Beppe Saronni: Patron Saint of Rule #22
The cycling cap was part of any kit: nearly black shorts, team jersey and cap. It would be matching, it would be cotton. In the day before the required helmet, the cycling cap was it. Unrestrained by helmet or hairnet, the cap was the crown upon the head. It would sit high on the head, not pulled down like a baseball cap. It sat no higher upon the head than upon Giuseppi Beppe Saronni’s fine Italian head.
Beppe wore the cap with an unrivaled sense of italian style. The cap perched up there, as if it just landed, light as a feather. How it stayed there in the breeze, we don’t know. Perhaps the Saronni skull had just the perfect shape to hold a cap. We will leave that for the Phrenological scientists and the pathologist.
Rule #22 states the wearing of a cap may be for a brief interval before and after a ride, otherwise it has to be hidden under your helmet. That is a sad state of affairs. Maybe we need a national day of helmet-free cap riding. What is the worst that could happen? Do we have to ride the old timey Strade Bianche if we long to spend a long time in the saddle wearing a V-cap? If we can only wear it for a brief time or while using toe clips, is it an anachronism? Is it time to take it back: wear it in the bathtub, in the car, gasp, while walking in public? This idea has been discussed before here; the cap is ours, we should own it. When and where would Eddy wear it?
Behold the Beppe.
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This video has been posted on the site before too but it deserves a wider audience.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjFa_aszjQ[/youtube]
I wear my cap to and from any ride, even if I have to go to work after a ride.
@RedRanger wow, that was fast. I just finished hitting the post button.
@Gianni Haha, Ive been sitting at my laptop studying for a test all morning.
I wear mine occasionally to work (at a bike shop.) I also keep mine on while heckling the later (faster) groups at our local cyclocross races.
I miss the days when I’d proudly ride in my Cafe de Colombia cap, helmet saved for race day.
Los
I cherish Rule #9 days for the simple fact I know I can wear a cycling cap without reservation. In doing so, I somehow feel closer to the tradition of cycling and the boxful of caps I used to wear (sans helmet) 30 years ago. On race day, pre and post race: the cap is on.
I must say it pains me to see a podium finisher donning a baseball cap with their sponsor’s logo. This is cycling. Wear a cycling cap! Eddy did.
just like with any piece of equipment, a cap becomes simply better if you know something about it and have a good reason to use it. Hipster wearing a Brooklyn cap with the World Champ stripes just because they lived in Williamsburg for a summer: not good. Me wearing a cap from a high end bike shop in Portland, because it was a memento from the trip AND has excellent functionality: good. A Fred wearing a vintage-style Merckx or Molteni cap when everything else they own comes from the latest gear review pages of Bicycling Magazine: bad. A grizzled hardman wearing a cap from long defunct Euro team while crushing past you with downtube shifters: good. basically, my point is, if you wear the cap well and don’t look like a douche: good. if you wear it poorly, know nothing about the classic icons of cycling sport and style, and befoul the World Champ stripes with your own sweat: not good.
take it back, fuck the hipsters. I get the impression hipsters are getting tired of their track bikes anyway. It’s been a while since i’ve seen one of those goofballs in their capri-shorts and sockless lady shoes. I think it’s time.
I hope this is a prelude to the announcement that V-Caps are about to be more real than unicorns or the like.
@Dashiell Spot on.
@Nate
This was my exact thought as well.
I recently visited some friends in Chicago for a week and packed my pedals and shoes, but not my helmet, thinking that my friend would have a helmet I could use when I borrowed her road bike. Turns out she didn’t so I ended up doing 150+ kms with just my cotton cycling cap. Made me feel a little more cautious, but it felt great to be whizzing along the lakeshore with naught but a casquette.
@Mike G
Their ironic fervor must ebb and flow. Perhaps they will get tired of fixies and caps and move on to the next obvious thing: hemp powered skateboards.
I love the team issue cycling cap we use. I wish more could see while out on rides. Ties in perfectly with the kit. Keeps the head mostly warm unless it goes below 40. I do wear it for post ride espresso/beer and get the odd looks from strangers.
I was pulling out my Visa for a V-cap before the page had even loaded.
What’s the cycling equivalent of blue balling?
I get the most milage out of my caps in the winter (no way in the summer when it’s hot out, I cook), and I use them as scrub caps in the OR. Occasionally I’ll be seen in one for a post ride malted recovery beverage, but only while still in kit.
And ya, hipsters, your time borrowing the cap has come and gone. I’ll be collecting them off your heads as I ride past. Good luck catching me on your fixey………
The Beppster also had the magnificent good luck to wear killer kits during his career: SCIC, Gis-Gelati and Del Tongo. Nary a badly designed kit there so it stands to reason tht the caps would be matchingly sweet.
The teammate in the first color pic is Wladimiro Panizza – a tough wee bugger who was pro for 18 years and finished 16 of 18 Giri. He ate hipsters for breakfast.
Was going to post that video when the Bugno love was at full tilt in the Casually Deliberate article, good to see someone came to the party. Happy to admit to a pretty massive bro-ner for Brian Holm as well.
I prefer to just wear a cap all year round and of course have different types of caps for different climates. The only time I wear a helment is for races and when I ride with my wife, so basically when I am required. Helmets are not comfortable and look stupid but I dont judge those who always wear one so dont take offense. I like the feel of just a cap while riding and it keeps the sweat out of my eyes a lot better than the minimal padding a helmet has to offer. Plus, it makes one look very cool escpecially when tossing back a pint on the deck of your favorite bar along route.
And for the Nth time, lets see a V-cap both summer and winter versions.
V-Cap!! V-Cap!! V-Cap!! V-Cap!!
@wiscot
Wladimiro Panizza eh? He does look like a tough old school bastard. No EPO for him, just steak and pasta, thank you very much. And he got to wear the Maglia Rosa while Beppe was in the Cyclamen Jersey. Nice.
@VeloVita
And mine
@Bill Chris
1. You cant store your cycling specical sunnines on a cap!
2. If you think helmets look stupid, get a better looking one.
3. If you think helmets are uncomfortable, get a more comfortable one.
I kind of suspect you were riding before they became law at the UCI and are resiting that which is unfamiliar. Nobody likes change. Even so, I have a few people say helmets are uncomfortable every year but I can say without a doubt my helmet is comfortable, functional, cool in our hot summer and yes, even good looking! If I was going for a quite stroll on the bikes with the family, sure, no lid but only because we don’t use roads and see maybe 15km/hr max. Every other ride there is no chance I’d be on my bike without one but that’s just me – who has ridden with a helmet all my 38 years.
oh geez. lets not start that debate for the millionth time. maybe @frank should create a dunce cap symbol for people who insist on starting shit on that subject.
@Gianni You have misinterpreted Rule #22, simply as a matter of English comprehension.
According to you “ Rule #22 states the wearing of a cap may be for a brief interval before and after a ride, otherwise it has to be hidden under your helmet.”
In actual fact Rule #22 says “Cycling caps can be worn under helmets, but never when not riding … The only time it is acceptable to wear a cycling cap is while directly engaged in cycling activities and while clad in cycling kit.”
There is no hint of compulsion or mandatory covering of caps with a helmet. ‘Can’ means it is possible, not essential or even advisable. Didn’t your teacher ever correct you when you said “Can I go to the bathroom?” and they snarkily said “Of course you can, but no you may not.”
As is well known in these parts I am also a cap-only rider, like Bill Chris, who refuses to hide the light under a bushel.
In fact I think wearing a cap under a helmet looks pretty douchey. Very few people can pull it off.
It says you really want to be like the old-style guys but you can’t quite go that far. Either wear the helmet, think that you’re safe and be proud, or wear the cap and accept the style-bonus along with the alleged risk. Not belt and braces.
@Puffy re: point 1, when at the cafe I tend to place my sunnies on the back of my cap upside down (as if they’d basically rotated there over my head), seems to work well. Agree with the remainder of your points though.
@ChrisO
Mind if I put myself in the ‘very few’ category? I’m quite happy with how it looks, although I think I’m helped by the Lazer’s design at the front where it rises to an upward peak on the forehead.
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@Weldertron
V-Balling?????
@Mikael Liddy It will look even better with a V-cog on the brim (hint, hint). And I’m totally digging those vintage-style CMYK kits in the background of the first pic. Sponsored by a print shop I hope?
Cap on under helmet in the few days when the sun comes out to avoid this on my baldy heed
Yeah, love the piece but why is there a picture of Joe Pesci wearing cycling kit at the top?
Funny – funny how?
Beppe fan on the course of Giro di Lombardia 2012 (Muro di Sormano).
@ped
That’s what I call dedicated following of Rule #7 !
@the Engine That ‘Joe Pesci’ aka il Duraccio*, was second at the 1980 Giro behind Hinault…
*Rugged
Nice one Gianni. I agree, we should own the cap. Like a lot of clothing or kit, certain people can wear pretty much anything and look fabulous. Others try very hard but will always look like they are trying too hard/crap/cheap or just plain ugly.
Me, apart from wearing a cap whilst cycling, like to do the housework wearing nothing but a cap and a smile…..and I own it!
@Pedale.Forchetta
I wouldn’t fuck with either of them….
Strong work, Gianni!
Growing up I played a bunch of sports and was always intrigued and mystified by the coolness of the PROs. I wanted to play and dress and look like they did. First it was futbol and the rare glimpse of a European footballer magazine would send my mind into orbit. Shortly thereafter it was lacrosse, another sport that was unimportant enough in the U.S. that game tapes or magazines were like contraband. Both of them were just far enough out of grasp that I craved more. In my teenage years it was snowboard and wow, the stack of mid-80s Burton catalogues my brother had accrued were a treasure.
While I’m now no longer a kid, a hidden beauty of cycling is that now I can pursue the aesthetic footnotes (top cap?) of this sport, being just as eager to learn more about the history, to look the part, to be my own humble Beppe.
This connection to the simple joys and pursuits of one’s youth are what keeps a lad young, I feel.
@Pedale.Forchetta
And therein lies a story. With three stages to go in the 1980 Giro, Panizza was in pink. The only issue was, the three stages were a ride over the Stelvio, a TT and the final procession into Milan. On the Stelvio stage, the wily Cyrille Guimard sent Jean-Rene Bernaudeau up the road. Behind was Panizza, Battaglin, Prim, Beccia and Hinault. On the Stelvio, which till had snow on it, the Frenchman accelerated. One by one the others dropped off the hurttful pace of the Badger. All but one. Panizza fought like a dying dog to save his last maglia rosa. Hinault accelerated again and again, still the wee Italian hung on. Finally, Hinault gave it full, unleashed fury to crest the Stelvio alone and catch his teammate on the descent. The two Renault teammates then time trialled to the finish in Bormio. Bernaudeau was given the stage win by an ecstatic Hinault who had just secured his first Giro win with masterful performance of riding his rivals off his wheels.
Panizza would finish the Giro in second place, over 5 minutes behind Hinault, but rarely has a rider fought so hard to win his home grand tour in the face of a master excelling at his craft.
wiscot – Nice! Thanks for that great story, loved reading it.
@wiscot Yes, that was ‘Miro’ Panizza.
@VeloVita
After reading the article I immediately checked in “The Gear” and just skipped over the comments. Which for me is unheard of. Alas I was disappointed.
@Weldertron
pre-ride flats come to mind. being fully kitted and grabbing the trusty steed to find a flat.
Me before I was educated in “The Rules”….
World’s Are Colliding! (in a good way)
I just nailed the 15th question on this week’s Cycling Revealed quiz. Timely article, Gianni!
@Ron
And no, thankfully I did not see this post before taking this week’s quiz.
PLEASE do not make any mention of the quiz until the next quiz is up unless it is just your score.
Thank you.
Gianni, Gianni, Gianni, I sooo hear the soft cry in the wilderness – what folks here may not know is that you without the cap is like a unicorn without a vagina! I know deep down that you wrote this in hopes that Rule #22 will be revised so that once again you can don the sacred garment at will and without guilt. Unlike you I never had confidence in my ability to pull off the cap in all social situations so my wearing is done in private and thus nobody sees how often I break this Rule. So I hope for both our sakes 22 can be toned down…
I do love my collection of caps, the newest was a well intended gift from Alpe d’Huez. It celebrates the 21 hairpins… Somehow, although well made and handsome it makes me slightly throw up in my throat when I put it on because its subject matter is not a race, bike maker or team. Am I too sensitive?
And huge yes to a V cap and soon please I’m not getting any younger!
@scaler911 love the visual of you slicin’ and dicin’ with a cycling cap jauntily perched on your crown.
Scene – scaler911 bursts into the operating theater (observing proper sterile technique by opening the door with his posterior)
scaler911 – “Alright everyone. Time to Rule #5 and get on with making a difference in this patient’s life. Hand me the retractor.”
@DeKerr
You did know that he’s a specialist in male-to-female sex reassignment surgery?
Is it any wonder he’s relaxed about gender identification? He’s got an app for that.
@pistard
that would be these guys – Fiasco Ciclismo
@Mikael Liddy
Good grief!
@Mikael Liddy
My eyes! My eyes! Hard to make a YJA lok tasteful, but I think Fiasco is the right word.