Sometimes, when there’s a job to be done, you just don’t care what you look like. As with gardening, changing the oil or building that new pergola, the best gear for the job is usually the most practical, not the most stylish. In this Cor Vos image from the 1985 Liége-Bastogne-Liége, keeping warm is clearly the main objective of this hard working trio.
De Wolf (L) has gone for the classic beanie with pom-pom, a look usually favoured more by Saturday morning rugby dads than pro cyclists. He also raided the cupboard under the kitchen sink for his gloves, which as anyone who has ever done the dishes knows, do a better job of letting water in than keeping it out. Contini (R) has tried to keep the style points accumulating by jamming a cap over the tuque that his grandmother knitted him, and almost pulls it off, if not for the slightly sheepish look on his face hinting at a modicum of embarassment. Winnen (C) has tried the opposite approach, going for the wooly hat over the cap, which looks like it’s had its visor modified crudely with a pair of scissors. He’s thrown all style and three-point-system pointers right out of the window, and doesn’t give a fuck. Both Contini and Winnen possess guns which are impervious to water and cold.
Looking closer, it seems all three may well be wearing hairnets, making the combining of multiple layers of headwear a challenge that each has met in his own unique way, and somehow manage to still look hard as nails.
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What a photo! Definitely a lot going on there. Nice going, brett!
I tend to care how I look on the bike more than I look off the bike. But, I do my best to keep it cool all the time...
I can't imagine riding, much less racing, in a full-on winter tuque.
Fuck'in hardcore! Man, those dudes ROCK! That's what it is all about. Soul of cycling right there, baby! Awesome pic! That is the type of photo that inspires me to get out there and ride.
@MegFisher
Yes, look good while having fun, but don't kill anyone -- least yourself! Our science is more like mysticism. Meg you must have a slew of points from this blog by now. +1
Looks like a typical March group ride here on the hinterland - but badass and stylish all the same.
Style - not giving a crap what anyone else thinks and backing it up V & X!
That's not Contini on the right at all, its Bruce Campbell, who I did not realize was also a Cyclist.
@Dan_R
A-Merckx!
@ChrisO
The UCI might even have some regulation against it. You know, now that they've decided that aesthetics fall under their purview.
Wankers.
Sloppy work, fellas. Did you miss your espresso today? Fixed your posts.
@Campagnolo Vince!
@Dan_R
We are a base-V community, the symbol X holds no meaning for us.
Yesterday I lined up at the Etape Caledonia alongside many sins against the Rules. I have been permanently mentally scarred by some of yesterday's images - not merely rucksacks; aerobars canted to a near vertical angle and socks of nausea inducing length.
Even the hippy douche on a recumbent was not the worst.
I watched two grown men with beards proposing to ride bikes 125km's whilst wearing shapeless woolly jumpers, custard coloured Bell helmets of late '80's vintage, bottomed (the correct word I feel) by flared floral tracksuit trousers. They were not wearing this kit for a bet - they simply had no conception of how life on a bicycle should be lived.
This picture of true heroes has restored my faith and was just what the Merckx ordered.
@Buck Rogers
So Buck, can we expect you to be sporting an equally stylish ensemble in Vermont?