Guest Article: The Line

East Fork of San Gabriel Canyon

While the shortest distance between two points is a straight line,  for us road cyclists it is usually not the fastest. @RobsMuir ponders this while riding and retains such complex thinking when done with his ride. That is an enviable skill in itself. 

VLVV, Gianni   

The Line. The right track. To the sprinter it hardly matters, a few technical turns during a maniacal kilometer or two through the centre-ville. The track specialist knows the Line, yet it never varies; it remains fixed on the planks, lap after lap. For the rouleur crossing the Loire Valley, or the of the peleton kicking through the wine grapes in Northern California, or the randonneur facing long rollers across scores of miles, these riders seldom see the Line.

The grimpeur-the escalade spécialiste-studies the Line. So too does the descendeur-the plunging décroissant spécialiste, the madman who plays the piste all the way to the base. It is said few can combine these two specialities successfully. Yet for the true Keeper of the Line, these two skills are but different sides of the same black-gloved fist thrust defiantly high above a reverently-bowed head.

It’s easy to see the sweeping Line in the descent. Here, the Velominatus generally lets G work its impressive magic. The hands gently ride on the drops, the index and middle fingers calmly touch the hair triggers while all around is noise and fury. Precise attention to the Line brings maximum velocities and the reptilian brain slingshots the organism out of each compressible switchback. ‘The Falcon’ knew the Line; admire Paolo Savoldelli as a blur.

For the grimpeur, life is harder. The ascent brings a slow and relentless suffering, and the frontal cortex is free to ponder the moment. Rule #6 to the contrary, the climber is left with but two stark choices; either dwell on the pain, or observe the Line. The former is self-defeating, the latter binds the observer with the unspeaking brain stem. Therein lies strategy.

How best to thread the Line from bottom to top? As with descents, moving to the inside of each turn shortens the distance-a worthwhile endeavor. Those steepest hairpins, though, can kill the cadence when the tarmac climbs above twenty percent. Do you head toward the top of each tight turn, knowing that you’ll need to climb that much anyway? Or should the pedalwan observe the unwritten Rule known by some as the Center Line Rule (CLR)? When the road’s your own, following the Middle Way might lead to enlightenment…

And here’s where a contemplative climber can discern the Line threading somewhere in between. Anticipating the next turn, the grimpeur can see the subtle Line that sweeps first from the bottom, then gradually to the CL, pushing upwards to the top of the curve, and completing each turn near the mid-point again. Imagined targets in the road–a pebble there, a divot farther along, that tar snake up ahead-can bend the Line ever so slightly and bring it more solidly to mind.  Each turn brings a slight variation of the superior Line, and-like a mirage-it seems to drift as one approaches.  Yet, in the process, this precise observation distracts the conscious mind from the pain that lies too, too near the surface.

The Line becomes the locus of control and the focus of attention. The kilometers melt and the summit nears.

RobsMuir

Is it correct (or even proper) to enjoy a carbone over a period-correct, original paint, full Campy, 1970 Cinelli Speciale Corsa? No? Even with Fiamme red-labels and silk tubes? I didn't think so...

View Comments

  • @RobsMuir A great article, beautifully written.  Watch out @Frank you have a wordsmithing rival.

    In my delusions of grimpeur (I can't remember who proposed that for the lexicon but it has to go in), I've realised that the CL and even the outside line are my friends, simply because I just don't climb well for my weight.

  • @Marko

    @Gianni

    @Cyclops Congratulations! Your interview must have ended up on the cutting room floor. So close.

    I hope someone can straighten out young Dakota Bromley on Rule #93. I guess we can give him as pass as this Rule just came out and he is too young to effectively deal with part two of that Rule.

    Maybe Luke Jones can square him up. They look like they're in the same class at Idaho Falls Elementary.

    Holy cannoli. I don't even watch my local news, now due to the Velominati I'm watching Idaho Falls local news? Wow. The places being a Follower will take me...

  • Hmm, just read this NY Times article. Interesting perspective...coming from a guy who crashed his bike because he was inattentive and now only rides indoors...

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

    Still glad that the topic is being discussed with more regularity. Here in NC a recent newspaper article stated that September is the deadliest month to be a cyclist. We've had a few recent deaths of cyclists. Less than 1% of road users, but cyclists make up more than 2% of road fatalities.

    I was nearly hit by a woman at the end of my Saturday ride...she drove though the green light I had in my lane and yelled at me. And, she had a bike on the back of her car. Oh boy.

  • @Ron A Seattle TV station tries to make a case for an epidemic of aggressive cyclists: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/aggressive-cyclists-attacking-motorists-pedestrian/nbnXw/

  • @Ron@G'rilla

    The NYT article was absolutely correct on one important point: Cyclists should always obey traffic laws and be courteous. And cars should stop texting and pay the fucking attention.

    As Cyclists, though, we have to take especially good care to never get aggressive; you'll never get to someone by being angry and will only make the case for the Cyclist worse. I've had the best luck by stopping people at the next light and saying something like, "I'm sure you didn't realize it, but you really put me in danger with that move you just made...it really scared me and could have been really bad for both of us."

    The goal is to keep someone from doing something dangerous in the future, not to make them hate cyclists even more.

  • @frank

    ...The goal is to keep someone from doing something dangerous in the future, not to make them hate cyclists even more.

    Spot on. There are enough dickheads on bikes riding through lights and on pavements as it is. The whole ethos of this site is To Do Things Properly and riding as we'd like other people to drive or amble/waddle is part of that.

    In other news, the pedestrian/cyclist relationship in my neck of the woods is getting  a bit shitty.

  • @barracuda

    Oh bravo!  In juxtaposition with "deflated," this looks like it was all conspired.

  • @Ron

    @Marko

    @Gianni

    @Cyclops Congratulations! Your interview must have ended up on the cutting room floor. So close.

    I hope someone can straighten out young Dakota Bromley on Rule #93. I guess we can give him as pass as this Rule just came out and he is too young to effectively deal with part two of that Rule.

    Maybe Luke Jones can square him up. They look like they're in the same class at Idaho Falls Elementary.

    Holy cannoli. I don't even watch my local news, now due to the Velominati I'm watching Idaho Falls local news? Wow. The places being a Follower will take me...

    The awesome thing about Idaho Falls is that I live about five blocks from downttown and yet if I ride for about ten minutes from my front door in the other direction I'm out in the country with not too much traffic to deal with and yet what's even cooler is that I have an annual criterium that is literally nine blocks from my house and now I have a CX race that took me less that ten minutes to ride my CX rig to.
     

    Maybe I don't want to move to Kentucky.

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RobsMuir

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