Gear

In the pits: Etixx – Quick-Step service course

Dan Cavallari spends some time with the unsung heroes of Belgian super-squad Etixx – Quick-Step: the mechanics

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A good mechanic respects his work space and keeps it clean. A really good mechanic works wherever and whenever he has to, with whatever space he’s given. Etixx-Quick Step mechanics work in a hotel parking lot shortly after a light drizzle in chilly temps to prepare bikes for the team’s training ride. It’s no an ideal set-up, but compared to some of the spots the team will park in races like the Tour de France, this parking lot is luxurious. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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It’s not all custom wrenches and headset presses. Sometimes the most important tools can be bought at the local hardware store. Rain boots are a must when power washers are spraying everywhere. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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How many wins can you count in those duffels? Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Days are long. Mechanics often get to work three or four hours before a stage start, then continue working long after the stage ends to get the bikes prepped for the next day. Working out of the back of a truck often means battling not only time and precision, but also the weather. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Etixx-Quick Step mechanic Kenny Latomme has been with the team for 11 seasons. Like many other wrenches, Kenny was an amateur rider with a passion for working on his own bike. He started in a bike shop in his Belgian hometown to learn the basics. “Then I started with neutral support with Shimano. Once you’re in the circuit of cycling, you get to know people. Then you need some luck that there is an opening somewhere.” When I asked him if he still rides, he says, “When there is sunshine, 30 degrees-celsius, and no wind. So in Belgium, never.” Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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While most mechanics have tool sponsors, that’s not always the case. And even if it is, many mechanics prefer other tools, so they assemble personalized tool boxes with everything they’ll need for any situation. It’s nice to have the best, but sometimes there’s just no substitute for a sharpened spoke bent into a pick. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Light surgery, deep surgery. A chain tool stands at the ready for a quick install. A thread tap hangs out just in case a bit more in-depth repair is needed. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Remnants of previous races get tucked into the back of the mechanic’s tool box. Organization skills are vital in the pits, ensuring each rider’s bike gets set up properly and in a timely manner. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Special races require special equipment. Zdenek Stybar borrows from his experience as a cyclocross racer and uses brake levers mounted on the bar flats for better braking control on cobbled sectors. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Latomme knows he’s earned his place here, but he also understands how lucky he is to be a mechanic at the top level. “We are working with the best products. We don’t have to struggle with broken equipment. We just replace it. That’s the biggest difference between WorldTour teams and smaller teams. We are a small staff, three mechanics. If you are a little team, you maybe have to do it on your own. I have a lot of respect for mechanics on smaller teams because they have to work harder.” Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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It is perhaps one of the most mundane and boring tasks of the pro mechanic: Washing bikes, day after day. Latomme makes short work of it, zipping through the wet work with a precision borne from years of repetition.
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Iljo Keisse has a lot going on here. Double-wrapped tape goes all the way to the stem. A brake lever is mounted on the bar flats. And tucked away beneath all that, a sprint shift button pokes through the tape for easy shifts with barely a hand movement. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Wider. Bigger. Fatter. 28mm tires are fairly common at Paris-Roubaix, though some Etixx-Quick Step riders opted for an even bigger footprint. 30mm tires on Roval’s CLX40 carbon rims provide a wide contact patch — a must-have over Paris-Roubaix’s uneven and often jagged cobbles. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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“You have to get a photo of the brothers,” shouts one of the Etixx-Quick Step soigniers. It’s immediately clear the brothers are the comic relief of the bunch. They’re speaking another language, but humor translates easily. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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The team is about to go on its last training ride before the big show, the Hell of the North, the following day. It is today, perhaps, during which nutrition is most important. Riders will deplete every store of energy they have over the next 24 hours, so hydration is critical. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Tom Boonen has rightfully taken up much of the spotlight of this year’s race, but he’s not the only past winner of the legendary Sunday in Hell. Niki Terpstra won in 2014 and has all the tools to do it again. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Terpstra is the first one out of the hotel and onto his bike before the training ride. He spins around the parking lot, then rolls back into the pits with a sense of urgency. There’s something off about his bike set-up. Mechanics jump to it quickly. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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A measurement jig has been sitting unused next to the truck all morning, and now, mechanics fit Terpstra’s bike into it to check every measurement down to the millimeter. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Precision is key as Terpstra looks on. Is the saddle too far forward? Tilted too far upward? Is the septets to high? Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Every millimeter has a price. If the saddle is not positioned properly, perhaps Terpstra is thinking of that instead of watching for a competitor’s move to break away. The jig is a complicated affair, and mechanics check, make adjustments, then re-check. The racers push the pedals, but perhaps the race is won or lost right here, in the jig, on a chilly morning before the race. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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It’s striking how involved each rider is in the set-up and adjustment of their bike. When asked what the toughest part of being a pro mechanic is, Latomme jokes, “The riders.” He’s kidding, of course. “They all have respect, that’s the important thing. Everybody is interested, but already they have a lot of experience. It’s not like suddenly they come out and say, ‘Okay, I want to try this.’ They know it already.” Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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A mechanic’s intuition counts for a lot. A jig’s precision perhaps counts for more. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Matt Cote, a bike shop mechanic at Rose Bike Shop in Orono, Maine, once told me, “When all else fails, try brute force and ignorance.” There’s some brute force at play here, but ignorance has no place in the pits. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Not one rider on the team simply came out of the hotel, grabbed a bike, and rode off. Each one carefully inspected the bike, getting up close as though whispering to it, making a deal: You get me where I need to go and I’ll do the rest. We are a team. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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The day before the race, it’s easy to smile. Adjustments are quick, and the consequences aren’t as dire. if something goes wrong today, the team mechanics can make an adjustment tomorrow. Is the bar tape trim enough? Is this shift button in the right place? These are questions for today so they do not become questions for tomorrow. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Work quickly, work carefully. And work with a partner. As one mechanic changes the spacers on the head tube, another measures one last time to ensure the proper position. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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When Tom Boonen leaves the hotel and strolls casually into the pits, a small cup of energy drink in hand, smiles become ubiquitous on every face. He is infectious that way. The mood lightens. It could be his last race here, but his influence on this team is readily apparent. That sense of imminence matters little right now, when there’s a ride to be done. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Boonen is slower than the others to grab his bike and check things over. He chats with the soigneurs, with the mechanics, with the press. He wears the cool of a man who has done this, and done it successfully, many times before. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Tommeke is lanky, trim. He exudes speed even as he stands still, quiet, examining his bike. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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A quick check of the brakes and tire pressure. It is almost a ritual. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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The team car will follow the riders Sunday. Ride food is stashed in the door for quick access. The car is generally empty and clean now, but when race day comes, the car, too, will exude a sort of excitement, a movement that can’t be contained until the finish line comes and goes. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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The team is ready, waiting around in the morning chill. They’ve made their adjustments. Now they’re just waiting for Boonen, who has been swarmed by fans and media. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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He takes it in stride. A news crew asks him to say, “Come on, boys, are you ready?” as they pull out of the parking lot. “Just as I say before every ride, yes?” Boonen jokes. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Even the tedium of swarming media won’t wipe the smile, though. It’s clear Boonen loves the bike. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Data fascination. Terpstra and his teammates examine a Garmin head unit, perhaps trying to make a last-minute change to a screen. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Three heads are better? Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews
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Boonen leads the way out of the pits and onto the street, placating the news crew with a shout, “Come on boys, are you ready to ride?” They are, and have been, for almost twenty minutes. They are relieved to be rolling. They know their bikes, but the pits aren’t their realm. That patch of pavement belongs to the mechanics, who hang back and watch the riders go, then begin immediately breaking down work stands, tool boxes, spray hoses. Onto the next stop. Photo: Dan Cavallari | VeloNews

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