Categories: Anatomy of a Photo

Anatomy of a Photo: Greg LeMelvis and Tom Ritchey

Q'est que c'est le Fuck?

Brett’s article on the the 1995 Worlds set the standard of quality in our fledgling Anatomy of  a Photo series. The great tale he had to tell of watching it from Spain, the artifacts of mid-90’s racing such as the neon colors and handlebar attachments, to say nothing of the identification of Oliviero Rincon (who, I believe may have accomplished more in his career falling off his bike than winning races).

I’m following up on his analytical and articulate piece by submitting a photo that that does little more than make me giggle like a school girl.  This puppy could double as a groundbreaker in the Breaking the Rules series, given all the violations I’m seeing even at a first glance.  Quite frankly, I’m not sure what to say that this image doesn’t already communicate in spades.

We have LeMelvis, seemingly not in any way on the same page as American Cycling Icon Tom Ritchey.  He seems to be begging for Tom’s attention like a child tugging at his mother’s skirt. Tom seems to hardly notice the three-time Tour winner and is apparently intent on capturing him in this humiliating state.  Not that Greg needs help in that department, seems a proper genius at it, in fact.

Then we have the fact that LeMond is riding in a longsleeve jersey, and Tom has seen fit to (shoddily) cut the sleeves off his jersey altogether.  Seems to be bit of a difference betwixt the two in sense of temperature comfort zones, or perhaps a more coordinated evaluation of the outside temperature pre-ride would have been suitable.

In any case, this photo deserves a place in this series, and what better time than a Friday afternoon to stare at a computer screen and make fun of some people who have accomplished loads in their careers.  I prescribe heavy helpings of The V to both of them.

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.

View Comments

  • A little trivia: What famous U.K. bike shop did they rent all the bikes in the Queen video from?

    Hint: think Nicole Cooke

  • @Cyclops
    Thank you for edging things back to being on topic. For a moent there I thought I had mistakenly gotten onto some Twitfacesterspace music blog.

  • Cyclops :A little trivia: What famous U.K. bike shop did they rent all the bikes in the Queen video from?
    Hint: think Nicole Cooke

    Umm, Minger Cycles?

  • @Steampunk
    I love Midnight Oil, and Peter Garrett with his Joe Cocker-esque spasms. The guy is just cool. I thought since he's like the grand minister of the outside or something now in Australia and a big greenie like me I might find him pictured on a bike. The first page of google images didn't come up with anything though.

    Any Aussie's down there have any opinions on the guy? Cuz from up here he seems pretty awesome.

  • @Marko
    I shall forgive your ignorance due to the tyranny of distance. Garrett - whilst not bad fun as a musician - has been an absolute fuck-up as a politician.

    The Greenies down here were expecting a lot of him (even if he is a Labor man), but he has made mistake after mistake and let party politics get in the way of him doing anything meaningful. His biggest mistake was an ill-fated housing insulation scheme that was rorted by dodgey tradesmen and resulted in a number of deaths.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/11/2816296.htm

    We are looking at the prospect of a hung parliament right now and with any luck this monkey will end up in the backbenches where he belongs. Yet another "celebrity politician" who has been a failure with Ronny Reagan being the notable exception!

  • @Marcus
    I might not agree with you (entirely) on Marko's shoes, but I'm with you on this. In their day, MO were a great live band - in large part because PG was a hoot on stage. But even then you got a sense it was all a bit of an act tinged with more than a hint of insincerity. Then I saw him talk to a bunch of students when I was at university and I remember thinking that he didn't do anything wrong but it was all a bit of an act tinged with more than a hint of insincerity. Then he entered politics and it all made sense. That said, it is a shame to see him making such a total hash of it - not becuse I care about the Australian body politic, or because I worry about the fate of the inhabitants of Australians generally, but because I don't want him to chuck it in and start touring again in one of those "old bastards fresh out of ideas but keen to grab some mega-dosh pretending to still be the rebels they once thought they were" tours.

  • @G'phant
    Oh fuck - what am I doing? This is supposed to be All About The Bike, not a little bit about Peter Garrett. Sorry, folks. Quick, a cycling topic someone. Er ... anyone wanna guess what the Grimplets' new team will be called?

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