First day of racing at my first world Championships and I’m relaxed

Even though Danny (Junior mechanic) arrived yesterday, I did most of the preparation for the Junior women’s bikes. Danny brought the rest of the equipment for the Junior men and U23 riders also. George was still prepping the U23 bikes yesterday so he had lots to do also.
There were only two entrants per country per category in the TT. In the morning was the Junior women’s TT and in the afternoon was the U23 TT. I was to follow the first Junior woman, Danny was to follow the second Junior woman and go back to the hotel so he could prep the Junior men bikes. In the afternoon, I was to follow the first U23 and George was to follow the second guy.
We arrived about 10:30 or so at the start area. The area was already busy with cars and even some huge team buses. Some countries were helped by trade team vehicles. I saw the Once team bus (for the Spanish federation) and Mapei team bus (I did not see which federation was using that bus). Even though we were the US federation team Geoff brought the US Postal truck for us to use for the Elite (Pro) team.
I was to follow the first rider who was Larssyn Stanley. Both of the women warmed up primarily in the parking area but they also had to get their bike checked by the UCI. Near the start area was a fenced in area for bikes to get checked. Mainly saddle set back and handle bar extension limits were measured. They also had to do a roll out to keep under a gear restriction. Both of these things were checked at the same time and afterwards the bike had to stay there. So I took a trainer to this area so they both could continue to warm up more after they had their bikes checked.
This was probably the most relaxed I’ve ever been while following a rider in a TT. Normally I’m very nervous hoping problems will not arise. I’ll never show my nervousness so as not to make the rider worry but I do worry. For some reason I was really relaxed. Larssyn finished her TT and we had to floor it to get back to the start area again so I could follow our first U23 rider. I could not even stick around to see how my rider finished in the results. Back to the start area and quickly we followed the rider and next thing I knew we were back at the hotel. Again I was so relaxed. It’s the worlds and it is super important race and I’m less nervous than following my rider back at the Sea Otter TT. Crazy.

CClinton

Owner of Promechanics.com and long time professional race mechanic.