Few more late photos can do no harm I guess.

F.M. first bike from 1966 and later one plus Flandria team bike which was repainted Gios

@frank

@kixsand

@DerHoggz

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.

I strecth my hammies during the day. I think there’s only two of us in the guys I know that are on the wrong side of 40 that can touch toes/palm plant flat on floor.

I’d really like to be much more flexible like this dude……

I think the lower pic is Dave Brailsford getting in some practice on his PR skillz for next year’s UK Tour start and relations between Wiggo and Froomie.

@sthilzy

@frank

@kixsand

@DerHoggz

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.

I strecth my hammies during the day. I think there’s only two of us in the guys I know that are on the wrong side of 40 that can touch toes/palm plant flat on floor.

I’d really like to be much more flexible like this dude……

I’m on the wrong side of forty and my bike fitting physio who’s worked with Sir Chris Hoy says I’m the least flexible person he’s seen for ages. Doesn’t bode well for my chosen discipline of TT.

Don’t worry about what Sir Hoy’s physio says, watch and learn and get flexi from one of our old favourtite’s round here, Katie Sunshine!

@frank

@kixsand

@DerHoggz

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

 

 

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.

I strecth my hammies during the day. I think there’s only two of us in the guys I know that are on the wrong side of 40 that can touch toes/palm plant flat on floor.

I’d really like to be much more flexible like this dude……

I’m on the wrong side of forty and my bike fitting physio who’s worked with Sir Chris Hoy says I’m the least flexible person he’s seen for ages. Doesn’t bode well for my chosen discipline of TT.

Silent newsreel footage of Fausto Coppi climbing Passo Sella during the 1953 Giro d’Italia and winning the 164km 19th stage from Auronzo to Bolzano ahead of race leader Hugo Koblet.

@kixsand

@DerHoggz

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

 

 

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.

I strecth my hammies during the day. I think there’s only two of us in the guys I know that are on the wrong side of 40 that can touch toes/palm plant flat on floor.

I’d really like to be much more flexible like this dude……

@pistard

Just read this great interview with Freddy from two years ago. All the dirt and he’s still pissed at de Vlaeminck:

http://bikeraceinfo.com/oralhistory/freddy-maertens.html

Holy shiet, that is an interview! 300 km training rides all the time, that will make you or break you. Fantastic. Thanks.

I wish he had been at the museum the day we were all there for KT2012.

Not nearly in the same league, not yet anyway, Ritchie Porte on Bikelane, “yeah we do blocks of 1000km weeks for a month, but I don’t mind just going out for a 300km ride” .

Just read this great interview with Freddy from two years ago. All the dirt and he’s still pissed at de Vlaeminck:

http://bikeraceinfo.com/oralhistory/freddy-maertens.html

Holy shiet, that is an interview! 300 km training rides all the time, that will make you or break you. Fantastic. Thanks.

I wish he had been at the museum the day we were all there for KT2012.

Carel. Carel. Sounds a bit like “Karla,” doesn’t it, old chap? Have we crossed paths, in Berlin, perhaps?

@wiscot

@ped

Freddy was DQ’d in Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1977 for a bike change from his brother on the Koppenberg, when he towed de Vlaeminck to the line.

A cobble in the museum at Oudenaarde declares him the moral victor.

A bit of research on pro cycling in the 70s is incredible – the wheeling and dealing is mind-blowing. Merckx basically let Gimondi win the world title rather than let Maertens win riding Shimano. Merckx and Gimondi both rode Campagnolo.

I just read about that on the Flandria website (my goal now is to own one of those bikes) the other day. Funny someone should mention it.

And what’s funnier is that Freddy always rode Italian frames painted and badged as Flandrias!

@ped

Freddy was DQ’d in Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1977 for a bike change from his brother on the Koppenberg, when he towed de Vlaeminck to the line.

A cobble in the museum at Oudenaarde declares him the moral victor.

A bit of research on pro cycling in the 70s is incredible – the wheeling and dealing is mind-blowing. Merckx basically let Gimondi win the world title rather than let Maertens win riding Shimano. Merckx and Gimondi both rode Campagnolo.

      I just read about that on the Flandria website (my goal now is to own one of those bikes) the other day. Funny someone should mention it.

@Ron

How big were he and Godefroot? Neither seems too large, though both were stout by today’s standards. Still, seem on the small size to have handled cobbles so well. I guess being Belgian doesn’t hurt…

Unreliable sources put Maertens at 174cm and 71kg, Godefroot at 171/73. Makes me feel downright proportional.

Wow, if they rode today their DSs would tell them to go on a diet, immediately. I didn’t realize I’m the same size as Walter! Damn, now I can watch the Bulldog ride, then Gerrans, and Tommy “Grimace” Voeckler can be demoted. Nice.

@wiscot Nope the guy on the left is Pietro Caucchioli, also an ex-pro. I think third in the Giro and a few stage wins. He does Ale which is the clothing brand that Cipo is also involved with – very understated stuff as you can imagine.

I’m in the middle. Cipo is a big lad – I’m 6’3″³ and he’s got one or two inches on me. Still looks pretty fit too, since we’re talking about people who’ve still got it.

Unfortunately work commitments mean I’ve had to pass up the opportunity for a private ride with him and our race team tomorrow morning.

Thanks for clarifying! I knew Cipo was big, but not that big. I’m 6″ 1′ so Cipo would tower over me too.

Just read this great interview with Freddy from two years ago. All the dirt and he’s still pissed at de Vlaeminck:

http://bikeraceinfo.com/oralhistory/freddy-maertens.html

Great read! Thanks for posting. What a crazy world Freddy lived in.

I’m in the middle. Cipo is a big lad – I’m 6’3″ and he’s got one or two inches on me. Still looks pretty fit too, since we’re talking about people who’ve still got it.

Unfortunately work commitments mean I’ve had to pass up the opportunity for a private ride with him and our race team tomorrow morning.

@wiscot

Moser is still a fucking stud.

It angers me how some of these men just keep looking more badass as they get older. I, on the other hand, look increasingly like washed-up seaweed.

Tell me about it. Have you seen Gimondi lately? Still got it.

hanging with Mario right now

I can pick out Mario, but which one of the others are you? And if you are the gentleman on the left, did you pre-coordinate outfits with Mario?

@Ron

How big were he and Godefroot? Neither seems too large, though both were stout by today’s standards. Still, seem on the small size to have handled cobbles so well. I guess being Belgian doesn’t hurt…

Unreliable sources put Maertens at 174cm and 71kg, Godefroot at 171/73. Makes me feel downright proportional.

174cm I can do but 71kg? I guess I could learn to to a lot of stuff with no arms. Draping myself casually lazily across the hoods a la De Vlaeminck above, phantom aero bars or victory celebrations wouldn’t be amongst them though.

http://bikeraceinfo.com/oralhistory/freddy-maertens.html

How big were he and Godefroot? Neither seems too large, though both were stout by today’s standards. Still, seem on the small size to have handled cobbles so well. I guess being Belgian doesn’t hurt…

Unreliable sources put Maertens at 174cm and 71kg, Godefroot at 171/73. Makes me feel downright proportional.

@Rick

He’s leaning on a Trabant, looking like a Stasi agent disguised as an MI5 agent trying to look like a Stasi agent.

That’s not a fucking Trabant.

I was wondering about that. But who cares? It still reeks of le Carré and therefore still proves unequivocally the cool that was the ’70s.

Alrighty then…

Would someone please post the assos girl and bring some reason back to this thread for fucks sake??

Cinelli girl may also be accepted.

That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.

No shit, his lower back is perpendicular to the surface of the earth. Unearthly.

Then you’ve got Fabian and Bone-dog holding up the rear on the current generation.

[dmalbum: path=”/velominati.com/wp-content/uploads/readers/frank/2013.11.19.16.46.12/2//”/]

Would someone please post the assos girl and bring some reason back to this thread for fucks sake??

Moser is still a fucking stud.

It angers me how some of these men just keep looking more badass as they get older. I, on the other hand, look increasingly like washed-up seaweed.

@wiscot

So how awesome was Freddy? In 1977 when with the Red Guard of Flandria, he won 13 stages of the Vuelta! That’s right, 13 fucking stage wins. He led the race from start to finish and his teammate Michel Pollentier won a stage too. That is dominance never seen since.

Pollentier being the ugliest rider of his generation and also did a major fumble when peeing into a cup at l’Alpe in the ’78 Tour after winning the stage and taking yellow. The ol’ condom-fill-with-pee ploy.

@wiscot

@ped

@wiscot How ’bout de Vlaeminck paying Jan Raas a shedload to chase down team-mate Moser in Paris-Roubaix, to make it look like he was just sitting in the wheel, they didn’t manage to catch him tho

I can believe it, but did Roger pay up? Freddy’s beef was that Roger never paid him what he said he would for Flanders. Robert Millar complained that he lost the Vuelta because his manager would not do deals with some of the other teams against Spanish opposition. This raises the question: in team budgets are payoffs a line item on listed under miscellaneous expenses? Or are riders expected to cough up personally?

Race organizers typically pay their appearance fees and winnings in cash so the payoffs happen under the table; its one of the ways the organization of the sport has been complicit in all the cheating going on.

All paid in cash, and the deals are usually, “If you help me win…” meaning that they only pay out if the win comes.

Yeah, Freddy and Michel P – not the two most handsome dudes in the 70s peloton. I’m crap at posting, but if you’re a hot bike groupie, who you gonna call: Roger DeVlaeminck? The Prophet? Didi Thurau? Lo Scerifo?  or Freddy or Michel? Mind you, sometimes fame cancels out lot of ugliness.

@DerHoggz

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

That’s pure flexibility of the hammies and lower back; no forward hip rotation going on there.

So how awesome was Freddy? In 1977 when with the Red Guard of Flandria, he won 13 stages of the Vuelta! That’s right, 13 fucking stage wins. He led the race from start to finish and his teammate Michel Pollentier won a stage too. That is dominance never seen since.

Pollentier being the ugliest rider of his generation and also did a major fumble when peeing into a cup at l’Alpe in the ’78 Tour after winning the stage and taking yellow. The ol’ condom-fill-with-pee ploy.

@wiscot

@ped

@wiscot How ’bout de Vlaeminck paying Jan Raas a shedload to chase down team-mate Moser in Paris-Roubaix, to make it look like he was just sitting in the wheel, they didn’t manage to catch him tho

I can believe it, but did Roger pay up? Freddy’s beef was that Roger never paid him what he said he would for Flanders. Robert Millar complained that he lost the Vuelta because his manager would not do deals with some of the other teams against Spanish opposition. This raises the question: in team budgets are payoffs a line item on listed under miscellaneous expenses? Or are riders expected to cough up personally?

Race organizers typically pay their appearance fees and winnings in cash so the payoffs happen under the table; its one of the ways the organization of the sport has been complicit in all the cheating going on.

All paid in cash, and the deals are usually, “If you help me win…” meaning that they only pay out if the win comes.

 may mean that he is an American or a communist agent but more likely that he is a cad and up to no good. My suspicion is that not 10 minutes prior to this picture being taken he was scattering tacks on the thoroughfare all the while twirling his soupstrainer in a suitably villainous fashion.

And again on the Mur de Huy.

And the very definition of Flemish Facial.

A mountain of Freddy Love over on Tumblr.

@DerHoggz

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

‘cept that’s the Gypsy.

@wiscot How ’bout de Vlaeminck paying Jan Raas a shedload to chase down team-mate Moser in Paris-Roubaix, to make it look like he was just sitting in the wheel, they didn’t manage to catch him tho

I can believe it, but did Roger pay up? Freddy’s beef was that Roger never paid him what he said he would for Flanders. Robert Millar complained that he lost the Vuelta because his manager would not do deals with some of the other teams against Spanish opposition. This raises the question: in team budgets are payoffs a line item on listed under miscellaneous expenses? Or are riders expected to cough up personally?

Freddy was DQ’d in Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1977 for a bike change from his brother on the Koppenberg, when he towed de Vlaeminck to the line.

A cobble in the museum at Oudenaarde declares him the moral victor.

A bit of research on pro cycling in the 70s is incredible – the wheeling and dealing is mind-blowing. Merckx basically let Gimondi win the world title rather than let Maertens win riding Shimano. Merckx and Gimondi both rode Campagnolo.

@scaler911

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

 

 

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

Yeah…having trouble wrapping my head around that paperclip like turn from back to leg – fuck me freddy.

A cobble in the museum at Oudenaarde declares him the moral victor.

…and still looks like he could crush you in the sprint.  Or at anything else in life for that matter.

PS Shocking fact of the day: Freddy Maertens never won a monument.

Indeed.  I had no idea.  I never would have said that he did not win at least one.  I know that he podiumed a few but never on the top step, eh?  Cool trivia right there!

@Rick

He’s leaning on a Trabant, looking like a Stasi agent disguised as an MI5 agent trying to look like a Stasi agent.

That’s not a fucking Trabant.

Right it is a Peugot.

Fränk, dam, you can get it with so little!

Every day I wake up and swing a leg over the iron I thank Merckx that I was on a racing machine at the tail end of the 70’s!

There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING that comes after that has yet to make the ride better or almost more importantly better looking. Starting at the hair net and working down to the Marresi or Duegi shoes, nothing!

As a P.S. I bet Fast Freddy was a tough s o b as we’re many in the day. No college/Uni boys and thin pickings at the top. When I think of hard men its not only the guns but the elbows and fists… Where do you think he got that nose?

Damn, Freddy is wearing those awesome leather gloves. And the legs. Yep, that’s a man.

Jesus, and the white socks and the hairnet.  And the legs again.  Fucking awesome.

Seems like a northern Spring Classic but it could be any of them.

How big were he and Godefroot? Neither seems too large, though both were stout by today’s standards. Still, seem on the small size to have handled cobbles so well. I guess being Belgian doesn’t hurt…

Changing a wheel, Freddy, is like making love to a beautiful woman, you’ve got to be very careful with the quick release.”

He’s leaning on a Trabant, looking like a Stasi agent disguised as an MI5 agent trying to look like a Stasi agent.

That’s not a fucking Trabant.

@Haldy

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

Love love that photo!

My puny mortal brain cannot even begin to comprehend his position.

More 70″²s awesomeness V-Locus style….

Love love that photo!

@Rick

He’s leaning on a Trabant, looking like a Stasi agent disguised as an MI5 agent trying to look like a Stasi agent.

Just because this needs to be seen again.

And again.

He’s leaning on a Trabant, looking like a Stasi agent disguised as an MI5 agent trying to look like a Stasi agent.

Just because this needs to be seen again.

And the look on the gentlemans face leaning against the car, as if to say

” Yes, well then, that all appears to be in order, good job chaps, carry on ! ”

Or perhaps a young Nick Offerman?

And the look on the gentlemans face leaning against the car, as if to say

” Yes, well then, that all appears to be in order, good job chaps, carry on ! ”

Right? I didn’t know until today that race mechanics were unionized.

” Yes, well then, that all appears to be in order, good job chaps, carry on ! “

It’s definitely Hodgman. Some timely advice from him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06vT2rWARFE

Absolutely, who knew he spent time in Europe when he was so young. That’s how he dressed for 1st grade. And even in 1st grade he knew a thing or two about quick wheel changes. He was not impressed with this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06vT2rWARFE

(The Sanders/Hodgman imposter? That was me in eighth grade, ‘stache included. And I was driving.)