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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@frank
Did someone mention espresso (as doubleR's ears prick up?)
Yeah, I know...I said "prick."
That's brilliant work right there Bretto. Bless the Italians, they do care about style.
Alfons de Wolf with his full tights and dish washing gloves is not living up to the Belgian Standard. He looks mighty cold. Like he lives in Hawaii or something.
@frank
Yes Frank. Low espresso levels this morning, thanks for the catch.
Getting one in 5 minutes....
@Gianni
Despite being red, they were, at least, not rubber.
Staying warm and Looking Fantastic don't need to be sets without an intersection.
The Prophet, in one of my favorite photos ever.
Hinault doing it both.
@Steampunk
This photo send the same message to me. The snarl on Merckx's face is him getting ready to spit out his failure to keep the tempo when Hinault attacks in a bit (also LBL, but I believe this is 1977).
@frank
If it actually is LBL, it will indeed be 1977 as Maertens is World Champion, the title he won in '76.
On the marigolds front, I've done quite a bit of surfing in colder waters (think Orkney and the Hebrides, the arse end of New Zealand) and the best cold-water gloves I ever found were basically marigolds with a wrist seal, under which I wore thin woolly gloves. Perfect, toasty warm, and cheap, which probably explains why you can't get them any more. The humble marigold is not to be underestimated. (And neither is moving to somewhere warmer...)
I've always faintly mourned the passing of those trade team winter hats - the ones without a trace of natural fibre that looked like golf caps without the pom-poms, with the fake wool skirt that covered the ears. I've been passively looking for a la vie claire one for years...
Oooof. I lived in Dunedin for a bunch of years, and can remember putting the wetsuit on in the shower to fill it up with hot water. I wasn't going anywhere, just that was the cheapest way to keep warm.
And walking on sand in spring in golden sun, which felt like walking on broken glass. Top waves though.
Peter Winnen hated that race. He hated every race, actually, now I think about it. Only in Spain and the Tour because it was at least warm then.