CX Nats

My athlete, out near the front

It has been an intense weekend as well as the few days leading up to the Cyclo-cross National Championships in Bend, OR. I arrived here in town only two days after completing the Bill Woodul Race Mechanics Clinic in Colorado Springs and now it was my chance to put everything I learned to use while taking on the role of being Laura Winberry's mechanic.

To sum up my first few days simply would be to say that it has been a whirlwind of introductions with some old, but many more new acquaintances. I'm at a place where someone can plug me in to the social pipeline! It's been difficult to remember so many names and even more difficult seeing those same people again and not remembering who they are, but I am getting better at that every day.

One introduction was more important than any other, and that was with Laura's race bike. It was paramount that every single part of that bike was checked over and tuned perfectly. Some issues are easy to pick out and remedy while others are more subjective, like brake lever feel and tire pressure. She understands her bike and can communicate well what she's experiencing, which then makes my job so much easier. We walked the course on Thursday and discussed the good lines and tire choice. I felt so pro! Working with Laura in a professional athlete/mechanic relationship has been a pleasure. We did a pre-ride on Friday just to get a feel, although the weather would change the course considerably by Sunday.

Applying much of what I learned at the clinic has helped me to provide the support necessary to make sure she had a positive experience on the bike and that her focus could be precisely on her own performance separate from the bike. One area where my education was most useful was minutes before call ups when Laura approached me in the pits after her warm up with a loose cleat. Naturally, an inability to safely get her foot in and out of the pedals could have dashed any chance she had at a solid performance. I kept a level head and didn't reveal the severity of our situation. So while she went to have embrocation applied to her legs, I used my legs to run around like a maniac trying to find some thread lock, teflon tape, or new cleat hardware. The guys from Shimano stepped up (no pun intended) and gave me new hardware for her cleats.

I thankfully found her in the Hutch's tent under the care of Marcel Russenberger and Paul Curley. I replaced the hardware and she made it to the starting line on time. I then returned to the pits where I stood at the ready on each half lap with a pit bike, though she had no need for it. I only yelled words of encouragement as she passed each time, which is a pretty important job in itself.

I got to talking with a few of the other mechanics in the pit. The guy next to me had an athlete also in the top 30 who was ahead of Laura. We waited for our riders to emerge from behind the ridge, and then we saw them together, side by side as Laura took the impossible line on a steep drop and made an incredible pass on the inside of the sharp right hander and then back up that same ridge into a swooping left and back down past pit lane! I was screaming my head off at this point! It was the greatest pass I had ever seen and she made it stick. After they passed, the mechanic turned to me and calmly said, "That was my girl she just passed." and I did one of those raised eyebrows "ah hah" faces, when in my mind I was saying, "FUCK YEAH!!! IN BOTH OF YOUR FACES!!!"

Laura went on to a great finish, succeeding in meeting her self-set goals, and told me afterwards that her bike was awesome. I have a deeply vested interest in her success and I see her potential, so I am ecstatic that I have her trust and was able to play such a vital role. We both put in our maximum efforts and we together produced a solid result. And to think this is only the beginning. By the way, her cleats held.

Oh and of course I got in on a little of that racing action, too. My race was on Saturday with the Masters 30-34 Men. It was cold, windy, snowing in the morning then changed to rain, and muddy, muddy, muddy! I started in the last row and finished almost last, but I felt great and had a blast out there. I cannot put into words how much I love the fact that the fans will cheer just as loud for the guys battling for last place as they do for the battle for the lead. The smell of brats on the grill and the beat of the marching bands' drums were even more fuel for the fire. I truly loved the experience.

There's me, 273, wishing a meteor would strike the Earth to end my suffering on lap 1.

This is that same drop where Laura made that amazing pass. Even I didn't take the inside line! Crazy!