Gavin Gould
Waiting for nothing to happen: As riders in the men’s World Cup race whiz by, mechanics stand by with replacement bikes in case of a crash or mechanical issue.
A racer screams into the pit, midway through a lap on a dusty course. She hops off her bike and grabs another from the mechanic’s waiting arms. She remounts and disappears as suddenly as she appeared.
That right there is the ideal cyclocross pit stop. But ideal rarely happens in this rough-and-tumble sport. The grass, dirt and sand courses force riders off their bikes to hop barriers or climb hills too steep for a bike. Plus, it’s raced from September through January, so there’s often mud, snow or ice involved.
The bike is, really, the wrong tool for this job. That’s what makes cyclocross fun. It’s also what makes the pit stop vital.
“If a rider has an issue on the course, they can come into the pit for service,” explains Rawny Semba, a mechanic for the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com pro team, the biggest U.S. outfit. Riders are allowed to swing into the specified pit area to swap a broken or mud-covered bike for a fresh one. “The pit is the only place you can get service on the course,” Semba explains. “And the mechanics are there, hopefully waiting for nothing to happen.”
Semba and the team are in Waterloo for the second round of the World Cup, the biggest series in cyclocross. Trek has hosted races at its campus for years, but the race moved up to World Cup level this year.
The course was fast and dry all weekend, reducing the chances for mechanical problems. When it’s muddy, it’s a lot worse, Semba says. “Riders come in every half-lap, and you have to clean the bikes. You’re washing bikes nonstop and trying to get them back to the rider dry and in good condition, so their bike doesn’t weigh 40 pounds with dirt and mud and debris.”
But dry, fast races also have dangers. “Cyclocross has very fast starts,” Semba says. “It’s a sprint. So there can be a tangle — someone slips a pedal, runs into another person — a lot can happen, so the mechanics need to be there right away. You can lose a derailleur, drop a chain, flat tires, cracked rims. I’ve seen broken seatposts. Snapped shifter levers.”
Mark Legg knows a problem in the pit can easily ruin a race. Legg has been wrenching for 13-time U.S. national champion Katie Compton since 2003, and they’ve always been smooth in the pit, except for a notable race in Fort Collins in 2010. “I was racing too, and her race was right after mine. So I finish the race, throw on some clothes, run to the pit,” he says.
“I was tired and getting a little lightheaded. Katie came through the first time, dropped her bike, the guys took it over to the power washer and cleaned it, brought it back. We’re waiting for Katie, and I’m standing here thinking ‘something’s wrong.’ And then I hear “HEY! MARK!” I look over and we’re on the wrong side of the pit!” In his delirious state, Legg didn’t notice they’d brought the bike back to where Compton had dropped it off — not where she needed to pick it up.
“She’d had this small gap to [Katerina Nash], maybe 5 or 6 seconds, and of course she lost that waiting for us. She lost the race,” he says. “She didn’t yell at me. We adjusted and moved on.”
It probably helps that Legg and Compton have been married for nine years. A big part of the mechanic-racer relationship in the pit is communication — but only as much information as you can fit into 3 seconds.
“We have a much closer bond than other teams, we can communicate better, verbally and nonverbally,” Legg says. “I put a lot more effort into the bikes and all the work I do because it’s Katie. It’s not a job. You work a little harder because it’s your loved one and you want to see them excel at what they do.”
33 millimeters: The maximum allowable width for a cyclocross tire. That’s only a little over an inch wide.
60: Minimum number of wheels the Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com team carries to every race.
0: Times Katie Compton has finished anything other than first in an elite national championship.
9: Races in the World Cup series, the top level of competition. This year, there are two in the U.S. — in Waterloo and in Iowa City — and the balance are in Europe.
$3,553: The usual difference between the payout for the winners of the women’s race ($2,368) and the men’s race ($5,921) at a World Cup event. The Trek World Cup is the first one to have equal payouts for men and women.
