I’m often told I romanticize Cycling’s past, that the days gone by weren’t quite as rosy as I make them out to be. There is some truth to this, certainly, but the assertion isn’t entirely accurate in the sense that I romanticize everything about Cycling.
Because events are seasoned by our thoughts and individual experience, we necessarily cannot see them for what they truly were. The thoughts that pass through our mind when looking at an old or new photograph, a race, or when we go for a ride influences the way it is remembered and the significance it holds.
Our minds are very good at forgetting pain and remembering pleasure; it isn’t very long after an experience that negative associations begin to fade and positive ones to amplify. This psychological mechanism is the gateway to romanticization. Certainly, I remember that climbing Haleakala last January was a horrible experience, but I’ve managed to forget what that means precisely. On the other hand, the memory of accomplishing a task that turned out to be much harder than I had anticipated lingers strongly; I find myself drawn back to the mountain for the chance to experience once more the purity that touches us briefly when we persevere despite total exhaustion.
Romanticizing encourages us to study the past, to appreciate how things were, and provides the opportunity to learn from the mistakes others have made. It reminds us that things were not always as they are today and that those things we wish were different may be so tomorrow. It helps us forget that many long hours of suffering are balanced only by brief moments of exhilaration. It helps us to dream, to imagine what could be.
Do the great races of the past seem more glorious than they were? Perhaps. Does the sunlight’s glint off a chromed chainstay blind me to the weight of the bicycle and the extra burden it places on its rider? Certainly. Does the memory of reaching down to flick a downtube shifter eclipse the inconvenience of sitting down to shift, and removing a hand from the bars? Absolutely. But they also form the fabric of what keeps me returning to the bicycle.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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@Souleur
I think you've hit the nail on the head with both your points about romanticization of past races.
The kit available to the Pros today is close to being 100% in terms of our perception of what it should do. We look back look back on past kit at rate it against this baseline and it doesn't measure up so we marvel at their hardness for putting up with it but for those guys it was the norm to have to take a wheel of and flip it over or reach behind them to change gear. As the period of development lengthens, the gains become less and less in the same way that over the last 40 years certain aspects of commercial passenger air travel have changed but in the 747-8 we're still flying around in essential the same plane as the first 747 whereas 40 years before that, 1930, a plane that carried 400 - 500 passengers was unthinkable.
As for romanticization of pain and suffering our own rides, as good as they may be the sunny, painfree group rides don't figure as we know we've done nothing to further our own abilities or fitness. It6's only when we move outside our comfort zone that we improve.
This seems like the right article to post this link in...its an audio interview / slideshow with tommy godwin from the 1948 olympics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/audioslideshow/2012/jan/02/1948-london-olympics-cycling-audio-slideshow
The best line in interview is the fact that they didn't yet know what adrenline was in those days. Its worth taking a few minutes to give it a look. Lovely old Team GB kit also...
@All just wondering what the Pro peloton and the bosses thinks of radios - for or against?
@Rob They tend to be in favour of it from what I can see. Vaughters in particular and Bruyneel too IIRC led a campaign to keep them and there was talk of boycotts on the UCI race in Beijing and even breakaway organisations.
The riders also seem to be largely in favour though opinion is divided. Off the top of my head from various twitter feeds and comments I would guess around two-thirds in favour of radios and one third against.
Jens is one of the most outspoken pro-radio riders, so it's surprising anyone is against them really.
@frank
Actually, I'm merely suggesting that it's a little early to say what's going to be "legendary" in 20 years. Facts are funny things, they turn into legends for reasons we may or may not comprehend. Lots of folks thought Pharmy's 7 TdF's would be legendary just a few years ago. Given what we know now, I somehow doubt that we will be talking about a "legend" in 15 years. As for Faboo, Grimplette, PhilGil et al time will tell whether their rides become "legendary".
Like the man once said, "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend"
@ Rob: i think most are in favor
for the PRO, we must admit, its like an umbilical cord
Bruyneel et al love it
riders love it, are nourished info via it
and will cry when you take it away
yet it may be the best thing to do, cut it!
@Souleur
Yeah, I agree with you on their take.
Although I was pleasantly surprised to hear, I think it was Christian Vande Velde, say that all riders had become brain dead robots and just did whatever their ear bud told them to do.
A lot of respect for him for actually saying that, esp when their management and most pros are totally in favor of radios.
@Rob, @ChrisO, @Souleur, @Buck Rogers
It doesn't surprise me, either. Imagine being Jensie, who has to pull in the break by sitting on the front for 50km, riding á bloc for more than an hour. Does he want to stretch that out to an hour and a half by going off feel alone, when he has the convenience of having a car full or radios, computers, and cellphone connections to sports doctors at his disposal to tell him the precise moment he can start the chase and still catch them? Of course not. It makes his job much, much easier.
But the fact is, that it takes the brains of the race out of the riders (and even the DS who has to drive up to the break and give advice) and into the hands of sophisticated tools that take all the thinking out of it.
Cut the cord, as they say. A parent who sends their clingy kid off to college has to do it, too - and in both cases, its better in the end.
@Buck Rogers
He may have repeated it, but he said that during the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2001 on the video "Road to Paris" - the team radios failed, and the team was totally and completely lost. That episode alone should be argument enough for banning radios.
@frank
I'd agree entirely, the 2011 Worlds showed how well a team can control a race without radios.
@frank
That may be where I am remembering the quote from, but I think that someone said it last year as well.
Maybe an Aussie? Cannot place it.