It is said that this race is one of the easiest to finish but hardest to win. Really, it is the easiest to finish? I’ve driven from San Remo to Milan and it takes hours and hours, even at Italian highway speeds. I’m amazed this race usually ends up in a field sprint, somehow big sprinters survive the capos at the end of this long course. These are not major climbs but they are ridden incredibly fast, faster than any of us could ascend, even if we didn’t do the warm up from Milan.
What a shot of suffering on the bike this is. The twenty-two year old, second year pro with Peugeot, hanging on up the Capo Berta. I’d look as miserable as him if I was racing on a steel Peugeot too. Sean’s grimy expression is unapologetic suffering. He might have told Graham Watson to sod off if he wasn’t dying so. No gloves for his 300km race and the brake hoods are nothing to hang on to unless climbing out of the saddle which Yates could be doing here if his legs could handle it.
The best part of this photo is how big he is. He may be climbing well for his weight but he must have dropped one whole Andy-Schleck-unit by the time he was racing for Motorola. And yet, here he is, paying his dues as a young pro, looking like the British pursuit champion he was… no Capo Bertas on the track.
The Velominati hold Sean Yates in the highest regard. He is a classic hardman, no messing about, he would ride you into the ground and enjoy doing it. He is in an elite group of riders that includes Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady; to call them domestiques would greatly understate their careers. They are more team captains (the French must have a good word for this), they have all been in the yellow jersey of the Tour, and all have outstanding palmares. Probably better to just call them hardmen.
Post script:
“When you’re in your first professional season and riding in your first real classic, a relatively miniscule hill like the Capo Berta in Milan-San Remo can have the nastiest effect on your diminishing reserves of stamina. That’s how Sean Yates came to remember his baptism into big-time racing, having neglected the opportunity to collect a food-bag at the final feeding station, twenty kilometers before.
I was inching my way past the heaving peloton on the Capo Berta when I caught sight of a bulky figure wearing a Peugeot jersey-unmistakably Yates. As I passed our eyes met: mine squinting through an 85mm lens, his out of a face screwed up in agony and exhaustion. It was a short exchange- I couldn’t bear to look at him in such a state…”
-Graham Watson, Visions of Cycling. p 58.
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
@Marko
Wow. They just called him too fat to climb. They didn't even say he climbed well for his weight.
@frank,@Marko
IF he finished 9 Tours he can climb well enough for his weight. Wikipedia...they don't understand the nuance of it all.
That's quite a dodgey mo' he was working in the first Motorola pic.
I'll edit the Wikipedia page if someone can come up with something really classy.
@michael
For a powerful rouleur Yates climbed very well for his weight?
@Marko
Yeah, perfect. And make mention of the fact that despite his violating of the Rules in shorts length, he also helped us define what the right length is. Not too long, but not too short, either.
It just occurred to me, was he throwing back to the wool-bibs days when they were much shorter? Was he paying homage to his own heros?
I changed it to "For a rouleur Yates climbed very well for his weight." with a link on the word rouleur. "Powerful" was used in the sentence before so it sounded redundant.
@michael
++1
@michael
Oh, just had a thought. Can you put a link to the Lexicon for climbed well for his weight? Because that would rule.
I so should have patented "climb well for my weight." When it goes viral, I'm going to kick myself...
@Marko, I would but I'm sure they would remove it eventually, maybe undoing all my changes in the process
@frank et al.
I'm surprised that you guys haven't figured out that short size/length is based on leg girth (yeah that phrase again). When Sean was 'heavier' he was able to wear a larger sized short and thus longer. When he got skinny he had to go down maybe a couple sizes in shorts and those are shorter. You only seem to see this on tall guys, although short guys have shorts that are too long sometimes too though.