Vince Gee

Reunion

Today most of the riders have arrived. A few are arriving late tonight. Most are here though. It’s like a reunion of sorts. Talking to riders I have not seen in months and as I said some not at all during the season.
Tucson is (so far) a pretty city and seems to have some good areas to ride. Gord Fraser (Mercury) lives and trains here. He’s a pro and that requires many things including good rides and good weather to do his job well. According to him (via Dan Osipow) there is a problem here. Thorns and flats to be exact. I believe he had told Dan to make sure we are prepared with good tires, some type of tire liner and/or tires with sealant to seal flats. Otherwise we will be fixing a ton of flats. With 22 riders going for extended rides, that could add up to a potential for a lot of flats. So, today I went to a local shop and got all the tire liners they had (and ordered more). I also got tubes already filled with sealant. Will it be enough? We’ll see. Although I did not have to go to the airport, the down side is that I had to wait all day and night at the front reception area to collect the bikes and take them to our container/storrage area. Still not as tough as Dave’s day of driving back and forth to the airport. Ten trips in all with a minimum of 30 minutes each way. You do the math on that one.
So Tuesday and today saw a lot of work for Dave. We’ll see if flats will give us mechanics lots of work.

CClinton

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