Categories: Anatomy of a Photo

Anatomy of a photo: Gun Check, Gent-Wevelgem 1965

See, I told you they were huge.

The above photo was liberated from a Dutch website which appears to be dedicated solely to a book about Dutch and Belgian riders both old and new.  I can’t read a lick of Dutch, in fact, I’m not even 100-% sure it’s a Dutch site (based on the “.nl” though I’m pretty sure).  The website is rad though and the book looks mint, anybody know it?  Check it out and see what you think.  The guy in the back of the gruppetto is, of course, Rik Van Looy.

Marko

Marko lives and rides in the upper midwest of the States, Minnesota specifically. "Cycling territory" and "the midwest" don't usually end up in the same sentence unless the conversation turns to the roots of LeMond, Hampsten, Heiden and Ochowitz. While the pavé and bergs of Flanders are his preferred places to ride, you can usually find him harvesting gravel along forest and farm roads. He owes a lot to Cycling and his greatest contribution to cycling may forever be coining the term Rainbow Turd.

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  • Les Frères Grimpeur are just off the frame to the left. The younger Grimplet's chain skipped, and these three brutes ran them over. "See," says van Looy (in the thickest Dutch accent imaginable), "the cobbles 'round these parts aren't that bad at all." De Cabooter is actually looking back in disgust at the last bump in the road (Grimp the Elder).

  • @marko

    nice link and the website is pretty cool looking. Pity I can't understand a thing.

    @Steampunk
    very good.

    That photo is the bomb. So much could be read into that photo given their expressions....

  • Yeah, that site's definitely Dutch. You can tell because everything is more Awesome when you've got the web page up. Whenever you're wondering, you can try this little test:

    1) Open anything with writing on it that you think might be Dutch.
    2) Check stuff out. Everything should be more Awesome. Look out the window: More awesome.
    3) Close said item with suspected Dutch text on it.
    4) Check stuff out again. Everything should be less Awesome. Look out the window again: Less Awesome

    That's pretty conclusive. I probably don't need to get into more detail than that, but let me know if you need more help.

  • @co-mo

    Bar-end shifters and short shorts: two of the worst innovations in cycling.

    I'm with you on the bar-ends, but it's impossible for me to separate how fly these guys were from how short their shorts were. Conclusion: those short shorts were fly. And almost certainly better than the down-to-the-knee look popularized by COTHO.

  • How come Rik is so much more awesome than Rick?

    Those guns are impressive. Man, mine never even looked like that back when I was playing college sports and had to lift weights. They surely don't look like it now, when my sole pursuit is daily crank turning.

    We all move through stages in life. I kind of feel like I'm at a new stage, and cycling is a huge part of it. I've been a pretty dedicated Velominatus for a few years now, upping my kms every year, adhering to the Rules more closely. However, this is only the second year I've really followed all the pro races. Spring is here, the Classics are here, and it feels like along with spring a new period of my life is opening. My life seems to center on the cycling calendar, which follows the seasons, which means I'm in rhythm with life via cycling.

    Cycling is riding tempo in my life these days.

    And thus, I'm living in Awesomeville.

    Oh, and I got engaged to my gal on 17 March. Easy to remember, right? St. Patrick's Day in Prague. She rides a nice burgundy Takara with dt shifters and, most importantly, lets me keep four bicycles in our tiny house. And, she's great and beautiful in every way.

    Sorry for the aside, bring on the G-V race! Happy second day of spring fellow Velominati!

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