Les Maîtres de la Casquette

The last masters of the Cycling cap slipped into the shadows at the close of the 20th century

It doesn’t take a genius to see what’s going on here. Rule #5, Rule #9, Rule #10; every rider in this frame Looks Fantastic (most other Rules). The riders are in short sleeves and shorts while the public apparently has scavenged materials from rubbish bins and the local grain elevator in a very visually unpleasant effort to keep warm. When I visualize the 90’s, this photo pretty much shows what I see. (Why was the weather so crap in France during Big Mig’s reign? Only redeeming quality of his wins.)

What this photo also shows is the highest concentration of Les MaÃ®tres de la Casquette, the masters of the Cycling cap, in recent recorded history. We discussed the art of wearing a Cycling Cap before, probably more often than necessary. Like all art, it begins with some founding principles, and then opens itself to the artist’s vision and expression. And like with art, there are The Masters.

In the art of wearing the revered casquette, we are guided by the Three Point System. From there, we are at liberty to express ourselves. In the days before helmets, the peloton was overflowing with masters of this studied art with an early style peak coinciding directly with the point of bushiest sideburns, but it has since all but died out. The last peak was in 1991, when Big Mig, Chiappucci, Bugno, Luc LeBlanc, and Richard Virenque were all at the height of their powers. Like the Jedi after the rise of the Sith, it is the responsibility of The Velominati to keep this art alive.

It also occurs to me in the state of high fever in which I write this, that the transcended Velominatus is always engaged in a Cycling-related activity which could possibly provide a release-clause for any accusation of a Rule #22 violation.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Buck Rogers says:

Nov 22 2014 at 7:18 pm

@gerty Agree on all accounts. REALLY wanted LeMan to win that day, esp after gifting Le Blaireau the stage in '86. Then he overcooked that corner and could not hold on to the line. DAMN!

We had to wait another two years before the first American win on d'Huez but Hampsten did it with class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ5pEm3ZEn4

Love how they all take random water bottles from the crowd and pass it around and drink it at the 2:28 minute mark in the video.

And yes, unbelievable that it was 24 years ago when Bugno pipped LeMan at the line.
Markp says:

Nov 24 2014 at 1:42 am

@wilburrox

@frank

And a close up of the Master.

Tried to get a close up look at the orange banded chronograph but couldn't make out what it was. For the longest time I'd simply kept the watch while on the bike to the good ol' good ol' ironman watch but lately I've left been less particular about it being whatever watch I'd been wearing that day.

And up closer
wiscot says:

Nov 24 2014 at 7:06 am

@Harminator

Peiper far left, Thevenet 3rd from left...

Nah, can't be Thevenet. He left Peugeot in 79. That pic is after 82 when Shell came on as a sponsor. Left to right is (I think) Allan Peiper, Pascal Simon, Hubert Linard?, Francis Castaing, ?, Sean Yates, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle. A bit of research made me switch from Millar to Castaing. While the contrariness of wearing a standard-issue cap (as opposed to the green points cap everyone else is wearing) would suggest the taciturn Scot, I don't see Millar doing some low-key showboating like this, even in a neutralized roll-out section. Let me do a bit more research at home.

Oli, any help?
ped says:

Nov 24 2014 at 7:41 am

@wiscot ThIs, Stage 1 , 1985

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alastair_s/8353752299/
ped says:

Nov 24 2014 at 7:55 am

@wiscot

@Harminator

Peiper far left, Thevenet 3rd from left...

Nah, can't be Thevenet. He left Peugeot in 79. That pic is after 82 when Shell came on as a sponsor. Left to right is (I think) Allan Peiper, Pascal Simon, Hubert Linard?, Francis Castaing, ?, Sean Yates, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle. A bit of research made me switch from Millar to Castaing. While the contrariness of wearing a standard-issue cap (as opposed to the green points cap everyone else is wearing) would suggest the taciturn Scot, I don't see Millar doing some low-key showboating like this, even in a neutralized roll-out section. Let me do a bit more research at home.

Oli, any help?

So, the Peugeot tem that year was -

Millar, Robert Forest, Pascal Simon, Duclos-Lasalle, Yvan Frebert, Peiper, Hubert Linard, Yates, Francis Castaing, and Frederic Brun., if you could now run tour facial recognition software.....
wiscot says:

Nov 24 2014 at 8:14 am

@ped

@wiscot

@Harminator

Peiper far left, Thevenet 3rd from left...

Nah, can't be Thevenet. He left Peugeot in 79. That pic is after 82 when Shell came on as a sponsor. Left to right is (I think) Allan Peiper, Pascal Simon, Hubert Linard?, Francis Castaing, ?, Sean Yates, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle. A bit of research made me switch from Millar to Castaing. While the contrariness of wearing a standard-issue cap (as opposed to the green points cap everyone else is wearing) would suggest the taciturn Scot, I don't see Millar doing some low-key showboating like this, even in a neutralized roll-out section. Let me do a bit more research at home.

Oli, any help?

So, the Peugeot tem that year was -

Millar, Robert Forest, Pascal Simon, Duclos-Lasalle, Yvan Frebert, Peiper, Hubert Linard, Yates, Francis Castaing, and Frederic Brun., if you could now run tour facial recognition software.....

I'm going to go with Peiper, Simon, Linard, Castaing, Brun, Yates Gibus in the pic.No idea who might be behind Castaing.
frank says:

Nov 24 2014 at 11:16 am

De Vlaeminck: balancing the casquette with sideburns. So baller.
frank says:

Nov 24 2014 at 11:17 am

And speaking of baller; Fausto shows us a little something about Rule 33 and also why its cool to flip the visor up even when you're wearing it backwards.
ped says:

Nov 24 2014 at 11:29 am

@frank looks like he's taking the first bomba corretto of the day, seriously fucked over from the previous day, hence the shades
ped says:

Nov 24 2014 at 11:32 am

@wiscot can rule out Robert behind Castaing, far too much arm fat