Team Millenium/IRSA
Terry Zmrhal and Tracy McKay
The second day on the job brought more dry scenery. I asked Terry
if he was ready for music, but he said he didn't want any. I then
ask him why I had to look out at two music speakers and a PA for
my slow drive across the country! He finally allowed me to play
him some tunes!
Navigation for this section was straightforward, so Mary took
the opportunity to catch a catnap.
Muffy arranged for a rider sleep break in Homedale.
Since we didn't have a RV, our rider sleep breaks were a bit complex.
We would pick a place about 4 hours up the road (60-70 miles)
from the start of a pull. The new rider would pace himself for
4 hours of riding. The relieved rider would try to sleep while
being driven up to the motel. At the motel, this rider would get
massage, shower and sleep, and then be ready for a four hour pull,
after his partner came in. Then off-duty rider gets massage, sleep
and shower for about 3 hours and then some rest while being driven
up the road to relieve his partner at the end of that four hour
pull.
For our first stop, Tracy got the first sleep
break. It was unfortunate for Terry that it was mid-afternoon,
and sleep just didn't come. Trying to schedule the sleeps at night
was tough, because it was so cold and mountainous still that long
pulls at night would be really hard on the riders. We started
to realize early on that an RV would have made logistics easier
- even if only used for riders, while still using motels for crew
sleep and showers.
I tried to sleep a bit, but even after two days in, I was still
pretty wired. I found a grocery store nearby and bought some fried
chicken, noodles and bread. It was then that I found that part
of our crew was either vegetarian or didn't eat fowl. Most of
the chicken disappeared anyway.
Terry asked me to raise his handlebars. He has
a threadless steerer and had spacers on top that simply needed
to be moved below the stem. My first big job as a mechanic!
While getting ready to get Terry up and on the road, we got a
phone call from Typhoon that Tracy was having trouble.
Upon learning what Tracy had been ingesting, our doctors and nurses
suggested more water, and we promised to get up the road as quickly
as possible. We tried to stay in contact, but cell phone coverage
was very spotty.
We were in Muffy's home state of Idaho at this
point. We had a great time teasing her over the radio about all
the trailer parks in Idaho. We got buzzed a few times by a crop
duster, who really seemed to take pleasure in passing low over
traffic. Muffy radio'd back to ask if all the bikes were still
on the roof.
At some point, we got a call from Typhoon
that Tracy was off the bike, and to get there ASAP. We were doing
our best.
When we arrived Tracy had been off the bike almost
45 minutes. We quickly got Terry on the road, with Muffy and Philip
crewing. James, Mary and Sharon took control with Tracy and started
an IV to try and get his fluids and electrolytes back in balance.
Tracy actually recovered very quickly, and wanted to send word
to Terry that he would be back for his regular pull on schedule.
The meltdown was blamed on a bit of an imbalance in liquid nutrition
and water, as well as heat and pacing.
Chris and Steve got in the crew vehicle and James
and Sharon took over for Tracy's night shift. Chris was pretty
exhausted. I gave her my eyecovers (courtesy of British Airways)
and suggested she lie down in the back of Da Bus for a
nap, while Michael drove to find a crew motel. Chris had made
an effort to get along with Steve, but was really finding it very
stressful. It just seemed like Steve was trying to push her buttons.
Mary decided to trade with Chris for the next shift.
A bit up the road, I jumped into Zephyr
to confer with Muffy. Given that she had the experience of ups
and downs on RAAM, I asked her to talk with Tracy and other crew
to make sure everyone understood that riders would slow down,
and have ups and downs and that it's OK and normal for
RAAM, so we could try NOT to repeat this situation where a rider
stops and gets off the bike. Slowing down is fine. Stopping should
be avoided. Pacing is important.
At this point, I also found I had jumped onto
nightshift, and Michael was now rotated into direct support on
dayshift! The day crew headed up the road for more sleep (without
me)! Of course, we realized we didn't need a separate driver for
Da Bus. Whoever was freshest of the relieved crew would
drive to a motel, while the others slept. After sleep someone
else could drive up to relieve the other crew. We realized we
could work with just 8 crew if we had to.
Terry's van had enough room for three crew,
but it was a bit crowded. Tracy's barely had room for him and
two crew!
Philip, getting Terry's bike ready for the next pull.
Tracy's next pull went off without a hitch, and we soon had Terry
back on the road for his pull. We tried to coordinate nighttime
exchanges at the tops of long climbs, so the fresh rider had warm
clothes for the descent and the relieved rider could get out of
damp clothes.
Later that evening it became quite fortunate that
I had jumped in the van, because a call came in from Typhoon
that they needed a mechanic. I hopped out, and Sharon jumped into
Zephyr. Tracy had been riding one of Terry's old Spinergy
wheels, when it just seized up. His crew pulled out his other
bike, but it's front shifting wasn't working and he wanted to
get back on the working bike, but they couldn't get the replacement
wheel in. I tried for quite a while, but something just wasn't
working right with the skewer. The non-lever end was sharp, and
I had great difficulty turning it, and just couldn't get it tight
at all. I tried another wheel which also seemed to resist going
in. Eventually I got a wheel in, but needed to adjust the brakes
- it seemed this wheel was dished differently from others. I asked
for the toolkit and James handed me a Park folding tool. This
was really all I needed, but I asked about the rest of toolkit
anyway. This was when they told me that this folding tool was
the toolkit. When I tried to adjust the brake, I discovered the
bolt head had been stripped long ago. Brute force finally did
the job. We got back on the road and everything was fine.
It was sometime the next day that I got a closer
look at the wheels. In Portland, at the start of the race, when
we realized that Tracy didn't have many spares, Terry sent the
other crew to a shop to buy a basic ultegra 9 speed wheel. It
was this wheel that I was trying to install, but it definitely
did not have an ultegra skewer. Upon conferring with Muffy and
Terry about Spinergy failures, we decided the Spinergy was dead,
and we should salvage its skewer, cassette and tire. At some point,
(for reasons still unknown to me) the new ultegra skewer had been
put on the Spinergy wheel. Thinking the problem with the other
wheel was maybe a bad skewer, I decided to swap them back. It
was then I discovered that both springs had been put on the same
side, causing the problem I had getting the skewer to turn. I
checked out all the wheels to make sure all skewers were installed
properly.
Here is a great example of what you can do with a digital camera.
We had pulled off at a side road for a rider exchange. It was
pitch black, but I could hear running water. I aimed the camera
in the direction of the noise, and between the flash, and the
camera's ability to adjust the light, we got a shot of what we
could not see. It was not very pleasant smelling, so I'm
still not sure just what was bubbling over.
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