Changing of colours.

After working for Team Flexpoint (also Buitenpoort–Flexpoint 05/06) for almost three years, and It’s time to move on. It was the original plan, eventually move on into the Men’s teams, as I had aspirations of eventually working on some of the great tours. Well as of yesterday, it’s one step closer, as I just signed a contract with T-Mobile for next season. This is a great leap forward for me, a great adventure, a big challenge, a new beginning, a new country, and a new bunch of girls, and three old ones. I will be working with the Women’s team for most of the year, but will be working the odd race with the men’s team. The T-Mobile Women’s Team, has finished the season in first place on the UCI list, essentially making it the number one team in the world. With over 30 wins during the season, most of these in the latter part of the season, the team was elated finishing on top, out of 42 trade teams. They have been our largest competition for the last couple of years, bringing us to many close calls, (loosing to them in under .23 sec in one stage race). Many a race we have had the Magenta Audi, just menacingly close, in front of us in the caravan. Now it’s time to ride in that car, nice.

The new colour, Magenta. At least I can see them in the peloton easily.

I have had a great experience with my current team, some great races, we won some fantastic stage, and one day classics. Dominated the world, for a while, and certainly was the most feared and professional looking team around the world. I learnt a hell of a lot from my Director, Jean-Paul van Poppel, looked upon as one of the best directors in women’s cycling, and I believe it. With some of his race calls and predictions, you wonder where he pulls the ideas from, and when they work, we are speechless. I also had the honour of working with women’s cycling most famous walking encyclopaedia, Klas Johannson, a fantastic knowledge base, and tactics, we could not have done without. Klas also spent many races working as second mechanic, many a stage race I could not have survived without him helping. The fun times we had in the car with the two of them, the jokes we told, the stories that unfolded, and the lunches swapped, and the races won. That feeling at the end of 10 days racing, when you pass the finish line cheering and yelling cause we won.

A moment as good as that, was balanced out by the same number of lows, the looses, the disasters. Some many close runs to the finish, that almost won feeling, is no where as good as the winning feeling, but it’s all part of the package. Those crashes, ohh those crashes, my stomach is turning just thinking about them. They never get easy, when that urgent voice comes over the radio, crash, in whatever language it may be in, I’m ready. Wheels in hand, running to the veritable pile of bodies, hoping for the least, and sometimes finding the worst. Upon reaching the bombsite, there are bikes and bodies everywhere, someone is crying very loud, there is blood, there are very quiet girls just holding things, it’s scary sometimes. We have been lucky really, considering some of the disasters the team could have suffered, hey all got their toes, and a few cool scars, add character to an otherwise perfect leg.
The clothing room, each rider has a box with custom built kit.

A few of the TT bikes hanging around.

We had some fantastic times with the team, some great countries seen, some bad countries stung by, even visited little old New Zealand, it was a great experience, but now it’s time to move up. It’s an offer I couldn’t refuse, and the next challenge to cross off my list shortly. Two more of our girls joined T-Mobile for next season, Madi and Luise, and they will join Linda, who has been there a year. So it will almost feel like home already. The other new rider Mara Abbott, the current USA champ, is the only rider I haven’t met. I know the rest of the team well enough, as we work all pretty close, and share the same Hotels throughout the year. So you become friends, even if you don’t want to be. I will be sharing the work with another mechanic Gregor, but by the looks of things, I get most of the good races anyway. I start early in the new season, working for the Men’s Team at the ‘Tour Down Under’, early on in Jan, and the directly working with the Women for Geelong and the NZ races. Then heading to Europe where I will be based in Bonn in south west Germany. So it’s all pretty exciting.

A nice collection of wheels, just a few of them.

I went for a bit of a drive to check out the new base and my accommodation, it’s only a couple of hours from my Dutch base. All of the trucks and vehicles were home, and the place was looking fantastic when I drove up, all pink and shiney. I had a pretty good look around, and I think I could like it here, it’s quite a step up from the garage I have been working out of. I met my boss, and the head mechanic from the men’s team, and managed to get my sticky nose into every corner of the building. They have two staff that look after the place, and the equipment. And about 6 mechanics for the 30 riders, we have two for the 13 Women. It was well stocked with stuff, even for this time of year, but the trucks were empty, and they were stripping bikes to save the groups, for next season’s training bikes. I then walked across the carpark to the office and accommodation building. A nice third story apartment, just fine for what I need, a bed, internet and a stove for home cooked food, it was sweet, and so were the office ladies, they think my accent is funny.

The team has only a few changes to the line up, in fact ten riders stay, and there is three new ones (denoted by *). But more on this later when I get a bit more time. Now only four more days in Holland to go, then a five days in London, a couple in Melbourne, then home to summer, sweet.


01 Mara Abbott* USA
02 Kim Anderson USA
03 Judith Arndt Germany
04 Kate Bates Australia
05 Chantal Beltman Netherlands
06 Luise Keller* Germany
07 Emilia Fahlin Sweden
08 Alex Rhodes Australia
09 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg Germany
10 Madeleine Sandig* Germany
11 Linda Villumsen Denmark
12 Anke Wichmann Germany
13 Oenone Wood Australia

Check out some more pics of the base here

Great Inventions for Cyclists

Now I have always been a sucker for making breakfast a little bit easier, especially those early morning training rides. Or even, the ungodly early morning race starts promoters come up with. I’m also a sucker for anything in a can, things like whipped cream, cheese, paint, nitrous oxide, to name a few classics. But this product has to take the prize for ease of use, and a great convenience food for starving cyclists.



How easy can it be, put a pan on the stove, and press the nozzle, cook, smoother in syrup and eat. I love the idea, and full points to the designers of this great invention. Now if only they can make a gluten free option, for those of us that are enemies of wheat, then I would have a fridge full of it. And thinking of it, why even cook it, just pump it into the stomach, even faster than cooking. Can’t wait till someone designs a ‘salad in a can’, that would be great for getting your daily dose of greens.


Check out their website here.

Mud in your eyes.

With winter coming on strong in the northern hemisphere, all the road races are almost over, and the ground underneath is getting wet and soft. This can only mean one thing, mud and more importantly the Cyclocross season has begun. A sport we don’t see at all, or very infrequently in the southern hemisphere. This, I am not sure why, but the theory is that we have such nice weather all year, you never have to stop riding on the road. You can race it all year, in fact most of NZ has it’s road season through winter anyway, go figure. With the bike scene the way it is, the odd company has brought a few Cross bikes out to sell, but they have never really worked. A few multisport racers, have wised up to the fact that they are way faster then a MTB on unsealed roads, but we still have not seen that many of them at events. I certainly have tried over the years to create a bit of interest in the sport, but it never really worked. There was some rumours of a small Wellington scene years ago, but again, less than ten riders turned up for the races, so it died, as you would expect.

Waiting in the pits are the mechanics and parents, with bikes ready, time to find a spot.

So with the Cross season starting up, I was starting to get a bit excited about having a look at a few races. And of course, time to check out some of the bikes. And having some mud on the bikes and around my feet, would cleanse my soul after another season on the road. Our team actually has a few of the girls that race the Cross season, but I will be gone by then, as they happen a little bit later in the year. So in the meantime, I have the boss’s son, Danny racing a few events before I leave, and I get to hang around and see the big boys race later on in the day as well.
Over the pedestrian tunnel, unfortunately no crashes here today, shame.

The race was at a small town in Belgium, and we were racing first up, so the carpark was pretty empty when we arrived. The class is for 15-16 yrs old, and it’s called Newelings, very self explanatory. There are plenty of races around for the smaller kids, down to about 8 yrs old, but this was more for the big boys. The same course is used for the juniors, right up to the professionals. The track looked pretty sweet, not what I was expecting, but as usual, I had no idea what to expect. Think of it as a big field, with a huge big-top tent in the center, this was the bar, and it was full at ten in the morning, the course snaled it’s way around the bar. Everyone had beer in their hands, as I was expecting, they had to get a head start on the beer, as the big race was at 5pm. There was a start/finish straight on the tarmac, into a winding paddock, over a bridge (pedestrian tunnel), through the pits, over a hill with off camber track (some rode, some ran), back over the hill again, through a sand pit (about 100m, 200mm thick, some ran, some rode). Then over a big set of stairs, down into a drop-off over a river, back over the river, some whoop-de-doo’s (it’s the noise you make when you ride over them), another set of stairs, some more paddocks and then through the start/finish again. It was mean, with no recovery at all, it was great to see them suffering, and you can see them many times each lap, suffering as well.

I love this little guys dedication in autograph hunting. That's my kind of cycling fan.

There was a couple of these structures, must feel nice on the legs after a few laps.

I was mechanic for the first race, and I had two bikes already prepared. Like the road, the kids are on restricted gears, and the chainrings looked very small (42-14 is the biggest). Some very nice, hand made tubulars, pumped up to a massive 25 psi, and the bike was ready to roll. There is a pit area that allows the riders to pass twice each lap, just in case they need a bike change. It’s a bit of a shit fight to get a good spot on the first few laps, but after a while it gets fairly spread out, so it gets a little bit easier to find your rider. It was an easy day for the mechanics, the weather was perfect, the mud stayed away, and the bikes worked, excellent. There were a few bike changes in my race, normally they were at the back of the bunch, with the kid trying to find an excuse for getting dropped, nice, blame the bike.

Some of the Belgium crowd, warming up for the afternoons big race. Most of them had a beer in hand.

The Newelings race for 40 mins, and the pro’s race for an hour, so it’s all over pretty quickly. But there are enough races through the day, to keep the drunk Belgium fans happy. Later on in the afternoon, the course was getting full, with up to ten people deep, around most of the course, it was starting to get messy out there. I stayed for a while, but it was time to start heading home, it was long day, my rider was fourth, not bad since he was one of the smaller guys in his class. With the first race of the season over, it can only get better. Tomorrow I have another race to work at, this should be fun, as it is all the small kids, rall the way up to the Neweling class. I can’t wait to see the midgets getting stuck in the mud, I am praying for rain tonight.

This guy didn't stop for at least an hour, talk about dedication. Watch out, in a few years he will be unbeatable. No crashes either, damn it.

You can find a few more pics here.

Surfs Up

With a little bit of time up my sleeve, and with the weather outside starting to deteriorate at a rapid rate. I find myself spending a fair bit of time on the old computer most nights. Catching up on some research and finishing a few projects I have been working on. It's alway nice when you make a good find.

Nothing much new comes out these days that really is different, but this bike below is. A concept bike like no other (actually both Cannondale and Specialized have done this idea on show bikes, but not as cool), but this is way cooler and lighter than the other. Designed and built by a couple of Japanese guys, Makota Makita and Hiroshi Tsuzaki. The 'Zero' looks like a pretty wild bike, their main drive in the design was light, and by the looks of this thing, I think they succeeded. And those hub-less wheels look pretty sweet. As much as I hate TT bikes, this is one bike that I would love to have in my quiver.



So from that I started looking a bit more, and found this little beauty. the funny thing is to read some of the comments, either left by class mates or other designers. They give him a real hard time. Hey it's a pretty cool looking bike all the same.

That is until I found this baby below from Amen Motorcycles. Now that's what I call a chopper, and those hub-less wheels look pretty amazing. And this guy has a working model, but it looks fairly interesting, (scroll down a bit to see it) but at least he has it ridable. Now if we can find a chopper that looks like this, and is human powered, I think then I have found my dream bike. Well at least for this month anyway.



A bit more info on hub-less wheels here and over here.


And for the coolest cyclist of the month, it has to be this guy. Looking pretty cool with his sunnies on, ready to rip up the sidewalks. After collecting pictures of monkeys, bikes, and monkeys on bikes, this is the best so far I think. And the crazy thing is, it is almost a dead ringer for my old flatmate Andy. The difference is this guy looks like he knows how to ride a bike, enjoy.

Dutch Bike Show

Some of the retro jerseys on sale for the day.

Finally after a few years of trying, I managed to find the time to head to a bike show in Europe. And what a show it was, full of every bike brand you could think of, plus a whole lot I have never heard of. After the first room, I thought it was a bit much, but around the corner was almost double the size. I spent the whole day walking around in circles, so much to see in one place, all clean and shiny. It got to the stage when I couldn't look any more, (I know, I must be sick), but no breakfast and four hours of dribbling, I was delirious. So instead of talking more than I need to, go and have a look at a few of the photo galleries.


And this Orbea was a bit out of control, I call it the Stealth TT.

So head towards my photo site and see for yourself, Number 1, Number 2, Number 3.


And I fell in love with this little lady, very pretty indeed.

An Autumns Day

With the season finished, and almost all my work done for the season, things have been pretty relaxed around here. With autumn coming on strong, the sun has almost gone for the year. With less than two weeks left for me here in the Netherlands, I have finally got a little bit of time for some riding.


Some nice sunshine poking it's way through the dying leaves.

Time to get out there and enjoy the last few days of summer, before the shit weather is upon us. I am always looking at the weather back in NZ about this time, just to see if I am missing out on any sunshine, but I have been lucky so far. From the looks of the snow reports, and the punters complaining anout the cold snap, I seem to be winning here with the weather so far. but it is getting a bit cold at night, but the days almost make up for it.


The local windmill, searching for wind on an otherwise perfect day.


Art shot

There is not much around the neighbourhood I have not seen a few times, so it's always good when there is such a perfect day for the old camera. And the colours in some of the fields and forests this time of year, is hard to replicate. All the leaves and litter on the trails, add a little bit of noise to an otherwise quiet ride.


A nice looking field, with a few horses from the riding school.

I am still messing around a bit with my video program, but it still looks like it's compressing it a bit too much, as I am loosing a bit of detail. But here I made a little bit of vid of my ride home from the teams base to the team house. It's longish, but all the same, could be good when I get it sussed.


A nice day to be on the bike, riding home after a few hours work.

and I thought it might have been youtube, but alas, same though my mac pages here.

Check out a few more pics here.

Forgotten Hero

While racing the Giro this year, we had a start in a very cool little town, up in the north of Italy. The town called Cittiglio is pretty famous for a few of it’s riders, but none as famous as Alfredo Binda. Right on the start line of the race was this tiny little museum, full with stuff dedicated to the dude. He won pretty much everything in his day, and with a bit of looking found these couple of good sites,
with some more info on him, the hall of fame, and as much as I hate it Wikipedia has a nice little article as well.


The man himself, Alfredo Binda

From the hall of fame site. “Alfredo Binda was born in the village of Cittiglio near Varese, Italy on August 11, 1902. He was born in Italy, but was raised in Nice, France.
Binda was a keen cyclist in his youth and used to ride on the track in Pont Magnam, France. Binda was good on the track, but better in the mountains. He was a born climber. Binda’s claims to fame is that he was the first cyclist to win the Giro d’Italia five times, the current record, and the first cyclist to win the World Championship Road Race three times, including the inaugural event in 1927.” Plus a few other races that will really surprise you.


A couple of nice old jersey's won on a couple of bikes, nice.

The museum was pretty sweet, for a whole Euro, there was plenty to see. A few of his bikes are here, some just like he stepped off them many years ago. Legnano bike factory is just up the road, and by the looks of things, he was sponsored by them most of his career. Actually the World road champs are just up the road in Varese next year, so the area is thick with history. Plenty of old bits and pieces were kept in pretty good order, and the bikes were sweet to check out. Some very nice little details to spot as well.


Some cool cranks, a spare oil can, just in case.

One claim to fame for him, was a pretty cool, but one of those ‘why bother’ inventions, an semi automatic chain oiler. This was back in the day of early drivetrain experiments, so anything to help last the distance was a good idea. Most of the racers were lucky to have a mechanic out on the course, and definitely no spare bikes waiting for them either. The invention was pretty simple, he carried a small oil can in his back pocket, which when needed, poured it through a little hole in the seatpost. Then the oil dripped down the seat tube, when it was diverted through a small, foldout funnel stem kind of thing. This was directed right on to the chain, much like we saw about ten years ago for the mountain bikes. He was pretty smart, but if he preloaded the tube with the oil, and when the tube was lowered it would slowly siphon out on to that chain, that would have been way cooler. But all the same, he was thinking.


Here you can see the oil can to the right, just sitting on the top of the chain tensioner, and hiding under the lever is the oil spout, you can just make it out.


One of his track bikes, or fixie for the road more like it.

There was some very cool pictures around the walls, and for such a small town, it was a wicked find. The race was about to start, as the girls were lining up outside the window, so I headed out. The race left and followed it’s way to the surrounding mountains, it was very nice in the hills, lush forest and some pretty good looking view form the top. Just past the halfway up the hill, I spied a memorial wall, covered in cranks and messages. But would you believe it, I missed the shot with my camera, not once, not twice, but thrice, oh well, there is always next year.


The girls are getting lined up, must be time to say goodbye to Alfredo.

I have a few more pics loaded up right here.

One Lap to go

Last lap of the Women's road race. With not much happening, a look at what we don't see during a big race. Even worse is that you have no idea of what's happening, as there is no info over the radio either. But in case you didn't pick it up, last lap, and Amber and Cantele about to be caught after their one lap escape.



And a bit of a test on this video player, see how long it takes to upload.

And a bit of something else I found. Even more proof that the Dutch are the bike freaks of the modern world. One of those 'why bother' inventions, but all the same pretty interesting.

World Men's Road Race

With the women’s race out of the way, the U23 men’s race was about to start. Sweden had no one in this race, so I had a pretty easy afternoon on the cards. Time for me to organise all the bikes and wheels and shit, that I had collected of all of our girls in the team after their road race. I had a full truck, so spent the afternoon packing it for travel, and sorting out the Swedish team bike ready for travel. We only had three Swedes racing in the elite men’s race, so no real hurry to start work for them yet. I had the same guys racing that have been with the team for the last three years, bar one, Magnus Backstead, who decided to finish his season a bit earlier this year. So I was left with three, Marcus Ljungqvist, currently riding for CSC, with a couple of nice Cervelo’s. Gustav Larsson, currently riding for Unibet, with a couple of Canyon bikes. Thomas Lövkvist, who just signed with T-mobile for the coming season, with a couple of Lapierre bikes, from his current team, Française des Jeux. So with Gustav being looked after by his mechanic from Unibet, Klas got Marcus, and I got to look after Thomas’s bikes.


The Boys lined up before the start. From left, Thomas, Marcus and Gustav

Just like I do with the girls in my team, we had bikes and wheels being dropped off left right and center during the week. It gets a bit much trying to work out who’s who, but most of the equipment is fairly team specific, so it’s easy once you got it. I had a few hours on two bikes, but like always, you can make it last all day if you need to. We had an earlyish race start at 10am, so we had no time in the morning, as usual. The race was 260km long, so it was going to be a long day. My job was effectively done when the race was underway, I was not contracted to do the race, so I had pretty much the whole day to cruise, and watch the race for a change.

Klas, ready for his first six laps in the team car.

With a couple of bike to sort out, it was going to be an early night. But as usual, the eternal discussions on tyres, wheels, bearings, etc, always makes the time disappear, just when you need it. The big discussions of the week and most of the year, is the onslaught of Ceramic bearings into the sport. An expensive, hard to maintain option, but very cool and smooth once you get them working well. Good example on the price you can pay is about 200 Euro (about NZ$600) for a Shimano BB (providing the BB yourself, otherwise more cash) and a couple of pulley wheels. Pretty damn expensive, and with a few days in the rain, you had better be prepared to take it out and service it completely. I tried to do a bit of video for comparison, but got to involved in the testing to bother. Most of the bigger teams are just starting to use them, but because they are too expensive, most of the riders pay for them themselves.

Art Shot, with kiwi Hayden Roulston in the background.

Right, so after discussions on Ceramic bearings, we did a wheel-spinning test just to prove the theory. Our standard teams wheel, nice high carbon Bontrager, with DT hubs, 1.3min (best time 2.1min), and compared to the Zipp 404 with the ceramic in, a whopping great 7.2 mins. Standard BB with dura-ace cranks, spinning around about 3-4 spins, with the ceramic BB bearings, almost 20 spins. So quite worth the money and time, that’s assuming you can afford both. So the boys started checking there wheels, which is a shame, as my riders wheels (Shimano) felt like someone had used glue, instead of grease, when they put them together. So I had six extra jobs of taking each hub apart, cleaning, oiling and adjusting them so they moved a bit more freely. Next time I keep my mouth closed a little bit.

Eddy is still the man, just in case you had forgot, this guy hadn't.

The Kiwi 's watching the last lap commence, the whole team was out by now, so they could relax.

We woke to clear, sunny skies, which is always a relief for both the riders and staff. I had a nice leisurely breakfast, then headed into town for the race. I arrived nice and early, as I knew things would be busier on the roads with the spectators, and full in the teams car park. The women’s race had some pretty good numbers of people watching, but the men were going to quadruple the amount on the side of the course. The team parking was a lot more full, with pro men’s team buses and trucks filling every spot available. It was nice to see, and my little truck, looked very small next to some of the pro trucks, I could have driven mine into a couple if I wanted. I got all the bikes ready, tyres pumped, and the team car loaded. We were sharing the car with Switzerland today, so had to make some room for a few more bikes on the roof. But is was nice to see the car when it was loaded, as there were some real spanky bikes up there, and they were the spare bikes. But the race was about to start, Klas was the lucky mechanic for the first 7 laps, and the Swiss mechanic will be doing the rest of the race. 260km for one mechanic is a little bit much on such a nice day. I on the other hand, prepared a bike for me to ride for the day, attempting some spectating in the sun.


Marcus looking focused, coming up the finish straight.

As the race started, I packed up the truck for the day and headed out on the course. The speed of the peloton was pretty fast on the first few laps. With a break out the front running fast, the bunch was trying to keep them at a safe distance. But just like the Women’s race, the men were dropping off the back of the bunch like flies, it was fun to watch them suffering up close for a change. But the chase was done, and the bunch was all together after a few laps, ready for the next attacks. And they came thick and fast, and the team tents were starting to fill up with dropped riders. Some of them were looking pretty messed up with the heat and speed of the race. Some of the riders still racing looked like they were not even warmed up yet. By the 200km, we lost the last Kiwi in the race, being Hayden Roulsten, but it was a good effort, as half the starters were out of the race by now. The rest of the race you already know, with the Italians taking out the race, just like they did the day before with the Women. They were looking pretty strong throughout the day, and were in every attack that looked serious. I had full accreditation to get right on the finish line, but I decided to stay in the boxes and look on the monitors. It sounded like a better option than fighting with a couple of hundred press and crew for a glimpse at the finish line.


Thomas looking drained with one lap to go.

The best thing was the amount of shit, the little Italian had to put up with during the week, not even knowing if he was starting, right up to the last day. Every single person I talked to was very happy with Bettini winning. Good on him, he really deserved it. Now a small drive home, back to the Netherlands, with the season almost over for me, sweet.


And the winner, past the pits on the last lap, still focused, ready to jump.

Don't forget the photo pages for some more wicked shots.

Worlds Women's Road Race

With all the Time-trails out of the way, it was time to get organised for the road races. We had an early start for the race, at 9am, which is a real shame, cause that means a real early start for the mechanics. We swap each year with the U23 for a early or late start, this year it was the Women’s race that gets the early start, yeha. But at least we had no U23 riders this year, so it won’t be as long a day. We had the mechanic for Unibet helping out with his riders bikes, so he had looked after Gustav Larsen for his TT, the day before. Unibet were sponsoring the team for the week, so we had the camper and bus from the Unibet team as well, sweet in case of bad weather.


Our setup for the day, my truck looks so small.

We had three Swedish riding with Susanne from our team, Emma, who also rode the TT with Susanne, and a new girl from Menikini, Sara. We also had a few other girls from the usual team racing, Mirjam for Netherlands, Amber for USA, Luise for Germany and Trine for Denmark. The Kiwi’s were fielding the biggest team I have heard of for a while, with five in the team, Joanne Kiesanowski, Tony Bradshaw, Rosera back from her 5th place in the MTB worlds, Carissa Wilks and Michele Hyland to round it off. They were looking good. I had managed to get all the tt bikes and equipment back from all the team on TT day, and had passed over all the race bikes and wheels for those who were racing. I had a couple of weeks to sort these out, as we missed heading to Tour Toscana, which gave me plenty of time on the bikes and wheels. Every girl had their race bikes looking and running sweet, new tyres, new bearings and cables where needed. Most had spare bike, and a set or two of spare wheels as well. This was a nightmare to keep control of, so my new system should keep it under control (called writing it down), with every bike and wheel etc recorded, to minimise losses. But everything was delivered to the rightful countries, and was in the hand of their mechanics, I rested easy, half my job was done. All that was left was to race, then spend some frantic hours collecting it all back again.

Three for Sweden, a small team from them for a change, Klas had already spent a month on Susanne’s three bikes, so I only had two bikes to deal with for the night. The car was ready, I had installed the teams radio, and a TV for the week as well, (this we would never get working, all week), it was clean, and ready to roll. I started on the girls bikes, watching Klas freaking out over the impending race. Susanne was looking great in the weeks leading up to this, it was a perfect course, a tough race, something for her for sure. But as always, I was not counting too far ahead, just making sure the bike would finish the race was all that was on my mind. Race after race, it doesn’t get any easier, the bike still gets a full going over, even more so now, with such an important race. Both Emma and Sara’s bikes were pretty sweet, I changed a chain or two, and went over each bike about twenty times before I put it down. They were perfect, as usual, at least the bikes were going to make it, now it’s up to the girls to do the rest. Klas had taken Susanne’s race bike to the room, he would sleep better knowing it was safe, in the room with us.


Hey it's Amber, who she riding for again?

We were a bit worried, with the weather as we sat down at the end of the night for our debriefing (vodka on ice, thanks), it was closing in for the night. Rain had been predicted for the last three days, and we had heard it during the night, but not seen it in the day, I was hoping for the same. The course has so many fast descents, it would be really dangerous round some of the corners in the wet. Crashes are not the sort of thing I like to think of going into a race, but all the same, it would not feel the same without it overhead. It’s all part of the equation, but to get the right answer, that’s another idea.

Waking up to clear skies, (once the sun came up), was a great relief, as I guzzled down a quick breakfast. Driving through the city of Stuttgart again, it was eerily quiet for a change, but still there was enough traffic, probably still trying to get home from the night before. I parked up the truck and got organised, we were sharing a car with South Africa, they had two riders, and no spare bikes to carry. All the same, will be a bit of a push on the back seat, with four of us in the car. The cloud had lifted and the sun was showing it’s full strength, nice, as I was soaking up the morning rays. The road would take a lap or two to dry out, then the real racing should have got going by then. I waited for the others, as they were having a later start, and arriving with the girls an hour or so before the start. The bad new was, Susanne woke up in the middle of the night with a bad Migraine, and was vomiting right up till the morning. Her race was over, before she even started, but would start anyway. We were not expecting much, as emptying her tank all night was not such a great idea, especially for such a tough race.


From left, Sara, Emma and Susanne.

The race was finally underway, at the ungodly hour of 9am, but it was not raining, and no wind present, so we couldn’t ask for much more. 7 laps, and 133km to go. The roads looked deadly slippery as we made our way around the first lap, and as you would guess, there was crashes around every corner. We had car number 10, so saw nothing of the carnage, but could see the aftermath every few corners. All our team was safe, and some of the speed of the girls descending some of the hills was just a little bit too slow for the race. It was fast, we saw an unfortunate crash with Tony Bradshaw NZL in the first lap, problems with her rear mech, and she was not to join the pack again. Lap two saw a few more girls down, Rosara NZL dropped her chain for the second time, this time she didn’t make it back and her race was done. Susanne decided she was not going too well, and she pulled out at the next time she went past the pits. Sweden had two left, but soon after I thought that we saw Sara SWE, dropping out of the bunch, and here was about the time we saw Trine DMK getting dropped as well.

Susanne is looking great, shame it didn't stay like that.

The course was taking it’s toll on the girls, with no real places for recovery they were starting to hurt, probably was the reason why the race was not very active on the front. Not surprising really, with the speed of the peloton, and the course conditions so far. We saw Amber USA making a good break with Noemi Cantele ITA, they managed to stay out for about a lap or two. They were reeled in pretty easy on the last lap or so, when a great attack went off the front with about 15 riders. This was about the time the race radio decided to get a little bit lazy. With the last lap already halfway gone, we were blind to what was happening on the front so just waited. Near the top of the big climb, a wind gust came up though the valley and blew a whole section of barriers over, on to the peloton. This caused chaos in the caravan, as we were already stuck in a jam with a crash further back. Quite a few of the girls were trapped and blocked by the barriers, but were gone by the time we reached them. This was the most important break of the day and we hear nothing of who was in it. We waited, waited, and nothing. The race was done, in the group we figured out there was Vos the current champ, Amber, Emma, Joanne Kiesanowski, and a few others. At least we had a chance with Emma for Sweden, Amber for Flexpoint and Joanne K for NZ, I had lots of options at least.


Through the pits for the last time.

Well you probably know the outcome already, Marta Bastianelli (Italy) makes an successful attack and stays out, the rest of the bunch race for the places left. Marianne Vos (Netherlands) sprinted for a very disappointing (she was pissed off) second, and another Italian Giorgina Bronzini (Italy) for third.
Time 3.46.34 (35.406 km/h average).


Rosara Joseph through the finish line, after another dropped chain.

Emma was the best we had in sixth place, sweet for Sweden, and a super result from such a young rider. This rounds out her best year yet. Best for Flexpoint was Amber in 16th, being beaten on the line by Jo K, from NZ. With over half the field not finishing, it was difficult, but not as hard as it’s going to be for the men with 260km to ride. Roll on Sunday.

Dont' watch this.

If you are new to cycling this is not the sort of stuff you should be watching. But if you have a sick mind and sense of humour like me, you will enjoy it a lot. I am sure you will be cringing with delight at the end of it.
Can say there are some very stupid people out there, thats for sure. But hey, it's just great that no one had a video camera when I was attempting half my stunts, otherwise I would have a few here as well.
Enjoy

Worlds Video snips

Though the feed zone, think from about the fourth lap.


Think was about lap eight.