Anatomy of a Photo: You Can Leave Your Hat On

Sometimes, when there’s a job to be done, you just don’t care what you look like. As with gardening, changing the oil or building that new pergola, the best gear for the job is usually the most practical, not the most stylish. In this Cor Vos image from the 1985 Liége-Bastogne-Liége, keeping warm is clearly the main objective of this hard working trio.

De Wolf (L) has gone for the classic beanie with pom-pom, a look usually favoured more by Saturday morning rugby dads than pro cyclists. He also raided the cupboard under the kitchen sink for his gloves, which as anyone who has ever done the dishes knows, do a better job of letting water in than keeping it out. Contini (R) has tried to keep the style points accumulating by jamming a cap over the tuque that his grandmother knitted him, and almost pulls it off, if not for the slightly sheepish look on his face hinting at a modicum of embarassment. Winnen (C) has tried the opposite approach, going for the wooly hat over the cap, which looks like it’s had its visor modified crudely with a pair of scissors. He’s thrown all style and three-point-system pointers right out of the window, and doesn’t give a fuck. Both Contini and Winnen possess guns which are impervious to water and cold.

Looking closer, it seems all three may well be wearing hairnets, making the combining of multiple layers of headwear a challenge that each has met in his own unique way, and somehow manage to still look hard as nails.