My first article on Velominati was to introduce one of my favorite cyclists, Eros Poli. I refered to him as a domestique on the Mercatone-Uno team. This faux pas was properly pointed out much later by @KaffeineKeiser, a commenter who suddenly surfaced and unfortunately submerged just as quickly, like Das Boot in the Straits of Gibraltar.*
I do take exception to you calling him a “domestique”. Eros was a “passista” of the highest order. A team position no more or less glamorous than the former, but one that certainly warrants its own designation.
To der Keiser, calling Eros a domestique was to call him a mere bottle carrier. I was completely unfamiliar with the term but in debt to der Keiser for setting me straight. Poli was an Olympic gold medal winner in the four man team trial. He was engine number one on Cipo’s Mercatone-Uno original lead-out train. He raced Paris-Roubaix. I’m sure he carried his share of bottles. Everyone carries bottles up from the team car when necessary. Poli was a passista first, a domestique second.
More light was shed on “passista” when Pez published the excellent Italian for Cyclists a while back.
Passista (pahs SEE stah) – Francesco Moser fits the bill here. The passista is a big, powerful rider able to maintain 50 km/h for an hour at the front of the peloton. Their strength and toughness make them naturals in the northern classics.
By that definition, Jensie Voigt is a classic modern passita, our own Frank Strack too. Tom Boonen is absolutely one judging from the work he has been doing this week at the head of the peloton in Paris-Nice. Boonen’s elbow infection foiled his usual preparation for the Spring Classics so he signed up for a week-of-beauty spa called Paris-Nice. Need some fitness? Ride from Paris to the Mediterranean at ass hauling speed, do hour sessions at the front of a professional peloton. On the rainy cold days, do even more.
Passista is a type of rider rather than just a job description within the team. I don’t think there are designated bottle carriers these days. One can’t be really good at just riding back and forth to the team car. A friend who has done it told me how damn hard riding back to the field at high speed towing an additional seven kilos really is. No one makes it to the pro ranks on their bottle carrying savy. The fact that one is on a team for a particular race means one is a badass, except for the newbies who are just hoping to finish and gain some race experience (like Andy Schleck). If this is their mission, then either they are future badasses or their team lacks any depth and therefore sucks. Julian Dean may have carried bottles during each stage during the Tour but he still had to man up for the last twenty km and be faster than everyone except his team’s designated sprinter. He was the lead- out guy.
If I had chosen my parents perfectly, I too would aspire to be a passista. Pure climbers- too small, pure sprinters- too crazy; who wouldn’t want to be a big cobble crushing beast that can can just ride people’s legs off when required?
*Yes, for you Das Boot fans, I know that was an imperfect metaphor.
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Very nice, but as you say:
who wouldn't want to be a big cobble crushing beast that can can just ride people's legs off when required?
The mind of the passista must be the most self motivated in the peloton. This seems to be the hardest of tasks, and one that after an hour on the front, nobody can continue to make you do but yourself. I find it hard to fathom that anyone wishes this for themselves, but that for those who do it, there is no escape. It ceses to be something you want to do, and becomes something you can't stop doing. If they were to stop the entire self identity would evaporate and the world would come crashing down, much like the unraveling of a lie gone on too long.
Can I nominate Marc DeMeyer?
Would Juan Antonio Flecha fit the bill?
Ian Stannard?
@Gianni Great article, great subject choice. I've always loved watching those "boring" bits in the middle of stages or races when the pace begins to get up, preferably when there's a decent break to be reeled in over good rolling countryside or a plain with evil crosswind when the diesels get called to the front to drive the peloton home whilst the rock stars look for shelter. It's a proper hardman role for sure.
That photo of Jens is a cracker, always makes me think of Johnny Rotten.
Roger Hammond was an great Passista. Maybe theres something to be said for an apprenticeship in Belgium and a background in cyclocross.
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Is passista like a super-domestique kind of dude? Like a Johan Van Summeren who ends up winning Paris-Roubaix? On a flat tire?
@Chris That mug of Hammond is downright scary. If it wasn't for the Cervelo/Castelli jersey and the ear thingamajiggy, I'd swear he came straight out of turn-of-the-century crime novel.
Part of the depth and beautiful complexity of our sport. Domestique is no more a 'third-class' rider than passista. I was looking at super-domestique Ted King's training numbers on Strava: 243K of climbing thus far in 2013. Badass...period.
Tom Boonen was basass this week at the front of the peloton in Paris-Nice in the phantom aerobar position!
@freddy
Or he just came out of the coal mines after a long shift.
@freddy
Passista is a badass, end of story. He could be a team leader like Moser or Boonen or a Hardman like Sean Yates. Van Summeren used to be a lead out man for Robbie McEwen? C'est possible? And a Belgian and he fits the description too. Guys like Van Summeren and Servais Knaven may not have been the team leaders but still had the power and technique to win Paris-Roubaix on their own given the opportunity.
Stu O'Grady = Passista Australiana.
Could Andrea Tafi be a member of the Passista brotherhood?...I can also nominate Neil Stephens and one Melchor Mauri for countless hours of pulling for Jaja back in the great ONCE days.