Anatomy of a Photo: Allez le Douze

Davis Phinney crashes into a car during Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Photo: Graham Watson

A mechanical of any kind thrusts a professional cyclist into a kind of paradoxical isolation; swarmed by cars and motorcycles, yet they are often left alone to find their way back to the peloton by their own strength.

But this isn’t their first rodeo, and these aren’t cowboys. Put it in the Big Ring, set the lazy-lever to 12, put your head down, and get on with it. The downside is that when the legs are yelling “Allez le Douze”, the eyes have a tendency to check out the guns instead of paying attention to the direction of travel. A pity, that.

The irony that Davis Phinney’s isolation was ended by the rear glass of a car bearing the logo of a company called “Isoglass” is not lost on me.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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Cyclops says:

Sep 16 2011 at 7:31 am

I seem to recall Ullrich ending up in the back of a team car too. Ah yes, the beauty of google - it happened the day before the start of the 2005 tour.
Ron says:

Sep 16 2011 at 8:05 am

Damn, look at all that blood on the ground. And his chain. Damn cagers!

Just got back from a ride. Seems like fall is blowing into NC with strong wind & rain. The guns felt like cap guns, the wind didn't help, & I think I've sadly reached the age when keg beer results in a mean headache the next morning. (A new bike shop opened last night & they offered free beer. Don't think they'll last. You can only sell so many rolls of pink tape to people in cut off shorts. I commented to a friend that we were actually d-bags because we'd been riding and were in kit, didn't have asymmetrical haircuts, and didn't have a laptop with us to do some djaying.)
pakrat says:

Sep 16 2011 at 9:42 am

no flat spot
Cyclops says:

Sep 16 2011 at 9:50 am

Speaking of "Anatomies of Photos" there is a guy that hangs out in the Lounge of roadbikereview - this guy actually:

...whose mom is Linda Grey from Dallas. He does this cool thing where instead of getting his picture taken WITH celebrities he hands the camera to the celebrity and has them take a picture of him. Check it out here. It's pretty cool some of the people that he's had take pictures including some big name pros.
Ron says:

Sep 16 2011 at 10:13 am

That dude dresses like he's done up as Vaughters for a halloween party. I think he supposes he looks good, which is how JV sees it, I guess.

And after seeing his fake interview of Dario Pegoretti I've always considered him a classless act, and not funny. If I have the chance to talk with a highly skilled legend I'm going to talk with him, not be so concerned how I'll come off that I instead go for parody.
michael says:

Sep 16 2011 at 10:21 am

@Oli
You can see the frame has a bigger flat spot than the wheel.
pmoll says:

Sep 16 2011 at 10:51 am

Ouch!!
My worst spill was on an MTB. On a steep decent I heard some unknown mechanical noise from my rear wheel, quickly turned my head to see if a twig or something was stuck in the mech.
Just as I turned my head a wasp hit my cheek and got stuck on the inside of my oakleys!! I totally panicked as the wasp tried to kill my eye, I instinctively closed both my eyes and slammed the brakes. When I woke up I was lying on the ground between two big trees feeling like something my dog would refuse to eat and my left eye on fire!
Nothing broken but sore as hell and I couldn't use my eye for about a week :)
Buck Rogers says:

Sep 16 2011 at 11:47 am

I have a photo of this crash in a French "Year of Cycling" "yearbook" from 1988 that I bought in France in 1989 when I lived there for a month. It is slightly different as it shows Phinney looking up a bit with the blood streaming down his face and between his fingers. Supposedly the car stopped DEAD in it's tracks right in front of him, without warning and Phinney was pretty pissed about it. Here is a simliar photo to the one in my book. (see if I can load this thing).
Roadslave525 says:

Sep 16 2011 at 2:00 pm

Might be because I ride a compact, but that is a big fucken chain ring. Had to be going some when he hit the car. Ouch.
Buck Rogers says:

Sep 16 2011 at 2:07 pm

@roadslave

Might be because I ride a compact, but that is a big fucken chain ring. Had to be going some when he hit the car. Ouch.

I was thinking the same thing. I run a 53t for my big ring and Phinney's looks larger than that. And L-B-L is NOT a flat race!