Tour de Georgia: TT, Mountains, and Wrap-up

I wish I’d been able to do a write up after each of the final four stages, but the time (and wireless internet) just wasn’t there. Wrenching for Marco Polo is a 16 hour day - 6am to 10pm just about everyday. A lot sure did happen though - lots of stories, too many to tell in one sitting! I’m sitting here in the hotel lobby next to Slipstream mechanic Daimeon Shanks, who’s getting ready to fly over to Europe with the team. He won’t be back home in Boulder until after the Tour de France. I’m not cut out for that life, after 10 days away from my wife, dogs, shop, and Cincinnati… I’m ready for home.

We last left off with the STAGE FOUR team time trial. With it being by far the shortest stage in the Tour, it was the easiest day for the riders and staff. Marco Polo was first to go off, with HealthNet two minutes behind them. With no time trial specialists on the roster, great results were not expected. As the story goes, before they were to go off, each of their bikes had to be weighed by the officials to ensure they weren’t underneath the UCI minimum weight limit of 6.8kg. As they each were hefted up onto the scale by a race official, they were coming in at 6.1 and 6.2kg! The guys questioned the validity of this scale, which to them more resembled a scale used to measure chickens and fruit…

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Athens Twilight 4/26/08

As most of you know athens twilight was this past weekend and it was the first big event for the Industry Nine Team. Myself, Adam Ray, and Andrew Erskine participated.

We had to first go through the grid qualifier that was the day before. It was a bit confusing if you have never done it but basically you ride the computrainer for 3k(simulating the crit course) and your time will determine your start/pole position for the twilight the next night. This is pretty important since there is usually 150-200 participants.

The top 8 times for the computrainer then compete for cash and i guess glory @ 9:00 pm that same day of the qualifier. Well somehow i managed to make the final eight for the finals and finish 4th overall. It was a bit nerve racking riding on the stage in front of LOTS people watching and yelling at you for close to 8 painfull minutes. Finishing 4th also ment a call up to the front line for the Athens Twilight.

On to the crit now and i will try to keep it short. MADNESS…I got caught up in a crash within the first few laps. Got a wheel change and was put back in but placed in THE BACK. Worked hard to move up including having to swerve and sprint around more crashes. 4 laps to go feeling pretty good considering how fast it was then another crash in turn 1. Nowhere to swerve so got wedged in with the carnage and was gapped. Lots of pain in the legs at this point and was not able to catch up to the pack and ended up finishing just behind the field.

Adam and Andrew both were also mixed up in many crashes and were unable to finish. This im sure would be the toughest race we would due for the season so it can only get easier. Adam and Andrew also had a pretty good start position from the qualifier but happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.  The town of athens was absolutely rocking with excitement and it was truly an experience that we will not forget.

 Chris Ernst

BioWheels-Deltec Homes Road Squad hits Burnsville Metric

Burnsville Metric Century Ride- Burnsville, NC 4/26/08

The weather for this somewhat local century turned out to be much better than predicted.  Also, with the Tour De Moore being several hours away the Burnsville Metric made a great fast training ride for local road racers.  Representing BioWheels-Deltec were Mike Small, Mike Jackson, Grant Gosch, and myself.   Once again we had the strongest group of guys in the event.  However, this time there were about 15 TCRC riders trying hard to use team tactics against us.

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Management of Energy (TDG Stages 2 & 3)

Watching a pack of 118 professional bike racers in a peloton from a few cars back is something else. It’s a mass of color washing back and forth across the road; at one moment stretching out length-wise, and the next width-wise. For the first two stages we had a Chinese reporter and cameraman from CCTV following the team around, and yesterday she made a rather acute remark in the team car that the team director’s responsibility was kind of like “management of energy.” Rather ironic that our sponsor for the race is GE.

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TdG Stage 1 Ends with Russian Rocket

For better or for worse, a quiet, boring day in the team cars for the mechanics is the best day you can ask for. No troubles with the new groupsets, no slipping handlebars over the 6 sets of choppy railroad tracks, and no flats.

Sometimes you may take a look at a rider roster and wonder ‘who the heck is this guy and what is he doing here?’ I was chatting with Rhys Pollack at dinner the first night and tried to figure out what kind of rider he was. “Are you a climber?” His answer, a very straight-forward Australian, “Nah.” “Are you a sprinter then?” “Nah, I can kinda go fast, but I can’t sprint. And I can’t climb real well neither.” Me again: “Are you a rouleur then?” “Nah, I just do whatever the team needs me to do.” Simple enough I guess.

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Calm before the storm (TDG Part 2)

Yesterday was a looooong day. Henk and I worked straight through the day (minus a 90 minute break to get a run in) stripping down the rest of the team bikes and building them up with the new Red groupsets. We don’t have a scale on site, but these bikes are for sure at about 15 lbs, and have very quick steering. The riders are out for about 2 hours right now checking out the new bikes, and will come back with comments. We’ll take notes on each rider’s bike, and spend today making corrections and getting them ready for tomorrow’s stage one.

The highlights of the day seem to happen as we’re wrapping things up. Not sure what the story was below, but apparently there were some cleat and pedal issues that required immediate hacksaw surgery on a set of Sidi Ergo 2’s. Hmmmmm…

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The Traveling Circus

We made the drive down from Atlanta this morning to the Tour de Georgia start on Tybee Island, just south of Savannah, GA. The guys got out for a short ride while Henk and I surveyed and organized the work before us.

Nine Trek Madones, all getting new Red groupos, new Aerolus wheelsets,…. and just two days to get it done. No problem - let’s start with the wheels?

Unpack wheels and their small parts from cardboard, lay out new Vredestein tires and tubes, Red cassettes, rim tape, rim tape?…. anyone see any rim tape?

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BioWheels Ready for Tour de Georgia

Racing? Nope, we’ll be wrenching, with BW-Cincy’s Mitch Graham working for China’s GE-Marco Polo Cycling Team. He flies down to Savannah tomorrow afternoon to join the team and start getting their bikes ready for Stage One on Tybee Island. He’ll be taking photos when possible and relaying stories you most likely won’t find anywhere else except for here. Stay tuned Sunday for the first update!

GE-Marco Polo Roster for Tour de Georgia

51 Leon Van Bon (Ned)
52 Jai Crawford (Aus)
53 Serguei Koudentsov (Rus)
54 Fuyu Li (Chn)
55 Yilin Liu (Chn)
56 Loh Sea Keong (Mas)
57 Rhys Pollock (Aus)
58 Yan Dong Xing (Chn)

BioWheels-Deltec Road Squad Wins at Upstate Race Weekend

4/13/08

 The Upstate Race Weekend is held in the Greenville/Spartanburg area of South Carolina.  This year the first of the two race series was a road race on Saturday at the Donaldson Center.  Standouts for the day inlcuded Mike Small, Jason Smith, and Nicole Crane.  The Master’s 35+, and Master’s 45+ fields were combined.  This allowed Mike and Jason to work together.  On the final lap Mike rode off the front in a solo attack.  Jason and a few others were able to bridge up to Mike.  Then after a leadout from Mike, Jason sprinted to 4th place.  Nicole Crane decided to race the Women’s Pro/1/2/3 race and also did very well. 

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BioWheels-Deltec Road Squad hits Rock Hill

Patriot’s Trail Road Race-4/6/08

The Rock Hill Spring Omnium is a classic series.  Friday night it all starts with the York Sprints.  They consist of a head to head drag race down the streets of downtown York SC.  Saturday brings the Critterium in downtown Rock Hill.  The Crit. has a nasty corner coming into the final turn.  Combined with the rain, this course demands respect.  I don’t know if it was the weather, or the early season, but this year the Biowheels Road squad decided to only race the road race on Sunday.

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