I stared at this photo for about 13 minutes before realizing I should stare at it at least one minute longer. The simple reason is that this is one of the greatest cycling photos in history. Firstly, one need only glance briefly between Fignon’s legs to spot one of the most gorgeous seatposts ever given…
Category: Tradition
Getting each new copy of Rouleur is almost a religious experience. It is printed on heavy paper, and has a particular smell about it; the pages are printed with a mat finish, so the heavy, rough pages feel a certain way in your hands as you turn them. There is no other periodical that I'm…
I suppose cycling has always been flush with enthusiasts such as us, The Keepers, and readers such as yourselves. One of the greatest things about the web is that it lets us, the irrationally-impassioned, freely speak our voice should we want to, and freely share our ideas and work with others. This blog, for example,…
In 1998, Marco Pantani staged one of the most prestigious coups of cycling by winning the Giro-Tour double. He made this run aboard what I believe to be the most beautiful bike in history, a Celeste steed with a yellow section of frame starting at the seat collar and spreading out down the tops of…
The aroma. The taste. The ritual of the preparation, and the anticipation. It’s more than just a drink. Coffee is an integral part of cycling and cyclists lifestyles. But, like Campa versus Shimano, or white socks versus black, the way we imbibe the magic bean can be just as polarising. We received an email from…
Issue 15 just arrived on my doorstop, and it is especially good and is going to take a good long time to work through all the way to the back cover. But I can tell you about the beginning, which was particularly captivating. It started with a great piece on Jeremy Hunt (written by Domestique/Journalist…
To me, there is nothing cooler than riding in awful weather. It automatically associates you with the Spring Classics, held in wet, wind, and rain, over the the worst roads you can imagine. There is no image of cycling that I love more than of a tough Belgian Pro dressed in knickers, arm warmers, cycling…
It is probably the most famous mountain in cycling. Almost 14 kilometers, 21 numbered hairpin turns. It lies in the the Isère valley, which is narrow and surrounded by mountains so rugged they look as though they were cast in a single day. These mountains are steep and brutal and spring up abruptly from the…
Unless you spend a lot of time with the Dutch, you probably don’t realize how awesome we are. We can pretty much walk into any situation and immediately understand the landscape and explain to all the non-Dutch in the room precisely why they are inferior. For the mathematically-minded, let me put it in equation form:…
After narrowly losing Milan San-Remo to Mark “The Manx Mounth” Cavendish, Heinrich Haussler was in agony. Many people might have been delighted with his accomplishment; he darted off the front of a highly controlled bunch and made an unexpected result which would make his one of the most recognized names of the 2009 cycling season. But…
I’ve made mention before of Rouleur magazine and their amazing, in-depth articles. In one of the past issues, they had a wonderful piece on frame building in the eighties and nineties describing how many of the big names sourced the building of frames – especially custom frames – to subcontractors. The article focused on one…
Mario Cipollini, if nothing else, did one crucial thing for cycling. For better or worse, he turned cycling into a Business. His business sense was light years ahead of the pro cycling culture. He recognized that, by being both a dedicated professional a narcissist, you could make enourmous amounts of money – not only for…
I miss downtube shifters. I miss them in the same way I miss the days before the widespread use of race radios, when races were less choreographed and more unpredictable. Racing on downtube shifters, a rider had to be seated and take one hand off the bars to shift. Shifting had to be planned into…
Flandrian. While its real definition is a lot more complex than I’d ever imagined, it’s a word that is bandied about frequently here in relation to weather matters far less serious. If it’s bucketing down, a stiff breeze blowing or the air has that frosty bite to it, we are inclined to state “It’s a…
For those cyclists who might shop at the Big and Tall shop, we are a minority, we stand out in a pace line, we don’t go up steep hills well but we all should worship at the altar of Eros Poli. Eros Poli! When one is named John, Poli is already deserving of idolatry. A…
Cycling enthusiasts used to mash a giant gear for one, simple reason: it looked super cool. Do you want to ride like Lucho Herrera who is always falling off his bike or Eddy Merckx who is always winning races? Even as recently as the 90’s it was a common sight to see the pros riding…
Jens Voigt can always be relied on for entertaining comments to the press. One of my favorite quotes of his was during an interview discussing the role that a rider’s mind plays during a race: When you go hard, your body says, ‘STOP!’ and your mind says, ‘BODY, SHUT UP!’ And, sometimes it works! And then…
Cycling is a unique sport in the sense that suffering is a badge of honor. Greg LeMond once said, “It never gets easier, you just go faster.” Cyclists love to suffer – it’s a badge of honor. Bernard Hinault claimed that as long as he breathed, he attacked. At a primordial level, cycling is about…
“They” say hindsight is 20/20, but I tend to disagree. Hindsight is only as good as your vision is in the first place. In my case, I can see just well enough not to run into things without my glasses. Plus, “they” dangerously forget to point out that hindsight is only helpful if you are…