Categories: Anatomy of a PhotoGuest Article

Guest Article: Anatomy of a Photo – The Look

The lads

This article could be just about the wearing-o-the cotton cap. That is the Pro look right there folks. It’s too bad this helmet craze has gone and ruined it all. It’s almost reason enough to ride the old timey Eroica Strade Bianche; a natty cap worn backward with no-one having a moan about it. @Wiscot is doing his usual excellent work here. Thanks @Wiscot.

VLVV, Gianni

As we all know, a certain rider from a southern US state famously threw out a “look” at Jan Ullrich on L’Alpe d’Huez during the Tour de France in 2001. It was a look that said “I’m outta here and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Given the Texan’s masterfully measured intake of pharmaceuticals, there was indeed little Ullrich could do.

Let’s turn the clock back to 1978 and the Tour de France. Two young professionals are lined up at the stage start, ready to do the bidding of their team leaders. English-speaking riders were still relatively scarce at the time so these two had something in common besides their status as domestiques.

On the right we have the 22 year old Paul Sherwen from England. He turned professional in 1978 for Fiat-La France, a French team and whose teammates in the 1978 Tour included no-one of any real accomplishment, although the directeur sportif was the legendary Raphael Geminiani. Sherwen would win seven races as a professional, establishing himself as an excellent and tough domestique who fully earned his few opportunities to win.

On the left is the 22 year old Sean Kelly from Carrick-on-Suir in the Irish Republic. He turned professional a year earlier than Sherwen in 1977 and rode the 1978 Tour for Flandria, a Belgian team containing such hard men as Marc DeMayer, Michel Pollentier, Freddy Maertens, Joaquim Agostinho, Rene Bittinger and Marcel Tinazzi. He would win a stage of the Tour that year, outsprinting Gerrie Knetemann on stage six to Poitiers. He would go on to lead teams for 12 years and win Paris-Nice seven times.

However, in 1978, both riders’ palmares were very slim indeed as their job was not to win for themselves, but to assist others in doing so. Their futures were unknown, but surely neither could guess that they would both later land gigs as commentators – and both in English. At the time that would have been regarded as highly unlikely as Kelly’s grasp of the English language was famously difficult to ascertain. He was a rider who, legend has it, nodded in affirmation to a question asked on radio. English-speaking teammates found it easier to communicate with Kelly in French.

But back to the expression on Sherwen’s face. The look Sherwen is giving Kelly is, to me, one of pure disdain. “Who is this barely intelligible tattie-howking peasant from Ireland, and why is he next to me? I rode for the Altringham Road Club, he rode for the Carrick Wheelers.”

Kelly, on the other hand, does a great job of not caring. His crystal ball says “I will become an all-time great. I will win five stages of the Tour, four green jerseys, nine Monuments, podium twice in World Championships and win a Grand Tour. In 1984 alone I will win 33 races, you will become an apologist for one of the greatest cheaters in the history of sport.”

Be careful who you give the evil eye to.

wiscot

I got my first bike at age 2 and have always had one since. My first real bike was a massive steel blue Peugeot at the age of 14. Subsequently replaced by a red Holdsworth, a team-colors Raleigh and a ruby-red Colnago, the latter joined by a neon-pink Cougar TT bike, a metallic green Brian Rouke winter bike and a blue Specialized mountain bike. All steel and all gone to new homes now. I joined the Johnstone Wheelers Cycling Club at 18 and became a dedicated time triallist, riding 30-50 club and open races a year. In 1989/90 I was a founding member of the short-lived VC d"Or which included velominatus and short-lived COTHO teammate Brian Smith. I also raced regularly against another real Velominatus - Graeme Obree - in the 1980s and beat him twice - once in a 10 and once in a 50. Rumors that he stopped to have a drum up at the turn are probably true. Moved to the US in 1990. Buggered up my back (working for a bike shop ironically) in 1993. Took several years off. Back riding since 2006 in Wisconsin and logging 8000+ kilometers each of the last three years.

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View Comments

Chipomarc says:

Nov 13 2015 at 9:59 pm

Jury still out on whether or not he managed to pull this look off.
DavyMuur says:

Nov 14 2015 at 4:04 am

As for the bands issue, it's not as if he's wearing a full-on rainbow jersey. That would be ludicrous indeed. And by the way, how many times did he win the super prestigel/UCI world cup again?

Future King Kelly wears what he likes.
TommyTubolare says:

Nov 14 2015 at 5:16 am

@frank

Hold your fucking horses cowboy! That was Flandria Velda Lano jersey in '78

Marc Demeyer was not WC either.

Anyway please don't tell me you gonna go with Sherwin here. I think all these years you've been watching cycling on wrong channels.
The Pressure says:

Nov 14 2015 at 5:55 am

@TommyTubolare

@frank

Hold your fucking horses cowboy! That was Flandria Velda Lano jersey in ’78

Marc Demeyer was not WC either.

Anyway please don’t tell me you gonna go with Sherwin here. I think all these years you’ve been watching cycling on wrong channels.

Stud!! Muff said
wiscot says:

Nov 14 2015 at 8:05 am

I did some digging and can't find a good reason for the Flandria boys wearing the WC bands. Freddy Maertens won the WCRR in 1976 so he would have worn the WC jersey for most of the 77 season and been entitled to have the rainbow bands on his kit thereafter. The Kelly-Sherwen pic is from 1978. Basking in Freddy's awesomeness? I don't know.
Chipomarc says:

Nov 14 2015 at 10:12 am

@TommyTubolare

Looks like Marc there spent far too much time in the swimming pool over the winter.

With that upper body these days the bike he's holding would be equipped with tri-bars and the water bottle stuck on the back of the saddle.
Gianni says:

Nov 14 2015 at 10:24 am

@wiscot

I did some digging and can’t find a good reason for the Flandria boys wearing the WC bands. Freddy Maertens won the WCRR in 1976 so he would have worn the WC jersey for most of the 77 season and been entitled to have the rainbow bands on his kit thereafter. The Kelly-Sherwen pic is from 1978. Basking in Freddy’s awesomeness? I don’t know.

I think the basking in Freddy's awesomeness theory is a sound one. Kelly and the rest of them were there to make sure Freddy won TdF stages, essentially all wearing Freddy's jersey. Extensions of Freddy's winning will. And no, I'm not drunk. It's 8:25 am here.
wiscot says:

Nov 14 2015 at 11:37 am

@Gianni

@wiscot

I did some digging and can’t find a good reason for the Flandria boys wearing the WC bands. Freddy Maertens won the WCRR in 1976 so he would have worn the WC jersey for most of the 77 season and been entitled to have the rainbow bands on his kit thereafter. The Kelly-Sherwen pic is from 1978. Basking in Freddy’s awesomeness? I don’t know.

I think the basking in Freddy’s awesomeness theory is a sound one. Kelly and the rest of them were there to make sure Freddy won TdF stages, essentially all wearing Freddy’s jersey. Extensions of Freddy’s winning will. And no, I’m not drunk. It’s 8:25 am here.

Indeed. How awesome was Freddy? in 1976 he had 54 wins (record tied with the Prophet) that included 8 Tour stages (again, a record tied with the Prophet). In 77 he won 13 stages of the Vuelta and 53 wins overall. He would have won more but was off the bike for three weeks after breaking his wrist in the Giro. Freddy and Marc DeMayer were Kelly's teachers and he the willing and talented pupil.

As for DeMayer, he was one of "the Three Muskateers (DeMayer, Maertens and Pollentier). De Mayer won the 76 Paris-Roubaix as immortalized in Jurgen Leth's classic film "A Sunday in Hell." Call him a triathlete at your peril. Look at the gears on that bike of his: 53-42 and a 12 straight through by the looks of things.
TommyTubolare says:

Nov 14 2015 at 11:42 am

@wiscot

Great photo and article, nobody is using Freddy's jersey though. IIRC those years they redesigned the jersey few times a year at least. From 1976 I have seen jerseys with rainbow bands around the neck and sleeves, only around the neck and without rainbow bands at all. In the link from Ronde van Vlaanderen 1976 Demeyer's jersey is without bands. He finished 3rd. The same year he won Paris-Roubaix though.

Photos from 1976 Tour de France show jersey had bands though. Just like Pollentier for example

1975 Trofeo Baracchi - Maertens and Pollentier with bands on the jersey

1976 Trofeo Baracchi

Flandria Team 1976

Look at Maertens and Tabak jersey, the first two from the left, jersey is different.

You can read more at Flandria bikes if you have time

http://www.flandriabikes.com/heroes
TommyTubolare says:

Nov 14 2015 at 11:44 am

@wiscot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uuutUICL0E