Team Sky (or Sky Procycling as they were until the start of this season) have undoubtedly changed the way that cycling is perceived in this country. Although they were set up from the start as an internationally rostered team – albeit with a very clear aim of initially achieving success in the Tour de France for a British rider – they were often described as a de facto British national road team. The overlapping managerial & coaching staff from the national track squad adds fuel to this conflation, especially for the legions of new cycling fans that the team’s success has turned onto the sport. It was also inevitable that many of the existing and upcoming British riders would find a home at Sky where the people, program and language were most familiar. But what of those British riders who choose not to ‘Take to the Sky’ with Brailsford and Co? Are they getting a fair share of cycle fan’s support when faced with the media-attention black hole that the Tour-winning team creates wherever it goes?
Tag Archives: Cycling
The Jersey Pocket Podiums – #4 – Cycling Nicknames
In a sport where written newspaper reports defined the action for the first six decades of it’s existence, nicknames were an important tool for sketching the rider profiles and bringing the faceless coureurs to life in the imagination of the readers. Many nicknames mocked the riders as much as they celebrated them – consider Elefantino, Dr.Teeth, The Dwarf and Clogface – but they have retained their power through the years and many are still used today despite their owners being either long retired or buried. Sadly, cyclist’s nicknames have diminished in modern times as television has superseded the need for the floridly descriptive writings of those early years. Here are three of my favourites from across the decades:
3rd spot: Thor Hushovd. The God of Thunder.
Hushovd’s nickname gets on the list because it effortlessly works in many different ways. It’s Nordic heritage quickly convey both his Scandinavian roots and blond haired, blue-eyed, muscular build. The reference to Thunder evokes his powerful sprinting style and the deification is well-suited to a former world champion. It’s a near perfect encapsulation of the man and his work.
2nd spot: Charly Gaul. The Angel of the Mountains.
The lyrical aspects of nicknames have rarely surpassed that of 1950’s climber extraordinaire Gaul. Prepared to concede massive time gaps on flat stages, the Angel simply took flight when the road went upwards and twice overhauled enormous deficits to win both the Giro and the Tour in this way. He was able to operate on a completely different level from his rivals and it must have seemed like he was ascending to Heavenly Glory as he exploded away from them. Sadly the Angel of the Mountains later turned into the Hermit of the Forest as he became totally reclusive in his later years; living alone in a hut deep in the Ardennes for almost two decades until re-integrating into society a short time before his death in 2005.
1st spot: Bernard Hinault. The Badger.
In it’s French rendering “Le Blaireau”, Hinault’s nickname also captures all the core elements of his ancestry, his physical looks and his racing style. His Gallic-ness was best embodied by his forthright stance in the French champion’s jersey in his debut Tour in 1978. Simultaneously battling his rivals, the parcours, the weather, the system, and occasionally the fans as well, his face was eternally set into a glowering granite grimace; eyes blazing and teeth permanently bared like a cornered Brock who knows that ‘Fight’ (and not ‘Flight) is the only option. His ‘never surrender’ attitude was always to the fore, but never more so than in his Monument wins at Paris-Roubaix 1981 and through the much mythologised blizzard of the 1980 Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Devastatingly simple, Hinault is now so synonymous with his nickname that it has come to define him more than any other in cycling history.
A good list of nicknames can be found here. Let’s hear your favourites and your suggestions for the current peloton.
3D printing – cycling into the future, layer by layer by layer
The Future arrived last week. The postman delivered it to my house just as I was going out for a ride. It is, as far as I know, the first bit of 3D printing that has crossed our threshold but, given the way things are going, it’s unlikely to be the last. I delayed my departure a few moments to fix the new part to my bike and set off into Tomorrow’s World.
3D printing has been around in basic forms since the 1980’s but has only really start to gain significant traction in the public consciousness in the last 5 years. As hardware prices fall and material options soar, applications for what has also been termed ‘additive manufacturing’ are now looking immense. A shift of seismic proportions, at least on a par with the home computing revolution, is coming as we will change the way we both perceive and consume manufactured objects. A 3D printer in every home is not such a far-fetched idea and would have profound effects on the way we conduct our lives.
Multi-coloured, multi-material 3D prints will be the next generation.
Bonne Anniversaire – Henri Desgrange
Henri Desgrange – 31.01.1865 – 16.08.1940
- Hour Record – 1893
- Editor L’Auto newspaper – 1900 – 1940
- Creator of Le Tour de France – 1903
Desgrange is rightly seen as the father of the Tour. Latching onto an idea of one of his correspondents – Geo. Lefevre – to help boost circulation, he set his newspaper firmly behind the creation of what quickly became Le Grand Boucle. Famously harsh on the riders of the early years, he set the tone for the endeavour as one of grand ambition and epic suffering. His words make clear his thinking: “The ideal Tour would be a Tour in which only one rider survived the ordeal.”
“Another Fine Mesh” – Pro-cycling clothing debate hots up
Cyclists are often a bit funny about their tan-lines. Cultivating a set of razor-sharp transitions, which switch instantly from the deepest mahogany to a blinding alabaster white, half way along a thigh or bicep is seen as one of the heights of being ‘pro’. Tan-lines like these tell of days in the saddle, not days on the beach. They are worn with more than just pride; for many they are a badge of honour.
Last week however, we saw a couple of cases of cases of pro team ‘tanning’ getting out of hand and raising questions about protection and performance.
Weekly Round Up – Tour Down Under & Tour De San Luis
It’s been a hard week to follow the start of the cycling season from the UK. Races in Australia and Argentina are not so easy to watch live; it either involves getting up at 4.30am and disturbing the rest of your non-cycling life with sleep deprivation to watch the Tour Down Under; or risking your eyesight squinting at a fuzzy web-cam whilst trying to follow fast-speaking Spanish commentary at the Tour de San Luis. But the very fact that there are these options speaks volumes about the proliferation of coverage. We’ve become so used to coverage of almost everything that this, in fact, makes for a pleasant (and nostalgic) change. Not so long ago watching short highlights programmes used to be the only option for even the biggest races and anything else would not even get that. Now live TV of entire stages of the bigger races plus legal (and illegal) streams and Youtube channels bring us even the most minor events in some form. Saturation levels are fast approaching
So it’s been refreshing this week to catch up the Tour Down Under in written and highlights form. I haven’t quite kicked the need for ‘live’ updates so have settled into a pattern of reading back my Twitter timeline after waking up to get the chronology of the race as it unfolds. By following a few teams and a few journalists you get the story of the whole race – early breaks and all – which highlight shows often skim over. Then, pre-armed with a bit of race knowledge, watching even a brief highlights package becomes more rewarding in the sense that you learn to watch the moves develop rather than witness the result and then try and work out how it came to be.
Three is a Magic Number – The Trials of a Balanced Outlook on Life
“Somewhere in the ancient mystic Trinity, you get Three as a magic number” – Bob Dorough, Schoolhouse Rock!
Trouble, they say, comes in threes. The way the back half of last year went personally I would have to add in a factor of at least 10 to that figure, but the notion of a Triad of Adversity seems to be a well held adage. Once a couple of things have gone awry, we almost expect a third calamity to happen and often actively seek it out in order to discount it as quickly as possible. It is an ingrained expectation of the way that things just are. When you think about it like that, it’s also a pretty depressing outlook to have.
So, in a wild stab at New Year’s, ‘on-the-other-hand’, optimism, perhaps we could ask what if the blighted triple was not only a truism but was governed by Newton’s Laws of Motion in the same way that rider’s movements are. In a world where all actions have an equal and opposite reaction, those same three troubles must be balanced by three happinesses. Each three clouds should have three silver linings. As with the third disaster that we yearn to seek out, surely it’s just a case of looking. I’m aware I’m clutching at some pretty thin straws here.
Cometh The Hour : Cometh The Men?
There has been a lot of talk, and great deal more speculation, recently about The Hour; cycling’s supposed Blue Riband event, which has lain dormant for a few years, bogged down by anachronistic rules and the weight of history. The record has been bettered once since Chris Boardman’s definitive ride of 2000, but by such a large margin (and by a rider with more doping positives than wins on his palmares) that there is a tangible level of discomfort to be felt when it is discussed. Cycling is well versed in the arts of cynicism these days and the general feeling is that The Hour is in need of new life and a new, credible record holder.
Fabian Cancellara’s claim last month that he will make an attempt on The Hour in 2014 potentially supplies both those needs. His talent and credibility are enough to appease even the most strident of cynics that his is a name worthy of the event and it’s undoubtedly glittering history. More intriguingly perhaps, his confirmation of an attempt at this stage in the season is creating ripples of interest across the sport, with other big names quickly being linked to making a challenge next year. The record has traditionally seen flurries of attempts followed by years of inactivity so the hope (and, in some quarters, the expectation) is that Cancellara will kickstart a new cycle of competition. Bradley Wiggins and World Time Trial champion Tony Martin are the two names at the head of everyone’s fantasy Battle for the Hour. Each has the capability and the stature required but do either have Cancellara’s cojones to publicly commit to an attempt at this early stage?
Photo by Luis Barbosa
Dear Santa: Bike Books
Christmas is coming. Obviously we are all hoping for a big dump of snow around the 23rd to get us into the festive spirit, and then a week of glorious winter sun between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, so that we can get out on our bikes and feel like we have earned some of that mulled wine and chestnuts on our return. But, on the off chance that the weather is miserable for the whole week, it’s important to get some good books laid down in preparation.
I’ve been dropping fairly unsubtle hints about the cycling books I’d like to receive from friends and relatives for Christmas for a good couple of weeks. Items have been added to public wish-lists, printouts have been casually left lying around the house in prominent locations, and specific instructions have been sent to those excellent souls who know the score by now and have already emailed to ask, ‘Which one this this time?’
I did wade through a bumper crop last year and this year is likely to be no different; though there is not much room left on the heaving bookshelves of the Jersey Pocket HQ (AKA our compact Blackheath home). With that in mind this year’s first request will be a set of works that hopefully gives maximum bang for shelf-space buck.
The Massif Studio Blog 