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Wrenchin' in the USA: The Chris Davidson diary 2006
Leaving his post from a 'Shimano MTB guy' to a SRAM/RockShox/Avid/TruVativ fella will form the basis of wrencher Chris Davidson's new gig, where he has been contracted to work for Ford Cycling in 2006.
However, some things stay the same. One of those will be his informative diary contributions on Cyclingnews, where you'll often receive the inside scoop on all things tech.
NORBA #5 - Brian Head, UT, August 4-6, 2006
Here comes the rain
The Second day here at Brian Head should be a slow day; the riders will all get in there last pre-ride, make final tire choices, etc. It should be an early day for me, clean up and go for a ride. Not so.
The morning starts for me with the quest for internet access. Not easy at this venue. I haven't had cell coverage since we arrived, but the internet access proved even harder. The phone line didn't work as we are isolated enough that none of my dialup numbers work. I ended up doing a little driving and paying a little too much to get access. Ah, the price of reach out to the outside world. Regardless, the morning stated early, as I got the internet thing done and headed to the trailer before 8:00am.
I got two riders out on the pre-ride, when the first of many short powerful storms blew thru. Raining sideways, the organizers and worried about riders isolated out on the course, as this is a single 27 mile loop course. At the time I was building a wheel at the trailer as the rain hit and I scrambled to get things inside. The two riders made it back, but the bikes were toast and they were wet and frozen. More riders showed up later in the day, some had ridden on their own and brought back trashed bikes, other chose to ride the trainer and wait out the rain. It rained on and off the rest of the day.
My last rider didn't show up until 3:30pm, as Sara Bresnick-Zocchi was going to contest the SuperD at 6:30pm. I like to joke with Sara, and the SuperD competition was a great excuse to treat her like a downhill rider rather than a XC star. All the joking aside, the weather cleared up nicely to get the SuperD off on schedule and Sara had an awesome race, taking 2nd to current national champ Sue Haywood[Trek/VW]. Sara has two podiums in SuperD in two weeks, she is a rising threat in this relatively new discipline.
The warmdown/podium/packup took hours longer than it should have, leaving me with just over 12 hours at the trailer today. I felt like the only thing that I actually accomplished at the trailer today was building the wheel, as the cycle of washing/tuning bikes just keeps going in circles: I work on the bikes, riders ride, I clean and tune, riders ride, etc……
Two feed zones on a huge single loop course tomorrow will involve me at the start line for the riders start and then some rally driving on some dirt roads to get to the zones before the riders. It should be fun. The forecast doesn't change for the next couple of days, which means some intermittent rain.
Back at it before 8:00am tomorrow, I look forward to it. I will try and capture some pictures of the action tomorrow. See you there-
Chris Davidson
Results - NORBA #5
