Category Archives for cycle fans

Vuelta a Espana

So! Bertie seems back to his incroyable former self… although todays climb of Fuente De suited him down to a T, with smaller steady average gradients, not the ball busting 20%+ summit finishes of stages past. He stamped his authority over the pack and asserted his climbing prowess, collecting not only the stage win but also claiming 2:38 seconds on little Purito, catapulting him into the ‘camiseta roja’. Purito drops down to third place underneath Valverde. Its kind of game over with a mere two flattish stages remaining, so it looks like Contador is back with fire in his tail. Riis did state at the beginning that AC simply had to win, I can see this as paying some form of thanks to Saxo-Tinkoff for indeed standing by their man during his ‘pequeñas vacaciones’ of recent months (WHICH i still think is bullsh*t but il explain that when you next see me on the road). Seems whatever Bjarne said on the rest day helped Bertie….

The Finish Line

I wait aside the finish line in Paris. The 2012 tour is a mere twenty minutes away from completion, its 99th incarnation capturing the hearts of many a hardened fan, and also enticing those with merely a scrap of interest. Bradley Wiggins sealed a historic first in British cycling folklore, sealing the tour in exemplary fashion. Never looking in trouble throughout the three weeks, Sky’s air of control never wavered.
A thunderous roar erupts around the finish line of the Champs-Elysees stage as Mark Cavendish holds aloft four fingers as he seals yet another dynamite win on the famed central parisienne cobbles. And with that ultimate display of power, the tour over for another year, and thus our lives bereft of daily antics on ‘les routes françaises‘. Riders roll across the final white line to close the curtains on our french adventures. 
How odd a feeling it must be for these riders, for the race to be over. I think about the spectrum of emotions they must be experiencing today, and I can read each and every one on the various faces of the peloton as they meander around the technical zone.

It must be strange that after living so closely with eight other riders, and a nucleated support staff for the three weeks, the riders will leave this environment and return to some semblance of reality, whatever that may actually entail for a professional rider. I see happy faces, a Cofidis rider beams at me proudly on a backstreet as he rides to his hotel. I spy Mick Rogers, as he congratulates several riders ahead of the processional laps. He looks across and I offer him my broadest smile, as if telepathically thanking him and the peloton for their feats that fed my passion as a cycling fan this summer. I don’t doubt I just looked like a grinning loon, but my respect for these gents is fortified every time I see their suffering in real and tangible sphere. They are but humans, with emotions, pain, a willingness to push their own boundaries of suffering. 

A day before in Chartres, I find myself mingling with fans as Alexandr Vinokourov rolls through. A loud cheer erupts in recognition for what will certainly be his last tour. A chequered past foreshadows him, sure, but the respect shown from the fans is palpable and deafening. Every story needs hero’s and villains, and the tour is a theatre not exempt from this. 

I see faces that display the realisation dawning on them of their endeavours. I see pride, relief and I sense determination. I think I see faces that are already thinking to the next goal. The next hit of this circus.

The finish line is always such a melancholy place for me, tinged with sadness that its over for the next year. Sure enough, there’s the Vuelta, and a slurry of late season races (Lombardia in particular is a fave) but it just seems like nothing can quite capture the magic of pro cycling like the Tour can. I remember 5 years ago being laughed out of the office for asking to watch the tour at my workplace, this year I walked in to pretty much every flatscreen dialled onto the live coverage daily. Oh how times change! Here’s to the 100th Tour de France in 2013… I know I will be ensconced in your bubble yet again

The Art Of Climbing

The able-legged mountain goat that is Phil ‘The Danger’ Deeker has written a wonderful guide to the art of climbing. A stunning sphere of cycling that comes unashamedly easier to others, but is something  simultaneously and universally appreciated by each and every cycling enthusiast. The reward and accomplishment of conquering both the physical and mental mountain-scape is the ultimate elixir in cycling (or it is in this girls humble opinion) Anyway, here’s a sneaky photo I snapped of Phil looking ever the dandy in Italy this Spring. I suggest you head on over to the ‘Art Of Climbing‘ feature and enjoy.

Get Well Soon James!

Just a little note to say “GET WELL SOON YOU F**KING HERO” to a girls’ best friend, JR. Some knuckle-head driver knocked old Jimmy-SM off on the commute and now he has a mashed up collarbone. Look on the brightside James, your shoulder is gonna be PRO with all that shiny metal pinnage in. And dont forget, Blame = Claim = New Fraaaaaaame!

JR, Waller Pain Day 2012

Pista Pursuita

I spent last night changing the steering on my pista, I had been riding some nice light old 3ttt handlebars with a traditional bend, and a little trigger finger front brake (its a fixed commuter so iv actually only ever run a front brake), but fancied a change as i seem to be spending more and more time commuting about the place these days. A chance sale on components over at chain reaction sealed the idea, and I fancied giving a fun little pursuit style a blast.

The clear jelly Cinelli tape is lush, nice and spongy. Would look cool with a type of decolage done underneath on the handlebars, a la James Straffon shoe style.