The cycling cap was part of any kit: nearly black shorts, team jersey and cap. It would be matching, it would be cotton. In the day before the required helmet, the cycling cap was it. Unrestrained by helmet or hairnet, the cap was the crown upon the head. It would sit high on the head, not pulled down like a baseball cap. It sat no higher upon the head than upon Giuseppi Beppe Saronni’s fine Italian head.
Beppe wore the cap with an unrivaled sense of italian style. The cap perched up there, as if it just landed, light as a feather. How it stayed there in the breeze, we don’t know. Perhaps the Saronni skull had just the perfect shape to hold a cap. We will leave that for the Phrenological scientists and the pathologist.
Rule #22 states the wearing of a cap may be for a brief interval before and after a ride, otherwise it has to be hidden under your helmet. That is a sad state of affairs. Maybe we need a national day of helmet-free cap riding. What is the worst that could happen? Do we have to ride the old timey Strade Bianche if we long to spend a long time in the saddle wearing a V-cap? If we can only wear it for a brief time or while using toe clips, is it an anachronism? Is it time to take it back: wear it in the bathtub, in the car, gasp, while walking in public? This idea has been discussed before here; the cap is ours, we should own it. When and where would Eddy wear it?
Behold the Beppe.
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This video has been posted on the site before too but it deserves a wider audience.
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@Nate
That. Looks. Fun.
For the first time, I spent a couple of days this season deer hunting from my mtb. No opportunities for a shot, but my partner and I got way farther in than we could have on foot! (The rifles were unloaded while we were mounted, we were using the bikes to cover ground, not to road-hunt from.)
But hauling ass and punching paper? I'd be all over that.
@Rob
Gianni, I need my fingers for many things so dont have KRX10 take them off. I am sure a cap cant fit over your head, maybe we can workout a V-sombrero, that might fit. As for the cap design post, I wanted to stur up the masses to make sure the powers that be know of the demand for a v-cap. Just making sure the wheels are spinning.
@Rob, well done on the list. "NEED" is a strong word and I am glad you used it.
@Buck Rogers
That's a rare occurrence. I've known a bunch of Ranger qualified officers during my Army career, but I'd never met one who had been assigned to a Ranger unit, much less commanded one. My battalion XO way back in the late 70s was one of the few non-airborne qualified Rangers.
@ChrisO ouch, that's a bugger on missing Cipo. Story is he'll be working on his tan at the TDU come January, hoping to swing some time off work to ensure I'm free for whatever rides he might do.
@Buck Rogers
Beer hand-ups during the cross sections could make the shooting results interesting!
@Buck Rogers
Wow, interesting.
@Mikael Liddy
A little too interesting, perhaps. Downside to biathlon: deferred beerification.
@Buck Rogers the whole thing of cut backs suck - its not like were talking about a dance school, this is the US Army!? Of course they have to pay the football coach 1/2 a mil because it is the US Army and we have to beat the US Navy!
Oh well get a CX bike, train hard and go to the shooting range, practice and then enter one of the races just for yucks - I bet you'd ring their bells!
@Bill Chris
Bill, was way ahead of Gianni on this one (a rare thing) and I knew that you just threw out that "design" as bait as did I with the list. And thanks, because although the Board know we want caps I do not think that they get the pent up angst they have created by making V caps a low priority.
This raises the question of what is a high priority now that the Book of Rules is out and Frank finished the article on tire patches? Just what is the hold up???
Ah well, probably the same thing that holds me back from finishing my masterpiece, namely I like to ride my bike too much.
@Nate
Jesus! Those Dudes are riding with their weapons. That might be just a hair too much for me, unless it was a super safe course, but even then I do not know.
But no doubt ultra-Cool!