep you updated twice a week atleast as i spend too much time on this laptop writing up what happens thru-out the week.
Catch ya later and keep riding
Funky

Race from VIP seat 1

(By Linds)

During yesterday's kermesse I had the pleasure of being the team VIP in the race car for the entire race. While I didn't get to see much of the race itself at car 9 in the caravan, it was definately an experience that I won't forget, and would like to do again soon!

The laps were 10.5 km long, with many tight turns, some bumpy roads, cobbles, and narrow streets lined with crowds. With my knees firmly planted in the glovebox as the seat was far forward for Mark to have plenty of room, I don't think I let go of the door handle for the entire 4 hours of racing. The most scary part was the first lap. After that, things were relatively calm for the most part.

In a slightly disorganised start (it was not a completely pro race), no all the cars were lined up behind the peloton in order, and thus the first lap consisted of the caravan of about 15 cars sorting themselves out. And while the action was going on up front in the peloton, just as much jostling about was going on in the caravan. Narrow roads where with two cars abreast the side mirrors brush against the crowds on either side and the two cars side mirrors brush together. Add in a few cobbles, cornering, and doing 60 kmh. Then you're only imagining half of what it's like. The drivers of these cars are highly skilled (thankfully) and take the corners like race car drivers. They use their horns a bit too, not loooong beeps to say "get outta my way idiot" but rather a honk "I'm here let me through".

This leads me to say I now know why support cars aren't allowed to follow the pelotons in Australia: Talking about european drivers and patience earlier, Australian drivers just wouldn't have the patience and 'accepting' of other support cars to be able to drive like this without accidents.

There is caravan ettiquete:
- slot in into your given caravan position
- stay right unless passing to get up to the peloton, but only if called over the race radio (the teams will know you're coming)
- only pull off to the right, allowing others to pass on your left as normal
- only honk if you need to get through, and only short taps
- no abuse necessary ever
- do all moves promptly
and finally,
- when a rider is coming up behind you to get back onto the peloton, take the corners wide to allow him to go underneath on the racing line so as not to cause him to crash or lose speed (give way to the rider)

Once underway, the caravan is most efficient in its task.

During the first lap one of our riders flatted about half way through the lap, so we had to do our only wheel change of the day. Then things died down for the next 10 laps, we just held our position in the peloton, giving way to riders as necessary.

About 6 to go, we heard there was a 20-odd rider breakaway (out of a field of 234), and I got the job of taking the numbers and determining the riders in the break. One of our riders was there. As I named the riders, Erik was able to identify what team they were from (he's like an encyclopedia of team lists, not to mention race/cycling knowledge) and thus what was and wasn't dangerous.

Due to the narrow roads of this race, we weren't able to pass the massive peloton, but the judges found a short cut for us to take and pull in behind the break. Though the break consisted of most teams, so most cars were there. Then the peloton chased, and we were pulled out. The peloton got to within 14 seconds, before the break pulled away again, at 2 to go. We were allowed back into the gap for the last lap. Then we pulled off just before the finish, back to our truck.

And so ended my awesome ride in the team car. The first lap gave me an adrenaline rush I haven't had since I did crazy things. I'd like to do it again.

Videos on myspace

http://www.myspace.com/markfunkyhoward

go to the link above and you'll be taken to my new myspace site where you can watch some videos of my work.

Am I home or is this another motel?

I really now believe that I'm away more than I'm home.

Last week I left home on the Friday for the Het Volk (3rd March) which I happened to have an easy day that day because the night before Eric said I looked a bit tired from the 16 hour day I did on Thursday, then up at 6am on the Friday mornign to glue on tubulars then we drove to Gent (about 2 hours). So for the day I was 2nd mechanic, and that involves driving the truck from start to finish. Luckily for me it was only a 30 min drive down the motorway which was easy cos I was going to follow Raoul to the feed station to help him but he drove off without me. Shit was what I first thought, but I just followed a few team buses out of town and found my way to Lokeren for the finish. Then you just sit and wait for 5 hours, but there was an amature race on to watch, so that was good. The trophy the winner got was massive, a huge cup that was easily the size of a 700c wheel.

Anyway, so returning from Het Volk that day I had sunday, monday and tuesday to clean bikes, clean wheels, fix punctures, glue tyres on, regrease b/bkts and in between all that, go look for furniture for a house. Wednesday we headed off early (I loaded the truck the night before, up there for thinking mate) for the single day race Frameries-Dour: a 1.1 categorie race down near the French border. It was a quiet day, only the one puncture. Not like the Quickstep team, 4 or 5 flats in the first 50 k, that guy had a busy day.

After the race it was back home for the night. I got home about 7pm, had some dinner and gave the bikes a quick wash and dry. If the bikes don't get that dirty you can usually just hose them down and then dry them off with a rag. Now Jae O'Mara always said you should never hose you bike. At the shop, the cleaning was always done by hand, some cleaner and a rag, but here it's a must, otherwise you're up very late still cleaning. It's quicker and parts are replaced more often, like chains, headsets and bottom brackets. Usually we just use a bucket of soapy water and a sponge. First we degrease the chain, derailleurs, cranks etc, then we sponge the bike clean, hose it off with a trigger nossle hose and then dry it off. Relubbed the chain, check everything over and you're done. Then the same goes with the wheels. Now at Pro Conti level you have 8 riders on your team plus spare bikes which we would normally have at least 6. it's a lot of work.

So I cleaned up the bikes so the guys could go training in the morning. In the morning I was up early to clean the wheels and organise my truck a little better. Since moving out of the team house I"ve had to relocate my workshop. So I flogged a small cupboard and drawers from the team house and bolted them into my truck to keep all my spare parts in. This took up most of the morning as I tend to be a bit anal with how things are organised. All my bits and pieces have to be in the right place. After organising it to a reasonable standart I loaded the truck with bikes and wheels and we headed off to a race called 3 days of West Flanders in English, 9-11 March, which is where I am at the moment of writing.

The first days race has been run and won again by Unibet's Jimmy Casper (he also won Wednesday's race) and our rider, big Jens Mouris cam in 11th, not bad for a trackie (Jens is off to the track worlds in the Madison, after winning the last World Cup round Madison a few weeks back). I will fill you in with how the 3 days went for me as a mechanic later.

So it's almost like I don't have a place to call home more and more. The minute you get home, there's work to be done and then you're loading up again to go to the next race. The time you spend driving to races and taying in hotels easily outweights the time you spend at home, but I enjoy it, it's a life I've wanted to try. I'm told you get used to all the back and forth travelling, home one minute, in a hotel the next. But I konw it's busy for me bcause I still have bikes to build as all the riders only have one bike at the moment and they should have two. Then the time-trial bikes have to be built and the rest of the tubulars have to be glued on to another ten sets of carbon wheels. And, my truck still needs a bit more work done to it, a few more ideas I have up my sleeve to make it a comfortable workshop on wheels, as it is where I spend most of my time it has to be perfect. By my standards anyway.

Keep riding

Het Volk tactics

Hi all, Nico did finish Het Volk, I was in the truck at the finish not following the peloton, and Nico finished in a group behind the crash near the end. I had been told he pulled out.

Nico ran carbon wheels with tubular tyres, with a pressure of about 85 psi in the front and 90 psi in the rear. But they all use Bar over here, it's about 6-7 bar. 8 bar is about 120 psi. Nico ran low pressure so that the tyres didn't burst on the cobbles, and ran tubulars so that the tubes didn't pinch flat against the rim at such low pressures.

I also learnt over the last few races the words for crash, front wheel, rear wheel and flat tyre in French, but I've forgotten them already! I think it's like 'chute', 'avant rue', 'derierre rue', and 'crevat' but I'd have to check. Once I learn these, Eric won't have to translate for me! You find that the race commentary in France is in french only, while in Belgium it was in both french and English.

Het Volk

(By Linds)

Again, Mark is super dooper busy still. So I'm updating this time.

There are new photos from Het Volk in the album, courtesy of Litespeed's Herbert Krabel. Herbert was able to get these photos as he was the VIP in the team car for Het Volk, while Mark drove the truck from the start to the finish. The second mechanic, Whim, did the race.

Unfortunately none of the boys finished the race, they had many flats and the team had bad luck in drawing car 24 in the caravan, which, for example, on Dan Fleemans flat, he had to wait 3 minutes for the team car to get up to him. Mark spent yesterday changing 3 singles and 3 High Pressures, all which were flatted in the race. He found out why there were so many: Most of them had tacks stuck in them, picked up off the road! Weird. He also took the entire day to wash many of the bikes, and 36 wheels, in readiness for the next race.

Nico, Jens and Bernie made it the furthest, Jens working for Nico, but they pulled out after a crash just before the finish. Bernie had a great ride in his first huge race. The others crashed, flatted and pulled out, or just got dropped too far behind and pulled out.

Today he's spent the most time with me since we've been here: to help me put up the shower curtain in the bathroom. He came over here to get something, and popped his head in to see how I was doing, then helped me as it was too high for me to reach.

All the other times he's at the team house trying to sort out bikes and parts. Each rider has a bike to ride. But they're getting a spare bike, to be their dedicated race bike. Some of the riders have changed sizes from their original order for some reason or other, and that has resulted in having to send some back for some other sizes. He's spent a while figuring out what he has in stock and what he needs etc, then doing an order for Reynolds for what forks, stems and bars he needs, and ensuring he has enough groupsets with each riders length cranks. And he hasn't even got to putting the time trial bikes together yet. So 12 or so bikes still to build, and 8 tt bikes.

So at least for the next few days between races he'll be busy. After all the bikes are built, the plan is that the riders have two bikes each. One training bike that is maintained, and one race bike kept solely for the races. These will be washed after each race, and stored. Same for wheels. The plan is to use the training bikes as spare bikes during the races, so each rider has a dedicated spare bike, eliminating the need for on-road pedal changes if a new bike is needed. Though occasionally there may be a need for a 'rear brake check' when a spare bike is used. The tt bikes will be shared.

Apparently when the bikes are all built, Mark won't be so busy, and will be able to get himself a bike and do some riding. He's looking forward to that because he hasn't really been on the bike since Christmas time. With that, he eats next to nothing these days! He is keen to equip his bike with the SRAM groupset though.

I saw a question from Pat.Tom in a comment: First, sorry for taking so long to see it and answer it! Second, yeah, they do pay attention to bike riders here. I find that Belgian drivers are actually very nice in general, and patient. Driving down the main street of a town, there are all these bollards or road furniture, where it is only one lane through. So cars have to give way a lot. They don't seem to mind much, but you'd never get that in Australia! Here, many ppl have townbikes, you're always seeing grandpas and grandmas on them heading to the shops, ppl use them to get to the train stations (See some of the photos, we saw thousands outside the Gent trainstation. Most trainstations have tin sheds for bike parking), lots of ppl ride bikes. Some times it seems faster to go by bike. Also, most roads have a bike path on them or next to them. Bunches are limited to 50 riders, else they need front and back cars.

I don't know what the drivers can learn, apart from some patience. It is a way of life here, so drivers accept bikes as a means of transport, just like a bus, car, train... Riders here however have a lot to learn, we saw a big regular bunch ride (up to 150 riders) go through a red light one day. The front had the green, the rear went through the red, as it happens. The cars are just patient and wait. But if the light was already red for the front, they would have stopped. Personally I just think drivers in Aust need to accept riders are there, and need education regarding having a rider on the road and cutting them off... while riders need to not be so arrogant some times and obey the rules!

Oh yeah, Check out the Litespeed Myspace site in the links, there is some great info there about the bikes and technology, an interesting video on the strength of the titanium tubing vs carbon vs aluminium.

~Linds

The season has begun

I know it's been a while since my last entry but I have been ridiculously busy, I have so much work on I haven't had time to fart. After returning from that extremely long trip way down in France I was straight back into building bikes, surprise surprise. The reason is that the rest of the team has arrived so they all need their bikes.

Firstly, some info about the team house. Returning from the Tour of Med I came back to a full house. The team house is owned by GIl and used to be an old cafe. Where the dining room used to be is where the loungs is, then out back is the kitchen with 2 stoves and 3 fridges and wardrobe like things to keep the riders food in. Off the side of the kitchen is my workshop with toilets and shared showers at the rear. Upstairs is 4 bedrooms (3 shared, 1 single), sleeping 7 ppl. There is also another bedroom for 2 out the back of the kitchen, where Lindsay and I sleep until we move to our new house in a few days. The house is 150+ years old, in good nick for it's age. The cooking is gas and there's two heaters that run on diesel.

So anyways, the guys in the house. First there's Kane (Munge or Father of the House), then Cameron (Worm), Bernie, the Kiwi Jeremy (Dag), the new team members Rhys Pollock (I think he's called Rice because that's how the belgians say it, but I'll check with Kane, he makes up the nick names), and the Scot Evan Oliphant (yet to be knicknamed). So a typical morning and dinner time the kitchen gets quite busy as we're most all up around the same time.

Everyone buys their own food and cooks for themselves. Usualy the guys get up around 7 or 8 for breakfast, they might jump on the phone to call home, or emails. Then, depending on weather conditions, the guys will go out training for 2-4 hours, more if it's a nice day. I thought the guys would all go out together, but no, they prefer to either go on their own or just with 2 or 3 of them. They think that when you live together, race together , it's a bit much to train together, you need your space, so that's why they do it.

***************

It's Linds now, that's as far as Mark's entry went for the time being.

Last saturday the boys all went across Belgium to Nico's place for a training ride. Each year the big Belgian stars do a charity ride, similar to Amy's ride. The boys rode over the course, to make sure it was all set for the charity ride. We left at 10 am, and got back at 11.30 pm, after a 2 hour drive past Kortrijk, lunch, 4 hour ride, dinner, than back to Nico's house for some drinks.

On Monday, everyone was up to leave at 7.30am for Holland, to the Media Presentation of the Team. We travelled on a double decker bus in total luxury, and then went through the photos and presentations and stuff, before driving back to Booischot. Check out the details in the news at cyclingnews.com - they are a title sponsor for us!

On Wednesday the boys then went over to Gent to meet Nico and ride the course for Saturday's Omloop Het Volk race, the first of the Spring Classics.

Today is Thursday. On Sunday, Tuesday and today, Mark has been really busy washing bikes, swapping bits and pieces, and changing over frame sizes for the guys. Today he's been gluing the tubulars - they take 3 days to glue. It's got to the point where everyone has a bike that they're getting used to and set up how they want it with bits and bobs. When that is all sorted, Mark will build up the second bike per rider to the same specs. So it's been a hectic few weeks, but once the bikes are built, it'll just be a matter of maintaining the bikes and cleaning them each day.

New photos from the Het Volk Recon ride are in the album
Till next time...