Belgian Affirmations: Andrei Tchmil

Andrei Tchmil got so tired of the palpable disappointment of not being Belgian that he decided to become one. Envision the world the way you want it to be, then make it so.

People are cynical when I talk about Belgium. They think I’m only Belgian on paper. That is not true. Yes, I was a Russian, even a proud one…. Now I am proud to be Belgian.

A-Merckx; I totally understand the Awesome you’re on about.

Incidentally, I’m so inappropriately excited about Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2012 that I can’t promise next week won’t be another week of unabashed, full-frontal Belgian Toothpaste Porn.

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130 Replies to “Belgian Affirmations: Andrei Tchmil”

  1. The carnage on that road behind Tchmil must have been ugly. Notice how the spectators are casually deliberate…in that part of the world it is normal to be stading in the middle of some random field while a pro peloton charges through soupy, mucky, slick as snot, bumpy farm roads.

  2. Jeez, you wouldn’t want to run Speedplays in that!

    It’s odd to think that most people see Belgium as a rather dreary irrelevant place that should really be a northern region of France, famous only for chocolate, beer and Tin Tin.

  3. Ha, these photos make me even happier I just picked up my second cross bike! While road bikes are awesome for the right job, a cx bike with road tires is damn versatile.

    (Anyone use/have suggestion/advice on tire liners? I’m thinking about using some with Continental 4Season tires for when I do hit the trail/path a bit. Going to run one cx bike tubeless & race ready, the other more road oriented, but big enough tires to hit light trails…or Belgian Mud Soup!)

    Happy 11-11-11 Followers!

  4. I’m also amazed how many PROs are able to ride with bare knees in crazy weather. I guess they are Hardmen AND maybe have some embrocation on there.

    After two years of livin’ in the South (U.S.) I’m a full-on wimp with the temperature. I’ll ride in anything, but now when it goes below 60*F I need knee warmers, maybe arm warmers, and full-finger gloves. I used to scoff at what people wore when I first moved down here; I might now scoff if I saw me!

  5. @Ron
    I think a lot of pros cover up a good bit when they are training. At race intensity it’s less necessary. But the other thing is if it’s cold AND wet, sopping knee warmers are worse than useless. Better to embro up and maybe put a layer of vaseline on top for extra water repelling and insulation.

  6. Oooh and the inspiration just keeps coming. Tchmil had the best pain face. One hard mother effer.

    Thanks fort that.

  7. Here’s another great one, of a young Tchmil, racing for Alfa Lum, one of my favorite teams. BAD. ASS. The main pic is so grainy, but how can you turn your back on it’s awesomeness. You can’t, you just accept the graininess and move on.

  8. @frank
    That’s awesome, they are clearly just getting onto the first cobbled sector as the kits are clean. Also, gratuitous Castorama sighting on the right. Is that Luc Leblanc, with the former champion of France bands on his sleeves?

  9. So I go and post up a Rule #9 photo in a different article this morning, and Frank goes and one ups it. Great minds think alike.

  10. @frank

    What’s really going on in the background, far right? Is that a rider that’s employing Rule V and cranking out 100 burpees before entering the cobbles?

    Or is it just a turn gone wrong?

  11. beautiful thoughts Frank!

    the prostelytized spirit…to that of a Belgian. I love it! Rule V multiplied for all, enjoy thinking of this all winter til next spring!

  12. These are awesome photos! Makes me sort of excited to go ride in the rain this weekend.

  13. @Nate
    Back in the day (the 80s) before knee warmers were in our cycling wardrobe, on cold wet days in Scotland (which generally happened all year-round), when we were racing we’d do the embrocation thing on cold dry days and if it was wet do vaseline over the top. Worked a treat, but a real bugger to get off. Full strength eau de cologne or something alcohol-based usually did the trick. Another great reason to keep the guns super smooth!

  14. @frank
    I’d forgotten Tchmil was an Alfa Lum rider; I always think of him in Lotto gear. I still have one of those Alfa Lum jerseys, although it’s a tad small now . . . It even has CCCP on it as it was basically the Soviet pro team.

  15. @mcsqueak

    These are awesome photos! Makes me sort of excited to go ride in the rain this weekend.

    Well, it’s chucking it down in South Wales and I’ll be riding this weekend but so far excited doesn’t quite describe it.

    Guess I’ll just have to look at the above rain porn until it kicks in.

  16. @Mark1

    After spending several hours suffering on the trainer this week, the idea of riding outside sounds BRILLIANT, no matter what the weather is doing.

  17. @Mark1

    @mcsqueak

    These are awesome photos! Makes me sort of excited to go ride in the rain this weekend.

    Well, it’s chucking it down in South Wales and I’ll be riding this weekend but so far excited doesn’t quite describe it.
    Guess I’ll just have to look at the above rain porn until it kicks in.

    Rain porn +1

  18. I’m pretty sure this photo is from the 2000 Paris-Roubaix, and Tchmil has just stacked badly killing any chance of winning PR that year. He chased back up to the chasers but finished nowhere.

  19. I have posted this before but it is so badass it deserves it.

    “I ride to win, winning is the reason for my existence. That’s what I always think at the first races of the season, when I notice the opponents are younger once more. At the first races in the South of France I saw them again: all the new pros who will ride their first pro races. All with high expectations, fresh ambitions, high hopes, shaved legs. Then they see a guy like me: a bit selfish, calm, very experienced, stubborn, self-assured. In a way of speaking I could have been their father. I never wanted to upset their balance, but they should know that it is a new world they are entering. But that is what they know two days later when the first dreams are shattered. I wish them good luck though, but nothing more. Besides, we are opponents, aren’t we?” Andre Tchmil

  20. fantastic and nicely timed to give some encouragement for a ride that is a little longere this weekend than planned.

  21. @RedRanger

    One more.

    Awesome shot! I would have used that if I’d found it first! Nicely done. The look on his face. The classic wheels, the Old World Record, the FUCKING ROCK SOX.

    One of the Golden Eras of the sport. Am seriously thinking about swapping this one out for the main shot.

  22. @Gianni

    I have posted this before but it is so badass it deserves it.
    “I ride to win, winning is the reason for my existence. That’s what I always think at the first races of the season, when I notice the opponents are younger once more. At the first races in the South of France I saw them again: all the new pros who will ride their first pro races. All with high expectations, fresh ambitions, high hopes, shaved legs. Then they see a guy like me: a bit selfish, calm, very experienced, stubborn, self-assured. In a way of speaking I could have been their father. I never wanted to upset their balance, but they should know that it is a new world they are entering. But that is what they know two days later when the first dreams are shattered. I wish them good luck though, but nothing more. Besides, we are opponents, aren’t we?” Andre Tchmil

    And I’ll post my response to that from way back when – I’d forgotten we’d used this picture once before, in one of Brett’s great works.

    I imagine a neo-pro, entering the big lake from their little pond: feeling big and important as they just signed their fancy pro deal. Talking all winter long amongst their friends how they are going to be different from all the other pros, they have that extra edge the others lack. They are tough. They have grinta. Only to edge up to the start line at Het Volk and looking to their side to peer into the cold, calculating presence of Tchmil, Museeuw, or Ballerini. They must shrink three sizes on such a day.

  23. @Steampunk

    If I didn’t know better, I’d say that’s Eric Vanderaerden. In fact, I think it is.

    Even if it’s not, he was a proper stud. Not a lot of dudes would go up against the likes of King Kelly, knowing the beating to come was almost a sure thing.

    And just for good measure.

  24. Oh Merckx. The VMH is in Kenya and there’s no adult supervision here; the “Don’t Post This” filter is set to “OFF”. These posts will rock your world. Look really close, now look away. You can’t.

    Besides, I love my job.

  25. It’s like looking into a beautiful majestic waterfall made out of rainbows and unicorn vaginas. It’s fuckin’ majestic man.

  26. Here’s Tchmil at P-R in 1994, powering along ‘roads’ so rough that the bikes are in the process of falling off the team car. Possibly.

    You’ve got to love the old RockShox SLs, there’s something very cool about them along with P-R tech in general. A subject for a future article perhaps?

  27. I think there should be a new rule: all photographs of Paris-Roubaix should be printed in black-and-white. C’mon, you know they just look better that way. In fact, color photography should be banned from all the spring classics.

  28. @Steampunk
    Here’s what I like about the Vanderaerden pic I posted:

    1. He’s covered in mud, which is the theme of much of this conversation.
    2. He’s suffering.
    3. He’s desperately trying to keep the bike upright.
    4. He’s beyond casually deliberate in all of the above, but rather imbuing a greater sense of serenity.

  29. @Marko
    Also love that Moser is looking absolutely wrecked. Gap between sleeves and arm warmers on such a pro’s pro is a strong indication of just how hard P-R 1987 was…

  30. While a photo of an old folded magazine cover usually sucks, check out the amount of V Freddy is laying down here. Everything is ‘right’, right?

  31. @Routier

    Here’s Tchmil at P-R in 1994, powering along ‘roads’ so rough that the bikes are in the process of falling off the team car. Possibly.

    You’ve got to love the old RockShox SLs, there’s something very cool about them along with P-R tech in general. A subject for a future article perhaps?

    Check out the V his tires are making in the mud. It’s fuckin’ badass, man, like shootin’ a machine gun on peyote.

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