To keep chickens is to walk a path towards introspection. From the songs they sing after laying an egg (which I assume is “chicken” for “I’m Every Woman“) to the sheer glee they show when they find a worm in the mud, chickens provide a perfect example of living life in and for the moment. The most interesting aspect of their social interaction is whenever a new chicken is introduced into the flock: all of them freeze in place and stretch their necks out as high as they can, the winner presumably being the one whose head boasts the highest elevation.
As a Dutchman, I am born with the genuine belief that I can stretch my head higher than anyone in Belgium can. Where Americans make Polish jokes, the Dutch make Belgian jokes; we unrightly view them as a sloppy, dim-witted lot. Jokes of indoor airstrips, helicopters with ejection seats, and windshield wipers perplexingly installed inside the car windshield filled my youth and caused endless side-aches from laughter. This is all to say that I carry a healthy sense of superiority over our neighbors to the south with two notable exceptions: riding bikes and making beer.
Especially when it comes to riding bikes, Belgians have the market cornered on Rules #5 and #9, not to mention the entire lexicon pertaining to being Casually Deliberate and every Look Pro article not having to do with climbing, if you can ignore Lucien van Impe. But mostly, they own the art of riding Belgian Style.
Riding with hands on the hoods is a critical element of finding both power and comfort on our machines; it blends aerodynamics with leverage and casual cool like no other position does. The key to keeping from getting sore (or even numb) on a long ride is to constantly change positions; beyond the tops and drops the Belgians have explored the vast world of possibilities of riding on the hoods like no other group has. Learning from their lessons, we can distill the usual V points of reference:
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
@frank -
I'm shocked you forgot this pic-
The young lady early this fall knocking off a 10 mile TT PR was Belgian dang near 100% for little over 30 min's vs in the drops insisting she has more control... just maybe, she secretly wants to keep the white bar tape pristine. I wouldn't be surprised. Getting the forearms parallel with the top tube is just worth the effort. Regret my inability to figure out embedding the .mov file and crummy screenshot. Cheers
@wilburrox shooting a video in portrait mode? For shame.
But it looks like the nipper was killin' it.
Not much aero action happening here, in this situation the hoods are being used as an anchor point to help extract the very last fumes out of the fuel tank 100k & 3,000m deep in to a ride...
@ Frank - you gotta go Chaka Khan with 'I'm Every Woman'. Whitney's version just doesn't cut it.
I did a Jens several weeks ago. Will be a while before I am back to form. Amazing how the pros seem to shake off crashes. Maybe their youth, pain tolerance, or secret sauce.
Yes. This is the cause of much unneeded discomfort that should be otherwise channeled into V. People wonder why their hands hurt after four hours of deathgrip on the bars. Just this simple change created huge improvement when I figured it out.
This is also the key to good technique on pavé or offroad - it's impossible to maintain control over the bike unless you loosen your grip.
@DeKerr
Thanks! I needed that to be brought to my attn ! I'd swear I'm clueless about some things. One would think it'd just be natural to landscape the video but I don't know what I've been thinking. Again, thanks.
And she did indeed kill it as she'd knocked 53 seconds off her previous PR. This was her first attempt on the 700c bike after migrating up from the 24". I suspect that come springtime she'll be breaking the 30 min mark and 20mph avg.
@frank
There's more too it than just shallow drop bars, though.
Seat to bar drop is much more now than it was in the 70's and 80's, and in some cases the modern hoods are almost as low as old-style drops.
http://inrng.com/2013/01/cycling-position-change/ has some measurements.
@Dave
Or getting paid a load of money to get back on and HTFU?