Duck and cover! Our guest article series rolls on with @scaler911’s Anatomy of a Photo. Photo, words, enough said.
Yours in Cycling,
Gianni
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Ah, The Queen of Classics. Hell of the North. L’enfer du Nord. Call it what you will, every spring we Velominati cherish this monument. Every April the course is set to put the pain to all who brave this glorious classic. The weather can be sunny, making things dusty – or rainy, making it a slippery, muddy mess. In the words of Orangeman Theo de Rooij, “It’s a bollocks, this race! You’re working like an animal, you don’t have time to piss, you wet your pants. You’re riding in mud like this, you’re slipping…it’s a pile of shit.” When asked if he would do it again, he replied, “Sure, it’s the most beautiful race in the world.”
In 1994, Frenchman Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle was returning to go for a hat-trick. The weather was horrible, raining, cold. The course was shit. 14K in, the rain turned to snow. An attack went off, but that was not to last. The peloton came to life and caught the lone break-away man and an elite selection was made in the revered Arenberg Forest. Duclos-Lassalle suffered a puncture during one of several large crashes in the bunch and lost contact.
From behind, Duclos-Lassalle, Johann Museeuw, and new guy Andrei Tchmil caught the lead group. With 63K to go, Tchmil attacked hard and rode away to victory, becoming the first Eastern block winner of PR.
But what is compelling to me is the photo of Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and hardman Johann Museeuw chasing. In addition to a fantastic study in the V, notice the steeds: Rockshock-equipped road bikes all around including Johan’s Bianchi. It turns out that that Celeste wonder was a $20,000, one-off, fully suspended road machine that saw exactly one race. The cost, weight and UCI rule change prohibited any further development of those monstrosities. Thank Merckx, those were strange times my fellow VM, strange times indeed.
Check out the chainrings: 53 x 51?
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Strong work @scaler.
@RedRanger
and check the chain slack. QR's proper, computer right. Nice shot indeed.
To me there's something just plain wrong about suspension on road bikes. That Bianchi is just plain fugly!
There were guys riding through Arenberg on FS mtbs when we were there this year. Floating along on a carpet of air, it's almost the inverse of Rule V.
@936adl
You're totally right, it is ugly. But the bike to a pro is just a tool to do a job, and they were just trying to improve their tools to get a tough job done more efficiently. It turned out they were wrong, but if the technology had worked (and the UCI didn't step in!) you can bet that sentimentality about the purity of the bicycle form would have disappeared under an avalanche of springs and pivots.
Scaler if you only wrote articles about PR I would be happy - something about that race and the men who win it. Of all the classics it ups the ante and there is no hiding.
The image of those gold colored rock shox makes me feel real old. My buddies and I had various versions of their and competitors suspension systems on our mtn bikes. It is amazing how far suspension technology has come in 20 years.
@Oli: Totally Agree: If floating on air through Arenberg is what it takes to win PR, and it is legal, by all means go for it.
The lead picture of this article reminded me of how awesome disc brakes are on the mountain bike. While I am 99% against disc brakes on road bikes (I reserve the 1% in perpetuity in case I ever crash due to lack of breaking power or slick rims/etc), I fear this will be a huge new area of investment /growth at the grass roots levels of cycling. To me the aesthetics of this will be jarring on otherwise beautiful bikes.
@Oli
Fair comment, but I take the view that if it looks right, then it almost certainly is.
The monuments of our sport should be won by hardmen, and not by technology. IMHO of course.
@936adl
i agree, there is something just wrong about having FS bikes on such hallowed ground.
I move that we place Saint Pedal' at the gate of the Arenberg forest, all passer-byers from here on MUST be on a worthy ride, applying liberal amounts of V to the quads
Damn, that lead photo is awesome. I truly hope to sometime be along that road with those fans, cheering as the riders bomb on by. Even the spectators are tops at Paris-Roubaix!
I haven't done much cobble riding, but have been riding a lot of cyclocross this year. It gives me an appreciation for how you need to keep your cadence high and take on the ruts, lest they boss you around.
Nice one, scaler!
@Scaler- well done. I guess I am a wuss, because I am not sure I could ride that course on a fully suspended 29" mountain bike! Although, if I keep working the VMH she may let me go on the Keepers Tour in 2012... Whatever those chainrings actually are, they are huge and likely paired with a 10/21 or some other inhuman cassette.