Paul (and his time with the U.S. Cycling Team)

Paul with team car

Back in the 1990’s Paul had a fairly unusual job. He was one of the mechanics for the U.S. National cycling team. The National team, based at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, is a dynamic organization that re-shuffles several times a year to support track racers, road, cyclocross and mountain bikers (both professionals and up-an-coming amateurs).
In an Olympic year a subset of the National team becomes the Olympic team, and whenever it’s time to compete in a World Championship, riders are plucked out of the National team racer pool to represent the country.

It all started with a phone call out of the blue (with a job offer for his roommate George). That phone call resulted in a travel-intensive career that spanned two Olympic Games, eight or nine World Championships, dozens of races in dozens of different counties, a hundred different bike racers, and about 200,000 frequent flyer miles.

Mostly assigned to work with the endurance track team and the under 23 (years old) men’s road team, the racers that depended on Paul would often progress onto the pro road circuit.

An easy training day with the national team

At the office

Matt DeCanio

Dave Zabriskie

Some of the riders and their bikes that have depended on Paul are more notable than others. The more famous (and infamous) include Christian Vandevelde (and his sister Marissa), Kirk Obee, Justin Spinelli, Aaron Olson, Tim Johnson, Jonathan Page, Mike McCarthy, Allison Dunlap, Mari Holden, Rebecca Twigg, Phil Zajicek, Danny Pate, Mike Creed, Chris Horner, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong and Dave Zabriskie.

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a mechanic on a bike top-level racing team? Here are a couple of day-in-the-life scenarios:

Travel day: Pack up a couple of vans for a trip to the airport, drive there and then personally shepherd twenty pieces of oversized luggage through the departure and destination airport. Pack up two different vans for a 2-hour drive to a strange hotel where the concierge will direct you (in a language that you don’t speak) to a basement room or back parking lot where you can assemble bikes until 2 in the morning.

Aaron Olson at the 1999 Tour L’Avenir

The Coca Cola Tour de France truck

Race caravan, Plouay stage of the 1999 Tour d Avenir.

Race days: Up at 6am. Wash the team car. Air-up tires and touch-up the bikes (usually 6 of them per mechanic). Have breakfast. Load bikes onto the race car, then drive to the race start. Once the race starts you get to nap in the back seat of the car until you hear your team name over the race radio. Sometimes there are wheels to change or bikes to swap out during a race, but the goal is to be able to nap through the entire stage. After the race you get to drive to a new hotel, wash the bikes, replace broken parts and set up a secure place for the equipment to stay overnight. Dinner with the team, drinks with the coach and the soigneurs, and bed by midnight.