Unforgettable Rides: Gavia 1988

Hampsten on the Gavia in '88. Photo via Rapha.cc

I suppose it's just a sign of how rich our sport is and how enthusiastic we are about it that some of the most iconic rides in cycling go virtually unmentioned in these pages. It almost seems as though they are so tightly woven into legend that we take them for granted, these rides. Nevermore, nevermore: enter a new V-Series where we'll do our best to pull these old rides up from the their place in the backs of our collective minds and dwell on their Awesomeness. I'm not saying we're going to be factual or give a history lesson – that would take “work” and “research”. Instead, we'll just touch on a few of the details we find most interesting, fill the gaps in with confidently-asserted assumptions (which are almost as good as facts, and much less work), and let the community do the rest.

There is no better place to start than Andy Hampten's ride over the Gavia in 1988. Riding a Huffy. I understand it was actually a bike built by famed American framebuilder Ben Serotta, but it said Huffy on it and we all know you're not allowed to lie in writing. Growing up in the States, Huffy's were for kids and even by our standards were crappy bikes. At the time, I imagined Hampsten's bike was heavy, felt like spaghetti on two meatballs for wheels, and had a pedal-brake.

Hampsten had found some success in the professional world in 1985 when he won Stage 20 of the Giro while on a one-month contract with Team 7-Eleven. Hot on the heels of that success, Bernard Hinault snatched him up and brought him into La Vie Claire as Mountaingoat Domestique. But by 1987, however, 7-Eleven was in search of a new leader after having sacked Alexi Grewal on account of his consistent violation of Rule #36 and Rule #37, in addition to his highly questionable choice in headgear.

I can only imagine what was going through the team management's mind when they awoke on the morning of the stage over the Gavia, knowing it was cold and raining in the start village and hearing that over a meter of snow had fallen on the passes. Many of them being based in Boulder, CO, they knew a thing or two about snow and they promptly bought up all the cold-weather gear they could find in the local ski shops and made plans to distribute it to the team's riders along the route.

It's good that the management had some inkling as to the ordeal they were in for, since it appears the riders were fairly oblivious:

On the way up I got rid of all of my warm clothes, my legs were bare, no shoe covers. I did have a pair of neoprene diving gloves that I kept on for the entire climb. Along the way my team car gave me a neck-gator and a wool hat.

I wanted to dry my hair before I put it on €“ maybe 4-5 ks before the top, so I brushed through my hair, thinking I was going to wipe some water out, and a big snowball rolled off my head, and down my back.

I thought €“ €˜Oh my gosh €“ I'm really not producing much heat, even though I've been going up a really hard grade.' So then I had my raincoat, a super thin polypro undershirt on, so my arms were covered, but I was NOT warm at the top of the mountain. We could spend a few hours while I figure out how to describe how cold I was€¦

– Andy Hamptsen

Up was cold, but tolerable. Down was excruciating. For those of us who have descended a mountain on a sunny day, we know that going down is much colder than going up. For those of us who have done it in the cold or rain know that your body gives up on shivering and moves on to full-body shakes in an attempt to stay warm. I descended once in moderate sleet, and based on that, I hope none of us will ever have to say we've descended in a blizzard.

Chaos ensued. Hardmen wept. Riders stopped at the side of the road and pissed on their hands and legs in a desperate attempt to warm their extremities. A Dutchman flew the coup and won the day, but the big winner was Hampsten, who went on to claim the only American Giro win to date.

Hampsten's Legendary Huffy, in Huangist detail (this is the reason we love to love that Jimmy-boy):

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Hampstens 1988 Huffy/”/]

Some great accounts of this ride:

Velonews: Andy Hampsten and the 1988 Pink Jersey, Part 1 and Part 2

Bike Radar: True Stories: Andy Hampsten – The Gavia 1988

Pez: Giro Rides: Andy's Epic Day on the Gavia

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Buck Rogers says:

Apr 12 2011 at 3:30 pm

Jeff in PetroMetro :
On my old Sears tool box, I still have a Cinelli sticker with Andy in pink diving into a corner on his time trial Huffy-bull horns, small front wheel, white shower cap, big Oakley Factory Pilots and all. And it looks like he's wearing a Dutch orange Swatch.
Picture may follow late tonight. Must leave for an appointment now. Dammit.

Great attention to detail. Just checking out the TT start house pic and what is that watch that he is wearing? So bizarre. Pink band with orange face housing. but then again, it WAS the '80's!
Marko says:

Apr 12 2011 at 4:30 pm

Ay, this is Stefan. His name is Stefan. Hey, Stefan, harden the fuck up.
Buck Rogers says:

Apr 12 2011 at 4:44 pm

Marko :
Ay, this is Stefan. His name is Stefan. Hey, Stefan, harden the fuck up.

Un-fucking-believably well played! Totally lost some soda out the nose on that one.
RedRanger says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:07 pm

Epic. Lets hope Etna gives us a similar ride at this years Giro.
Jklash says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:07 pm

Not to be a pedant, but the bike was actually a John Slawta built Land Shark and not a Serotta. The story can be found here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/historic-pro-bike-andy-hampstens-1988-7-eleven-huffy-giro-ditalia
minion says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:28 pm

Jklash :
Not to be a pedant, but the bike was actually a John Slawta built Land Shark and not a Serotta. The story can be found here:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/historic-pro-bike-andy-hampstens-1988-7-eleven-huffy-giro-ditalia

"waiting expectantly for Oli to top that...)
frank says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:31 pm

@Jklash

Excellent work. Obviously you're a Velominatus. Indeed you're right:

Though it wore the red, green and white livery and labels of official team sponsor Huffy, Hampsten's bike was actually a custom made rig crafted to his specifications by famed US builder John Slawta of Land Shark after a team-issued frame broke beneath him earlier that spring at Fleche-Wallone. That failure was eventually sourced back to an errant shipment by the builder's tubing supplier but still, Hampsten says his confidence was shaken and he wanted to go with something tried and true.

"I felt bad about not using a Serotta [the company that actually built the team 'Huffys'] and sticking with the team supplier," Hampsten told us. "It wasn't Serotta's fault. But I was in a period of my life when I didn't like crashing due to mystery bike failures, so I went with the sure ride I knew Land Shark would build for me.
Xponti says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:37 pm

This post is Gold, Abolutely Gold. Love the story and wouldn't want the facts to get in the way. Facts do not make legends, fans make legends.
il ciclista medio says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:41 pm

Nice one frank.

A moment in (Cycling) time that has gone down in history to become part of legend. Like all good legends should, they get rehashed over time and with each re-telling, details start to blur and verisimilitude comes into its own.The beauty of this is that it then allows those re-telling or, in this day and age, re-blogging, the liberty to use ones own imagination or that part which is interesting to ones own benefit. This blog being case in point. Part of the reason I love coming to this site.
I also think that Verisimiltude lies at the heart of what you have achieved through these pages. I admire you and the other Keepers and contributors for that. The fact that it also starts with the V isn't a coincidence!
Great idea for future articles, look forward to them. As for art, to use that well worn cliche - "don't know much about art, but I know what I like" and I like cycling, ergo it's definitely art to me!
The Potato Man says:

Apr 12 2011 at 5:58 pm

A great story about Davis Phinney and his Serotta built by Dave Kirk, now of Kirk Frameworks:

Once a year, Davis Phinney, leader of the Coors Light professional cycling team, would come to the Serotta factory for a few days to boost the morale, get his hands dirty, go for a ride with the shop guys and visit the birthplace of his bikes.

The rides were a 'no one gets dropped' type of ride and they were a good time to hang out on the bike and talk. We were heading back to the factory at a casual 15 mph when one of our builders, Richard, started taunting Davis. Richard called him names and told him that he didn't think that Davis could stay on his wheel. Richard then sprinted up the road ahead of the group and Davis just smiled and laughed. After Richard got a good 200 meters up the road Davis asked, "Should I reel him in?" We were approaching a corner that I knew was full of gravel and sand but before I could give a warning Davis flew out of the group and up the road. I've ridden with some very strong riders but I've never seen anyone accelerate that quickly before and he was going an easy 35 mph when he passed Richard and dove into that dirty corner. I thought for sure he'd go down in the gravel and imagined the huge road rash he'd have. Yet Davis counter-steered into the corner, laid the bike way over and two wheel drifted through the corner in complete control - gravel spitting out from under the tires. The look on Richard's face was priceless.

This was remarkable in two ways. The most obvious was that Davis had no trouble at all carving around the corner with so much junk in the road. He never backed off or stopped charging - he just railed it. The second was he did it on a bike I designed and built for him. Prior to racing Serottas he raced on 'crit' bikes with silly steep angles with short front-centers. While racing in Europe Davis realized that a solid stage race bike was the bike of choice for both long and short events and we built him stage race bikes from then on. I can't tell you how cool it was to see my work put to that cornering test. It was rewarding to know that he trusted the bike so much. I'll never forget that.

This is from the Smoked Out section of the Velocipede Salon website.