Categories: Anatomy of a Photo

Anatomy of a Photo: Cannibals Eat Badgers, Too

1977 Liege: The Giants with Big Ring Face, one Badger Cub with Pain Face

I’m not quire sure which climb this is, but I’m certain the race is Liége-Bastogne-Liége and I’m guessing the climb La Redoute. On the surface, we have the end of a bygone era; when the big names contested not only the cobblestones of Roubaix and Flanders, but also the Côtes of Wallonia.

The looks on these rider’s faces says everything we need to know. An aging but still great Cannibal has the look of a man who spent his career as the Custodian of the keys to the Hurt Locker, but his pride won’t let him relinquish them to anyone in this group, even as his snarl clearly tells us he knows his power is fading. De Vlaeminck clearly wishes he could trade these slopes for some brutal stones, but his determination makes him stick to Merckx like cat hair to an Italian wool suit. Freddy Maertens isn’t even in the Hurt Locker anymore. He got squeezed out through the air vents on the locker door when Merckx crammed RDV in there as an Elementary School bully does the class dork.

And the Badger…oh, the young Badger cub is being inducted into Classics bike racing in the most unimaginably painful way. He’s under so much pressure, his cycling cap has crept all the way up to his hairline, which I’m guessing is also regressing in real-time from the effort. The look on his face is half self-satisfaction that he has managed to hold onto the big wheels in front of him, and half about-to-burst balloon. If this photo were in color, you can bet his face would be bright-red. I also note with curiosity that the Badger is the only rider still seated and in the drops. You can almost hear him cracking from 35 years away.

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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  • Just in time. Some dumb ass says Contador will be the best rider ever, not to take anything away from him but lets get real. We all know it's Merckx.

  • @Alex
    Trudat. But everyone knows if you turn yourself around right before you blow, it actually propels you up the road. That must be what he did.

  • Alex:
    Le Blaireau may look like he's cracking. But if this is 1977, he won it.

    Haha! Brilliant!

    And Hinault's cap is over his hairnet, just FYI.

  • He doesn't actually even look like he's suffering to me - more like he's chewing over his options and waiting to take it to the old bastards.

  • It is '77 - Merckx's only "FIAT" year. Not only did Le Blaireau win, the Belgian trio saw to it that they themselves didn't even make the podium!

    "....I told him [Guimard] that I was really flying, I could hardly feel the pedals.", Bernard Hinault after his win.

  • So I think we've firmly established that the title for this post should actually be "Badgers Eat Cannibals"... :-D

  • My first thoughts of this image, before reading, was the Badger is in complete control in that moment. If he did indeed win this race and this does appear to be a penultimate moment, I stand by my assessment. This is a passing of the torch moment on film. BTW: The Cannibal still won 14% (better than 1 in 6) of the races he entered that year, 1977.

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