There is a sense of weightlessness that accompanies speed; a strange feeling for any Earthbound creature who temporarily breaks Gravity’s relentless grip – an intoxicating blend of liberty and a sense impeding doom. The day I learned to ride a bike, I felt this sensation spread through me like a virus; immediately my eyes cast to the dirt trail behind the house as the most obvious opportunity to discover just how fast I could go and how far I could get. The excitement filled first my hands and my feet, then it billowed up through body to my shoulders and dazzled me with splendidly blurred vision as I sped down that very trail which previously I had only ever walked along.
The freedom that accompanied these feeling lingers with me today, and their intoxicating qualities express themselves every time my eyes cast upon a bicycle.
The bicycle has represented freedom to Cyclists since well before the turn of the last century. From the start, the question of how far and how fast the bicycle can be ridden has captivated not only those riding, but anyone who cares to spectate. A kilometer, then 5, then 500; race organizers quickly discovered what any modern Cyclist knows; make a ride sound crazy enough, and you’ll attract more than enough idiots to make a spectacle. So was born the sport of Bicycle Racing.
The classical tale we tell is that throughout the pre-War and post-War eras; when Cycling represented a reprieve from the labor of a hard daily life underground or in the fields. Many of the competitors in the Tour were workers who took time from their usual work to race across the great expanse of France. Even the great champions of Cycling’s Golden Era in the 1950’s would have chanced a life with hands gripping a set of handlebars against sickle, hammer, or shovel. Bobet, Anquetil, our Prophet Merckx, Hinault, and Fignon faced life in a field or market versus life as one of the greatest shaping forces our sport has known. It wasn’t until recently when Cycling became a financially attractive occupation; Merckx, in his most winning years, earned as much as his son Axel did as a domestique in the 2000’s.
But the notion of Cycling as an escape from a hard life in the fields may not be dead yet; as many of us now know, Nairo Quintana grew up in rural Colombia, riding 18 kilometers uphill to school (both directions, and naked in four seasons of Winter, supposing our collective grandfathers shared his fate). The bicycle didn’t just free him from the confines of his childhood; the bicycle elevated Nairo Quintana and his family into another stratosphere altogether.
I don’t know very much about life in Colombia and whether his newfound fame will lead to a better or more rewarding life for him. That remains for him to discover, and like anyone who pushes into the unknown, he will need to square his new demons against his old in order to find those answers. But what I do know is that, like it did for us, the bicycle has freed him from his perceived boundaries and set him free explore new territories.
It would seem, then – at least for this moment – that the Golden Era of Cycling is not yet beyond our grasp.
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@ChrisO
There are probably two points here and only one as far as I know has been investigated:
1. The point that someone (Columbian or not) will benefit from training at altitude, and that the benefit will diminish over time once returned to sea level. This is very well documented medically in all sorts of areas, most commonly mountaineering. You take time to acclimatise and you either climb alpine style...Climb high, sleep low, or you adopt old fashioned Siege method of climbing and living high in stages to acclimatise. It takes a long time and is resource heavy hence the reason it is not really used these days. Anyway once you return to lower levels, you will notice some very visible signs of the changes back i.e. your shit goes black as your body sheds red bloodcells that were generated to cope with the lesser oxygen levels. All cyclists can temporarily benefit from this.
2. Inherent/Genetic benefit. This is not about growing up at high altitude. This is about a race of people who over generations have lived at altitude and over time, as a people, they have adapted to lower oxygen levels. The most obvious example are the Sherpas of Nepal who, it has been proved, have a material advantage over other races (Pakistani porters) as a result of generations living and working at altitude.
I just wonder whether Columbians in the highlands have developed over time a marginal benefit from their historic racial location and development over time.
Posing the question....why don't we see a shit load of Ghurkas in the Grand Tours?....Maybe a recruitment drive is in order....I vote for a campaign in Katmandu to recruit Ghurkas in to the Velominati!
@motor city
Jaques Anquetil is a prime example...it followed through not just in his success but also the way he approached his cycling. It was to him a source of income and he never forgot it, or where he came from.
By the way Paul Howards - Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape is a great book on Metre Jacques and well worth a read..
@Deakus
When you get to Katmandu you'll probably notice that the average Gurkha doesn't really have the physic of a GT climber.They might well have the lungs for it but their physique tends to be short and squat, the W/kg wouldn't be good at all. Shitloads of V though.
@Chris
Damn! I was hoping Sky might sponsor me to go check it out....
Nice sentiment throughout frank.
@Deakus
Yes I'm sure genetics come into it as well but then it isn't just a matter of living at altitude, it is all aspects of physique. I don't know the differences between Sherpas and Pakistanis but if the Sherpas are short and squat with lower centres of gravity they may have an advantage as carriers of large loads, compared to more wiry, slightly taller people.
Similarly anyone genetically disposed to be small and light is going to have an advantage in climbs, but there are other aspects such as length of femur which improve general cycling ability.
Genetics is I think often overlooked or regarded as unmentionable for political correctness. It's why people believe utter codswallop like Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours.
@ten B
And I wind up throttling the bars and pulling faces like Tommy. Which is why it's so amazing to watch Quintana race Froome on a mountain finish. It doesn't get much more five and dime than that, and yet the little hero stays cool as a cucumber. If we assume a refrigerated cucumber.
Porte has a good race face, I think. His mild grimace looks like an evil grin. I wonder if he trained his grimace up from a young grimace, for psy-ops in the peloton.
@ChrisO I think there is some truth in the 10,000 hours. I mean, it's a combination of genetics and self discipline that has held me back - not just one of them.
And you can't polish a turd.
@ChrisO
Aha well, one of my pet projects for a while was the people of St Kilda. There (contrary to popular opinion which thinks they were forceably re-partriated) moved from the islands in the North Atlantic in the 1930 as a result of starvation and illness. The sadness is, that a people who had lived a life dependant upon the outdoors and sea birds were re-housed in a council estate in Glasgow.
Anyway I digress. In actual fact it was proven that the St Kildans were a race in their own right. They had some specifically adapted features for their lifestyle, much of which was climbing cliffs for seabirds and their eggs. They actually had a curvature in their feet and longer than normal toes which is deemed to have been an evolutionary adaptation linked to their lifestyle over thousands of years. There was never more than 180 of them! That's a pretty small race!!
I have visited Hirta, it is a truly fascinating place. Not sure how good they would have been on a bike though....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland
@ChrisO
Speaking for all short and squat people everywhere, I can attest that we are better at carrying large loads than we are at riding bikes up steep mountains.