The last Dutchman to win the KoM in le Tour was Gert-Jan Theunisse. He was also the last Dutchman to win atop Alpe d'Huez. The year was 1989 and I was too busy riding crotch-rockets, water skiing, and coiffing the plumage of my mullet to notice much else besides an American and fellow Minnesotan had…
Author: 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.
What better week is there to pay homage to one of the finest ales the world has ever known? Each year, Cycling Week in Belgium has me turning toward the top shelf of my regular beer peddler for a bottle of Chimay Red Label to be savoured on either the day of the Ronde Van…
My work has me spending much time on college and university campuses. Among the myriad fads that are sweeping the dirtbag and hipster college student sets these days is riding the retro bike around. My feelings on this fad is “more power to them”. I’ve got no qualms with college students on meager incomes recycling…
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…
The Strade Bianche. Now here’s a race who’s name change I can get behind. Strade Bianche sounds so much cooler than Eroica, no? Mind you I speak no Italian but I know cool sounding words when I hear them. I do own the full Rosetta Stone Italian set, however, and plan to learn one day. The term,…
In honor of the first Australian to win KBK it seems appropriate to give a Chapeau to our mates down under. Congrats to perhaps the greatest up and coming cycling nation on earth and to Chris Sutton for a show of strength in what was a free-for-all to the finish in Kuurne today. Lest our…
This weekend proper bicycle racing starts for the season with Omloop Het Volk (yes, I know it’s not called that anymore but I like the old name better and it’s easier to spell for my dumb American ass) and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Now that riders have stretched their legs in the TDU, Oman, Algarve, Qatar and various…
Without a doubt cycling is dominated by males. Stop for a second and make two lists. One list including all the male pro cyclists you can think of off the top of your head, male riding companions of yours, and other male Velominati. On the other list, jot down all the female pro cyclists you…
My buddy Chris wants to buy a road bike. His primary reason for this is to improve his fitness after splitting his patella in half on a rock while skiing a couple weeks ago. He believes that riding a bicycle, after his arduous healing process is complete, will be easy on his knees and provide…
With the “widely anticipated” unveiling of both Leopard-Trek’s and Garmin-Cervelo’s new kits we thought it would be interesting to look back into the archives to see how it used to be done. Nowadays, the new team and kit presentations are done with much fanfare, limousines, black-tie events, and sometimes even strippers. But back in the…
Making a name for yourself in the pro ranks during the heyday of Merckx, De Vlaeminck, and Maertens would have been tougher than making a name for yourself in the pro ranks during the heyday of Merckx, De Vlaeminck, and Maertens. Especially, I would think, if you also happened to be Belgian. But with somewhere…
Our Antipodean readers may want to skip this article and come back to it in June as the Austral winter begins. Anybody reading in the northeastern states may want to get down to their closest bike or ski shop stat. But regardless of where you are on the globe, if you ride in, let’s say,…
Is it the shades? The W.C. Jersey? The Z kit? The d.t. shifters? Talk amongst yourselves. I just had to get a pic up that’s worthy of this site. Thank me now.
Cyclists can be a twitchy lot. Able to both endure and dish out pain for weeks on end in a grand tour takes considerable fortitude, or what we call The V. The cyclist must know their body and measure out its effort carefully. The pros we look to as the Giants of the Road, the…
It is easy to imagine photo ops and advertisements that the pros obligate themselves to for sponsors becoming tedious. Angles that sound good during an off-season drunken phone conversation are often just awkward when operationalized at the season’s first training camp and new sponsor meeting. I can’t imagine anything more emasculating than being constipated in addition to having…
Reading articles and viewing accompanying images here you'll notice a common piece of equipment on a large number of the classic riders' bikes. The Cinelli forged quill stem. Cinelli must have had one hell of a business model going in the 60's, 70's, and 80's because it seems their stems and bars were the must…
So I just got back from a 30k shake-down ride and Il Gruppo Progetto is exactly what I expected. You will get no Huangisms from me. I'll just say it's a bomber steed with some classic touches that's good old-skool fun to ride. It'll fit the rain bike need perfectly. Thanks again for your input…
The Velominatus’ machine is their own manifestation of personal taste and demonstration of adherence to The Rules. We each, in our own way, meticulously maintain our bicycles and adorn them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. Yes, we must Obey the Rules pertaining to bar tape, tyre selection, saddle choice, stem height, color matching and…
After a long, hard day of dishing out pain to the peloton it’s time to chillax with der Homies. Here we have der Kaiser and Klodenizzle pimpin’ in the T-Mobile bus. Roulin’ dirty fo’ sho’.
What more do you need to know that this picture doesn’t already say?