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.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@The Pressure
@Barracuda
@pistard
@Mikael Liddy
I like the Fiasco Ciclismo kit, though it's got nothing on Attaquer
Lets get a V-Cap! Here is a rough draft I came up with. I dont have a very good program for designing so the draft is very rough, the "paint" program on windows is not very good. I have been saying we need a V-Cap for a while and I think others are into it as well so here is what I came up with. Any other ideas out there?
@Bill Chris I'm sure the Attaquer designer has some free time...
@mouse
BTW is this the #2 male prostitute in all of Kazakhstan?
@Gianni
I have the same problem, caps just look goofy because the brim is usually significantly smaller then my (mostly empty) cranium. I get headaches from some caps that are too tight.
@The Pressure
my point being its better in "real life" than the images suggest.
hopefully your 'puter screen and key board are free of debris now!
Nothing wrong with being different, others may think my Rapha classic kit is boring and pretentious, but im not fussed.
That "Attaquer" kit however, is a completely different story, I think that is "Dirk Digglers" have brother !
It is time. Take back the cap!
@Mikael Liddy yeah, kid was too small for the cap.
@Bill Chris
Nice.
Pic from LeMan's FB page
Backward billing, ala aero hairnet, as per Beppe....
"In 1980, an 18-year-old Greg LeMond was the first American to win a European pro-amateur stage race the Circuit de la Sarthe"