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.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/j.andrews3@comcast.net/Beppe/”/]
This video has been posted on the site before too but it deserves a wider audience.
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@Weldertron
pre-ride flats come to mind. being fully kitted and grabbing the trusty steed to find a flat.
Me before I was educated in "The Rules"....
World's Are Colliding! (in a good way)
I just nailed the 15th question on this week's Cycling Revealed quiz. Timely article, Gianni!
@Ron
And no, thankfully I did not see this post before taking this week's quiz.
PLEASE do not make any mention of the quiz until the next quiz is up unless it is just your score.
Thank you.
Gianni, Gianni, Gianni, I sooo hear the soft cry in the wilderness - what folks here may not know is that you without the cap is like a unicorn without a vagina! I know deep down that you wrote this in hopes that Rule 22 will be revised so that once again you can don the sacred garment at will and without guilt. Unlike you I never had confidence in my ability to pull off the cap in all social situations so my wearing is done in private and thus nobody sees how often I break this Rule. So I hope for both our sakes 22 can be toned down...
I do love my collection of caps, the newest was a well intended gift from Alpe d'Huez. It celebrates the 21 hairpins... Somehow, although well made and handsome it makes me slightly throw up in my throat when I put it on because its subject matter is not a race, bike maker or team. Am I too sensitive?
And huge yes to a V cap and soon please I'm not getting any younger!
@scaler911 love the visual of you slicin' and dicin' with a cycling cap jauntily perched on your crown.
Scene - scaler911 bursts into the operating theater (observing proper sterile technique by opening the door with his posterior)
scaler911 - "Alright everyone. Time to Rule #5 and get on with making a difference in this patient's life. Hand me the retractor."
@DeKerr
You did know that he's a specialist in male-to-female sex reassignment surgery?
Is it any wonder he's relaxed about gender identification? He's got an app for that.
@pistard
that would be these guys - Fiasco Ciclismo
@Mikael Liddy
Good grief!
@Mikael Liddy
My eyes! My eyes! Hard to make a YJA lok tasteful, but I think Fiasco is the right word.