Anatomy of a Photo: Depletion
One eye open and dreaming; were the building on fire, I suspect this shell of a man could hardly be bothered to move from his bench.
As a Cyclist, the enormous weight of the total exhaustion felt by LeMond at this moment fills my spirit with equal measures of dread and envy.
this picture says so much. I take it this was taken in the Roubaix showers?
@ Frank- great photo selection. Looks like LeMond has eaten three of four sandwiches already… probably a few more to go. As a kid I played soccer through college. I was never very talented, but rarely got outworked. My Dad used to grab me before every game and tell me to “Leave it all on the field.” When I was little I didn’t understand what he meant. When I was in high school and college the message hit home. The old man passed a while ago, but every time I click in before a bike race I can hear him telling me to “Leave it all on the course.” This photo of LeMond is a perfect display of that premise and why he was such an amazing cyclist to watch. No bullshit, go ride your heart out and see what happens. You may not always win, or podium, but when you look at yourself in the mirror later you will respect the person looking back at you.
@frank
What a fantastic picture! Sums up the sport perfectly.
That’s probably the best photo of LeMans that I’ve ever seen.
Coca Cola: worked for LeMond, works for me.
LeMan in all his glory. Dude paid debts and left it all out there. Unbelievable.
He looks like he can hardly chew his food.
Does anyone else think he looks like Ryan Gosling in that picture?
Great photo! I can only imagine what is must feel like to ride a Paris-Roubaix. The distance! The cobbles! Ouch.
Just back from 3.5 hours of incredible riding on my newly cabled, taped bike. What a way to spend a Friday morning! I absolutely love being all the way the heck out in the middle of nowhere without anything but your legs, some bidons with water, and a banana. It’s exhilarating to say the least!
Great shot, great post. Love the empty wrappers and Coke cans laying about. Hopefully I’ll look better after I ride most of the CA Cogal Day 1 route tomorrow. Two weeks left, kids!
Busted, contented but not broken. I don’t know the history of the photo but that looks like a man at peace with himself.
Who was the photographer? Echoes of Don McCullin.
@Chris
+1 Great call… has McCullen all over it…. I know we aren’t supposed to draw military parallels (for obvious reasons) but, Jesus… LeMond is clearly over the edge…. That is a 2,000 yard stare
Fucken great strip too… I LOVE the Z strip
Wow! What a photo.
I suggest a photo contest for those of you going on the Keepers’ Tour. Best attempt to emulate this photo.. you may swap out the Coca-cola for beer.
@Roadslave525
Very carefully didn’t go there, there’s no comparison between war and racing bikes but there’s certainly comparison in the mastery of the photography.
Are you watching the track racing? Swift was awesome in the elimination?
When are we going for a beer?
Another great thing about this photo is that in this day and age, the showers at Roubaix are primitive to say the least. In other sports the organizers, or more likely the riders, would demand state-of-the-art facilities. Not here. The showers are part of the hell of the North deal. You ride the race, you take a shower – and if you win, you get a cobblestone trophy and a shower stall named after you. It’s about tradition, history and putting yourself up against those who came before you. You’re on the same stones as Hinault, RdV, Merckx, Coppi, van Looy et al. Riders come and go, the cobbles – and the pain – stay the same.
Mind you, if you’ve just done the kind of ride GL has done, you probably don’t care what the showers look like – the suffering is over.
@chris. Starting new job on Monday… Let the dust settle, let me get feet under desk and build cover story… Then we shall drink, and talk about @frank’s Diva tendencies
BTW FUCK ME…. Track senSATional this evening… I thought WRs were rare…. But, wow! I *heart* Pendleton
@wiscot
Absolutely, the showers remind me of shit school sports changing rooms in the eighties. You wouldn’t find any nimby pamby footballer slumming it like that!
@Roadslave525
Hang your jacket over the back of your chair! They’ll think your elsewhere in the building. Not this week though! He’ll of Ashdown next weekend.
” It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better,
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who’s face is marred by dust and sweat and blood”
Teddy Roosevelt.
@Roadslave525
The start of a job is the only chance you have to set the bar. Go for an eight hour V session on Sunday followed by a good piss up. Work will think a limp, glazed corneas, and whiskey cologne is normal. Smooth sailing from then on.
Rockin on RockShox!
Not much suffering today but it sure was cold (0c). Tomorrow calls for snow and 3 hours on the trainer, ugh.
Now if I only had some V-Socks I could die a happy man.
Leaving it all out on the road. Wrecked. Done. He was LeMan then.
Frank, awesome photo choice. Love it.
@wiscot
Very, very true. When you’ve just ridden your heart out for 6 hours, I don’t you give a shit what the showers look like.
For example, NFL games have an average of only 11 MINUTES of play time per game. The other ~170 minutes are filled with standing around, replays, and whatever else.
So yeah. If I were only working hard for 11 minutes, I might have more time to contemplate and care about nicer showers and whatnot. But after 6 hours, I’d probably be happy with some running water from a hose out behind the building.
When the fatigue sets in during tomorrows ride, that is the picture I will have burned in to my mind.
I remember when I first saw this picture, I thought that it was either fake or a painting. It was challenging to see your hero in such a vulnerable state.
Merckx bless LeMond and his ilk, like the Badger, for being GC men who’d still go out and shatter themselves at Paris-Roubaix in April.
@sgt
I better get some miles in this weekend!
I got to meet this guy last September at the Palo Alto Echelon Gran Fondo. He may be a bit chubbier than he used to be, but he’s one hell of a nice guy and still knows how to ride.
Great photo.
@napolinige
Fixed your post…
RE: Showers; My mate Rigid is designing his house to feature Roubaix replica showers. Concrete stalls, benches, hanging shower heads, brass plaque commemorating the Keepers Tour… yeah.
@Nate
yeah, my thought’s exactly when I saw this photo. Lemond was ready to waste himself in April and on through the summer. He was trying to catch Kelly all year long. Who is the modern day version of GC Hardman? Thor, but he is really not for the GC. Maybe none, too specialized now.
1976, races at Fort Mason San Francisco, CA. A newer VW Van parked next to my funky one, “Hey, how you doin’?” They were Bob and Greg Lemond. Nice folks.
@Gianni
That may have been the case before the accident, but not really after. He did always seem genuinely excited about Paris Roubaix, though. I have a feeling that had a lot to do with the neat toys he got to debut each year there.
@napolinige
We’ve already discussed doing a Quickstep photo, except with Cobblestones.
@wiscot
Thats one of the magical things here – the roads haven’t changed. These are old, fucked up stones that were made for cattle and wagons, not bikes. It really is so incredibly cool – all the cobbled races are amazing, but Roubaix stands out for how ancient some of the roads are.
The Belgians and Dutch are actually pretty good at making cobblestone roads. The French, from the evidence at hand, suck at it – and they were worse when the Romans had a say in it. And I fucking love them for it. Vive le Keepers Tour!
@SOL
Word. I chucked this up right before heading into the deluge on today’s Rule #9 ride. (The of Rule #9 Moses was talking about.) As I got colder and wetter, it just kept creeping into my mind. Allez!
@Nate
YES!!
And I’m so glad the coke can was mentioned – I noticed it before my ride, but I wanted it after my ride!
@itburns
I use the Castanza Model myself. Walk around with a furious look on my face and anytime someone asks me to do something, I wave my hands about and say something to the effect of, “I DON’T KNOW IF I HAVE ENOUGH TIME!! I’VE GOT A FULL PLATE RIGHT NOW!”
And then they leave me alone. And then I go have a leisurely tea.
@The Oracle
No. If Ryan Gosling* underwent a full-body Rule #5 cleanse and a rigorously studied “Not Being a Pussy, A Beginners Guide” and then learned to ride a bike and then became a Pro who revolutionized the sport and then rode Paris-Roubaix and sat in the shower like a wet fucking sock, then maybe Ryan Gosling would look like Greg LeMond.
*I actually like Ryan Gosling, but lets not mix apples and hardmen.
@Calmante
Yes and no. Its also inspirational. That’s one of the great things about Cycling – the human aspect of it. We build these guys up, but they are made human very quickly in moments like this. It inspires me to ride harder, knowing this is the result, no matter how effortless it looks when they are putting in their efforts.
@Xyverz
Back in the early 90’s, he was really into Nordic Skiing when he came home to Minnesota. Nordic was an even smaller world then than it is now, and Minnesota was a microcosm for it. Anyway, my pops and I had a reputation for always having super fast skis (we drove around with a mobile waxing station and had it down to an art), so he sought us out to help him learn to wax – he’s always been so into the tech and getting geeky about that kind of shit. We did our best, and it wasn’t long before he’d call us up with stories about “smokin’ fast” skis.
Anyway, he was so incredibly cool and nice. We were always modest Europeans not wanting to make a stink, so we’d spot him at ski events and there would be a load of people around so we’d just go about our business until we’d hear that unmistakable, friendly voice of his yell in Flemish, “Godverdomme!” (Goddamnit!) It always made my mom spin on her heel! We’d look up and there he’d be, starting at us with that huge smile of his from across the room.
What a guy. And that started when he was the 1989 TDF and World Champ. Even then, he was that humble.
CLASS FUCKING ACT.
Its too bad he’s gotten to where he is now, as far as his reputation. I think his intentions are good, but the way he’s come across makes him seem so whiny. Its too bad, especially knowing what a stud he is.
@Gianni
I can’t think of anyone. Not one. Roubaix and the Tour and the Worlds? Pick two. Liege and the Tour and the Worlds? Pick two.
Admittedly, the UCI fucked with that model by pushing the worlds so late in the year – the guys who are doing the Tour are cooked by October. When it was in August – it wasn’t ideal, maybe terrible even, given peaks, but you could carry form over and still be competitive. And October peak after the Tour would be almost impossible.
@brett
Gold! You had me, and then you lost me…
The 3 clean places, hair line, wrists and if we could see ankles cause the white socks were black…
Why is it that Roubaix is the fantasy of so many riders? The weather, the length, the cobbles and the showers… the velodrome finish, the history? All of that plays a part but the real reason is that it is the Queen of Hardness and she will beat you even if you win and is that not the reason we ride – to face the unbeatable and perhaps with luck survive to the degree that Lemond did that day?
@frank
Oh and this image should be banned from ever being shown again it is wrong, wrong, wrong! and no I am not homophobic I have even spent a night in a hotel with a stranger I met on the interweb…
@Rob
Wow, that’s a weird and unnecessary admission!
@Rob
Perfection.
@Rob
We’ll soon replace it.
@frank
Cadel has the Tour and Worlds and could win Liege in the right circumstances. Actually, from a team perspective he’d be well set up this year to play the wildcard there to Gilbert’s ace. I wouldn’t put a good showing at Roubaix past him either. It would be rad to seem him go for it in awful weather. But he’d be less likely to win that race.
@Oli
Oh, I thought it was pretty normal for these times?
@frank
Praise Merckx and thanks!
@Nate
I gotta side with Fränk on this one. Say Clenbutador was clean(ish). Great GC rider (and douche-nozzel) yes. But the cobbles would crush him like a pop can. The closest guy IMHO would be Jens if (and really it’s a big if) he would have had not been so unselfish and stepped up to lead himself. The guys a monster and might have pulled to off a few years back in different circumstances. But he didn’t, so no one. And that’s a result of specialization, which kinda sucks.
The sport has gone from following exceptional riders, to exceptional teams. Probably from American money being injected into the sport using football as a model. Just a guess.
@frank
Also noting LeMond was second in MSR to Sean Kelly once upon a time. Class.