The Traveling Circus

April 19, 2008 on 4:47 am | In Road Racing |

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?

Todd drives the 35 minutes back to Savannah in search of an LBS for rim tape, and we start in on the bikes. These really are incredible machines. And that’s what they are to these guys - machines. Especially with all the carbon fiber frames - these bikes are so much more disposable than the old steel race bikes that they usually break before a rider has even the time to become attached to it. They love them though, and how could you not with all that performance?

The locals are very interested in the race - and come through our impromptu workshop picking up the bikes and asking lots of questions. With all the team buses, trailers and RV’s together in the same parking lot, I was trying to think about what other sport puts the event and the atmosphere right out there in front of people, and a circus parade was the closest thing I could come up with.

One of the conclusions to our evening was 2-time Tour de France stage winner Leon van Bon getting a free lesson in bike fit from a slightly intoxicated local. Apparently he’s been riding all these years with his seat not low enough and his bar not high enough. How many stages could he have won had he not learned this sooner?