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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I wear my cap to and from any ride, even if I have to go to work after a ride.
@RedRanger wow, that was fast. I just finished hitting the post button.
@Gianni Haha, Ive been sitting at my laptop studying for a test all morning.
I wear mine occasionally to work (at a bike shop.) I also keep mine on while heckling the later (faster) groups at our local cyclocross races.
I miss the days when I'd proudly ride in my Cafe de Colombia cap, helmet saved for race day.
Los
I cherish Rule #9 days for the simple fact I know I can wear a cycling cap without reservation. In doing so, I somehow feel closer to the tradition of cycling and the boxful of caps I used to wear (sans helmet) 30 years ago. On race day, pre and post race: the cap is on.
I must say it pains me to see a podium finisher donning a baseball cap with their sponsor's logo. This is cycling. Wear a cycling cap! Eddy did.
just like with any piece of equipment, a cap becomes simply better if you know something about it and have a good reason to use it. Hipster wearing a Brooklyn cap with the World Champ stripes just because they lived in Williamsburg for a summer: not good. Me wearing a cap from a high end bike shop in Portland, because it was a memento from the trip AND has excellent functionality: good. A Fred wearing a vintage-style Merckx or Molteni cap when everything else they own comes from the latest gear review pages of Bicycling Magazine: bad. A grizzled hardman wearing a cap from long defunct Euro team while crushing past you with downtube shifters: good. basically, my point is, if you wear the cap well and don't look like a douche: good. if you wear it poorly, know nothing about the classic icons of cycling sport and style, and befoul the World Champ stripes with your own sweat: not good.
take it back, fuck the hipsters. I get the impression hipsters are getting tired of their track bikes anyway. It's been a while since i've seen one of those goofballs in their capri-shorts and sockless lady shoes. I think it's time.
I hope this is a prelude to the announcement that V-Caps are about to be more real than unicorns or the like.
@Dashiell Spot on.
@Nate
This was my exact thought as well.