Anatomy Of A Photo: Where Do We Go From Here?
A great unknown awaits the young men, bound by a common entity of steel, flesh and passion rolled together. Do they contemplate the future, or are they so encapsulated in the here and now that anything beyond the finish line seems like it could only be for old people? Have they any inkling which path they will take, or be guided towards? Maybe the only thing on their mind is just how badass their eyewear is.
What ambition burns within, do they believe they will be, or even seek to be, a cycling superstar; which of them knows it? Maybe ambition isn’t considered, not part of the equation. The simple act of pedalling a bicycle may remain one of joy, of freedom, or become a mistress so harsh that she is eventually despised, and thrown aside, banished to but a bitter memory of a time better forgotten. Who will be remembered, and who will even want to remember?
When a pastime becomes a job a certain element, that of detachment, is lost forever. Making your passion your profession is fraught with risk, and the balance of work/play becomes ever more critical to cultivating satisfaction within, lest you be eternally damned to harming the very thing once loved more than anything else. Keeping things Casually Deliberate is a failsafe, a safety net below the trapeze on which the real world swings precariously.
Stay passionate. Rock cool shit and ride your bike like it’s your lover. Everything will be alright.
Tell you what I see, doper, not sure, doper, don’t know, doper.
Otherwise, outside of looking like crap, those old Giro’s worked well in a crash (assuming the cloth covering didn’t decelerate your head faster than your neck/the rest of you when sliding on Tarmac).
Fuck me, what a photo. Makes me think of an early ’60’s pic of the Rolling Stones. About as much drug use between the two groups as well. Wonder what they would do differently, if anything, if they could go back now. I was 17 in 1989 and racing my Cannondale with all 105 Groupsan all over New England and Upstate NY. Used to see these guys at races but I was only a Cat 3. Never actually raced against any of them. Surprised Father Phinney is not there. Had Hamilton made the transition from skiing yet in 1989? Used to see him at races as well during early college years. Great photo.
@Ccos
I keep a mashed Giro helmet just like that one in my “Collection of Mashed Helmets That Have Saved My Life” collection. All I can say is that it worked.
Still have some Oakley Factory Pilots in a fetching shade of blue…
Is Armstrong running those road gripshifters?
I like that last line. A lot!
Two things:
– the encapsulation of youth. I live very close to a major U.S. university. Undergrads live in my neighborhood, including directly across the block. I was coming in from running my dogs via bike on Saturday. Two sorority gals were arriving for a Halloween party, parking right in front of my house. I rode onto the sidewalk, a few feet from them, as it was getting dark, with two good sized dogs. I said hello. Nothing. I said hello again, nothing. Finally I just said, “Well, I guess I’m not going to get a hello out of you two.” They kind of looked in my direction and walked away. I’ve been young, so I get it, but fuck. How strange to just ignore a human, with two dogs, who is heading right for you. Ah, kids.
– Just started a new job. For a few years I’ve been in grad school. The switch from academia to a 9-5 office is a big one. I’ve done it before, but I’ve forgotten some of the things that change. Just a very different approach to life/thinking/working. Go work tirelessly on a big book report (I’m finish a humanities dissertation) that only a few folks will read vs. Bottom Line. Did we make money today? Very different than, “Oh why, what an exciting argument!”
As much as it seems attractive to be a PRO, I’m happy to ride a bike for fun and work for a living.
Not surprised to see that Dr Phil went down to the start line to add to the narcissism.
I can certainly forgive the helmets as this was 1989, but for fuck’s sake, who was responsible (or irresponsible) for that kit design? And why doesn’t Pharmy have to wear team shorts?
Love that last line. Well said!
Being relatively new to the sport it seems remarkable to me that in 1989 they were still riding steel with downtube shifters. Those Huffy’s looks pretty sweet.
@kixsand
Sweet indeed. Most likely Serotta’s with a durty Huffy rebrand. Hincapie’s bike has the Serotta badge on the headtube.
And that might be Ed Burke, USCF director, aka Dr Phil. He is trying to get Lance to be a team player.
Fuckin’ spot on, Bevin.
@Joe C.
Fuck yeah he’s running road grippies. I had a set myself, they sucked donkeyballs but were one step closer to having brifters, apart from risking a catastrophic loss of control anytime you twisted the bars in the wet in order to shift.
@Harminator
You just won the internet.
@Gianni
I was appalled when I found out 7-11 were riding Huffys. Only later did I find out they were not actually made of pot metal but were custom machines.
@Nate
Serrotta//branded Huffy
Sorry, but I have to share this.
Stay passionate. Rock cool shit and ride your bike like it’s your lover. Everything will be alright
As soon as they remove those abominations covering their eyes and remove the skateboard lids!
Apropos of fuck nothing here is a rant:
Just had such a FUCKTASTIC discussion with a West Point Triathlon Team member. Glad I outranked her b/c it was getting to the point where I just told her to shut the fuck up! (well, not really, but felt like it). She was saying how Tri is the hardest sport in the world and so much tougher than “Just” road racing” bikes b/c you have to do all three sports the same day. I mentioned that I disagreed with her and gave my reasons, including comparing everything from High Altitude Climbing and Running 100 mile Ultras to racing 5 k’s and competing in open black belt tournaments in Korea. I told her, Hands FUCKIN Down, that road racing put me deepest into the pain cave of anything that I had ever done for pure aerobic going into anaerobic debt.
Oh yes, she also mentioned that she knew all about road racing as she raced “draft legal” Tri’s. I told her that she just lost all cycling respect with me as the only thing that is tough about the cycling event in tri’s is that they are all ITT’s. AND, not only all of the above, she has never raced further than an Oly Tri for FUCK’s sake! Even I have done a Half IM. OH MY FUCKING GOD! Wanted to kill HER!!!! Oh well, instead, I get to shoot laser beams into her eyeballs in two weeks. Perhaps I’ll forget the anaesthetic before I start???
And Ron, she rolled her eyes at me when I was telling her how much fuckin harder racing a 100 mile road race was than any fuckin Oly draft legal race. I could tell she was just thinking, “Whatever old Dude”.
FUCK’IN spiked me up for the day!
Oh well, carry on.
@Buck Rogers
Easy now big man, easy. Go for a nice bike ride and get calm. Avoid coffee and other stimulants too. Can’t let a tri person get to you. I’m assuming you didn’t get into a discussion of clothing and style? You’d have won that round easy. I mean, who wears arm warmers with a sleeveless top FFS? Who nestles into their tribars when they’re doing 13 mph? Tri-athletes do.
@Gianni
Might have been a tad more entertaining had COTHO “confessed” to big Phil than Oprah. I think auld baldy would have called him out and, in a pinch, taken him down. Then he would have swanned offstage arm in arm with his wife leaving COTHO gasping for breath on his high chair. THAT would have been entertaining.
@Buck Rogers great rant, Buck!
@wiscot I hear you, man! I need a ride sooo bad right now! My 1430 patient cancelled so only 3 hours until I can ride!
Fuckin Triathletes. I know, and agree, that Tri’s can be really hard but don’t try to tell me that they are harder than a true sanctioned 100+ mile hilly road race for pure anaerobic pain. Bullshit! I have raced Tri’s up through the Half IM distance, and yes, I was really dead at the end, but nothing like trying to hold a wheel after 65 miles of hills knowing that if you lose it, you are FUCKED and will be “racing” 35 miles for 23rd place. Nothing I have ever done compares to that moment and overall pain.
Pharmstrong just looks deliberate – no casual going on there.
Hit the road yesterday on the dt steel and Eyeshades, just for fun.
@Buck Rogers
This describes my Bluemountain century experience last month–except that I lost the wheel at the 35 mile mark and “raced” for the remaining 65. As you say, really dead is one thing–FUCKED is quite another. (I’m hesitant to say why I lost that wheel as it involves my Dutch heritage and a little OCD.)
@frank I am overdue to do this. Maybe this weekend I can break out the steel Merckx and roll for a bit.
@frank
More images of those Rotundos mounted ?? Specifically the wing section ??
@VeloVita
Another crime in the long rap sheet of US National jersey design – simultaneous offenses against the flag and cycling kit. One day someone will realize that less really is more.
@rfreese888
With Julich saying “Dude! Lighten up”.
@rfreese888
This. and what @Gianni said about trying to get him to be a team player. Shades, shorts, gripshift – deliberately chosen points of difference..?
I think COTHO has a look of “I wish I had worn darker shades that might have dimmed the spectacle of Dr. Phil’s soiled, bulging Mom jeans.” He certainly looks a little queasy . . .
@unversio
You can’t hide your gear selection from the DTs. Somebody had to shift to the little ring/big cog to get that shot right.
@wiscot
You and @Buck Rogers need to watch your language. They’re called TriGEEKS, do not insult athletes or persons by putting the word tri in front of those words.
Come to think of it, this is insulting geeks at the same time, but I think they’ve survived enough bullying that they can handle a little more. Harder than the triwads at least. I thought that was a key reason for hating “Pharmy”; because of his love for all thing tri.
Ah, fleeting youth. That picture conjures the bittersweet memories of yore. Dopers? Frank Shorter and Bill Rogers were Runners’ World advocates of blood doping. We marathoners thought nothing of it in the 80’s. But the Keepers of the Cogs take umbrage. So be it.
@antihero
Uh Frank ?? Frank ?
@frank
What angle are your Rotundos mounted ?? Are the ramps steep ??
I thought that was a key reason for hating “Pharmy”; because of his love for all thing tri.
That, and he looks like suck a prick even in this photo. I raced the Hotter than Hell 100 in 1989 and he was there then, same prick.
I know the boys where on some good juice but whats the go with the “hover” bike in the background. Or is it on some weird catamaran outrigger. Im looking at it from South Australia so Im a fair way away.
Tyler and Floyd not invited ??
http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/philip-gomes/blog/129347/too-soon-to-get-the-band-back-together
@Buck Rogers
Why don’t you invite her out on a V-rated club run and watch her sorry ass being dropped on the first overpass.
@Barracuda
Yeah; it’s a side-mount off the roof rack on the support vehicle. Those guys have a different n+1 problem than we do…
@Buck Rogers
Err, you do realize, I hope, that the race being a draft-legal event means it’s done on road bikes and effectively becomes a 40km crit between a hard swim and a hard run? Most likely it wasn’t her case, but for elite athletes the cycling leg of a triathlon is raced hard. Not that I’m disagreeing with your main point, but it just shows both of you love a sport and have no clue how hard the other one is.Most endurance sports, when raced to your limit, are hard. Dare I say it, the difference in difficulty is not huge. It’s just that with cycling the difference between giving up and going on is a bit more pronounced, and you have less of a choice about the timing – and thanks to the draft effect of a pack, we can survive for longer with athletes stronger than us.
@extra special and bitter
No, it’s mainly because he was a COTHO. Even in the tri world he wasn’t much loved.
The whole ‘hate on triathtes’ is becoming like the helmet/not helmet discussion.
@girl
Oh come on… there are two valid sides to the helmet debate.
@tessar
Yes and here’s a non-draft event.
Spot the difference.
I hear that at the World 70.3 Championships last month it was like the Tour Peleton.
@tessar
HEY Man!!! Stop bringing any reason to my ranting on Triathletes! Geeesh. Soon he’ll be asking us all to read the word-thingies that go with the pictures on these pages.
@tessar But I do have to say that you mentioned Triathletes (Triwads–like that one) in the same paragraph as criteriums. Now that sounds like a wheelbuilders DREAM right there. Nothing like late 30’s-to-mid-40’s Triwads to drop $1,000’s of dollars on shit they have no real knowledge of b/c they “read” in Triathlete” or “Bicycling” Magazine that it would save them 3 seconds in their next race, which always seems to be only against themselves. Besides the amazing Pro Triwads, it seems most Triwads are late-30’s-to-early-40’s people who are trying to have a last gasp at being an “Athlete” My buddy, who was in that class and realized it, always would chant “Swim-Bike-Run…We’re good at none” during his Tri’s. That that fucker!
@Buck Rogers
“Swim-Bike-Run…We’re good at none”
Now that there is funny!!