Badass by Association: Winter Riding

Hardmen of the 1970 Paris-Roubaix

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/”/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Dan O says:

Dec 12 2009 at 5:14 pm

Nice shots. This cold clear weather is fun for a change, though I'm looking forward to 40+ temps once again.

Thanks for the props and link. The mobile self portrait is always fun to mess with - sometimes with cool results, other times not so. With the digital age, fire away until you almost crash manning the camera and bars at the same time.

Could be a whole new sport - score would involve finishing place, as well as photo judging. That would be a goof.
frank says:

Dec 12 2009 at 11:40 pm

@Dan O
You are on to something.

Back in my Nordic Skiing days, the final race of the season was the Great Bear Chase on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A couple of my buddies and I organized "The Great Beer Chase" a few days later which involved a 4x1km relay where each person not skiing drank a beer for each lap their team completed. You went until no one else was standing.

It was kind of like the Single Speed World Championships, but for people less cool than Bike Nerds.

I agree we need to organize a race that involves doing some sort of circuit where each rider has to photograph themselves n number of times per lap (at each corner?) and an independent panel of experts will judge the photos as part of the finishing score.

You are obviously a genius. Seattle is the perfect town for this.
Marko says:

Dec 13 2009 at 6:39 am

I vote for pic one of Frank's mug with the cold weather before the nose starts to run grimace. It's got that cool dry sunny morning quality to it. Sort of like RdV at the beginning of Sunday in Hell. (which would have been way cooler if the race was muddy that year)
jim says:

Dec 13 2009 at 12:54 pm

Awesome post, I am in complete agreement. I made it to work everyday this week; 20 F every damn morning. Started wearing my big down mountaineering mitts to keep my hands from turning numb in the first mile. Good thing I don't have to shift.
frank says:

Dec 13 2009 at 3:36 pm

@Marko
We haven't had a muddy spring classic in too many years. Here's hoping the pros really get to suffer for our amusement.
frank says:

Dec 13 2009 at 3:38 pm

@jim
I saw you trudging off the other morning. It was dark and cold as hell and you were quietly rolling down the street, steeled in resolve. Grinta.

You should get a pair of these totally lame looking mitts.
john says:

Dec 13 2009 at 7:35 pm

There is some Grinta.

Nice work Frank, I agree, mashing along in the rain, head down, makes a man feel like a pro. And in the crappy cold rain there are usually no other riders to blow by you and shatter your fantasy.
frank says:

Dec 13 2009 at 8:36 pm

@john

And in the crappy cold rain there are usually no other riders to blow by you and shatter your fantasy.

A sound theory. All the pussies are indoors. The problem is it leaves only the hardcores. Sadly for me, that still means there's a bunch of ladies and gent's blowing by my fat ass. Lucky for me, I'm Dutch and that kind of feedback doesn't get by my Awesomeness Preservation Filter so I carry on happily in my Fantasy of Suffering.
Marko says:

Dec 14 2009 at 11:49 am

@frank

You have my helmet.
frank says:

Dec 14 2009 at 3:29 pm

@Marko
They're pretty sweet, huh? I love being able to pop my sunglasses in the vents. Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but I get really claustrophobic during a hard climbing effort with glasses on; anytime I start going uphill hard, they go up on the helmet.

Plus, it makes me look like one of the Schlecks.

Yeah, that's pretty much how awesome I look.