To me, there is nothing cooler than riding in awful weather. It automatically associates you with the Spring Classics, held in wet, wind, and rain, over the the worst roads you can imagine. There is no image of cycling that I love more than of a tough Belgian Pro dressed in knickers, arm warmers, cycling cap perched beneath their helmet, grimace upon the face, and rain pouring from the skies.
The only good thing about winter and spring training is the fact that simply climbing on the machine that day means you are an automatic badass. Hell, you don't even have to ride hard, just being out means you're awesome. But I'll be honest: I never ride harder than in the pouring rain, the drops of water dripping off my cycling cap tapping out my rhythm like a metronome, looking down at my knee warmers and shoe covers and imagining I'm cutting my teeth as a Pro on some godforsaken road somewhere in Belgium or Northern France.
Today was actually a beautiful day, but it was cold, so I dressed in my warmest gear and headed out on the road, Badass by Association. It's one of the Rules.
I even took some shots of myself, Dan O Style. How did we satisfy our narcissistic self-portrait needs before cell phones?
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Winter Riding/”/]
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How does Schleck get his glasses to stay in right side up? Trick modified vents? Special haircut that holds the arms of the glasses? Must be a pro thing.
I always gotta stick mine in upside down to stay in. No wonder I never get mistaken for a Schleck....
@Dan O
Well, you're rockin' the Atmos and a pair of 'Projects. I have no experience in that setup. I roll with mine Schleckstyle with my Radars and Sweep. Except I don't match my shorts to my jersey to my helmet to my glasses.
In fact, I had a perfectly good helmet (since donated to the Thomson Mooch Fund) but I replaced it for the sole reason that I need to declaustrophobicize by having a perch for the sunglasses in my helmet.
You know what really freaks me out about Andy Schleck? How deep his voice is. He's like the skinny guy in the a capella quartet that sings bass. From the way he looks, I'd expect him to be a damn soprano.
I wonder if he has a big fat girlfriend like a lot of skinny guys do. I can't get my sunglasses to stay in my helmet. But what really bugs me is when I get passed on a climb by a hipster on a fixie with his sunglasses stuck in his Che hat.
@Marko
Ho,ho,ho...a fat girl.
Did we notice Frank was rockin' the "steel is real" sweet Bianchi in his hardman training. That is a nice bike. Perfect for the Fons De Wolf fantasy camp.
@John
I did notice he was riding his Fons De Wolf fantasty bike. Which certainly is cool and I wish I had such a steed. To be honest though, the first thing I thought when I saw the pics was, damn, if the weather was that nice I'd be riding my carbon. So -2 for riding hardman bike in wannabe weather.
@john
It's just good to have any old excuse to ride the steel. Such a nice ride. I need to lace me up a pair of three-cross box-rims for it, though, and get those ksyriums off there. Nice as those wheels are, they don't quite fit the look.
@Marko
Well, the weather looked like it might get a bit dodgey so I hedged my bet and took the steel out. It's hard to predict weather around here, though, and it stayed nice for most of the day.
I'm sure I don't have to explain the Fundamental Principle of Bicycle Ownership. You need a minimum of three road bikes:
Rain Bike. This one's for rainy weather and wet roads. Hopefully it's aluminum or titanium. Hopefully for the you, it has fenders. Hopefully for the guy behind you, it has mudflaps.
Inclement Weather Bike. This ones for mostly dry roads but for those days when you don't know what the weather might do. It might rain, but hopefully it will stay dry.
Nice Weather Bike. This one's the one you try to keep clean and dry. Lets face it, a good race bike is made to handle all weather and love it. But it's hell on your drive train, so those of us who don't do this for a living and don't get our gear for free need to look after our shit. If I can help it, my R3 only goes out on good, dry roads.
Of course, this represents the minimum. You also definitely need a bike in every material, and ones for good road surface, bad road surface, good road surface in bad weather, inclement weather, good weather; bad road surface in good, inclement, bad weathers, combination of road surfaces. And all those in all frame types and materials. You could justify something like 117 bikes per person in your household without breaking a sweat.
@all
Now, these are the hard men of our sport:
Cool. That means I get to buy 114 more bikes.