[Internal14]

...got a call from Rock Racing.
I'll be spinning wrenches and trying not to fall asleep in the back of the follow car for Missouri.
Had a great time last year there with Toyota, couldn't refuse when Rock's call came in.
It should be a mellow group as the A-Team will be racing ToB.

 

[maddog17]

very nice!! lucky bastard, you BETTER get pics of the RR chicks. the more compromising the better!! oh.... and some free schwag for us wouldn't hurt either... i ride a 58cm!!!

 

[sanjuro]

sniff the powder

 

[ire]

Thats very cool!! Instead of falling asleep, you should be working a camera!

 

[-dustin]

that is badass. do you know people or are you licensed?

 

[Internal14]

that is badass. do you know people or are you licensed?

I was a full time race mechanic for years, years ago. Now I go whenever someone calls and it's feasible for me to be out of the shop at that time.
I usually try to hit the bigger races, ToC, ToG, and ToM for us US based folks. It's nice that I keep getting calls at the eleventh hour to fly in and blast out the work, then fly home without dealing with all the Team headaches.

I mostly do it nowadays for stories...and with Rock I figured I'd gather a few stories. Also ToM was pretty fun last year. Good race. Not killer transfers. Nice Hotels. Oh yeah, the bike race itself wasn't too bad either, but as a mechanic you kinda don't care too much about that aspect of what's going on that week. It's fun to look over the communique's that gets passed out to the teams at the dining hall in the evenings. If anything to see who got popped for a little too long of a water bottle pass from a car....or a mechanic taking 10km's at 70kph 'adjusting' the rear brake.

 

[Internal14]

Thats very cool!! Instead of falling asleep, you should be working a camera!

I've got hard drives full of pictures from the car....and trust me, they're not worth posting....well, maybe a few....but that's from countless races.
Also I'm always a little paranoid I'm going to jump for a wheel change and the camera will crash out of the car...and that's it, no going back for a camera.

And if you can catch a few z's in the car, you can be a bit more fresh after the stage to get your work done. After a while you get to the point where you can be in a dead sleep, hear your riders number on teh race radio requesting service, feel the car lerch, and be ready by the time you get to your rider. BAck in car, get heart rate down....go to sleep.
Feeding riders from the car really dampers the sleep time though...