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Archive for the ‘Defining Moments’ Category

Who’s your Poppy?

by brett / Jul 23 2011 / 95 posts

You’d think that with such an historical event taking place in France overnight that the Australian newspapers would be a sea of yellow and ‘we are the champions’ headlines this morning. Yet what I saw staring back at me when I visited one of the most respected newspaper websites (ie not a Murdoch tome) was a dead, tattooed junki...

Here Stands a Man: Johan Van Summeren

by frank / Apr 10 2011 / 74 posts

Here stands a man. A quiet man. A hard working man. A Belgian man. A man from a life of grit, cold, and rain.Here stands a man who has chosen a life of hard work and sacrifice; a hard life even within the context of Cycling. A man who spends long hours in the wind and in the rain, in the service of his team. A man who despite those long hours in...

Defining Moments: Daylight Savings Time

by frank / Mar 16 2011 / 51 posts

Daylight Savings always represents a turning point for my cycling season.  In Fall, it represents leaving my season’s goals behind as I find once again the simple pleasure of riding my bike for the sake of riding my bike; the sensation of the rhythm, the hypnosis of rain dripping from my cycling cap’s brim, the cool air in my lungs, th...

Buninyong Nights: The Ballad of Jacky Bobby

by brett / Jan 15 2011 / 99 posts

Close the polls. Shut the books. No need to tally the votes. It’s only three weeks into the new year, but folks, we may have already witnessed the V Ride of the Year. While the Euros are trying to escape the bitter chills of winter, the Aussies and Kiwis were turning up the heat with their National Championships being contested last weekend...

Anti-V Moment of the Year: Chaingate

by frank / Dec 31 2010 / 101 posts

It is a telling sign of the state of our sport that picking the Anit-V moment of the year was a more difficult task than picking The V Ride of the Year. Best ride of the year? Clean, unanimous vote among The Keepers on that one. Low point of the year? Dissention in the ranks as email traffic filled our inboxes to overflowing.Veino in Liege. Piti...

Defining Moments: Alexi Grewal-1984 Olympic Road Race

by Gianni / Dec 17 2010 / 68 posts

I just came across Alexi Grewal’s website; presently he is a timber framer, does not own a car (no money), hauls tools behind his bike in a trailer and is now training up to revive his racing career. That is a heavy lift, reviving that career. That is a twenty year holiday from riding and racing but I never discount an elite athlete’s w...

Defining Moments: Sprinteur to Rouleur

by frank / Oct 19 2010 / 92 posts

As we grow older, humility takes it’s chilling hold. The little nagging questions like, “Will this next activity kill me?” start to weigh heavier on our minds.  It’s not that these questions weren’t asked when we gripped our youth like a toddler grips his penis; it’s just that they didn’t mean as much to u...

Defining Moments: Radio Silence

by frank / Oct 4 2010 / 46 posts

Robots. Automatons. Modern professional cyclists. I am tempted to say these three terms are interchangeable, but I know that’s not right because a “robot” endeavors to convey the impression that it acts of it’s own intent, whereas automatons and professional cyclists are merely self-operating machines.It is difficult for a...

Six Days Of The Worlds – Defining Moments: Oscar Freire 1999

by brett / Sep 27 2010 / 8 posts

Verona, Italy, 1999.You’re 259 kms into the World Championship Road Race, and you find yourself in a select group of nine riders. You look around and see you are surrounded by a veritable who’s who of the pro peloton.  Ullrich, Vandenbroucke, Zberg, Konyshev, Casagrande, Camenzind.  ”Do these guys even know who I am, or even if...

Defining Moments: 1990 Luz Ardiden

by frank / Aug 30 2010 / 24 posts

There are several moments in my childhood when I realized the bike held a more meaningful place in my life than the other fancies and desires one experiences growing up; those instants that somehow stand out from the others in the endless stream of memories that hold greater significant than the rest.One such moment was when I realized that my firs...
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