The Redlands bicycle classic is, well, it’s classic. 4 Days of racing covering the major disciplines of modern road cycling. You start with the day sucking event that is the opening time trial and then move on to the road race the crit and finally the circuit race. Redlands has the tendency to draw good crowds and even better competition. 2009 did not disappoint all the big guns came out to play. It was good to see such high level caliber women’s racing. Webcor did it’s best but it was a very tough weekend of racing. It was very hard for me being the mechanic with a -still broken- leg but luckily Ryan Bontrager came along to help me out with my duties and Jeremy “Jezza” Fliss, Webcor’s new Swany made his debut with the team as well. It was strange to have other Men on the team. It was a different vibe this year at Redlands, but in a good way. All 12 of us stayed with our Mom away from Moms and super hostess Cid Breir who has been hosting racers for almost as long as the classic has been running. She puts up with alot of crap- 8 racers and 4 staff all in one house- think about it. Cid you are a saint.
On with the show….
The ”Carl’s Jr.” burger truck causes ripples in time and space… someone call Matt Horowich and tell him Hawking has it all wrong the secret is bacon burgers
Webcor and Olympic Veteran Dr. Thorburn was presented a legends of the sport award at the Crit on Saturday
Erinne totally photo bombed “Jezza” as he gave me his best Morrissey impression
Saturday’s podium was reserved for those with names containing ”I.N.A”
Since I couldn’t work jump. I got to drive the team car during the road race. Karen Directed from the passenger seat and Ryan worked jump. We had some very interesting moments after a wheel change went bad- thanks to a new Mavic neutral support rider Karen, the car, and Ryan will never be the same again.
Ryan Bontrager was a big help all weekend
Jeremy Fliss doing Webcor proud in the feed zone. Welcome aboard Jezza!
This what you get when two Cyclocross mechanics go to the feed zone on a circuit race- a full on pit of spares
Nikki making a very good debut with the green team
Amy and Cid- just before Amy dropped and broke that coffee mug Cid’s favorite ! (just kidding)
See this face? this is my boss before the race. Now picture this face after I just launched the team car at 70+ during a race and upon reentry hearing metal on pavement and smelling burnt rubber and oil while the mechanic is rolling around in the backseat in agony because he just got drilled in the face with his tool kit before bouncing off the ceiling and then directly into the floor becasue he was trying to get a tube out of the back when I hit the intersection. Yup- looked just like that only a little less happy. Good times.
Redlands The Hit list
- Aussie expressions- “I ‘m picking up what your puttin’ down”
- Aussie nicknames- Jezza, Rhino, Dave-o, Kezza
- Aussie Race expressions- Sticky bidens
- Good host housing
- The joy of having a proper swany
- 2 mechanics are better than 1
- In- N- Out Burger perfectly placed half way between LA and San Fran
- The new Sprinter
- Cell phones and magic planters
- Union meetings
- Looking for riders at strip clubs at 1 am when you don’t know the name of the club and neither do they
- Volvos can take a serious beating
- Strongbad techno
- Tommy D. look alikes who wanna fight cause they look like Tommy D. (bro I would have ripped your arms off and beaten you with them)
- Drunk Aussies (not Webcor Aussies) dirty, dirty girls.
- Katheryn’s ability to draft the Sprinter for 300+ miles in traffic and milking an extra 100+/- miles out of a tank of fuel
Next stop San Diego….
D. out.
