TRIA Orthopaedic Center Your Cycling Blog

The purpose of my stop in the Bay Area was to pick up the team car, or car that is driven in the race caravan. Our trusty 2003 Subaru holds six bikes on the roof rack, one director at the wheel, one fleet-footed mechanic ready to service our rider’s bikes at a moments notice, a cooler of water bottles, and spare wheels. So, after packing the car with supplies for the upcoming race, I hit the road to begin the trip to Silver City, NM. On that day, I made it to Redlands, CA where I stayed with longtime Webcor host and friend of cycling, Cid. After a home cooked meal, I was off across the desert in a reverse California migration to Tucson to pick up additional teammates that weren’t driving in from the new Albuquerque Roadrunner race. And, by 9:30, we rolled in to our host house in New Mexico.

My responsibilities as a soigneur are to ensure that the riders have what they need before, during, and after the races. This includes daily massage, water bottles for racing, food for both during and after racing. So, the day before racing began, after sneaking in a short ride with our mechanic extraordinaire Dave Drumm, it was time to fill bottles, make post-race sandwiches, clean the car, and make sure all the race food was set to go.

Race day usually look like this: wake up early, double and triple check that everything is prepared and done for the day, drive to the race start, make sure the riders have everything they need from food to liquids to warming oil for their legs on cold days. Then it is off for the feed zone, a designated location on the race route where I am allowed to hand off bottles to the riders when they come past. After feeding, it is a race to the finish so that towels, warm and dry clothes, recovery protein beverages, and food are available as soon as possible. Hopefully after an appearance on the podium by one or more of our riders, it’s back to housing for even more food, massage, and prep the next day.

The first day of racing consisted of a point to point road race where Webcor took the third step of the podium with Katheryn Mattis at the top of the cliff hugging road up to the ghost town of Mogollon. Back to the ranch, lather, rinse, repeat.

Day two was a bit more interesting with 70 degree temperatures, sustained winds in the 30s and what we would later find out were gusts up to 86 mph. After getting literally sand blasted and watching the field of riders get blown apart, it was time to pick up the pieces and prepare for the time trial the following day.

Time trials are individual races against the clock. Even though the wind had died down, it hadn’t abated. Dave, the mechanic, and I arrive at the start about two hours prior to the first rider’s start time to set up trainers for the riders to warm up on, chairs to sit down on, food and water to chow down on, and to make sure the special aerodynamic time trial bikes are running perfectly. Then, as their times come up, we get the riders to the start line and its in their hands. Webcor’s Erinne Willock tore the legs off of all but one other rider to finish in 2nd place.

Criteriums, or crits, are usually the only time that I get to see much racing, as they consist of a short 1-3km course that is raced for a set number of laps or amount of time. The Gila criterium was held in downtown Silver City and consisted of 25 brutally fast laps.

The 5th and final day was another point to point road race that finished at the mountain top village of Pinos Altos. Cold weather, a long and steep climb, and snow flurries made this a day to be survived. After all was said and done, Erinne Willock of Canada was 5th overall for the Tour of the Gila.