Any self-respecting professional cycling team has a building used as a base. With a hectic schedule of races taking place all over the world, they still need a place where they can keep team vehicles, stockpiles of bikes, clothes, energy food and other spares. Being a transport and logistics hub, the flatlands of western Europe typically accommodate this facility, known as the ‘Service Course’.
As a marathon mountain bike racer you need something equivalent. But lacking the multi-million Euro backing of such trade teams, you have to improvise. Given time, you can build your own network, making a Service Course that is accessible without a lengthy overnight drive to Belgium.
At any large race you may walk away with some enemies, depending on your actions out on course, but more likely you will come away with some new mates. We are all mountain bikers after all, so it’s pretty easy to get along and find things in common. The past few years have shown that these meetings provide more than just mateship. It can be a place to crash – and even a workshop away from home.
Marathons and stage races are hard on bikes. You log unreasonable hours of hard use on your bike, and at a point you need to give it more TLC than is afforded by a high pressure jetwash and chain lube.
Your own network may differ, but I count myself lucky to have a ‘Service Course’ in a variety of areas. The Sprocket Scientist has provided a caffeine fuelled professional workshop in Belgium. This has proved perfect (and essential) for early season training while watching the Spring Classics. Imboden Bike in the Bernese Oberland have proven priceless in helping me prepare my bike for tough Swiss and Austrian marathons, usually mid season as everything gets a bit… tired. Various locations within London have had their parts cleaners heavily contaminated by early and late summer bike rebuilds – all for the cost of a packet of biscuits. And countless bikestores along the Rocky Mountains have been happy to have their workshop sprayed with latex as a new tyre doesn’t quite seal up tubeless the first time.
But yet it is more than mechanical help that is on offer. These connections lead to rides on secret trails, or a direct link to finding the sweet singletrack that is notoriously difficult to find as a visitor – and usually notoriously difficult to ride to boot. It is not uncommon for an attempt to ‘break the foreigner’ to be undertaken. This is all in good fun, and provides the sort of memories that typify a marathon racing season. Falling off a mountain in Austria being caught only by a young pinetree isn’t easily forgotten!
So while only the top profi teams like Full Dynamix run the complete Team Bus – the rest of us can get by. We can piece together out own Service Course to keep ourselves and our bikes rolling through a typical, arduous season.