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 Maîtres 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.
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
@Mikael Liddy
THIS !!!!!!!
Frank, why is it that after lumbering us with batman and tires "pour le une pour cent" you redeem yourself with this? Not only are you praising the skimpy little things but you now give the Buck, Gianni, Rob demographic the virtual Papal dispensation to wear the casquette Anytime, Anywhere!
I loved wearing one back in the day but I usually looked shit - I don't know why, same reason I don't dance well and had no timing when free fighting in karate is my guess... I am just not cool. On the other hand Buck and Gianni are the epitomes of bad ass cool when they use it to cover the bald spot.
The only little bone to pick is your pegging 1991 as a high water of fashionable wearing of the cap. By then the design had changed and the high square poofta style that Big Mig wore had almost erased the rounder smaller looking tighter fitting older caps of the 60-70's. Thank Merckx that I squeaked in at the end of that era because those are the caps that worn under a helmet look best and off the bike take the greatest of sartorial skill to pull off - but when achieved - SNAP!
@Barracuda
It's time to begin a V-Starter for V-caps. This would be a KickStarter to raise the initial lucre to make the minimum order. I imagine it's got to be a fairly large number of caps and therefore I purpose that we canvas the community and do the math so that at each level of donation you would receive more caps.
What, for instance a large donor does with say 200 caps is irrelevant, it is the means to an end and I am betting that In a hundred years they will sell as collectible.
Maybe now that the fixie-hipster is crawling back into the hole from whence they emerged, we can rightly reclaim the casquette as an off-the-bike accoutrement. Of course, as we are definitely not savages, it still must only be worn with cycling kit and not topping off your formal or smart casual attire.
And you're spot on Franky boy, the disparity between the style of the riders and spectators is a yawning chasm.
@Rob
This. It's been long talked about in the Boardroom, and it seems so simple to produce a V-cap, but it's not. Getting the right mix of quality, price and number has been a seemingly insurmountable task. But we're gonna get there... we must.
The Chiappucci vs Bugno vs Mig tour was when I first got into cycling in a big way. I was a Bugno fan because he looked so good on a bike. I still own an original Gatorade jersey.
Sorry, but no. Are you also going to clomp around in your cycling shoes whilst loading the washing machine? Wear your jersey whilst un-blocking a drain? Tis a slippery slope, one only has to look at the gutter-snipes who wear the awful basball cap 24x7, or the dick-heads one meets on holiday weating a football shirt on the beach.
Ignore Jaja
Then again should the brim be up or down