Looking for mechanics to volunteer for the 12-13 June, Clarendon Cup and Air Force Classic Crits in Arlington, VA

Contact me- bernard@sramnrs.com

One of my pet projects over the past few years has been to resurrect the norm of long-ago….back in the day….the old days…whatever…of having new race mechanics work events for experience under the guidance of experienced journeymen mechanics. Usually those events happened in CA where travel costs made it impossible for me to attend at that time…so I missed out on some excellent racing and training!
Anyway time moves on and that scenario is changing considerably with the current trend of USAC adding an East Coast Regional Mechanics Clinic to their mainstay Bill Woodul Mechanics Clinic. The Woodul Clinic (named for a former National Team Mechanic and Team and Equipment Manager) in Colorado Springs is augmented by the North East regional Mechanics Clinic (this year it’s 30 June-01 July in Providence, RI…go to www.usacycling.org , look for mechanics and find it!!) …

For those who haven’t experienced a UCI race in Mexico, you are in for a nice surprise. Whether it’s a track event or a road event, organizers have a good handle on providing a good experience for all participants.

For Team RACE Pro, the Vuelta Chihuahua was the final event for our 08 season. But….we did wonder if the boys would be able to maintain racing fitness over the weeks since Univest…have to admit, they were in good form and raced well.

Most of the team assembled in Toronto with a transfer in Dallas where we met our swannie for the event, Benny, who works for one of the BIG teams but was able to gig with us. While we were going through US Customs from Toronto, I was interviewed by a Mexican-American officer who felt it was his duty to ask …

Bernard KOCIS- Journal

Being able to schedule time off is one of the hardest things to do on a team. Of course, riders do this regularly as part of their training and racing plan but staff have a more difficult time of it. Especially when staff are only a few people doing all the work required to keep the team functioning.
I feel lucky to be able to write this in the middle of my “time off”. Steve and Josée had to revise the July racing schedule when the Tour de Toona went from a Stage Race to a one day Crit. Since there are lots of one-day races around the US and Canada during this time they decided to give the riders their choice of where to race or train and give the staff some much needed time off. Of course, …

Bernard KOCIS- Journal
13 May, 2008

Sometimes good ideas do work out!

Over the past five years, I’ve tried to get whatever team I’m on to allow me to bring on volunteer mechanics for events that have more than 6 riders. This year, I am lucky to be on a team that sees the value of such a plan. And doubly lucky to have brought on a volunteer worthy of the effort.

After asking Justin, USAC’s Head Mechanic/Operations Manager to put out a ‘volunteers wanted’ request from me to the licensed mechanics who have been through the Bill Woodul Mechanics Clinic, I received a number of responses. From those, one guy was able to arrange for his own travel to the event and was the one I was able to invite since our team budget could not handle travel expenses.

As I suspected, there are …

I’ve left a huge gap from our time in Europe. Main reason is the slow internet speed and my choosing to sleep rather than wait for downloads to complete. Sorry, priorities!

So after Beverbeek, we drove to France for the GP de Lilliers, 160km. This is the 44th year this race has been contested, it’s amazing how many races have been around for decades in Europe…anyway, this year found the boys on the start line in full rain gear and cold temps.
As usual, the hammer dropped just after the start and we came across a few crashes but luckily, none of our boys were left on the ground. But our luck wasn’t long lasting, one of our guys was involved in an early crash and had bent the derailleur hanger but still had decent shifting so wasn’t aware of anything until …

Bernard KOCIS Journal
07 March 08

Oh the boys got a wake up call at this race. Cold, windy and overcast. And to add to the stress, one of our riders suddenly (after 40min on the road) exclaimed, “I forgot my shoes and the bag they were in”…OK, here’s a Bill Woodul mechanic clinic test question (not really but this is how a lot of questions make it on the test)- In this situation what do you do? Given that you are driving the whole team (DS and swannie have gone ahead) and the travel time is 1.5 hrs and you are 40 min into the trip.
Hard question isn’t it? If you turn around to retrieve the shoes you put yourself 80 min behind schedule and very close to arrive too close to start time. If you keep going, you have a …

Bernard KOCIS- Journal
29 Feb 08

Preparing for our European adventure began with me spending 12 hours in a car driving to Canada with two of our riders who continued training in the South after our official training camp ended. They collected me from my house in Virginia and we hit the road.

Once again in Canada, I was supposed to build TT bikes and the remainder of our team bikes and spares but our parts were still on the water between Japan and North America…looks like we travel lighter than we wanted.
I gathered all the parts and spares we had and packed 7 bikes plus my mechanic kit and we headed off to the Toronto airport where all but one rider met us and gave the ticket agents quite a start with 9 people hauling over 30 pieces of baggage! Steve had …

Bernard KOCIS- Journal
22 Feb 08

2008 has begun. Along with another stellar group of graduates from the Bill Woodul Mechanics Clinic who I hope, have found and will utilize Promechanics.com as their first source of information for our profession. Congratulations to those recent graduates. I missed the Clinic this year, sadly, but have thoroughly enjoyed previous Clinics I instructed.

As these graduates will find and the rest of us already hooked to this lifestyle know, teams, riders, sponsors, suppliers, management and staff (including mechanics!) are frantically preparing for the season or are already competing in early season events.

I am in the ‘frantically preparing’ category. Frantic because product has not arrived in enough quantity (or at all) to prepare bikes, wheels, vehicles, trailer, etc…for proper competition throughout the season.

We had a 10 day Team training camp the end of January near Clemson, South …