New Seasons Bikes

With the sunshine of Qatar gone for another year, we headed back to the cold weather of Holland. Winter was still there, it had not gone anywhere, but we had a bit of work to do, so at least I would be busy and warm for a few days. The bikes were ready for delivery, or more importantly, ready for us to pick up. Stevens Bike Company was in the north of Germany, in the city of Hamburg only about 600km away. We decided it would be quicker to pick everything up at once, rather than waiting around for delivery. As well as the bikes, there was a stack of new wheels for the season as well. Normally we use Bontrager wheels in the season, but this year there is a bit of a change of wheel sponsor. Stevens has stepped in, with a custom built wheel, very nice in three sizes. We still have a lot of good Bontrager wheels still in house, so a combination of the both will be used for the various races.



The van half loaded with 20 bikes, doesn't look like much, but it's a big van

We hit the road early for the trip to Hamburg, with the weather on our side, it was going to be an easy trip. We encountered a little snow half way up, but we still arrived just on lunchtime. After waiting for the warehouse staff to finish their own lunch, we organised the pile of bikes and equipment into the van. We were perfectly on time to pick up the last wheel being built in front of us. It looked like the old guy had been doing it for years, and it was nice to see him run a tensionometer over every spoke before he gave us the last wheel to pack away. Now a small drive home, and then we could start to build our new machines for the year. Not too far from Hamburg, there seemed to be a bit of a block on the autobahn. After moving less than a kilometre in an hour, we were herded off the highway, on to a very small road. Seems there was a problem further down the road, so thousands of cars and trucks were just sent off on their own devices, thank god for the GPS. But it didn’t help too much, within a half hour, we thought we had found an on-ramp, but it was blocked as well. We then had a great idea to head cross-country, to miss all the traffic, this was our first fatal mistake. With in a few minutes, we were heading down some very small country roads, every time we thought we were back on track, there was another bridge or road closed for repair. It was killing us as the highway was in full view the whole time, but as yet the van could not jump the barriers onto the highway. Finally after three hours, we found our way onto the right road, and were off again. It was a long day, but we had the bikes, the group-sets, wheels etc, so it was not all bad. Now to unpack everything, and start the mission of building the new bikes, it was exciting, even though it can be a drag sometimes.


A small part of the Steven's warehouse

The next day, we organised all the new equipment into the ‘service course’, and started organising the build. Building bikes is not really the hard bit, getting all the setups right for every rider, can get a bit tricky first up. But I had managed to decipher and measure all the setups for most of the girls, so the building began. We only had a few days before we were leaving Holland for the warmer climate of the island of Majorca, a larger than I thought island, off the coast of Spain. Near the island of Ibiza, very popular for cyclists wanting to escape the cold winter of Europe. So finishing nine of the teams bikes was the plan, two days later they were done. It’s always nice building the bikes at the start of the season, at least they will be done properly, and up to my very high standard. It’s always nice to have them built of course, but now I know the inside and out of every bike we will race, it’s a good feeling. I forgot to take any pictures of the new bikes, so you will have to wait till I get back to base for a look at them.


Facing off the Stems with Klas's 'Top Secret' tool. Designed to make sure the stem is providing the perfect pressure on the headset bearings. Crooked stems are half the problem with bearing failures. And when you see how much material comes off one side of the stem, you tend to agree pretty quick. More on this tool later.

Next race for the team is the ‘Omloop Het Nieuwsblad’ on 28.02.2009. Renamed ‘Omloop Het Volk’ (a newspaper ‘The People’ sponsored the race for years, now it’s sold, thus the name change). Normally the start of the racing in Europe, and signifies the real start to the season. The race starts Gent in Belgium, so it’s nice and close to get to. I just hope the weather gets a bit better before we race.

Short Qatar Flick

Trine loaded my video the other day, have a look. Only one days racing, as I forgot to charge my video camera amongst other things.



Or have a look here for a higher quality version of the same thing.

Tour of Qatar- Race review

After a bit of a drive we arrived at the airport in Frankfurt for the flight to Doha, the biggest city of Qatar. We had a team of six riders, and staff of three, so the pile of bikes and luggage was pretty massive, we were expecting a bit of a fight to get it all on the plane, let alone for free. We only had eight bikes, five spare sets of wheels, massage table, nine very large personal bags, tools and work-stand, radio gear, 100 bidons, massage, nutrition and hydration products, so you can imagine the pile. At least we were on time, if not a bit early, which always helps. We were pretty well looked after at the desk, with a personal check-in lady organising everything for us effortlessly. A quick estimate of the weight (we under estimated by about 40%, just in case we had to pay the excess ourselves), and all was sorted very quickly. We found out later that Qatar Airlines had sponsored the flights and luggage, lucky for us, they had a special container for the bikes, so at least they would be a bit safer. Two other teams were on the flight, Columbia and Nurenburger, so we didn’t feel so bad, as they had just as much equipment as us, if not a bit more.

So before I could watch four movies in a row, we had landed, midnight in Doha, now the fun really started. After sitting in the passport control line for what seemed like the best part of an hour, one of the riders finally got to an officer. We were all watching in anticipation as none of us had, or wanted to pay for an entry Visa (about 25 Euro). It was all too much for the system, riders had blocked every counter, none of them having any luck getting through. Well it was all too much for the passport control, so they herded all the teams into and area and told us to wait, while they tried to sort out the problem. After another half an hour or so, we started asking the important one what the story was, it was getting late, and the riders needed to sleep, he looked at us with confusion. He asked what we were doing sitting over where we were told to sit, and then in a moment, he waved us through. After gathering up all the teams bikes and bags, we packed it all on some open bed trucks, hoping nothing would fall off the side, en-route to the Hotel. An hour later we made it to the hotel and got a bit of a impromptu tour of the city as well. But we still had not seen the truck with our luggage yet, so no relaxing for me yet. The girls checked in, and I waited, and waited, and waited, 2 am rolled around, still waiting, I had visions of the truck stopping somewhere, and few bikes and bags being offloaded in the night. After a while, one of the teams went and had a look at the bike tent (still up from the men’s tour, and ready for us for the race), and what do you know, the two trucks were sitting and waiting for an hour for us there. We unloaded the bikes, delivered the bags to the team, and finally hit the bed. The hotel was a dream, the Ritz-Carlton, next door to the ‘Pearl of Qatar’, we had a nice room on the 21st floor, looking through the central atrium, to the foyer below, put the shits up me. Think it was a bit of jet lag playing with my head, the balcony outside was just as creepy, I hung onto the rail as if the building was swaying in the wind. A short sleep later, I was ready for action.

The girls on the front, causing a bit of a stretched bunch.

A few hours to unpack the bikes, and the girls were ready for a nice training ride. The team for the race was Susanne, Mirjam, Loes G, Loes M, Trine and Iris, the best team we could muster for this early in the season, but pretty strong all the same. Training was pretty boring, 3 corners, then a nice straight road 40 km out, and 40 km back, not a corner or camel in sight. The bikes made it without any damage, we had all of the gang riding on last seasons bikes, just in case they wrecked them. The new bikes we were picking up when we arrived home, so you have to wait for a close look at them later. The race started the next morning, so I race tuned and prepped the bikes, wheels and cars, a few hours work, little bit of tyre pumping, and I was ready to roll. It was nice looking around the tent at the other mechanics still working as I walked out fully organised, experience is a great trait for races like these. Being organised before you leave, can save a lot of time, especially when sleep is at a premium.

The warm and dry weather, was a welcome change from the snow and ice of Holland. I had only a few days or so of this, but it was enough, a week in the sun was just what I needed (I had two weeks of winter, that was enough). Temperatures were sweet, at about 25’c, and all the bikes and riders were loaded, ready for the small transfer to the start. The ‘Museum of Arabian Art’ was our start point, a fantastic looking building and surrounds, holding some of the countries most precious art and artefacts. The setting was unreal, with the half built city in the foreground, and old Asian junks floating close by, giving us the impression Qatar has come a long way, very quickly. But we had a race to start, so I donned my mechanics cap for the first race of the season, and looked busy. A 94 km stage, six corners, with two straights of about 40km long each, simple to remember for the riders. We had a special plan for the day, attack from the 14km mark, so the girls were really motivated for some early fireworks. And by the looks at the 20km mark, no one was expecting us to attack. We had been practicing a bit of team time-trailing the day before, and it seemed to have worked out perfect. The bunch split badly, with a small group of about 12 riders out the front, we had half of the team in there. The bunch put the hammer down for the chase, they had been caught out by our attack, and the race was on. About the time we turned at about the 60 km mark, the gap was about a minute, not much, but the damage was done. Half of the peloton was at 8 mins, and the chasing group of about 20 was about to join the leaders. A small group of 30 made it to a sprint finish, with Giorgia Bronzini (Italian National Team) taking the win, Mirjam was in 5th, loes about 8th and Susanne in 10th. Not bad for stage one, three in top ten, four in main group, with the bunch distanced sitting on about 14 mins behind.

A bit of rehydration after stage No.1

Most of the teams were suffering many punctures after stage 1, the tent had a nice smell of fresh glue, we seemed to be lucky, with not a single flat so far. But that was all to change. Stage 2 started a bit out of town at the Oryx Farm, but we could not spot a single one, it was good to know that there was some wildlife that could live here, besides a few camels, and plenty of sand and rocks. The girls were in good shape, with their two hours on the front yesterday not really bothering them too much. They were ready for more action, most of the other teams were ready though, with a stage of 110 km, and a total of four corners, it was going to be fun. We had planned to attack the bunch again, no one else was going to, so we had to try and make the day a little bit interesting. The Men’s race a few days before had enormous amounts of wind, we seemed to have a bit of a lull for our race. We needed the wind to cause some damage, but nothing was happening today, but we had to give pain either way. And pain we gave, the team performed well, hoping to smash the bunch again, soon they would be submissive and would not fight back. But just as things were looking good, with 5 of the team in a small breakaway, the first puncture happened. Loes M was our first customer of the day, with a quick fix, she was back in the bunch. Then it was Trine’s turn, and then Mirjam in the front group (neutral service looked after her), our plan was failing with all the punctures going on. Then it was Susanne’s turn, 4 in total for the day, funnily enough three flats in the front wheels, one rear (normally the other way around). The plan was over for us, but at least the other teams were suffering as much as us, punctures everywhere, with the roads state, you could not escape it, rocks and holes are not easy to navigate around sitting in a big bunch. Eventually there was a small breakaway of two riders, Eva Lutz and Veronica Adreasson, they had a couple of minutes up on the bunch. They were both on 14 mins behind, so no one was really chasing them. Lutz sprinted for the win, Veronica second, and the funny thing was Rochelle Gilmore, sprinting the bunch home, thinking she had won giving a full victory salute for third place. Apparently her team had not told her there were two girls out the front, opps.

The water carriers are very important in the desert, what would we do without them.

Stage three was our last chance, Mir was still in 5th, Loes G in 8th and Susanne in 12th, so we were still looking ok in the GC. Our start area for the day, was the ‘Camel Racing Track’, everyone was looking forward to that. We had seen the odd camel along the way, but this was a good photo opportunity, and great to see the most popular sport in the country, up close. It was cool as we arrived, groups of camels and their handlers everywhere. Small bunches of race ready camels, cruising the course, it was pretty amazing to see, with the music blaring out on the loud speakers, it was surreal. I think the jockeys (if that’s what you call them) were just as surprised to see a bunch of lycra clad Women, as we were to see a bunch of locals, training and racing camels. It was a funny situation, right up to the point when one of the girls (she shall remain nameless this time) noticed she had left her shoes at the hotel. With a 45km drive back to the hotel, this was not an option. A panicked scout around the other teams, and we managed to find a spare pair of shoes, a couple of sizes too small, but she kept quiet, they would fit, no matter what. The race was under way, and again we tried a few things, but the wind was even slower than the previous days, so we just kept awake, and took any opportunity we could. We raced, the bunch split as usual near the end, Bronzini won the last stage, Kristen Wild took overall honours, and we managed to hold on to the team’s classification. Not too bad, as all the team was coming out of a cold winter. A quick bit of bike, and equipment packing and we were ready to fly. A few hours in the hotel waiting for our flights, and then we were out of there. Four days, three stages, five punctures, one crash, and six nice trophies later, we were content for the first race of the season.

Finally a corner, we get to see some of the race today.

And if you have not seen the photo pages look further, Stage #1, Stage #2, Stage #3

Qatar Stage 1

The second bunch coming through the last km's


Just loaded a few pics of Stage #1, have a look here.

Car number 7, and we still saw nothing. Story to come.


The girls were pretty happy with their effort for the day.

Cross Worlds Pics posted

Check out a few of the pics from the weekend. I was kind of working, so all of them are from the pits, nothing too exciting, but might be something new for you. Check em out here.

And when it finally loads, a small video. But looks like shit when it's all compressed, so will try somewhere new to post it. It's a shame really as it is filmed in full HD and looks wicked on the computer.



Ok try this one, once I have figured out how to host it properly, medium or large size to view, here Looks a lot better now.


Qatar is a pretty crazy place, not really the place to ride a bike, but maybe the race will be better. Long, straight boring roads, but at least we got air-conditioning in the car. But more later, racing starts in the morning, so should get some rest.

The long road forward, 40km one way.


Sure this building has been photographed many times, but not with our team in it, that's for sure. 

Start Your engines

The road season is about to start, and I have just been looking over the program with Klas. It is looking pretty nice, with all my favourite races featured, and a few of my not so favourite ones as well. There are a couple of my most disliked races missing from the list, and when I saw that, I was completely over the moon. So it looks like a busy season again, with the odd breaks to recharge the batteries and reorganise things a little. We are currently sitting in Frankfurt airport awaiting our flights to the ‘Qatar Women’s Tour’, held for the first time this year. The Men’s tour is about to finish on Friday and a couple of days later we start the three day tour with the girls. Everyone is excited about a new country to race in, and we might even have a bit of a chance to have a look around the place as well.

While we were packing and organising all the bikes and equipment this week, we managed to catch a little bit of the Men’s tour on TV. They were right, a city in the middle of the desert, with long highways plonked right on top of the sand. Normally we get a technical race manual with every road, turn and obstacle we will come across. Sometimes the stage information can lead to three or four pages of info, this of course we can relay to the riders during the race if needed. We were having a good laugh checking out the race book for the coming week. The longest stage had about 6 lines of information, with stretches of road that are straight for 30km or more before we turn. Lets hope we don’t fall asleep in the car during the race, we may have to make our own fireworks on the road to keep it interesting for the day.

Most of the top UCI teams, and a few national teams will be racing there, so it should be nice to catch up with all the riders and staff again. It’s always a bit difficult for the first month of the season, it’s when we see all the transfers and changes the teams have made end of season. Half of them you hardly recognise in their new team kits, and you have to be really on to it in the car and on the radios when attacks are happening. By the time you have worked out who is attacking, it could be far too late, but it certainly makes it for an interesting race. Our new seasons bikes are ready for delivery and assembly, so we will be racing on last seasons bikes for this race only. It always is good to fly with old bikes, saves the airlines wrecking our new ones. When we arrive back we have a bit of a mission to build and setup 20 new race bikes. But it will give us something to do before the next race starts. We will be riding Stevens Bikes again this season, and as always, all the riders love the feel of them. As for me I love them as well, German engineering at it’s best. As for the colour, who knows, that’s part of the surprise for the season. I will be fitting the new 2009 Dura-ace groups to the lot of them, and I think we even have a couple of new electronic sets to play with in a month or so as well.

Ok, think I hear our flight being called, next stop Qatar.


International Race Program 2009 Team Flexpoint

08.02.2009 10.02.2009 Ladies Tour of Qatar QAT 2.2
28.02.2009 28.02.2009 Omloop Het Volk / Circuit Het Volk BEL 1.2

07.03.2009 07.03.2009 Gran Premio Brissag - Lago maggiore SUI 1.2
21.03.2009 21.03.2009 Costa Etrusca-Gran Premio - Riparbella-Montescudaio ITA 1.2
22.03.2009 22.03.2009 Trofeo Costa Etrusca-Memorial-GP - Santa Luce-Castellina ITA 1.2
29.03.2009 29.03.2009 Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio ITA CDM

05.04.2009 05.04.2009 Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres BEL CDM
06.04.2009 06.04.2009 Grand Prix de Dottignies BEL 1.2
10.04.2009 10.04.2009 Drentse 8 van Dwingeloo NED 1.1
11.04.2009 11.04.2009 Novilon Eurocup Ronde van Drenthe NED 1.1
13.04.2009 13.04.2009 Unive Ronde van Drenthe NED CDM
18.04.2009 18.04.2009 Ronde van Gelderland NED 1.2
22.04.2009 22.04.2009 La Flèche Wallonne Féminine BEL CDM
25.04.2009 25.04.2009 Omloop van Borsele WE NED 1.2
26.04.2009 26.04.2009 GP Stad Roeselare BEL 1.2
30.04.2009 03.05.2009 Gracia - Orlova CZE 2.2

01.05.2009 01.05.2009 Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs LUX 1.1
09.05.2009 09.05.2009 Omloop Door Middag-Humsterland WE NED 1.2
10.05.2009 10.05.2009 Berner-Rundfahrt / Tour de Berne SUI CDM
15.05.2009 24.05.2009 Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin FRA 2.1

07.06.2009 07.06.2009 Therme kasseienomloop NED 1.2
09.06.2009 09.06.2009 Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria ESP 1.2
11.06.2009 14.06.2009 Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira ESP 2.1
18.06.2009 20.06.2009 Rabo Ster Zeeuwsche Eilanden NED 2.2

01.07.2009 01.07.2009 U23 European Championship TT WU BEL CC
03.07.2009 12.07.2009 Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile ITA 2.1
04.07.2009 04.07.2009 U23 European Championship WU BEL CC
21.07.2009 26.07.2009 International Thüringen Rundfahrt GER 2.1
31.07.2009 31.07.2009 Open de Suède Vargarda TTT SWE CDM

02.08.2009 02.08.2009 Sparkassen Giro GER 1.1
02.08.2009 02.08.2009 Open de Suède Vargarda SWE CDM
08.08.2009 16.08.2009 La Route de France FRA 2.1
09.08.2009 09.08.2009 Holland Hills Classic NED 1.2
22.08.2009 22.08.2009 GP de Plouay-Bretagne FRA CDM
29.08.2009 29.08.2009 Multidigitaal.nl - Blauwe Stad TTT NED 1.2

01.09.2009 06.09.2009 Holland Ladies Tour NED 2.2
08.09.2009 12.09.2009 Tour Cycliste Féminin International Ardèche FRA 2.2
13.09.2009 13.09.2009 Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt GER CDM
23.09.2009 23.09.2009 Championnats du Monde / UCI TT World Championships SUI CM
26.09.2009 26.09.2009 Championnats du Monde / UCI RR World Championships SUI CM

18.10.2009 18.10.2009 Chrono des Nations TT FRA 1.1

CycloCross Worlds

Within a few days of arriving in the Netherlands my body was slowly adapting to the cold, with the maximum protest of course. Coming from a tropical island in the middle of the pacific, right smack in the middle of summer, I knew what to expect heading north, though I had tried not to think of it. Normally I am not this early to a European winter, so I was at least mentally prepared, and I had enough warm clothing with me. I was to arrive just in time for the ‘World Cyclo-Cross Championships’, being held in Holland a few days after I landed. A week after that, we were to be heading to the sun again, for the start of the road season in Qatar, so warm weather was not to far away. We had a couple of the team racing in the Women’s Elite race, racing for Holland, Jean-Paul’s son was also racing in the U23, so I had a little bit of work on the bikes leading up to this.

Cyclo-Cross for me is almost the perfect cycle sport, except the fact they race it here in the middle of winter. The bikes are essentially a road bike, with a few mountainbike modifications, stronger frames, fat tyres, canti brakes, smaller chainrings and mountainbike pedals. The bikes are pretty sweet, and they are all quite different designs between manufacturers, and some trick custom parts. The races are very short in comparison to the road racing, 45 mins for the Women, and one hour for the elite men. There is a pit area, which the riders pass through twice every lap, and the laps are generally about 5-7 mins long, so we see the riders quite a few times every race. Each rider has three bikes, one they race and swap out when they crash or get when they are covered in mud and crap. This we then quickly wash and check over, (if needed), either fixing or just having it ready for the next half a lap. The third is a spare spare bike, just in case things are really bad. And always a couple of extra sets of wheels, for the inevitable punctures. The tyres are all hand made tubulars, 32-34mm wide, and are run at real low pressures 25-28 psi (1.7-2 bar). Each course has a combination of mud, grass, road, running sections, and some steep bits, so you can choose whether you ride or run them.

Welcome to the Netherlands

I helped to organise the bikes before the race, one bike the riders had to train on the course a few days leading up to the event, the others we would bring on the day (so the national federation mechanics couldn’t mess too much with them). Saturday saw the juniors racing early in the morning, it gave us a chance to walk the course and have a look at some of the more technical bits. The wind was up, and the temperature was a fresh -2’C, but it felt about -10 out in the pit area, at least the sun was up, and it fooled your body that it was warmer. I had most of my warm clothes on, and I was still freezing, as long as we kept moving it was no problem. The juniors raced, then a couple of hours later the U23 started, I got to hang in the pits, it’s where most of the mechanics were, so I felt at home. Jean-Paul’s son was racing next, he was Junior World Champ a couple of years ago, so was a hot favourite for the race. They had 50 mins racing to do, and all I could think of was to stay warm, and soon we would be out of the cold wind. The boys started with a hiss and a roar, and soon there was a good lead by one of the Dutch riders. Unfortunately it was not JP’s son, he was struggling a bit with his breathing (he crashed a few days earlier and hurt his ribs a bit). We stayed on duty till the race was done, at least it was a Dutch guy that won, the crowd was going wild as he was a local kid. Then straight into the van and on with the heater, I was going to have to dress up tomorrow for the elite races, I could not handle another day like this, frostbite of my entire body was high on my mind.

Katie Compton giving everything on the first few laps

Sunday was a beautiful day, at least the sun was up anyway, this time I was prepared for the cold. Three layers of merino wool, then my jeans, three pairs socks and some warm boots. Five layers on my torso, finished with a nice warm jacket and to top it off, three warm woollen hats. Now I felt like the Michelin man, but at least I was almost comfortable in the wind. The sun was no longer around, and it looked like rain in the distance, but it was far too cold to rain, it was probably just going to be huge chunks of ice, falling from the sky instead. At least my three hats would protect my head from getting cracked. The course was starting to fill up with fans, mostly Belgium’s as the border was less than 10km away, there was beer and cross racing, the perfect day out for them. The crowd was expected to be about 50,000 strong, so it was going to be very loud later on for the Men’s elite race. At least they were there early for the Women, it gave a sense of equality in cycling for a change.

50m before the finish, on the big screen

Mirjam and Saskia were warming up (if that was possible, but worth a try I suppose), when we arrived with the bikes. After a bit, we headed to the pits with the spare bikes and wheels and waited for the first pass of the bunch. Right from the starting gun USA rider Katie Compton (US champ) put the hammer down, Hunka Kufanagel (GER) and Marianne Vos (NED) put up an instant chase. Mirjam was a few seconds behind, driving the second chase bunch. Thing pretty much stayed the same for a while, with Katie giving everything on the front, the two behind were still chasing hard, with Vos sitting on the wheel of Hunka as usual. Mirjam had broken out of the larger chase bunch, and was about 10 seconds from the two. I thought she may have bridged across, but just as the two in front of her caught up to Katie, they seemed to work even faster together, making the gap back to Mirjam a little larger. Mirjam dropped back into the pursuivants group, and the three in front just seemed to stay just out of reach. Nothing changed for the rest of the race, oh and Saskia crashed out on the first corner of the first lap. I was looking after her spares for her, so my job was made redundant, just as soon as it started, as she didn’t even make it into the pits. Katie was just hanging on to Hunka and Vos, and the three of them made it easily to the finish. Marianne Vos out sprinted the two, winning her Cross Worlds stripes, for the second time, Hunka taking second place, and Katie taking out third place. Mirjam finished a respectful 8th, and Saskia finished pulling the stones out of her arm, about the same time. We gathered up all our stuff and headed home, the Elite Men we starting in a couple of hours, so we decided to rush home and watch it on TV. At least it was warm, we had hot soup in hand and could see the whole race without fighting for position with the 10 deep crowd.

Some more pics to come once I load them.