Well its time for another post as i've just returned from the UK where i was wrenching for the much talked about Rock Racing team.
This race came to me when i met the teams head mechanic in China where the chance to work with them may come about. John is a very experienced mechanic and has over 10 years experince with pro teams, so i was very greatful for the opportunity and excited to be working with the team.
Now the biggest issue about travelling as a mechanic is your tool box, if your flying you have to watch the weight and by train, well just lugging it around is a hassel. I plan to think of a better way but atleast my main toolbox is on wheels so it was just a matter of strapping the other on top, backpack on my back and carry my larger bag over my shoulder. Easy done until you have to push doors open or go up and down stairs and then navigate it all through a narrow train door. All while trying to find your way around without getting lost. But i managed and was on my way. An hour or so on the Eurostar and i was getting off at Ebbsfleet to meet an old cycling buddy of mine. Steve met me there as it was a 30 min bus trip to his house in Dartford where i would spend the night. The tour would not start for another 5 days but there were some logistics to do and new bikes to build. I'd left Steve's place at 7am as John was just landing then, so a taxi out to Enfield was the quickest way. I didnt fancy lugging my bags all over again in peak hour on trains and buses. I was going to Enfield to pick up the first of 5 cars that the team had arranged for the tour and were all getting wrapped in Rock Racing colours. From there i shot over to Heathrow to pick up John who was also having a bag crisis. He had like 5 bike bags full of wheels and spare parts, but we unpacked a few things and managed to jam pack that Chevy just enough to close the doors. We were on our way back to the wrap place to pick up the other car when we found out we would need two empty cars to pick up the frames and bidons from Cycles UK. So we picked up the other Chevy, drove to the hotel about an hour away, unloaded, drove all the way back past the car place and the same distance again to pick up the frames, loaded them and the 20 boxes of bidons into the two cars and drove all the way back. So it was a good 9 hours of driving for me that day.
The next couple days for John and i would be spent in a quiet hotel meeting room, building up the new Fuji SL-1 framesets that were custom painted just for the tour. It has being talked about why they were not on De Rosa's but the fact of the matter is there was no direct contract with the Italian maker and were free to test a new brand for the coming season, and the guys at Fuji delivered. The first job on the list was to build the one off bike for the Harrods store. This was a special edition Fuji with the Harrods green in the same decals as the team bikes built with Record, it was a pleasure to build it and i was happy with the result.
You can see the bike properly on the Rock Racing site. The next bike for me to build was Tyler's machine which also was a thrill to build. Now we only had the one workstand at this stage but John and i had our little production line going where he would assemble the groupset on the floor and i would fit the chain and cable it all up in the stand. But i made a call to a guy i met wrenching for the England team in Serbia, Matt came to the rescue and lent me a stand he had spare that i could use for the rest of the tour.
It was for sure a 14 hour day getting the bikes ready over these two days and with no other teams at the hotel there was not much else to do. By Friday the riders had arrived and were keen to try their new bikes, once we had the custom Fizik saddles in place. I met the rest of the team as they walked in to check out the bikes. I met the DS, Mariano Friedick who was a rider on the team just last season. Then a few of the riders came in, Oscar Sevilla, Rahsaan Bahati, Freddy Rodriguez and eventully Victor Hugo Pena, Santiago Botero and of course Tyler Hamilton. Also there was the teams Physio guy, Rich. By Saturday the bikes were all done but there was still some minor adjustments to do and final presentation work to be done, like put stickers on the wheels. We also had the rest of the staff arrive which was Sean Weide, the media man, Paul McKelvey the photographer, Teri Bailey the girl that if you want something done she gets it done, Leti Kemp, the first soigneur and Marco Frattini the second soigneur as well as a video crew of three that were making a small doco on the team. So in all we had 18 people with the team all the time, plus the bus driver.
The last job to do was fit the car with racks which they had bought over from the States, but there was a problem. When the cars were ordered it was made clear they were to have factory rails so the racks could bolt straight on, now as they didnt this set us back and took some time to source. As it was the first stage and Shimano neutral present and other teams with spare bikes we were not stressed but were taking action to find some racks. Teri and Sean bought racks late Saturday afternoon and by the time John and i looked at them we realised they too would not work. So i sat out going to the first London stage to drive around town looking for racks to fit a Saab and returning the ones Teri and Sean bought earlier. Four stores later and still no racks, the guys at the Halfords stores were very helpful but nothing was falling our way. Our only option was for sure a Saab dealer which i tried that day but were closed. Time to make some calls.
At the tour i took on a role i had,nt really done at all before due to been in the car all the time. Doing the hotel transfers was something different and i needed to experience at some stage. Leti was also helping me with this task. We start the day doing our usual tasks which for me was helping John get the bikes ready and loaded onto the cars. Then at some point everyone would bring their bags to the van to be loaded in. Because of the transfers the team would leave to get to the race 1 hour before the start which meant a 8:15 leave time most days, so it was up at 6 but Leti and I had plenty of time to get to the next hotel. Our shortest transfer was from Bristol to Gloucester which was only around a hours drive. Leti drove the van while i drove the second Saab with the GPS, nice car but the GPS was not very helpful at times. The first transfer day was to Bristol, about a 3 hour drive. It was near the airport which the GPS could find but it could'nt find the hotel, just the road. So we just drove around until we found it. Most days were like that and we would be asking for final directions off passer bys because the GPS wouldnt accept the hotel name, the street, house number or sometimes even the town, there was always one thing it couldnt find. The easiest hotel to find was in Darlington, I typed in everything possible into the GPS but going from the hotel guide we were given the closest i could find was a main road it was near. So when that road came up on the screen i just selected that and said thats near enough, just as we drove off the motorway it was right there.
So once we were at the hotel Leti would collect the room keys while i unloaded the luggage into the loby. We would then check the rooms to make sure they had the right bedding, you cant put two riders in a double bed. Once the rooms were checked we would sort out who goes where, the riders would be in rooms directly next to each other, then the next closest would be the soigneurs followed by everyone else with the media guys further away as they were always up to wee hours of the morning. Then we would take all the bags to the rooms, Leti would put some water in the riders rooms and set up the massage tables while i would go down and set up our parking and work area. There would also be other jobs to be done like wash the two cars and pre glue some tubulars. Then it was time to just sit and wait until the team arrives, which most of the time was around 2 hours by the time we had everthing done. There was time enough for Leti to go to the shops for food, not that we needed alot as my car was full of just food and water, there was always something we needed thou. The Teusday i had time to drive into Gloucester and finally pick up some roof racks from a Saab dealer that Teri had called earlier in the day, it was only a matter of a few calls before we found someone that had them in stock. The bummer was we had 3 guys crash that day and atleast one needed a spare bike. Tyler scouted the roofs of the passing team cars and found one to use.
Once the team arrived i was straight onto washing the bikes, drying them off and handing them to John to check over. While John would do all the changes needed i would be washing the cars. It was late nights for most of the tour as it was more like a training camp with new bikes, so riders would be wanting to make changes from saddle posistion to a complete frame size change. There was a few things we would do after dinner under the lights of the parking lot or it would be normal for us to be in our room gluing tubs after 11. It wasnt until Thursday we had time to actually sit down for a beer after dinner, i think Tuesday was the longest day as we had the 3 guys crash with some broken shifters to replace and another bike to set up for Oscar, as well as tubs to replace as the white ones we were using were'nt suited. But there was two guys up later than us every night, Sean and Paul would be up til 2 or 3. Sean would be waiting to submit articles and Paul would be editing all the photos he'd taken throughout the day. Leti also had a couple of late ones, it was well after 11 when John and i had finished our work [after Teri bringing us dinner to eat outside while working] when we passed Leti's room where she was making lunch for the next day. This tour seriously has to do something about the transfers, its not only hard on the riders but also the staff, John and i put in 16 hour days most of the tour, from the time we got up to the time we finished work. If they want the tour to grow they really need to think about it seriously, a tour in the south one year and the north the next year would cut the transfers for sure. Its a well run tour and is always close racing but a rider would prefer a longer stage and go to a shower within half an hour than a shorter stage and sit in the car for 2 or more hours. The staff would also welcome the change.
The last day we were heading back to Enfield to stay. I headed off solo to organise the hotel, i dont even what to start with the drama i had at this hotel. After everything running smooth all week this hotel was for sure making things difficult. But we stayed the night, returned the four cars and went to the next hotel out near Heathrow which gave us the same grief, same hotel chain too, go figure. Anyway, it was time for John and i to pack everything up, we had the front of that hotel entrance covered with bike stuff everywhere. At the end, John and I had to pack up our tools, but it's funny that no matter whose tools we used during the week, we knew exactly which ones were and weren't ours when we were sorting them out at the end.
Six hours later it was all gone. We missed the Harrods signing do [pics on their site] and had dinner on our own, which if we had stayed in Liverpool and packed after the final stage it may have being a little less stressful for everyone.
I stayed the monday night back out at Steve's place, and he had the day off on Tuesday to take me into London to catch my train home. My train was in the afternoon (and as usual there were dramas, with trains being cancelled due to the tunnel fire a few days earlier). We managed to see one or two of the sights, the first chance I'd been able to do some proper sight-seeing whilst on a trip. I also go to see the shop Steve works at in the city, On Ya Bike. It was great to see how the brits do bike shops.
In all i had a great time and it was a pleasure to work with all the guys, who i didnt see before leaving, so thanks for the good times everyone at Rock Racing, HERE TO STAY.
Oh and Sean, dont work so much, get some sleep mate.
Cheers
Funky
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