A few more photos.

Sorry no stories yet, but I am working on a few at the moment, but as usual, here are a few more pic for your viewing. That's just till I get over this tour and find some time to sit down and write. Having some stable internet, in fact just having internet in this country is pretty special. Most, if not all the hotels have nothing, or it might be present and not working.

So have a look in the meantime, here, for Stage 10 - Tuesday, May 20: Pesaro - Urbino (Individual Time Trial), 39.4km. Here for Stage 11 - Wednesday, May 21: Urbania - Cesena. Forgot what stage this was. This stage was great, a nice nasty mountain TT, and what a day, thats a couple of good stories just right there, I still got the bruises to show for it as well.

Some nice shots of the country, when I got a bit of spare time (all three mins of it). And some of the new Shimano 2009 prototype groupset.

Frankie getting a tow up to the peloton, Stage 11, Urbania-Cesena

Monte Carpegna, on the same stage 11. It was a bit of a toughy.


Stage 16, the last km of Plan De Corones Timetrail, and what a climb it was.


Bradley Wiggins passing Andrie, his minute man on the same TT

And more coming up, three more stages to come, and then maybe a few days off, on the couch, of course.

A few more Photos posted

A rest day for all except the staff today on the Giro. But I did manage to find a bit of free internet and manage to post a few photos. So go and have a look here. Most of them will have captions on them so you get some idea of what's happening until I get around to a bit of writing. so here are the latest albums #3, #4, #5, #6. Individual TT on tomorrow, and it is mean, 20km of kind of flat, then 22km of climbing, it's going to hurt them a bit I think.

Giro here I come

By the time we got to the ferry in Genoa, we had a few hours to kill, but being in Italy you never know where you might get caught up in traffic. So we entered the compound for those waiting to board the boat to Sicily. Within a few hours most of the team had arrived, the bus, and a few cars. Still missing was the truck with all the bikes and equipment, and the Van. They were running a bit late, and by the sounds of the phone call, a bit stressed about it being a bit late. By taking the ferry to Sicily, we cut about 1400km of driving out, and when you think about the country you miss out driving through, it was a no brainer for most of the teams. Time was moving on, we were getting a bit worried about the truck, but with two hours to sail, in she rolled, and not a moment too soon. The ship left at 10pm, and arrived in Palermo at 6pm the next day. A nice relaxing cruise, a bit of down time, and a chance to hang with the staff for a day before the real work starts. A sun deck and a nice restaurant, a bar, good coffee, what more could you ask for. I had a great plan of catching up with a few stories during the many hours on board, but I made the usual mistake of taking my laptop on the bus for some work before we boarded. But I forgot to take it with me, and upon leaving land, there was no access to the vehicle deck (I should have know this from multiple ferry crossings in my own country, but no). Shit, a good plan foiled again, so I spent hours wandering the boat looking for something to read or do, sleep was almost a good idea, until you lay on the bed and felt the full force of the engines vibrating the room to a nice dull thumping noise.

We arrived some time later in Sicily, and the city looked fantastic from the boat. It was when you finally got to land, then, the real fun started. We only had 35km to the hotel, but the locals said count on and hour and a half. Well they were pretty much on the money, lucky I was in a car, I can’t imagine driving the bus or truck through some of Palermo’s streets. I wondered why there was no lanes painted on some of wider roads, well in a minute or two I realised why. Traffic like I have never encounted before, ever, not like anywhere in Asia, India, or China, but like all of those countries bad habits in one street, cars everywhere, all over the road, with multiple scooters and motorbike whizzing through what small gaps there was through the cars. Red lights meant go, and by all means you can drive into oncoming traffic on the other side of the road and then throw a red light or two in as well (think you get more points for multiple infractions per trip). We had less than 3km to get to the highway, this took most of an hour. Not only were there cars double parked, but also triple parked, and for sure it was only a two lane street. Stop for a second at an intersection, and it would be ten minutes before there was a inch to stick your nose in to get to the other side of the intersection. After a short while of this, I hardened up and was just as aggressive as the rest of the cars. But upon looking around there was not a single car without many dents all over them, all except us in a new Audi A6, looking very out of place. Maybe the local authorities gave up years ago painting the lines on the road, as no one was using them anyway.

Heading into port, Palmero, sicily, and doesn't it look nice.

Arriving at the hotel, we picked one of the best spots in the carpark, there were six teams expected, and we were the first. And what a spot, over-looking the sea, the coastline going on for miles, what a sight. What a fantastic workshop for the week, as long as it didn’t rain, but the sun was shining, I was feeling pretty good about my first Giro. With the first stage happening in a few days, we had plenty of work to get on with. A few frames to swap out, and a few new bikes to build, and there was no time like the present. Another treat for the Giro, was four very small Japanese mechanics (opps, I mean Engineers) from Shimano, turning up with two new 2009 Dura-ace group sets to play with. But more on this later, as soon as the heat dies on it, I will post some pics and a report on the new changes for the season (it is still top secret I officially). We have a team of three mechanics for the tour, and already we are all busy, and by the sound of things, the work never stops.

the Shimano Ninja's, with a case full of top secret 2009 products.

The team for the tour is looking pretty fit, and sounding pretty positive, which is always good to hear, always makes work seem not that bad when you have motivated riders to work for. On the riders list is (in no particular order), Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Adam Hansen, Andre Griepel, Morris Possoni, Marco Pinotti, Tony Martin, Rabon Fran……, and Sivtov. A couple of Italians, a couple of Brits, a Aussie, two Germans, a Russian and a Czech, so a good selection. Of course the crack team of mechanics for the tour, myself, Perry and Werner, both these guys I have worked with on a few races, so we already work well together, and are not scared of hard work. There is two Kiwi riders in the tour, Julian Dean, the NZ road champ, riding for Slipstream, who by the way has another Kiwi mechanic working for them, Kris Witherington or Grommet to his friends. Also Tim Gudsel riding for his French team (I can never spell it, so I won’t even try). Not sure if Scotty Geater is working for his Astana team, but will soon find out. Roll on the race. We have a bit of a roster with the mechanics for time in the race, so we all get a bit of a rest. I have been hotel bitch for the last three days, thus the updates, I am still waiting for the team and the bikes to get back now, and it’s just rolled on to 21:45, so it will be a late one. It’s warm outside, I just had a nice risotto for dinner, some nice red wine, and now I am in the truck filling in time writing, listening to some nice Italian opera on the radio, waiting for the onslaught of four cars filled with bikes. And another late night.

The wicked view from our workshop for the week, Sicilian southern coast.

More pics of the trip down here.

Bern World Cup 08

Just as soon as I started working for the girls, it was almost over. Just under three weeks, a few races, and it was back to the boys for a while. We had a double program running for the last week, so we were sharing what few resources we had for the women, between two teams. The truck headed down to the Czech Republic for Gracia Orlova stage race, and I took the other team and the transporter to Switzerland for a couple of races. The last being the Bern World Cup, number six in the series, and a tougher course than the last few years. It should be interesting, as there is a lot more climbing, and right from the 3 km point. The two favourite teams for the race (besides ourselves of course), was Bigla (who were organising the race, and it was finishing right outside their HQ), and the other Swiss team, Cervelo. They had their strongest teams racing, and they were going to put up a good fight, that’s for sure, but we were ready.

Judith was sitting in second place in the world Cup standings, just behind Vos, but she was racing Gracia (and she won this), so would not be present. Susan De Goede was in third, not far from Judith, so they (Nurenburger) would be fighting as well. We were not really focused on the WC, but being this close to the leaders jersey, is always on your mind. I was pretty organised with the bikes, I had to be, as I was working out of a very small van, so things had to be in their place, or it would turn into a nightmare. The bikes were ready, the girls were ready, they were a bit quiet after having a look at the course during the day before. We had most of our stronger climbers, and some of the hard working gang, so I was not worried. The team for the day was Judith, Oenone, Kim, Linda, Kate and Chantele. The weather was looking good, no rain or wind for the afternoon, so I couldn’t ask for anything else, maybe some more sleep, but that was going too far.

And the race is off, 1st 100m of the first lap, hey that's Chantele, and Linda behind her

The race started with a hiss and a roar, and as I thought, Bigla and Cervelo attacked like hell, right from the start. And as usual, Judith was at the back of the bunch that was splitting all over the place. The team had to chase like anything to get her back on to the front. We weren’t alone, as there were others chasing the front bunch as well, but they were not going to make it to the end anyway. By the time we got through the first of 4 laps, the race was not looking too good for many of the teams. There was a front bunch of about 60, with about the other 100, getting left behind quickly on the nasty course. The race radio was the worst I have ever heard, well we heard nothing, that’s the problem. We were not alone, as we saw car after car in the caravan, talking to the jury to try and find out the situation in the front, and giving them shit as well, it was a world cup race afterall. We were stuck behind the big bunch and could not get through to talk to the girls in the front (the girls radios have a limited range) to see what was happening. By the time we reached the climbs for the second time, we worked out that there was two bunches in front, and they were a long way in front. Still nothing on the radio, what a mess for the normally precise Swiss. By the time the third lap was starting, we were finally let through. And there were not many of the girls left in the front bunch, by now, about 30 from what we could see. But there was four of us up there, so things were looking good.

The bunch is splintering up the first climb

By now we were seeing most of the Cervelo and Bigla team getting dropped. Their plans for the day looking like they had failed, there was only a couple of each team hanging off the back by now. Getting dropped and then coming back on. Going into the last lap, the pace was high, the last climbs were coming, so they were trying to stop the attacks happening. But they started already, with 20km to go, attack after attack was going off the front. We chased what we could, so did the few teams that were left up there. With 10km to go, there was one rider attacking out the front, my old team mate, Susanne Ljungskog, and she was looking good. The bunch tried to chase her down, but they were looking pretty tired, there was just no speed in the chase anymore. She stayed out with 23 seconds, then to 21 secs, but it was not moving very fast and she got back to 23 secs. Now you might think that would be easy to chase down, but with 120km or so in the legs, and with a lot of climbing, it’s not so easy for the girls left. With only a few teams having more than one rider left, no one really want to expend energy they might need later on in the finish chute.

What a beautiful day in Switzerland, love the countryside, almost like home.

With 3km to go, Suze was still in the front with the same gap, it was not going to change. We took the deviation for the cars, and I sprinted to see her cruising through the finish line with plenty of time to enjoy her win. She was ecstatic, and it showed with the huge grin on her face. But the bunch was about to arrive, and they looked almost like they were in slow-motion as they came close to the line. Judith was looking good, sprinting like hell right to the end, second place, nice. I collected up all the bikes and girls, and we had a moment to relax, or at least they did, I was busy packing a few of the bikes into bags (a few of the girls were flying home, Kim back to USA, Oenone back to Australia, Linda to Denmark) and trying to cram everything I could in the van for the trip back to Bonn. News came through that with Judith’s second place she was now the new leader of the World Cup series. What a great finish to the week, and for the first time ever, Judith wears the rainbow jersey.

Susanne comes home for the win.

We had just a bit of time for the girls to have a quick shower back at the hotel. Time for me to get my things together, they were dropping off at the train station. It was unusual not to be driving home after the race, got to be a first, and it was feeling rather strange. I was to be picked up in Geneva, as the men’s team were finishing up at the Tour of Romandy, and dropping riders off to the airport there. From here we leave for Genoa, to meet up with the rest of the staff for 20 hours on a ferry. The truck, bus, transporter, and four race cars, with eight others. The ferry was off to Sicily, for the start of the Giro d’ Italia. I was excited, my favourite race ever, and my first grand tour with the team (first ever actually, but racing with the girls feels rather grand sometimes). Plus I have been wanting to get to Sicily for years as well, so nice to combine some sightseeing in with some bikes, racing and a bit of work. Ohh and don’t forget the food.

See more photos here.

Giro d' Italia, Stage 1

Finally a little bit of internet, and a bit of time for some photo uploading. so here you are the first two photo installments of the Giro. I should be able to file the story soon as I will have a bit of time to finish it in next day or so. We leave Scicly for the mainland in the morning. The boys have stage three, I am on truck duty for the day, so I will have some fun on the Italian roads again. So go have a look in the meantime, getting there is here and the first stage is here. Righto time for some sleep, it's going to be a long day for us tomorrow.

Easy Update

After landing in Europe I was directly on the road working for the Men’s team for a while. First to the Eroica race in the middle of Italy. Run on dirt roads, like the classics of old, we had a good race. I was on truck driving/hotel duty so missed the whole thing. Photos

Next up was the Terrino-Adriatico Tour. A seven day tour with the likes of George Hincapie, Mark Cavendish, Thomas Lovquist etc. This was great as we were going well in the GC, right until the TT when our main rider, 2nd on GC, Linus Gederman crashed out in the TT breaking his Tibia (top of the shin bone), but we had Thomas in 3rd place, this he kept until the end, and we also won the teams classification as well. I got to follow and coach my favourite modern day rider in the TT, George had a good run, no problems on the bike though, except he was not fast enough on the day. A bad crash in the rain on the last day, put a couple of the lads out as well, but they were ok, the bikes suffered a lot though. The food was fantastic though, and some of the countryside I had not seen before, so that was pretty cool, a new part of Italy to discover. Photos, #1, #2, #3

Then right to the middle of Holland for Ronde van Groen Hart, for a very cold nights work. Here I recorded on my hands, a temperature of -7’c. snow was falling on me as I washed the few bikes that were dirty still. Washing the car in the morning was great, once I got rid of all the ice of it first, but the snow kept away until they started racing. I was holed up at the finish, getting ready for the return of the bikes, Rain, hail, snow and sunshine the riders experienced, all in one race. They were so lucky, as I watched the race from a hot café, with not too bad coffee.

Next day the cold weather continued, with snow falling throughout the night in Cologne. Morning broke with a bit of fine weather for the Rund um Koln (around Cologne), but as soon as the cars were washed, and the bikes loaded on top, the snow came down. And snow it did, what a pleasant sight, the bikes looked so pretty, all covered in snow on the cars. The riders were not looking too happy, as the roads would be pretty dangerous for a race of about 200km. The organisers postponed it an hour at first, then two, then cancelled it all together. First time in 100 years, so it was pretty bad for them. The moment they made the decision to cancel, the sun came out, things dried up and it was a beautiful day again. We still had to clean the bikes and all the cars, so it was just like they raced anyway. Photos

Two days of the Criterium International in the north of France was next. This was near the Belgium border, and a somewhere I had not raced before. With a double stage to finish on, we took the stage win with Bosan-Hagen and second with one of the other boys (oops I forgot who), a nice 1-2 finish. This was in the battle fields of WW2, so there was plenty of cemeteries we passed along the way, sad really the amount of death around here, but that’s War for ya. Photos

That was the month of March, so think I had one day at base to relax for the afternoon, then April started. More races with the men, and into the classic’s season, in Belgium and Holland.

A small Tour to warm the lads up called ‘Three Days of De Panna. In the north coast of Belgium, fast and dangerous three stages, two road and a TT from memory. Plenty of crazy cycling fans to deal with, crowds are not something you have to handle with the Women’s racing, but sure beats fighting the crowd to do your work. Photos

A warm up for Flanders saw us race the ‘Het van het Mergelland’, with no real results. But it was all training for the big ones.

Flanders, another race I always want to see, let alone work was next. This was crazy, with thousand of punters watching the race from every possible position they could find. I was in the second car, racing from cobbled section to cobbled section, running to a good spot and waiting for the race to come through. We had a third car doing the same as well, and a few thousand crazy Belgium fans doing the same thing. It’s a race itself, to see the race as many times as you can, we managed about 12 stops and passing of the race. Man it was pretty tight in places, and we missed one spot we were supposed to be. This is a story in itself, this I will write about I think some other time. The girls race the same course of course, this you will remember from other years. And our team won this one with Judith taking out the win for the Team. What a blast for the girls, as this is a biggy for the year. Photos

Gent-Wevelgem was next. Here I was hotel bitch for the day. We had two mechanics in the race, and I had quite a bit of work to do for a couple of up coming races. Some wheels to build and a few tyres to glue as well. But we had a good race, and there was no mishaps on the day, nice.

Finally back with the girls for a few weeks. But first a few days in the service course (team base) for some bike building, a few TT bikes for the upcoming stage races, and a bit of track testing in Buttigen, just up the road. Six of the girls were meeting for testing at a indoor track. A few modifications on the bikes, a bit of position tuning, and a lot of messing around to go with it. But it was successful, the bikes were all dialled in, now a few days finishing them off, and my week off, turned into one day off. We have had a new truck being built up for the big tours for the Men, so a bit of work inside one of them hanging wheel racks etc for a day or two took the other spare days I had left. Photos

A Couple of weeks on the road with the girls saw us stop in the top of Holland for a race Called ‘Gelderland’. A small race, and not too much happened either. Then another World Cup race ‘Fleche Wallone’, in Belgium. Raced on the same day as the men just like Flanders. Except this time we got a second or third with Judith, it was a pretty messy race, so we were lucky with that at least. The men had some great results with Kim Kirchen winning, it was a great result for the boys, and the whole team really.

A couple more smaller races, Borsele in Holland and then back to Rosalare in Belgium. Not much happening here, with a third with Ina in Boresele, and a third with Kim in Belgium. We did the best we could in both of them, but it was all we could muster up. The team worked well together, and it was some pretty good training for the up and coming tours.

That was all of April done, and straight away I was off to Switzerland for a couple more races before meeting up with the Men’s team again. A TimeTrail was first in the Sion area, just north of Geneve. Here the men were also doing the same course, part of the Tour of Romandy. They have a invitation race for the Women, called Magalie Pache. Here some of the Worlds best TT experts were racing. We had Judith and Oenone racing, it was a tough field they were racing against, so it was not going to be easy. The course was flat for a bit, then it just climbed straight up a mountainside, then down. We raced, think Judith was 5th and Oenone was tailing at last position. Oh well, she won it a few years back, so we know she can do it. Photos

Then all the riders and us headed off to Bern for another world cup race. This was getting serious, race number 6 out of 10 in the series. The team was looking pretty good, with all the serious girls booked in to race, as we had another team racing in the Czech race ‘Gracia’ in Orlova. We fought hard, as there was a big climb right from the start. The race split on the first lap, and the field was smashed to bits on the very first lap of 4. We had some great results, with Judith getting a second place. This brings her into the World Cup leaders jersey, for the first time in her career. She was pretty happy, and so was the rest of the team, and of course so was I. As the bikes were perfect once again. Pics

It was a good time to leave the girls on such a high note. I now leave them for another month or so and join the men. In fact, directly after the race, I boarded a train for Geneva, here a car was waiting to pick me up for a trip to Italy. Here we meet up in Genoa with the Truck, Bus and three other cars, and a transporter van. We then all jumped on a ferry, with about ten other teams for the trip down to Sicily for the start of the ‘Giro d' Italia’. The second biggest tour in the cycling world, and my favourite race of all time. This brings us to the current day, where we just raced the first stage earlier today. But that’s another story. Photos

With thanks to Cycling News for the race reports.

Almost Ready

If ever there was some sort of amnesty offered for errant bloggers, I would be the first one standing in line to claim it. As time rolls on, my attempt at trying to clear a few races and a few good stories, seems almost like a distant dream. It is really stopping me getting on with the real issues of life of a mechanic on the road. But this I suppose is sometimes the reality of this job, when you get a bit of spare time, the last thing you want to do is sit down with the computer. Sleep is first on the list, relaxing or mindless foreign television watching is next in line. Closely followed by a night propping up the bar in some dodgy hotel after a nights work. Drinking some crap local wine, and trying not to talk bikes for a while.



I have talked to many people both riders and fans about my current situation about my website, and they all have the same problem. When they get a little too far behind in the stories and updates, it becomes overwhelming to try and catch up. I suffer from this more than most this time of year, as the work just does not seem to stop coming. I suppose it is a good sign, the team is happy with my work, and the riders as well are happy with their bikes. It shows in the amount and frequency of races they are sending me to at the moment. So it is not a bad thing, and the work will never stop coming unfortunately. I just have to find a way to catch up quickly, and easily, so then at least I can give you some reasonable updates for the current and upcoming races I will be working on.

So I have a plan, and this is one I have used on many occasions before. The good ol ‘Picture says a thousand words’ excuse will work fine for me here. I was going to forget completely about any sort of catch up, and just pretend that nothing ever happened. But I knew you would all be so on to it, that you would not let me pull this one. So here we go, almost two months in one single entry. Then maybe I can get back to the real story telling I know you all love (well at least the 12 of you that have told me so far, thanks to you lot). Some of the races I have some pictures loaded into my photo pages, and some I will be loading shortly for the last few races. And if I get all inspired and have a bit of spare time on my hands (could happen), I will fill in a few gaps for ya.