{"id":2026,"date":"2014-03-16T20:28:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T04:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2014-03-16T21:03:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T05:03:47","slug":"learnings-of-a-cycling-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/learnings-of-a-cycling-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Learnings of a Cat 1\/2 Cycling Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Also called a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Directeur_sportif\">Directeur Sportif<\/a>, i.e. the &#8220;person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event.&#8221; I&#8217;ve been asked to fill that role this year with my amateur cycling team.<\/p>\n<p>While still a racer, I took to the start line this morning in sweaters and an umbrella instead of lycra and a helmet. While I&#8217;ve assisted with teams and races a number of times, I want to take a more active approach and keep a running record of my notes and tweaks, both past and ongoing; a sort of <strong>Learnings of a Cat 1\/2 DS<\/strong>. Here&#8217;s some adhered to, and some forgotten, from today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wear identifiable clothing. Like a team jacket, or better, remember Ed Schum&#8217;s red cap? Wear it every race.<\/li>\n<li>Wear lots of clothing. And rain boots. It&#8217;s colder \/ wetter \/ muddier than you think.<\/li>\n<li>Carry a large shoulder bag for storing items (like tossed jackets). Always keep the bag on you. Inside that bag:\n<ul>\n<li>Compact tool for emergency \/ start-line mechanicals<\/li>\n<li>Extra race jackets \/ capes, for during the race, and podiums<\/li>\n<li>Race food (gels, bars)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bottles. Keep a couple on the side of the road, near the feedzone. Too heavy \/ leaky to carry, and you can designate someone else to help feed with them if you&#8217;re otherwise occupied.<\/li>\n<li>Time each lap with a dedicated clock (trying the phone for now); know the gaps.<\/li>\n<li>Communicate gaps and instructions clearly, succinctly. Don&#8217;t yell &#8220;one minute thirty seconds&#8221; but rather &#8220;one point five&#8221;. Work out a particular lexicon with your riders.<\/li>\n<li>Park as close to the finish line as possible. And try to stay parked in the spot you said you&#8217;d be in.<\/li>\n<li>Park on pavement, away from dirt\/mud if possible.<\/li>\n<li>Park with primary vehicle doors facing into largest area (instead of making riders squeeze between curbs \/ hedges \/ other cars)<\/li>\n<li>Keep a designated, identifiable garbage receptacle in the vehicle or broken window theory.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Have every rider check in with you after their race (whether they DNF or win). Make sure to listen to his or her story.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2028\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2028\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_152042.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2028\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2028 \" alt=\"Tactical advice today was &quot;stay warm.&quot;\" src=\"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_152042-640x473.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_152042-640x473.jpg 640w, https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_152042-1200x887.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2028\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tactical advice today was &#8220;stay warm.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2027\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2027\" style=\"width: 355px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_151821.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2027\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2027\" alt=\"I don't care how fast or cold he is, I ain't rubbing down his legs after a race.\" src=\"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_151821-355x480.jpg\" width=\"355\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_151821-355x480.jpg 355w, https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_20140316_151821-888x1200.jpg 888w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2027\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I&#8217;ll give being a DS my best, but no matter how fast or cold he is, I ain&#8217;t rubbing down his legs after a race.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Also called a Directeur Sportif, i.e. the &#8220;person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event.&#8221; I&#8217;ve been asked to fill that role this year with my amateur cycling team. While still a racer, I took to the start line this morning in sweaters and an umbrella instead of lycra and a helmet. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2026"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2026\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffwerner.ca\/testa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}