Where does all that cool stuff come from???

I admit it, we bike racers can be a bit spoiled. Ok, very spoiled.  We’ve got training bikes, race bikes, the most technically advanced kit, shoes, you name it, we’ve got it.   It all comes from the service course, the central warehouse that keeps all of our equipment in order.  From team cars to spare tires, the service course has everything a team needs to keep it racing throughout the year.  Step inside the  service course to see the equipment and organization that keeps the Focus XC Italy Team going throughout the season.

 The vehicles: Some are to be ridden, some are do be driven.  When it's time to ship out to a race, the big rig takes us, and all of our stuff to where we need to be.

Freder, the team's mechanic, has one rule for the team cars: A place for everything and everything in its place.

Trainers lined up awaiting the next warm-up session.

When you're our on the road and something breaks, it has to be able to be fixed.  The team car carries spare parts for everything from chainrings to saddles to every race.

I don't think I am alone when I say that from a racer's point of view, this could very well be the most important piece of equipment loaded up. Especially when we're outside of Italy and a good coffee bar is far from a given.

As the season progresses, some racers change their positions to adapt to greater or lesser flexibility or advice from physiologists.  Some, on the other hand, are just plain obsessive compulsive.  If a position change is necessary, we have various stem length options from FSA, whatever our motivation may be.

One of the team's two wheel/tire sponsors is Tufo, which provides Carbon and Aluminum tubular wheels as well as tubular ties.

Just like chains and tires, clothing sometimes needs to be replaced be it from the inevitable crashes or the dreaded "back window" that forms when the spandex gets a bit too stretched out after heavy use.

We all spend a lot of time seated on saddles from Fi'zi:k. This particular saddle bears the rainbow stripes of world team relay champion Beltain Schmid.

Schmid might be one of the younger members of the Focus XC Italy Team, but his cockpit has a decidedly old school flavor to it with his FSA handlebar capped off with bar ends.

Andrea Righettini had chosen the super grippy Mountain King from Continental mounted on a Crank Brothers 26" wheel for the muddy course conditions at his last race.

While Righettini, Schmid and myself ride the Focus Raven 26", Fabian Rabensteiner prefers the Raven 29er.  This very negative drop stem gives his bike a more reactive feel and allows him to achieve his ideal position.

I, like my other teammates riding 26" bikes, use a 39-27 crankset for the short, steep and technical climbs that are so common on the European cross country race circuit.