Motorola, U.S. Postal and Garmin-Sharp are some of the teams that Geoff Brown has worked on, preparing and fixing bikes for the biggest road races, including the biggest of them all, the Tour de France. His first Tour was in 1994. Since then, he’s amassed many stories, some hilarious and others tragic. Find out why he doesn’t like time trials, but does like tubeless tires. Also learn how a mechanic is often more than just a person who tunes a bike. While Brown hasn’t been back to the Tour since 2018, he is making a return this year. In just a few weeks, he’ll be wrenching at the Tour de France Femmes with his current team, Human Powered Health.
And uh he said okay he said tomorrow Jeff you’re going to drive this car and you’re going to take this and he gave me like a Ziploc bag full of uh like small coins and some crumpled up like French Franks and what have you and Spanish
Paas and he said and you’re driving to Bergos and I’m like well where’s that yeah it’s it’s in the northeast of Spain I’m like okay and uh so that’s what I did welcome to the Canadian cycling magazine podcast I’m Matthew poro and with me is Matt Hansen Welcome Matt hello Matt how
Are you doing pretty good are we talking to another Matt today no no unlike the last episode uh which was uh Matt cubed uh there’s only the two of us Matts here today H I spoke with very recently Jeff Brown I bet you he had lots to talk
About uh he did if if you listener do not know who Jeff Brown is we are here to fix that because Jeff Brown his title In His email is Jona warehouse manager for human powerered health which doesn’t sound that spectacular but Jeff Brown is a mechanic we say for short he’s from
Ottawa he grew up in the Milton Toronto area he has been in procycling since about 93 92 that’s 30 years for those of us who are math inclined thank you math and he has been on teams I’m going to forget some but Motorola uh Discovery US Postal various incarnations of Garmin the
Jonathan V project which today is known as EF education um what am I forgetting there Matt symetrics of course of course symmetrics the venerable Canadian Squad he was there helping Canadians on the North American circuit he has seen uh technology evolve he’s seen the the world’s best Riders he’s worked on their
Bikes and his stories that he’s shared with me are just scratching the surface but uh yes Jeff Brown fascinating dude and we will hear from him in just a minute And I have to say being a mechanic like I could never be a mechanic first of all because I’d probably break everything but you know it’s one thing breaking your own bike you know um like I remember when I was a kid I once I once
Routed my chain through the spokes as my brother would remind me but it’s one thing to W I’m not even kidding but to to be fixing someone’s bike at the tour to front or any race like that even if it’s a do my and then you know you’re
Watching not when they have a flat or something that you know is not avoidable but when something goes wrong on the bike I would just think oh my God I’m going to get fired you know like just the the the pain and the stress of the mechanics sitting there going oh crap
Some stuff’s unavoidable right but and also it’s just you know when a guy gets problems with paru Bay or some insane stage like that well that’s understandable but still I always think that the stress those poor guys must go through apart from building you know 20
Time Trav bikes the night before a stage and and well in the old days when they used to glue tubulars on and all that stuff I just can’t imagine what that job was like and I’m glad it’s not mine we definitely get into time trial bikes and
Jeff’s thoughts about those as well as tubulars because he has seen a lot of tubulars and he’s not too choked up that uh the the tubular is becoming less and less frequent in the prop pelaton Jeff is one of the first people in the Pro peleton that I had ever met um
Way back in 2010 when I was Moonlighting as a cycling journalist it wasn’t my day job um I went to the Grand Prix cista Quebec and Montreal in their first year and I’m wandering around the pits and Jeff Brown was on Garmin and somehow we struck up a conversation he’s like oh
Yeah I’m from Ottawa I’m like I’m from Ottawa and he was so nice and so generous sharing his time with um a rookie cycling journalist like me and even yeah our our chat today that generosity comes through for sure I think too what’s neat about him is that
You know he’s been through arguably you want to call it three eras you know like when he first started this was the era of you know Bower and leand towards the end of their careers then you’re going to the next ERA with you know the Armstrong H Cappies obviously the
Michael barries and then on to you know the swains and and and and now on to the current I mean I don’t know if you want to call it Generations but these these these big groups of cyclist that we all know think of all the Canadians has
Worked with right for Fraser um Bower uh Barry all those symmetrics guys Ryder I mean that’s right he was uh he was working on Ryder hezid doll’s bike at the 2012 jro Talia uh which Ryder has it all won so yeah he’s been in the background for so many important moments
And races of the past 30 years uh the guys the guys in encyclopedia and he joked in the interview about putting a book together which I hope he’s I hope he’s not joking because that would be that’d be something it’ be also be thick I imagine be well put together you might
Say h like a finely tuned road bike and with that let’s hear from Jeff Brown Jeff Brown you have been officially to 21 tours to France in your more than 30-year career as a team mechanic uh you’ve also made some uh quick hits into the tour doing some last
Minute Logistics I understand but 21 official visits that is the most tours for I think any Canadian working at the big event uh it’s more tours than Steve Bower he did 11 as a rider but he’s been back in various other roles as you and I
Are speaking it’s early in the tour to France season what’s it like for a team mechanic in the leadup to the tour and say during the first week uh as a team mechanic we would already be at the race venue preparing everything like the the the swan years and the mechanic uh
Mechanics will have already arrived at the first hotel to get ready because Riders will be coming from different locations so some will arrive earlier some will arrive a bit later so we’re there already on site getting everything ready so when the Riders come in there’s no last minute anything it’s just here’s
Your bike go riding whatever you know go for a a little training ride or spin or whatever you know so that’s fine and we do all the preps depending on what the first stage consists of if it’s a time trial an individual or a team time trial
Uh whatever uh make sure everything is prepared already the the the race bikes the race wheels everything uh the directors of the of the team will have already planned out the logistics of what’s going to happen when the Riders are uh you know going training before
The tour they’ll be doing some Recons of the probably the first stage whatever it is a time trial or a road stage actually to be honest I don’t know what this I haven’t really seen what’s happening on this year’s tour for the first stage I know it’s in the Bas country yeah it’s
Mostly Road it’s Road stuff okay okay that’s kind of cool that’s a little less stressful than let’s say a time trial oh why is that well time trials are a pain in the ass if I if I had a time machine I would go back and shoot the guy who
Invented uh the triathlon handlebar that started it all actually I’d shoot Greg Lemont or I’d make sure that he didn’t beat Fon you know only joking only joking only jok right right all jokes that that’s an inside joke amongst all team mechanics if if if a t it’s the most uh common
Phrase or repeated phrase is I hate time TRS right because of the because of the complexity of those bikes yeah the complexity of the bikes and the and the it’s a lot of work for almost no results like 99.9% of the time uh nobody does anything they arrive they finish oh I
Finished 21st in the TT yeah and I work 21 hours on your bike good job you know so but uh no it’s but but you know obviously you know they have a the time trial it’s a bike race so there has to be different elements so you know there
Are guys who are good at climbing mountains they’re good guys who are good at sprinting and there are guys good at going fast in a straight line you know over a time distance so you know I understand it to be to be honest and serious I understand why it’s there but
It’s but that’s that’s just a little chuckle that team mechanics have time TR oh my God and when when when this when when it’s when it’s revealed that the first stage of the tour is not a time trial oh there’s a big celebration you know popping champagne early in the mechanics truck
Exactly but to be honest to to counter that uh when you do make a big prep for a time trial leading up to the you know the first stage whatever it is and you win then that’s actually the biggest feeling you’ll ever have you know more
Than just a road stage or whatever you know oh we won the time trial or we won the team time trial which is really really important because that’s nine or eight or nine bikes that you have to get ready so you have eight or nine chances that something might go wrong right
During the race when it finishes and you win and nothing bad happened that’s the greatest feeling so yeah you know you can counter counter that I can imagine you felt that during your days on uh Garmin as that team was called at various times they they had a pretty
Good uh Team time trial Squad during some of those years yeah I remember was it uh was it 2012 or 2013 where we won the opening team time trial uh that was great because I remember in the parking lot uh at the start area we were parked beside where
Team Sky were there was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people surrounding the team Sky uh area the compound that they set up and uh there was maybe 10 people at our venue you know so it was good when we won that was you know they were the here they were
The the projected people to win but yeah guess what there you go um a lot of new gear debuts at the tour in years when you were headed to the tour how early would you be able to get your hands on the new stuff and work with it before
The grand par uh before that would be normally uh the the stuff had already been used kind if not with all the Riders but maybe with one or two Riders at either the tour of Switzerland or the dolphin a libber which are the two big leadup races uh going into the tour to
France so we you know we’d have one or two guys on like it was a new set of wheels or a new frame or whatever you usually generally get a chance to test it out there to be honest it’s very very rare that you got something cold out of
The box just before this you know the day before the tour you know you wouldn’t want to do that that would be uh that would be a big risk so you you definitely needed to test your gear in a race environment beforehand does the tour get easier for a mechanic as you
Know it goes on for its three weeks well no not I wouldn’t say easier is a better it gets it kind of like well it can flatten out most of the time where you sort of you’re in your routine so it’s just the one day is like the
Next sort of thing however uh if you’re have a rider in contention and then there’s a big battle going on for the GC you know then every day you wake up it’s like oh today could be the day that we take the yellow Jersey or whatever you
Know or today’s the day that our Sprinter is going to win the stage so it’s not consistent I mean if you’ve already if the gz is already done if the you know if the the guy in the yell Jersey is 10 minutes ahead and barring disaster you know he’s going to take it
All the way to Paris then things kind of settled in you know in in the race uh but you know sometimes things aren’t decided till the until the very last minute so every day you wake up and it’s like okay it’s a new day today let’s see
What happens you know what is I mean this is maybe an unfair question just based on what you said but what is a typical is day like for a mechanic at the tour okay well once you’ve uh got past the first opening stages and you’re sort of into your
Routine um you know you wake up early 6:00 CU basically what you’re doing is you’re just carrying over from the next day right what you’ve done the day before so to get into like during the first week for example you’ll uh you’ll get up early in the morning six o’clock
Or so uh you go and have your breakfast and you go to the team truck you’ll open up the equipment truck and then you’ll you you’ll take the bikes out and any big design any work that you’ve had to do if there was a crash the the day
Before uh and you had to like replace Place Parts whatever that’s already been done you don’t uh when you start your day everything has to be ready to go from the day before already so anything that happened yesterday has already been taken care of so the night before you
Could have a a late night if you’re repairing bikes after a crash or something like that absolutely if you have to stay to till 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning so be it you know the day you wake up whether that day you you you’re not don’t want to carry anything
Over from the day before you know it’s a new day you got to be ready to go the directors don’t have any sympathy for for for that it’s like sorry but that’s your job you know make sure it’s done so uh you get up in the morning you open
The truck you take out the bikes you pump the tires and then you load the bikes and the and the spare wheels and whatever onto the team cars and then you’re ready to go to the start area where do you get your breaks throughout the the day like do you find breaks
Throughout the day or you you’re are you in a team car and you’re still on edge as the Riders are racing so at a at a grand tour be it the tour the jro or the welta generally a team will take four mechanics on average and uh two
Mechanics will be assigned to the two team cars that go in the race and the other two will be responsible for transporting the truck to the next uh Team hotel and then doing any work that’s required there on equipment and what have you that’s not needed during
That day stage so yeah if you’re in the car I mean when I first started this job I you know there’s always a joke going around oh yeah you can sleep in the team car uh and I’m like I’ll never do that when I started off you know I would say
For about my first 10 or 11 tour def Frances that I did I never slept in the team car I was always awake always always always always and also in the olden days uh before the UCI got really clamped down on on driving in a race Caravan one of the mechanics would often
Drive the second team car alone so you didn’t have a chance to sleep at all but these days I remember my last tour in 2018 I definitely took a few naps because I was I was I was mainly in the second team car most of the time so when
You’re in the second team car and and you don’t have the yellow Jersey you’re pretty well far away from the from the action you know in a long line of cars so in your career or throughout your career you’ve worked on teams such as Motorola Discovery US Postal as I
Mentioned Garmin and its various Gees so that’s put you in contact with riders such as Lance Armstrong Rider hezid dool he worked on his bike at his jro victory in 2012 others include Floyd Landis Christian Vandal Tom Danielson David Miller you worked with Swain TFT but I
Think that was on symmetrics not at the world tour level is that correct that’s if I let me remember correctly I did work with him uh at Garmin for one year ah right right of course before he’s before he signed for uh green Edge I believe yeah or no it wasn’t green Edge
It was uh did he go to spidertech spidertech and then afterwards he went to Green Edge yes yeah um who was the most let’s say fastidious Rider or maybe the most demanding Rider you remember working with or have worked with let’s say well uh you know everybody kind of maybe
A lot of people have heard that Lance had the nickname of Mr millimeter because his his sdle height was incredibly important to him as with a lot of cyclists but he would he would double check all the time all the time double check all the time you know we’
Get to a a start we take his bike off the the car he get off the bus and without even saying any without any verbal communication you just hand him an allen key and a tape measure he would do it himself it was almost like um someone walking into a bar and getting
The usual you just have it ready for him yep no that was exactly he didn’t even have to say he didn’t even have to ask it’s just like here you go and then that was it throughout the tour as you’ve mentioned there’s a there’s moments of like high pressure lots of stress maybe
A Time trial is there any stressful situation that has stood out above any of the others for you in in a grand tour or in a tour to France well yeah I’ve seen a rider die right that’s uh Fabio cerelli cerelli yeah that’s pretty stressful but in a different way that’s beyond cycling
You know what what were your thoughts then with the recent news of of Gino Mater passing at the tour to Swiss cuz it was also on a descent did you did you think back to to 1995 yeah well you know like I’ve seen I I saw was on site when that happened to
Fabio and then I was also believe it or not uh witnessed uh the the death of uh Walter whent that was at the jerro the jro Yeah by sheer what happened was we were in the stage and it was on on The Descent and he was just coming
Back through the team cars to get back onto the to the group you know he’d been dropped on the climb and he was coming back through and he he passed us just seconds just I I want to say five seconds he went flying past us and the
Next thing we hear on the race radio is crash crash crash and even before we the guys finish saying crash crash crash we’re there and uh right on site and he’s there and just laying down on the ground and his bike is off somewhere in the trees or
Whatever and we had a uh our team doctor was in the car with us and the team doctor looks and he says stop the car stop the car so our team doctor jumps out who is an ER uh ER doctor in Denver so he used to like dealing with gun
Shots and knife wounds and all that sort of stuff and I looked and I saw saw Walter laying there and he was exact he looked exactly the same as Fabio exactly the same and I knew at that I knew at that moment that it was you know that it
Was not good and he uh and our team doctor he he went and tried he was there before the jro doctor got there right like it just happened so fast it was just like in a blink of an eye and he just stayed there we left him on the
Road you know and uh trying to do resuscitate you know do whatever ER doctors do you know in an emergency situation and uh yeah and we just kept going you know and yeah afterwards we understood that uh you know he’ passed so right and that was particularly um I
Mean it affected the whole pelaton but particularly Tyler Ferrar because they were they were pretty close uh the the the Sprinter on Garmin at the time uh who you were working with yeah yeah yeah Tyler yeah yeah those are not the kind of stories uh you expect to be telling
As a mechanic I imagine you you don’t sign up this no no it’s not it’s not a typical it’s not a bike Rel racing story it’s a life story isn’t it right yeah can you compare being at the tour with say US Postal and contrast that
With your time say at Garmin as the Jonathan vder project was mostly known does team culture affect the mechanics yeah I mean were I did two tour to Frances pre Lance right so 19 like with US Postal 1997 and 1998 and you know we really weren’t in
With a uh we didn’t have humongous exper expectations during those years although in 1998 we did get a a top 10 in the in the GC with the John sural so that was kind of cool you know we thought that that that’s it this is like I said we
Weren’t even thinking about Lance Lance was still still recovering from you know his cancer operation let me backtrack so so Lance came to the team in 98 right at the if I remember correctly uh he did a few races and whatever but then there was a period where he he he
He he didn’t look like he was going to continue so we went to the tour without him and whatever and we did our tour to France and then there there was a whole story around the the tour to France in ’98 as you know you know with the
Festina Scandal and whatever so that was already you know the big thing and then uh and then I believe I’m not mistaken later in the year Lance decided he wanted to do the VTA he’s going to come back and give it a second try you know
Come back uh uh version two and he had a good good welta and he had a good World Championships so then in 99 it was uh you know let’s focus on the tour and then the rest is history you know once you had a designated leader you know
Once you’ve won the Tour to France for any team uh the the team culture goes to uh you know focusing on a CT because we know the tour is cycling is about the tour and whatever you know then if you have a potential tour to France winner
Then the the the culture in the team is kind of focuses on that it doesn’t take away from the other races which are equally you know just as important I mean like P Ru and Milan Remo and all these sort of things but we know that the tour is it and you know
That’s the one that drives cycling so yeah you kind of focus on things that are tool related to as a mechanic as a swan year or whatever you know you keep doing your job for the other races but there’s always a a return point that
Yeah the big Focus will be the tour to France you know in a lot of cases it influences how you budget your equipment and this kind of thing right like we know we’re going to get uh uh e x amount of the special Tire uh we can use a
Small amount for this race but save the bulk for the for the tour to France these kind of things you know so that that that definitely was the the the thing with US Postal Discovery once Lance became the man of the tour in a team like Garmin where you know you
Focused on getting results in in all kinds of different races you know uh it uh it was uh you know it was a bit different yeah for sure you’ve seen a lot of changes in bike technology throughout your career were there any changes that actually made life a mechanic’s life easier well
There’s one going on right now which I think eventually will make our lives easier or more pleasant and that’s switching over to tubless tires as opposed to having to glue tubulars like I’ve been gluing tubular tires for more than 30 years and I’m surprised to have any brain cells left whatsoever
Because of the glue because of the glue right the few I’ve been sniffing glue for well forever you can probably tell by you know just the way I’m talking so but uh you know but but the time it takes for to glue a tubular is is much
More than than even like I know Tu bless is a bit fussier for the average Joe than a clincher but for you it must be uh uh just much easier once you have the compressor and all that set up yeah yeah for sure no that’s what I mean but is
It’s a learning process right uh because you want to do it correctly so so think about it tubular tires so now I’m involved in uh in cycling at the highest level so there’s no like learning process as such you already should know what what to do so tubular tires yeah
Jeff can you can you glue some tires Jeff yeah I’ll have 20 for you in an hour no problem I can do that because i’ I I’ve just I’m I’m I’m now built to glue tubulars right I’m a tubular gluing machine but tubless our team has just
Switched over more or less full-time to tubless this year and I want to be able to apply the same thing that I do with tubulars to tubless right but it’s a it’s a shorter learning curve right I have to be a I had to learn to do it
Like in a month and uh luckily one of the mechanics I work with the our American base mechanic Tim he has a lot of experience with mountain bikes and gravel biking and and all of this kind of thing and working in a bike shop when he’s not out the bike races he very
Kindly showed me a few you know shortcuts the way to do it and I’m a fast learner so I’m pretty confident now that I’ve I’ve got it but for me that’s probably uh one of the most Pleasant New technological in Innovations you know is is tubless Tire interesting and I think
I already know my follow-up question was what changes have added additional complexity we I based on your discussion earlier I know you love Arrow bars but um is there any is there any other developments that you’re like oh man this is such a pain so one of the things
Is that you’ve got so many like different aspects of a bicycle right so you got a frame manufacturer and then you’ve got a wheel manufacturer and then you’ve got like handlebar and stem and and component manufacturers and the thing is is to try and find the best combination so well in professional
Cycling as you know at the to highest level everything is sponsored in the world tour you know everything is sponsored and you and you get all your stuff for free and you get you know a huge amount of this and a huge amount of that and uh uh but but the the people
Who give it to you are often in communication with each other like the frame manufacturer has a relationship with the component manufacturer or the Wheel manufacturer right and so they they do a lot of uh development together before they actually give you the stuff right so that’s good but at the pro tour
Level or what they call the pro team it’s where we are with with our team human powered Health uh we have to purchase a lot of our stuff so we get frames from felt but we have to buy our handlebars and our wheels and our stems
From Vision FSA and we buy our component components from Shram Luckily everything seems to be goes to together well but when you uh there is a chance that when you have to buy certain things it might not work optimally with with something other some other part of your bicycle you know what
I mean right well we’ve seen that Trend in cycling where manufacturers have their own systems and they want you to be part of that ecosystem yes absolutely like with long long cage D like you know the big jockey Wheels right the oversized pulley Wheels okay everybody’s
Into oh ceramic speed this or or another manufacturer you know whatever they say oh put this on your derail it’s going to work great uh well okay yeah it may do but Shimano you know a company like Shimano or Shram they’ll look at that and go well you know our system is
Designed specifically to work in a certain way with certain components of the like the derailer or whatever and if you change that we can’t guarantee that it’ll maintain the performance you know what I mean and they’re absolutely right in saying that they’re absolutely right you know right because they they don’t
Test for these aftermarket things they test their own stuff yeah exactly you know they spend money on their own stuff why would they spend money testing other people’s stuff that’s that’s dumb you know but yeah when we have to do things like that it’ll be a head scratcher
You’ll be going oh well okay well we’ve been told we have to try this out so let’s see what happens the problem solving never stops no no not at all no it’s always something to to keep you busy keep your mind keeping the gray matter stirring
Around I know of a former pro cyc cross racer who was lied to by his mechanics and and let me explain this story a bit okay the rider would test his setup come back to the pits and say something like oh the first tire needs a half a PSI of
Air let out and then the mechanics would you know say okay okay okay he’d come back later and I this is what I heard from one of the people in his in his support crew this Rider would come back later ride his bike and be satisfied with the change but there was actually
No change they wouldn’t do anything for half a PSI um So based on that example have you ever pulled a fast one on a rider or maybe had some uh offered a mechanical Placebo instead of true fix or true Demand by a rider well can you tell me
How much exactly is half a millimeter no or half a PSI can you I am not that sensitive a machine exactly is is there actual like handheld device that can measure that and then and and then also uh you like actually adjust it accordingly you know the tire pressure no there isn’t
Okay so a professional bike rider is a person who’s under an immense amount of pressure both physically and mentally right and a lot of these things that they come up with are related to that so they they just want to come quite often they’re just there to come
And they want to hear what you have to say right because you’re the guy who’s working on his bike every day like you cannot believe how many times I’ve been uh asked to adjust a saddle half a millimeter you know what I do there in front of the
Rider I’ll take my hammer and I’ll smash the top of the saddle and I’ll say yep it just went down half a millimeter because and the rider will say okay yeah that that’s fine you know or you’ll go and test it out no but no not not not no
That that’s not actually a bit of a joke actually but no there’ll be a lot of like you use the word Placebo there that that’s that yes we use placebos on the writers when they ask for that you know but like for example now you know when
For like you mentioned tire pressure so what we do is there’s actually now a lot of research and information passed along To Us by the tire manufacturers right and they actually offer a lot of information uh in terms of your Rider is this weight if he’s riding under these conditions this is
The recommended tire pressure and we apply that quite often and the Riders are made aware of this information so they know it as well and then uh we’ll like get a at a race uh we’ll inflate the tires we have handheld inflators now that are that have a digital reading on
Them and the rider will come to his bike just before he has to go to the start line and we’ll ask we say uh or he goes to sign on for the stage or the race and say how much pressure do you want today and they’ll say oh what size tires are
We using uh today you got 28 millimeters okay they actually at the very last moment they’ll have their phone in their pocket and they’ll pull out and they’ll look in their files and they’ll say okay for me and it’s sunny and it’s I am not kidding you man the the writers these
Days are so aware what they need to do which is really good it’s really good uh it helps us a lot and they’ll say okay I need uh 5.1 bar okay so we just you know the machine can be either in in in Imperial or metric you know the readout
We just adjust it whatever they say I mean mostly the US and Canadian Riders still use PSI but the Europeans go in bars and and so then we’ll just inflate and and they can visually see what it says on the on the readout and they’re happy and that’s that’s how you and
That’s how you do it your job then is like a mixture of mechanic maybe a bit psychologist ex exactly a bit of psychologist like finding ways to help them feel uh in the zone in control but but that’s the modern cyclist now like power meters this all happened because
Of power meters it cannot be said or it cannot be denied that these days you’re either physically destined to be a professional cyclist or you’re not a professional teams that are looking to pick up Riders that’s the first thing they do is they test them they see what
Power outputs they have whatever you know it’s all about the numbers all about the numbers right and now even kids have power meters so they’re sending they’re sending their their like their junior years even before they’ve got power files for that and they’re sending that to prospective teams oh my God yes yeah
Yeah that that truly actually is turning cycling into a real professional sport you know but it’s much different these days back in the old days when we had to hand pump the tires with a you know with an old Silk a foot pump you
Know with a with a dial on it you know and and the dials were very kind of random a little bit you know uh yeah I put uh I put like six bar in okay and the guy would come and oh yeah six that looks good you sure that’s yeah and then
He said can you do 0.1 and he just like one more pump okay that’s 0.1 you know nice nice so much data even for the mechanic now oh absolutely no but it’s like that but the team directors uh do a lot of are involved now you know the
They they’re much more uh like in the old days we used to say the only thing you need to be to have to be a a team director is a driver’s license right CU you’re just following behind in the car you don’t do anything you know you’re either like listen
Listen to the radio eat a sandwich drink a Coke whatever you know it’s the guy in the back who has to do everything the mechanic you know so uh these days not no no I mean you have to be a qualified UCI director you have to go to the to
The UCI school to learn how to do it get your director’s license so on and so forth so it’s really changed a lot that’s you know it’s become more and more and more uh you need a lot lot of qualifications you know it’s a it’s very different from your start I think I
Remember the story correctly you you showed up in Belgium this is uh uh when you started working on a a world tour pro team and you’re handed a keys to a Mercedes and a water of cash and see in two months is that the story yeah that’s exactly what happened so what happened
Was I was at the 1992 Olympic games uh with uh you know Team Canada in Barcelona the director of the CCA in those days was uh Ron Haymon who’d been a professional in Europe he’d been on the 7-Eleven teams he’d heard that uh Motorola so the continuation of 7-Eleven
We looking for mechanics so he said he he’d uh send a note to the guy who who ran that program was a guy Tom Schuler because he said okay you’ve done the Olympics Jeff your next step is to be is to go to Europe and become a a mechanic
For a pro team which you know he he hit the nail on the head that’s all I ever dream about doing was was being a mechanic at bike races so sure enough he I got a small CV together I gave it to Ron he foxed it you know remember what a fox
Machine he foxed it to to Tom Schuler at the Motorola team headquarters in uh uh waaaw Wisconsin and about two weeks later I get a phone call from Belgium and it’s Noel Deon here who was the European director of the Motorola team he said yeah Jeff we we’re really
Interested in uh in having you uh but uh first uh we’d like you to do you the be in 93 we have the tour depont down in the states there and I was he said would you be available to do that if we need you and I of course agreed immediately
And anyway so that was uh you know that was late 92 and then a couple of months later I got a phone call back from Noel and he said yeah okay Jeff yeah we’d like you to to come and do the tour Depon with us so we’ll fly it to to
Milwaukee and then you’ll go to wershaw and you’ll pick up a team van and you’ll drive to the start which was in Wilmington Delaware I believe and uh anyway so uh I did that and I did the race you know but it was an American
Race and you know it was nice to do it it was a professional race and you got to see all the you know a couple of really big European pros and what have you you know and you’re working with a big American team or whatever and that
Was kind of cool it was kind of like I was always niggling do you think you’ll need me I was asking the other mechanic who’d come over to the States from Europe he said uh I said do you think you’ll need me in Europe you know it’s
Kind of like this being a pain in the ass you know like a yappy like a yappy little dog you know and uh remember that remember that Looney Tunes where he had like that that cartoon where he had a big dog and a little and a little yappy
Dog you and me Spike you and me Spike you and me as pal Spike exactly yeah yeah and the dog would turn around go yeah shut up boom and give me Sloss the face it was kind of like that but anyways uh luckily I guess I
Did okay in the tour to p and uh afterwards Noel Noel called me back and he said yeah Jeff we’d like to bring you to Europe and I was like to bring it to Europe and I was like yes right on so uh they sent me a plane ticket it was just
After the tour had finished uh and a lot of their staff were going on vacation so they needed replacement staff so uh they brought me over they flew me to Brussels and I got picked up with the at the airport by one of their Swan years and
They drove me to the team headquarters which was near Cort in Belgium and I got there and I met Noel hey Noel how are you good blah blah blah met you know Swan year another Swan year and whatever another mechanic and uh he said okay he said tomorrow Jeff uh you’re going to
Drive this car and you’re gonna take this and he gave me like a Ziploc bag full of like small coins and some crumpled up like French Franks and what have you and Spanish poas and he said and you’re driving to Burgos and I’m like well where’s that you know yeah
It’s in the northeast of Spain I’m like okay and uh so that’s what I did the next day I got up and I just kept I didn’t know where the hell I was going I had it was the in the days before GPS and I had a melin map book you know with
A big thick ones which was extremely useful I eventually got to Bergos and we did the race and and and then from there I went to another Spanish race and then from there I went to uh drove across Fran we did a race in three races in
France and then we uh went across to Italy spent a few uh you know a few weeks racing doing races around Italy so this was in August and eventually by the end of October uh the last race was tour of Lombardy so we did that and then it
Was there that I met the team owner uh Jim owitz and he offered me a full-time contract which I accepted on the spot and then I drove back to Belgium and that was it and then the next day I got a plane back to Canada man that is like thrown right
Into the thick of it that’s amazing well yeah but that’s what they wanted right that’s what they want a guy in my situation who’s a North American going over to Europe uh getting into the European lifestyle is it’s not an easy thing to do really if I may you know if
I may say that but uh I guess I was cut out for this life so you know that’s who I am that’s what I do so from that era to more than 30 years later you are on the us-based squad human powered Health you’ve been there for a little more than
Three years and as you mentioned it’s a UCI pro team uh so we could say division two yeah but but they do you have a women’s world tour team exactly and I was going to get back or I was going to come around to that because it is the
Women’s World Tour team that is bringing you back to the tour to France I understand yes indeed yes it is this will be your first well it’ll be the your first women’s tour uh in its current Incarnation but you were supporting uh a women’s tour in the or
Working as a mechanic at a women’s tour in the ’90s that’s correct yes yes with the Canadian national team yeah again things have changed quite a bit in on that side of the sport yeah because in those days there wasn’t really any women’s professional teams it was all
Done by national team right and that’s almost a throwback to earlier uh men’s uh national teams that would show up at the tour yeah yeah in the early tours yeah back in the with the ADM by national team yeah you’re right so what are you looking forward to at the tour
To France fem this year well obviously you know hopefully team can get some uh good results you know that’s what you go for to get you know to either win a stage or do well in the general classification uh but no I mean it’s organized by ASO so it’s you know the
Tour to France they have all the same logistical support like the men’s tour does it’s exactly the same so I don’t see actually a huge difference you know in the way that you know I have to do I’ll have to do my job yeah no it should
Be good when you when you get to the the tour you get your accreditation and your accreditation has your photo on it and uh after about uh the first 10 of my 21 men’s tours that I did they had it already on file so I never I didn’t have
To send a photo in so I hope I don’t look too different from my last photo you know last one from 2018 you know oh you say Oh They’ll be like oh miss your brown yeah your son used to work the T and I be like off
Well no no it’s it’s me I’m here that’s right well yeah I hope I hope it keeps you youthful um yeah yeah and so where are you in your preparation for the tour to France fem we’re speaking just at the start of July so yeah yeah well there’s
Two other European like uh well I’m European based as well but uh there’s two other European mechanics now who’ve just gone off to the Jiro dalala for women basically they’ve prepped already a lot of stuff uh for the jro that’ll be carried over for the tour uh basically I
Don’t have to do much you know but uh I’ll have to I’ll have to probably transport some equipment to the start because I believe the start is in Claremont Fon uh for the women’s tour and which isn’t all that far from Jona right where you’re based yes it’s not like having to
Drive to Paris yeah well Jeff thank you so much for your time uh your stories uh we’ve just scratched the surface of your stories I know I know you’ve got a a a busload of stories but I appreciate you sharing the ones you have today and uh
Good luck at the tour to France fem and at the rest of the races this year thank you very much it was nice speaking with you Matt and uh yeah anytime I’ll uh if people keep asking me when are you going to write your book when are you going to
Write your book I said the story’s not finished yet all right well yes keep us posted on that epic that you’ll be writing take care yeah you too thank you bye-bye and that’s the episode it is edited by me Matthew porro and I had help from Matt Hansen thank you Matt you
Sure had a whole bunch you actually did help a lot with this one you gave me some great background on Jeff and you helped me shape the questions so uh yeah thank you Matt this is a heartfelt one well you’re welcome it was a pleasure as always as always also thanks to Terry
McCall he is always helping in the background this episode is produced by Adam kilick he also does some music yes he does thank you Adam thanks also to Ontario creates for its support um I just have to call back to uh the interview and Jeff Brown and how he said
He is essentially returning to the tour this year and it’s the tour to France fem so that tradition of having Jeff Brown at the tour is is continuing which is really exciting as human powered health is sending a squad to that race I’m going to go probably watch the tour
I don’t think I’m going to ride my bike depending on the air quality which is a is an ongoing theme yeah PSA everyone who’s listening don’t ride in this crap if you’re from Quebec or Ontario some parts and I think out west it’s a little
Better now and I mean I think it’s going to be like this all summer but I went for just a little crappy ride the other day and it was early in the morning so I figured it’s going to be okay I get home and I did not feel so great and it was
Like an hour and a half and I’m my I had a headache and I was sneezing and I just generally felt awful so that was uh I can’t believe I’m encouraging people to ride zift nothing’s wrong with that in the middle of the summer but it might be
A good idea on some of these days I know it’s super frustrating because we we ride zift in the winter which is perfect for that but in preparation to getting outside in the summer months and it is a colossal bummer that uh now not only do
I check the weather to see if what the chance of rain is I’m looking at air quality ratings and weighing that and it’s such a you know it’s a thing we cyclists do right we check the weather more than anyone else Sailors and Surfers and cyclists are checking the
Weather Network they we their number one fans and then yeah you got to look for those little warnings now air quality is terrible it’s also worrisome how it’s affecting a lot of the races this year um from local ones in Toronto that are getting cancelled to uh like you and I
Were just speaking uh before we got on Mike here about abitibi and like fingers crossed that that race goes ahead but even local races local crits and stuff like that we see some little cancellations you know local races in Quebec and Ontario are being cancelled and I’m sure you know unfortunately we
See more of that I just feel bad for all these athletes who have been putting everything into these races and then I mean we did hear from Luke Valente before B he went out for a ride the week before and he was actually concerned he
Wasn’t going to do well at the race but it took a couple days for I probably the rainy weather of B to to kind of clean out his lungs um thankfully once ever it’s a good time that there’s terrible rain at BO but uh but yeah he said he
Felt terrible for two days he was sneezing and hacking up a so I mean that’s that’s no bueno and this is just adding insult to injury after like you know race cancellations throughout the pandemic it’s like oh we’re we’re coming out of it now and it’s like okay here’s your environmental disaster everyone
Thank you I know I know I know and wildfires all right on that awesome note always in the high note bummer in the summer uh ride safely ride carefully check the weather check the winds everyone thank you thank you for listening and we’ll talk to you Later