For my generation, he is the Lion of Flanders. Unequivocally. Unchallenged. Evermore, evermore. Boonen is a monster; but he is only the apprentice. In Flemish, his name rhymes with “Lion”: he is Museeuw de Leeuw van Vlaanderen. He is the quintessential Hardman.
Here, in the first edition of the Velominati Study of a Hardman, is Johna Museeuw climbing the 20% ramps of the cobbled Kapelmuur in the Ronde van Vlaanderen:
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
God Damn that climb goes on and on and on. That would take the snap out of your pedal stroke. Truly a Hardman in every sense of the word. Too bad he put that huge question mark on his palmares with his doping.
Still, Colnago was the first company to start using straight front forks blades and for some reason that look got me bad and I'm not changing, ever. Wavy, curvy, no thanks, straight taper, it's got to be.
Why even bother giving the guy a bike with a small chainring?
Oh, and what's with the Het Newswald (sic) banner? Is that just an advertisement for the paper or is the video mislabeled?
@john
The question mark is too bad, but I see it in the light of the times and don't think he was doing anything different from anyone else. And to watch this video and see him apply Rule 5 the way he does just awesome.
That straight blade is the coolest thing ever. Alpha Q and 3T both do it now too; I won't buy a fork that's not straight. You look 14% more like a Hardman rollin' around with a fork like that.
@Marko
Seriously!! I can't believe more riders in the late 90's didn't have their knees blow out.
@Marko
Wow, you catch a lot of details. I think it's just an advertisement; back then Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was called Omloop Het Volk. But I suppose the video could be mislabeled, although I seem to remember this footage from his Flanders win. This could require some additional searching to validate exactly what year it is.
Museeuw was right up there in the heroic pantheon of riders. And then he confessed. But it wasn't the fact that he doped that was the disappointment, but like all the others, he'd only done it once at the end of his career etc...when we all knew he was fucking lying. It was quite a sad end to such a hard-man.
@marko Museeuw did have his knees blow out, but that was Arenberg, not the Big Ring.
@Jarvis
Dude, I could not have said this better myself. So sad, but what a stud.
Museew .... the drug issue aside, in my book he is a living legend. Theres no hiding in one day classics, usually the hardest rider wins, and he was nails. You gotta take your hat off to guys like Museew who take the racing to their peers and rip their legs off as they ride into the wind/cobblestones/bergs/rain etc. With regards to drugs, you cant make a donkey into a racehorse; You either got the 'V' or you havent !
Frank, i think you need a 'V' ranking system! maybe marks out of 10? or a rider percentage of 'V'? Museew is up their with Jens at 100% V factor! lol :-)
@Dave Harding
Museeuw's so V he's a W! (Got an up-close look at a few Museeuw bikes this summer while visiting Boston; beautiful machines...)