23 September 2005
more stuff
As usual, I’m trying to write this in arrears, but still it is the only way, scribbling some notes down when I manage to find time, believe me there is not much I’m currently writing in our team truck on the way to the World Champs in Madrid. We have just been racing for a week in Tuscany, Italy for the Tour of Toscana. This is the second day driving and we are about 1500km done with 105km to go, yeah ha. The middle of Spain is wicked, just been over a pass of 1260m, swapping the driving with one of our guys for the drive. Hope I make it there as his driving is shit, we have to wait for a couple of cars which are about 150km away, don’t know what the hurry is, rather be driving safe in air conditioning, than sitting on the side of the road for an hour in the sun, or dead.. I’ll tell him for the third time to chill..
Yeah the WC in Rotterdam was sweet, nothing fantastic for us, just a ride with a bunch sprint for the finish, pretty boring as the girls were pretty tired after the last six days racing. Both Susanne and Miriam are sitting in the top three in points for the overall World Cup, so every opportunity we can get to move into first we will. But not today, unfortunately it was not to be, maybe at the final, next week in Germany, with double points, who knows?
After the race, all the riders go their separate ways, three off to Germany, two back to Sweden and the rest stay in Holland. After dropping a couple of them off to the airport I take a well earned day off in Amsterdam, time for a ride. After spending the day on a Dutch bike, I almost felt like a local, the bottom bracket was loose as usual, the mudguard was making a great rattling noise, no paint on it at all, singlespeed of course.. I get pretty nervous with my road bike there, as it is a prime target for thieves and it stands out in a city where the newest bike there is 20 years old. Today I could relax today for a change, and relax I did, I was asleep in a park by about midday, man did I need it, caught up a little sleep from the last few days and it felt good. When I start tomorrow I will work for 28 days solid so I was already thinking about what I had to do for the next four days. Almost a day off, but close enough, the sun was up and had been for 10 days, up to 32’C, can’t say that I was missing those cold wet rides to and fro from work everyday, but I am missing the riding every day though.
We leave for Nurnburg at the bottom of Germany for the final of the
World Cup series, then to Italy for a week, then the team splits for the season, most of them ride in the World Championships in Madrid, the rest will be finishing for the season. I am working for Sweden for the Worlds, sorry NZ but I gave you guys a chance. I had met Sarah Ulmer and Meshy Holt in Germany about six weeks ago and they were desperate for a mechanic for the worlds as they had not found one yet. They almost died when the spotted me at the race working for the opposition, both their partners were there and also Amy Mosen, it was nice to talk a little Kiwi for a while. The NZ team was based in the middle of France and the mechanic was shit according to the girls (hope that he reads this) and by the state of the bikes they were riding I would defiantly agree. I offered my services as I was dropping the teams bikes and truck off and had a week to kill in Madrid (which is pretty dangerous for me really, lots of trouble to get into there). They jumped at the chance, I knew most of the team, and know bikes, spoke their language and knew most of the other mechanic on the circuit, perfect. But no, it was not to be, all the back handers and old boys network involved with Bike NZ hierarchy meant they were stuck with the same guy. In the mean time Sweden and a couple of others were asking. Sweden it is as they have our team champ, and two times world champ Susanne and Veronica, ahh Veronica…
Righto, back to the Tour of Toscana, in another gripping instalment to come…
While I’ve got 26km to go, a few more facts.
Most of the Pro Woman put all of the men who think they are pro in NZ to shame.. They amaze me how hard they are every day.. I thought I was hard till I met some of these girls..
All the girls I’ve seen so far clean their own bikes on a regular basis, and they enjoy it.
They get very grumpy if they can’t ride for some reason and Weill stay that way until they do.
They all ride in the drops all day, everyday, bar a few exceptions.
They don’t ride woman’s specific saddles or shorts.
They don’t really care what they ride most of the time, they get told what to ride and they do.
Some of the smallest most petit girly girls would kick my ass anytime anywhere and love to do it.
Don’t ever let on to them that you have a new bike magazine of fruity new bit as you will never see any of them ever again.
They don’t like shopping unless it’s a bike shop.
Some of the smallest girls can eat more than their body weight every meal during a big tour.
Sitting in a car looking at 160 Pro Women on bikes for a few hours during racing almost makes up for the long hours, shit food, no sleep, living out of a suitcase and getting paid nothing.
Yeah the WC in Rotterdam was sweet, nothing fantastic for us, just a ride with a bunch sprint for the finish, pretty boring as the girls were pretty tired after the last six days racing. Both Susanne and Miriam are sitting in the top three in points for the overall World Cup, so every opportunity we can get to move into first we will. But not today, unfortunately it was not to be, maybe at the final, next week in Germany, with double points, who knows?
After the race, all the riders go their separate ways, three off to Germany, two back to Sweden and the rest stay in Holland. After dropping a couple of them off to the airport I take a well earned day off in Amsterdam, time for a ride. After spending the day on a Dutch bike, I almost felt like a local, the bottom bracket was loose as usual, the mudguard was making a great rattling noise, no paint on it at all, singlespeed of course.. I get pretty nervous with my road bike there, as it is a prime target for thieves and it stands out in a city where the newest bike there is 20 years old. Today I could relax today for a change, and relax I did, I was asleep in a park by about midday, man did I need it, caught up a little sleep from the last few days and it felt good. When I start tomorrow I will work for 28 days solid so I was already thinking about what I had to do for the next four days. Almost a day off, but close enough, the sun was up and had been for 10 days, up to 32’C, can’t say that I was missing those cold wet rides to and fro from work everyday, but I am missing the riding every day though.
We leave for Nurnburg at the bottom of Germany for the final of the
World Cup series, then to Italy for a week, then the team splits for the season, most of them ride in the World Championships in Madrid, the rest will be finishing for the season. I am working for Sweden for the Worlds, sorry NZ but I gave you guys a chance. I had met Sarah Ulmer and Meshy Holt in Germany about six weeks ago and they were desperate for a mechanic for the worlds as they had not found one yet. They almost died when the spotted me at the race working for the opposition, both their partners were there and also Amy Mosen, it was nice to talk a little Kiwi for a while. The NZ team was based in the middle of France and the mechanic was shit according to the girls (hope that he reads this) and by the state of the bikes they were riding I would defiantly agree. I offered my services as I was dropping the teams bikes and truck off and had a week to kill in Madrid (which is pretty dangerous for me really, lots of trouble to get into there). They jumped at the chance, I knew most of the team, and know bikes, spoke their language and knew most of the other mechanic on the circuit, perfect. But no, it was not to be, all the back handers and old boys network involved with Bike NZ hierarchy meant they were stuck with the same guy. In the mean time Sweden and a couple of others were asking. Sweden it is as they have our team champ, and two times world champ Susanne and Veronica, ahh Veronica…
Righto, back to the Tour of Toscana, in another gripping instalment to come…
While I’ve got 26km to go, a few more facts.
Most of the Pro Woman put all of the men who think they are pro in NZ to shame.. They amaze me how hard they are every day.. I thought I was hard till I met some of these girls..
All the girls I’ve seen so far clean their own bikes on a regular basis, and they enjoy it.
They get very grumpy if they can’t ride for some reason and Weill stay that way until they do.
They all ride in the drops all day, everyday, bar a few exceptions.
They don’t ride woman’s specific saddles or shorts.
They don’t really care what they ride most of the time, they get told what to ride and they do.
Some of the smallest most petit girly girls would kick my ass anytime anywhere and love to do it.
Don’t ever let on to them that you have a new bike magazine of fruity new bit as you will never see any of them ever again.
They don’t like shopping unless it’s a bike shop.
Some of the smallest girls can eat more than their body weight every meal during a big tour.
Sitting in a car looking at 160 Pro Women on bikes for a few hours during racing almost makes up for the long hours, shit food, no sleep, living out of a suitcase and getting paid nothing.
win win win
Finally got a little bit of spare time for a little bit of writing. Almost can’t remember where I got up to but will give it a shot. So much has happened since I updated last, working, racing, driving, sleeping and not much else.
I’m not on line but can seem to remember the team time trail in the Holland Ladies Tour, which, of course we kicked ass. Well it gave the girls such a boost, that night and the next day it was hard to wipe the smile off their faces. The next days racing almost did it though. We had the leaders Jersey and the first three places so there was some controlling of the race to contend with. But with three days to go we had some serious work ahead of us. 20km into the day’s race, CRASH! Our leader and three of the girls were down, as were 20 or so others. Being the first car in the caravan, I’m first on the scene, we already knew through the girls radios that Tanja, race leader was down, she was calling for the spare bike. When I arrived she was just getting up, as were two of the others, I check her bike, and set her on her way. Then to the others, two looked good, they were on their way, the rest of the team came back from the peloton to pull Tanja back to the bunch. One rider still down, a new girl, Madeline, she looked sore, some good holes in her shoulder, knee and hip, lots of blood, she looked like she was not going to get up. But by the time I sorted her bike, she was ready to go, a little bit apprehensive, but with a few words of encouragement, (lucky she didn’t hit me), she was off. Soon Tanja was back in the bunch, Madeline was back in, but my heart took another half an hour to slow down…
There was some serious tactics going down from the other teams that night, the Mafia were working late on a plan. 40km into the race their plan was hatched. We turned a corner into a very small road, the bunch was squeezed tight, five good riders from five teams attacked, the rest of their team members blocked the first part of the peleton. There was no way through, they got us good, they slowed and the riders out front managed to get a lead of five minutes with 85k to go things were not looking good. No teams wanted to work except us, the girls put their heads down, asses up and it started. Another team trial, just like yesterday, what a sight, eight girls in front for the rest of the day. The media loved it, the helicopter followed the team all day, the sponsors loved it, we loved it, the girls loved it, the five riders in front were the only ones who didn’t love it. After a 128km the race came into a small street circuit for three laps, the team caught all but two riders of the break, lost less than 16 secs, retained the lead of 1, 2 and 3 and were still smiling.
The last day, was just as good, we used all the energy the workers had left, loosing two of them early in the hills, they did a good job, now they can relax at the back. Now to the finish, the major sponsors were at the finish, it was their town, they had all their clients their, and a great party going on. To cut a long story short. Susanne won the stage with a break of four riders for 30km, sprinted the others, taking Tanja to first, herself to second, and Miriam to third, and the team to first place. What a great day, almost brought tears to my eyes (It did actually, but to keep my extremely tough image intact, I removed that part of the story). Man what a scene at the sponsors tents, they were happy, the team was happy, what a great day, you just don’t see that sort of finish with 160 girls racing, with 25 teams, and seven days.
After almost two weeks solid work getting ready for this tour, seven days racing, 8 riders, up to 18 hour days working, 21 bikes, 38 spare wheels, five crashes, seven hotels, travelling 1200km up and down the length of the country, a thousand words of encouragement, 223 curse words, two missing hotels, some fantastic scenery, two bad starts, many holes in bodies, one torn fingernail, four smashed knuckles, no rain, 8 extremely happy riders, two content mechanics, one ecstatic director it was all worth it.
The next race was tomorrow. The girls went on to Rotterdam, the boys headed to base to sort everything for the next day, another World Cup Race. We dropped off all the TT bikes, cleaned and sorted all the bikes, packed for another race, meet the girls at the hotel, but they were well asleep as we arrived at about 4am, but that’s another story…
I’m not on line but can seem to remember the team time trail in the Holland Ladies Tour, which, of course we kicked ass. Well it gave the girls such a boost, that night and the next day it was hard to wipe the smile off their faces. The next days racing almost did it though. We had the leaders Jersey and the first three places so there was some controlling of the race to contend with. But with three days to go we had some serious work ahead of us. 20km into the day’s race, CRASH! Our leader and three of the girls were down, as were 20 or so others. Being the first car in the caravan, I’m first on the scene, we already knew through the girls radios that Tanja, race leader was down, she was calling for the spare bike. When I arrived she was just getting up, as were two of the others, I check her bike, and set her on her way. Then to the others, two looked good, they were on their way, the rest of the team came back from the peloton to pull Tanja back to the bunch. One rider still down, a new girl, Madeline, she looked sore, some good holes in her shoulder, knee and hip, lots of blood, she looked like she was not going to get up. But by the time I sorted her bike, she was ready to go, a little bit apprehensive, but with a few words of encouragement, (lucky she didn’t hit me), she was off. Soon Tanja was back in the bunch, Madeline was back in, but my heart took another half an hour to slow down…
There was some serious tactics going down from the other teams that night, the Mafia were working late on a plan. 40km into the race their plan was hatched. We turned a corner into a very small road, the bunch was squeezed tight, five good riders from five teams attacked, the rest of their team members blocked the first part of the peleton. There was no way through, they got us good, they slowed and the riders out front managed to get a lead of five minutes with 85k to go things were not looking good. No teams wanted to work except us, the girls put their heads down, asses up and it started. Another team trial, just like yesterday, what a sight, eight girls in front for the rest of the day. The media loved it, the helicopter followed the team all day, the sponsors loved it, we loved it, the girls loved it, the five riders in front were the only ones who didn’t love it. After a 128km the race came into a small street circuit for three laps, the team caught all but two riders of the break, lost less than 16 secs, retained the lead of 1, 2 and 3 and were still smiling.
The last day, was just as good, we used all the energy the workers had left, loosing two of them early in the hills, they did a good job, now they can relax at the back. Now to the finish, the major sponsors were at the finish, it was their town, they had all their clients their, and a great party going on. To cut a long story short. Susanne won the stage with a break of four riders for 30km, sprinted the others, taking Tanja to first, herself to second, and Miriam to third, and the team to first place. What a great day, almost brought tears to my eyes (It did actually, but to keep my extremely tough image intact, I removed that part of the story). Man what a scene at the sponsors tents, they were happy, the team was happy, what a great day, you just don’t see that sort of finish with 160 girls racing, with 25 teams, and seven days.
After almost two weeks solid work getting ready for this tour, seven days racing, 8 riders, up to 18 hour days working, 21 bikes, 38 spare wheels, five crashes, seven hotels, travelling 1200km up and down the length of the country, a thousand words of encouragement, 223 curse words, two missing hotels, some fantastic scenery, two bad starts, many holes in bodies, one torn fingernail, four smashed knuckles, no rain, 8 extremely happy riders, two content mechanics, one ecstatic director it was all worth it.
The next race was tomorrow. The girls went on to Rotterdam, the boys headed to base to sort everything for the next day, another World Cup Race. We dropped off all the TT bikes, cleaned and sorted all the bikes, packed for another race, meet the girls at the hotel, but they were well asleep as we arrived at about 4am, but that’s another story…
2 September 2005
photos
Some nice arty shots of the tour. Did I mention that it was 33'C yesterday, sorry. Not a cloud to be seen for the last 7 days. Bummer!
1 September 2005
Holland Ladies Tour on now
On the podium, thats some great smiles.
I had such great plans of giving you a couple of reports on the World Cup races in Wales and in France but just go way to busy with the current race. This is serious work for us at the moment. Eight girls, 24 bikes, seven days and then right in to another World Cup in Rotterdam.
Just finished the fourth day, a 86km stage just after lunch and then straight into the team time trial. We rock, the whole team cleaned up today. After doing all the work in the race for the last three stages, the team dug deep and whipped all 22 teams today by a whopping margin.
We took over the lead in the teams class, hold the leaders jersey, and have all the top three places, that's 1st, 2nd and third. The team is elated, the mechanics are ecstatic as we have had a real busy day, many bike changes, two new bikes to dial in and hanging on to the lead of the race. I am beat, 16 hours non stop, now I have my feet up and ready to crash.
Here are a few pica, see if they work.
catch up on these sites, see if I can put them in the links here as well.
www.hollanladiestour.nl
www.cyclingnews.com
www.cycling-for-woman.nl
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