Categories: Anatomy of a Photo

Anatomy of a Photo: Awkward Adolescence

Evolution is a slow, gradual process, punctuated by sudden change. For the first 80 years of our sport, riders rode contra la montre on their regular road bikes. For certain, the bikes were carefully cleaned and tuned to remove all possible resistance, but these were their standard, daily machines. Then, in a span of barely ten years came the skin suit, aero helmet, and the coolest time trial innovation ever, the cow horn handlebars. Then it was on to aero bars, and since that innovation, we've been back to gradual change, thanks in large part to the UCI declaring creative thought to be against regulation and banning all but the most conventional bicycle designs.

For a time, however, it was as though Pandora's Box had been cracked open, and from it sprung countless innovations that would change our sport for ever. Some were good, some where bad, some were altogether too much, but all of it was exciting and all of it was cool in its own right. It was a thrilling time for cycling.

We did, however, enter a very awkward adolescence as the Pro Road Racing scene struggled to adopt the aerobars which had permeated the Triathlon world. The challenge was, of course, to integrate a handlebar made popular by men and women wearing Speedos and doodle on themselves in an appropriately sophisticated European manner. But things were to get worse before they got better; in the span of a single season, Sean Yates went from doing the one-eye V-Squint to wrestling with the Scott Noodles of Death. Even the ever-classy Johan Museeuw couldn't manage to make a graceful transition.

We figured it out eventually, but it wasn't exactly a painless process. For your review, I've collected a handful of examples from the progression.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Aero Bars/”/]

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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frank says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:04 am

@Buck Rogers

@Gianni
Isn't there an amazing photo of Yates suffering like a dog in Graham Watson's "Images of Cycling"? The one of him in, I think, MSR, when he looked over at Graham and Graham snapped the photo, then felt guilty b/c of the suffering that he had just captured? Such an amazing photo. Pretty sure it was Yates. (Don't have my book with me at work).

You're talking about this one, and Gianni already did a piece on it here.

Look how much bigger her was back then, compared to this:
wiscot says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:09 am

@Buck Rogers
Buck, I think that was a fairly recent Anatomy of a Photo article. It shows Sean in his less svelte days covered in crap in M-SR. He's suffering and want to do so in peace, then Watson snaps his pic. I imagine having a motorbike to make one's escape on would be a good thing in that situation.

I'm sure Frank can repost the photo . . .
Buck Rogers says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:09 am

@frank
Thanks Frank!

That's exactly it. Man, what a photo. If that doesn't hit you in the lower gut with some sort of relative sense to your own past history of suffering on the bike, you need to ride/race more.

I'm sure it was all the clenbuterol that he used in the years in between the photos.
wiscot says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:10 am

@frank
I hope he didn't throw those bottles away, some poor innocent kid could have picked them up. A safer strategy would be to burn them . . .
wiscot says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:11 am

@frank
Damn Frank, you're fast . . .
jimmy says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:12 am

You guys' posts are fun to read late at night. I had to climb into the attic to get a pick of this old horse.
wiscot says:

Oct 13 2011 at 9:49 am

@jimmy
Oh to have such treasures in the attic! Is that a Bianchi behind the Lemond? If those are Mavic cowhorn bars, I had a pair myself on my Cougar TT bike. What kind of seatpost bolt is on the Lemond? Some kind of funky quick-release?
jimmy says:

Oct 13 2011 at 10:47 am

@wiscot
All mavic on the battaglin/lemond except the crappy dia compe aero brakes. QR binder bolt keeps the post in place well enough to hang from rafters. Yeah, SLX bianchi with silca pump and campy head.
936ADL says:

Oct 13 2011 at 11:24 am

@James

Hey, I have a set of those Death Noodle bars! :) The future was 1996... and then the UCI ruined everyone's fun.

Bloody Hell! There are some horror stories in there!!!
michael says:

Oct 13 2011 at 12:30 pm

@Dr C
@frank

I think the idea was to be able to dismember people in high-speed crashes.

Also, while riding, one was able to vary the tension on the cable through a complicated method of pelvic tilting vs. arm pressure and could entertain one's riding compatriots by playing simple tunes by plucking the cable. The downfall of this technique was the attachment method of the picks to the shoes which required wild ankle twisting in Speedplay pedals to hit just the cable and not the frame or crank arms.