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.
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Truly a "Beast of a man" if there ever was one. Look at how low on the bars those brake levers are.
It looks like he's resisting the urge to go over and rip the photographer's face off. And, yes: bit of a big lad. It's not often that a pro cyclist leaves me feeling svelte...
@Rusty Tool Shed
I could have sworn there was a Rule about position of brake levers and Yates was violating said rule before it was ever conceived. That's what a badass he is. It's funny how these little things have moved around over the years. Everyone's saddle was much lower then and their bars may have been higher too.
@Gianni
Even back then the standard was to put a straight edge on the drop and have the bottom of the lever line up with it, otherwise I think we wouldn't still have that standard today.
@michael
You are right, it has always been the standard. Maybe Sean is using track bars! His lever end is way below the imaginary line. The guy behind him, his bars and brakes look more squared away.
Can it be blamed on the French Wrench?
I was just trying to find another photo of Yates from '83 and came across G. Watson's memory of this photo, he said Yates had passed on a final feed 20km earlier and was truly in the pain cave when he took this shot.
Gloves? The dude is on steel dishing the V, and that top tube has no slope at all. Watson couldn't hear him over the sound of his AWESOME.
Yates seems to have seen a ghost of some sort, perhaps a glimpse of purgatory on earth or the inner recess of his soul that he had not seen since his daddy whipped his ass as a child for doing something rather naughty...because there is a little hint of fear in his eyes with that suffering, and that is remarkable for 'this hardman'.
@eightzero
Yeah baby!
@Souleur
That may have been the ghost of Sean Yates Future, like ten minutes into the future when he pulled off the road and begged a local for food. I assume he finished the race because he is so f'ing AWESOME.
That look in his eyes, those were the years when no one was wearing glasses to hide the pain. It's great stuff.
Rule 46. I gotta think Big Sean gets an exemption for levers lower than the drops... Can we get a ruling from a Keeper? I long to see Milan - San Remo some day, I've ridden a motorcycle from Varese to Portofino, mostly along the route, and it's amazing terrain. Long, flat roads across endless rice fields, followed by wicked little twisty climbs with wooded slopes and streams, castles and monasteries on every hill. Bella! Plus the pantheon of greats who've won it or died trying. Sean Kelly In '92, reeling in Argentin comes to mind. Not to detract from the subject, as Mr. Yates was a true beast.
@sgt
Right, Rule 46, how did I miss that? Oh hell yes he get's an exemption. I believe the day after the race they have a cool "race" for civilians, it starts and ends in San Remo so one would get some coastal riding and all the hills at the end. Oh yes please. What a weekend that would be.