Greg Lemond wins his second World Championship at the 1989 Worlds in Chambery, France
Category: The Hardmen
We gather here today to pay our respects to one of the icons of our great sport, the cycling cap. The perfect union of form and function and an excellent example of why the former follows the latter, and why together they are beautiful. The brim is just long enough to shield the eyes from the elements,…
My friend and trainee Velominata Rachel has a keen cycling eye and an inquisitive mind. While perusing the book Tour de France/Tour de Force she happened upon this image of The Badger, Bernard Hinault, sprinting for a stage win in the 1981 Tour. We know this because the caption says so. And that is pretty…
There are those who are challenged to find the value of aesthetics in a sport which requires eating 11T cogs buttered with chain oil for breakfast and drinking kegs of Rule #5 at dinner. Ye of the Congoscenti, I present you with the following photos of some of the quintessential hardmen of our sport who…
Those who complete the Tour de France are referred to as The Giants of the Road, and a look back at the first week of the Tour doesn’t leave much room for wondering why. With barely ten stages behind us, we’ve seen some amazing battles. We’ve seen Pharmstrong take a small psychological win over Contodor in the opening Prologue….
First and foremost, as a cyclist and a devoted fan of this sport – a Velominatus, no less, – I express my deepest sympathies to the riders who crashed in Stage 2 of the Tour de France. Blame was cast around, but as pointed out by Ben, there were many months of opportunity for the riders to…
2010 Tour de Blast, Velominati-style. Three takes on our wet cold ride up towards Mt St. Helens.
This photographer knew the picture that people would remember and that would shine a light into Sean Kelly’s character wasn’t of his face; the story is all below. These are legs only a cyclist could love. In 1988 these legs won Paris-Nice for the seventh time, Gent-Wevelgem and his only Grand Tour Victory, the Vuelta…
Winning salutes are brought up from time to time here on Velominati. Of all the images and memories we have of cycling’s greatest athletes, many are of champions crossing over the finishing line in their winning pose. A rider’s salute as he or she crosses the finishing line first is not of insignificance. This is how…
Anyone who watched Flanders and Paris-Roubaix can agree that the strongest and most deserving rider won both events; Fabian Cancellara dominated both races and did nothing to lessen his reputation as Spartacus. One thing that that struck me, however, is how significantly race radios factored into how the races played out. In Flanders, Fabian…
This 1968 photo of the the sector at Wallers-Arenberg shows what it must really be like to ride Paris-Roubaix. The cobbles are uneven and the holes are deep; the safety of the gutter is dramatically reduced by the deep mud. At 95km from the finish, the race can’t be won here, but it can certainly…
This is my favorite week of the year. I meant to write something earlier this week – as a prelude of some kind – but it didn’t work out. Then, as the weekend wore on, I busied myself with the usual weekend business, which always includes chores, family, friends, and cycling. This weekend, though, containing…
The Kennett brothers have produced a series of great books on some of New Zealand's most successful, least successful, hardest, most famous, infamous and iconic cycling heroes. Their latest offering, written by Jonathan, looks at arguably the most naturally talented of all the subjects, the often-times controversial Tino Tabak. This evening I was lucky enough to…
Boardman
The HardmenHow long a distance can you ride in exactly an hour? That is a question many famous riders, over the years, have tried to answer precisely. Merckx, Boardman and now Spartacus?
Few images inspire the Keepers more than those of hardmen grinding away large chainrings on roads of antiquity built as cattle paths in northern Europe. Throw in some grey skies, hordes of beer soaked Belgians lining the way, windmills in the background, and of course, Flandrian Mud, and the first word that comes to mind…
For my generation, he is the Lion of Flanders. Unequivocally. Unchallenged. Evermore, evermore. Boonen is a monster; but he is only the apprentice. In Flemish, his name rhymes with “Lion”: he is Museeuw de Leeuw van Vlaanderen. He is the quintessential Hardman. Here, in the first edition of the Velominati Study of a Hardman, is…
I was searching the internet this morning for photos of Gianni Bugno (because he’s Awesome, and sometimes I just need more pictures of Awesome). It was during that effort that I came across this magnificent shot of an unknown hardman rolling across the muddy gravel summit of what I’m guessing to be the Gavia in…