It was Frank’s recent post that started all this. Mentioning Breukink always makes me think of my friend’s saying, “I have a Breukink in my Van Hooydonk” as his excuse for coming up short on a long training ride. Maybe that’s only funny during a long training ride. That phrase put me back onto Van Hooydonk, a rider I admired because he was so damn tall. The bike is a great equalizer: though there may be an ideal size rider, people like Van Hooydonk prove the exception, unless you are too fat to climb. Edwig rode a steel Colnago and this fact is what put a Colnago at the top of the other recent post. But Edwig’s Colnago was unusual. He was tall and whippy but didn’t want a tall and whippy ride so he used a smaller frame and put a giant spacer above the head tube to get his stem and handlebars up to the correct height. Now a sloping top tube might be the solution but back in days of hairnets, all frames were still the standard double diamond geometry. But his story is relevant to recent doping news so it’s a good time to tie it all together.
Edwig was born near Antwerp, Belgium. The tall lanky red head won the U-23 Ronde van Vlaanderen, something monumental for a young Flemish racer. We saw this race go by in the Keepers Tour 2012 and it might as well have been the real professionals. These guys were so strong and fast. Three years later he crossed the finish line in tears as he soloed to his first of two professional Ronde victories. The pressure of being the next Eddy must be hung on every young Belgian who wins the Ronde and he was no exception. He earned the name Boss of the Bosberg after winning his second Ronde by lighting it up on the final climb of the race. He was an adept Classics rider at the heights of his powers when EPO, then legal, began changing the landscape of professional racing. Drugs and bike racing have been conjoined twins for who knows how long, but the use of EPO to raise red blood cell concentration to sometimes fatal levels in the early 1990s was a quantum change.
Another reason I admire Van Hooydonk was his decision to retire early rather than jump on the EPO train as it was leaving the station. As an American I can’t produce the fitting analogy for what it must have meant for Van Hooydonk to be a top Belgian cyclists with the fame and possible financial rewards, yet he stops and gets off the bike. One either rationalizes doping to keep up; everyone is doing it. Or one says that’s cheating, that’s not racing, I’m not going to participate.
The spectator’s attitude about doping in cycling covers the spectrum. Some think it doesn’t really matter as it produces exciting, stupendous racing. Some are still convinced everyone is doping in 2012 and if everyone is doping maybe it’s a level playing field. Personally, I see it in nearly black and white terms. I’ve always felt it’s cheating and unacceptable. I believe teams like Garmin are totally clean and Ryder just proved a Grand Tour can be won without drugs. For riders, if it’s cheating and you don’t want to participate anymore you retire, like Vaughters and Van Hoodyonk. But these guys are one part of the doping equation we don’t think about. When you retire you are off the radar screen, a has-been, you have moved on. But a few people like Vaughters and Van Hooydonk retired early, not as they ever intended, more because they were not going to race on those terms. I think these guys deserve some respect, certainly more than the riders who so easily stepped on the train. My apologies for once again bringing up the doping subject on Velominati but it’s always there. It is a hard subject to avoid.
A little video of 1989 Ronde, run in good old fashion Belgian spring weather. Think Spring Classics Keepers Tour 2013, this could be you!
I don’t know a word of Flemish but to watch his face enough. Here is a proud man who is still angry and disappointed.
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@ErikdR
Thanks Erik, that is very helpful and interesting. And funny how much came through with no language. Faces don't lie. Edwig is a good man. I agree with.
@Gianni
Cheers... What also fascinates me - and freaks me out, to be honest - is that they seem to be referring to the fact that riders who 'overcooked' on doping, apparently, were completely buggered and, basically, out of the game, by the time they were 26 years old or thereabout. That is a scary concept, no? (this from someone who is a tiny bit more than twice that age right now... sheesh...)
What year did Super Confex move over to Suntour?
And what was the name that Colnago gave to the large frames with the extended head and seat tube? I'm having a senior moment and can't remember for the life of me...
@Unica
Late 1980's and Master off the top of my head...
@Gianni
I'm 6'1" and back when I was first starting it was all about Thor because I was close to his weight (although mine was not so much muscle), now I like Froome a lot, except his attacking while climbing style of throwing the bike around.
" "I have a Breukink in my Van Hooydonk" as his excuse for coming up short on a long training ride. Maybe that's only funny during a long training ride. " Nope - it's funny when sitting at a desk looking at a screen, too.
Great article, Gianni - and also great translation service, @ErikdR. Thanks, both. Been away snowboarding for ten days - an excellent article to come back to (and much better than contemplating my continuing fall down the VSP leaderboard).
I agree with Gianni, EVH et al - doping is cheating. I admire the men principled enough to retire rather than be part of it (or, in Turleneck's case, continue to be part of it any longer). THAT is Rule V. (Cue flame from Brett ...)
Nicely done Gianni. I always admired VH.
@ChrisO
I could have gone my whole life without seeing that.
@Duende
Holy Merckx's ball sack on a crutch. WTF did I just watch? Gonna have to make a therapy appointment tomorrow. Dr. Katz on speed dial.
@Unica
Those larger Colnago frames are called Freuler geometry, after Swiss rider Urs Freuler.
Gianni, it's great to see the racing back in the day and old friends(I mean I wish they had been friends of mine....) Kelly, Phil etc.and now I know the year for the cut off if I want to reminisce sans doping! Thanks as always for the good write up.