Anatomy of a Photo: And He Parted The Waters

De Vlaeminck parts the waters in the Trouée d'Arenberg.

No double wraps of bar tape. No arm warmers or bandages for an injured left arm; just some wrappings borrowed from an Egyptian mummy he sent back to the underworld earlier in the morning. Nothing special for Roger on a typical race day in Hell. Just unmeasurably enormous helpings of Rule #5.

The most remarkable thing about this photo? He did that to the water before he rode through it.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Velominati Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2012 »

Previous « The Austin, Texas Cogal; December 4, 2011

View Comments

Oli says:

Nov 8 2011 at 10:34 pm

@harminator
TouchÃ© lol!
mrhallorann says:

Nov 10 2011 at 3:29 pm

@frank
Not too much pressure, by the way - depending on the tape you'll have a massively lumpy job of it. With Fizik, you want to pull pretty hard and get a very even wrap, while with Cinelli and it's imitators in the varying types of cork and pseudocork, you'll want a firm but not too tight pressure to make sure you avoid the big lump in the middle of each wrap. Be careful on that one, even the Pros will wrap too tight.

@frank

I use Spesh Bar Phat with the gel inserts, so the bumps are pretty much a given. I like them, gives the hands extra textural variety when moving around the cockpit.

Each to their own.

Fuckin nails photo by the way.
Blaireau says:

Nov 10 2011 at 4:22 pm

@Souleur

here is the clips of video, hey frank, can you paste a pic or tell me how to, i am computer stupid
it indeeed was the 1973 Paris Roubaix, and the video shows it all, it shows them taking out w/goods and evidently he just threw them to the side, i suppose he may have taken the stitches out too and just tossed them bastards out but the antifreeze in his veins would have leaked for sure
http://youtu.be/ftZkzaarq4E

Unbelievable. Fing glorious. When men were truly men.
Jarvis says:

Feb 15 2012 at 2:42 pm

Back in '92 when Cycle Sport magazine was launched, it came with a free video. That video was a highlights package of english-language cycling and included a 10 minute segment of "A Sunday in Hell". Later in the decade, as motivation, I used to watch that video the night before races.

"De Vlaeminck pushes harder on the pedals"
wiscot says:

Dec 14 2012 at 5:23 am

@Blaireau

@Souleur

here is the clips of video, hey frank, can you paste a pic or tell me how to, i am computer stupid
it indeeed was the 1973 Paris Roubaix, and the video shows it all, it shows them taking out w/goods and evidently he just threw them to the side, i suppose he may have taken the stitches out too and just tossed them bastards out but the antifreeze in his veins would have leaked for sure
http://youtu.be/ftZkzaarq4E

Unbelievable. Fing glorious. When men were truly men.

That podium jersey Merckx is wearing is superb! You know it's wool too.
test says:

Jul 20 2014 at 11:01 am

Woah! I'm really digging the template/theme of this site.
It's simple, yet effective. A lot of times it's very difficult
to get that "perfect balance" between usability and visual appearance.

I must say that you've done a very good job with this.

Also, the blog loads extremely quick for me on Chrome.

Superb Blog!
http://styleku.info/10-incredible-beginner-yoga-exercises-transformations/ says:

Aug 2 2014 at 3:07 am

The word crime news refers for the breaking of rules or laws which can be considered like a conviction. These
jobs range in the commonest of IT industry on the rarest of defense
organizations. First edited by Anthony Sampson, it absolutely was then succeeded by Jim Bailey who changed
the name in the magazine to Drum.
New.Livestream.Com says:

Aug 7 2014 at 10:52 pm

hdmi to composite
am says:

Aug 9 2014 at 5:08 am

surefire training facility
report says:

Aug 22 2014 at 12:50 am

What's up colleagues, how is everything, and what you would like to say about this piece of writing, in my view its actually
amazing in favor of me.