if, like me, you were brought up on channel four's nightly half hour coverage of the tour de france, you may have experienced the same degree of confusion. the quarter hour prior to the adverts would generally show a group of riders who had, perchance, nipped off the front and popped across the first couple of hills in first place. after the ad break, there was a completely different group at the front, and none of the original blokes were to be seen. how did that happen? what went awry with the first lot?
it wasn't until eurosport happened along and started covering entire mountain stages, that the strategic nature of professional cycling started to dawn. this book is a wonderful explanation of those strategies made by a master of the art. seven straight victories in july with the incredible mr armstrong, and then just for good measure, another one last year with alberto contador. it didn't end there; johan hauled alberto off a beach only a few weeks back and watched from the astana team car as contador won the giro d'italia.
this book ends before johan bruyneel became astana's ds and encountered all the trouble that went with the move. there are relevant snippets from his own professional career, but it mostly covers the important stuff with lance; if we're really honest, that's the bits we want to read about. the book was co-authored by bill strickland, an editor with america's bicycling magazine (and one of the participants in rapha's 'crazy bet'), though i'm not really sure what his input is. bruyneel is fluent in five languages; perhaps the guy can't write too well, and bill was there to keep him on track.
it's not till we reach the last chapter that we find one of the principal reasons why lance asked him to become his directeur sportif with us postal in the first place; in 1995 bruyneel, riding for the spanish once team, hung on for grim death when all around were dropping in the wake of miguel indurain. johan won the stage, but armstrong had been impressed at how he had been unable to keep bruyneel's wheel as the latter shadowed big mig. bruyneel traces his nine years with postal, and latterly discovery channel down to the twenty one pedal strokes he took at the end of that stage.
and he's obviously being well paid for his troubles. in 2003, bruyneel wanted to hire max van heeswijk, but the budget was all spent, and no more money could be found to add this rider to the team roster. so certain was bruyneel that max had to be on the team, that he told his board to deduct the necessary money from his own salary. this, by bruyneel's own admission, amounted to about ten percent of his annual income. since van heeswijk probably wasn't earning buttons, you can probably add the numbers yourself.
taking a look at the contents listing, it's frighteningly reminiscent of a powerpoint presentation by a life coach - perhaps not too far from the truth - follow your heart, but bring along your head; to earn confidence, confide; lose a little to win a lot...you get the general idea. i confess if i'd been choosing this book on the basis of those contents, i'd have placed it back on the shelf; and i'd have been a very sorry cyclist. from the lance armstrong foreword, to the final chapter, this is like an express train ride. johan bruyneel is particularly self deprecating about his own cycling career, but he's a very intelligent guy; he understands the strategies that need to be in place to win races (no kidding); he can turn on a sixpence (a dime?), and his adaptability is quite obviously second to none. what makes it even better, he's telling us how it's done.
of course, much like a zen koan, being told the answer to the questions already asked, doesn't necessarily mean you know how to answer the next one. it's this hidden factor that makes johan bruyneel one of the most successful directeurs sportif in the history of the sport, and while this book won't turn you into the same, it provides a fascinating insight as to how he succeeded seven times in a row.
we might as well win is published by mainstream in the uk on june 26th, just before this year's tour de france. it's just a pity johan bruyneel won't be able to add another chapter this year.
posted on saturday 7th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................while we've been cheerfully buying bottles of factor 50 sun lotion even on islay in the past week, and other parts of the uk have seen the big orange globe from time to time, things do not seem to be quite the same in the north of north america. portland, oregon, to be presact.
in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of andy hampsten's ride over the gavia pass in the 1988 giro d'italia, rapha organised the ride to il passo di larch, perhaps not surprisingly to a nearby mountain called mount larch. now if we remind ourselves that this is now the month of june, when the heck do oregonians get their summer?
take a look at the pictures sent by slate olson, rapha's manager in the usa, but put on a woolly pullover first. slate phoned andy hampsten before the start and asked for any advice. andy's reply was 'don't - i got paid to do it'. wise advice.
slate told me 'this is oregon and we love 53-degrees and raining on june 5th. it's too soon to stop wearing warmers, booties and the stowaway and honestly, it was perfect weather to celebrate the anniversary of andy's gavia ride.'
posted on friday 6th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................leaving aside all the campag v shimano v sram for a minute or two, i did rather admire the shimano 7800 chainset (the current model, for the time being); i thought it was a bit on the ugly side, but it did seem to be a relevant compromise between form and function. the carbon version looked rather smooth, though it turns out that could be completely the wrong side of expensive, so we probably shouldn't concern ourselves too much over that. but such is the rate of progress or marketing in the cycle industry, that little remains the same for long. and that's just been underlined by the release of dura-ace 7900.
having had a couple of colnagos fitted with shimano ultegra, aside from the fact that it worked every bit as well as expected, the rattling of those external gear cables drove me nuts. those of us fitted with vicenza componentry have smugly grinned at shimano users for years in respect of those cables sticking out the inner planes of the sti levers, but after october this year, the grin will have been wiped from our faces. shimano have finally seen fit to enable under the bar tape cable routing meaning smoothness will prevail at the front of everyone's bicycles.
however, to return to that chainset; the current incarnation retails in the uk for around £200 ($400) or a bit less, but its polished, smooth, shiny surface does give the impression that this is well justified. the new version (see top) has had the crank arms married to a hollow, 3d outer chainring, allowing the crank arm to appear as if it's running all the way from left to right. since there are no chainring bolts visible from the outside, one must assume that the rings now bolt from the rear; hardly a step forward in the maintenance stakes. campagnolo have long catered for the fifth spider-arm by utilising the crank-arm itself, something that used to be a record only feature, but now prevalent throughout the range with the advent of ultra torque. i'm a bit surprised that shimano haven't incorporated a similar function, because it seems to make a great deal of sense from a structural and weight reduction point of view. still, we all have to identify ourselves in some way.
from a design aspect, the new 7900 seems like a retrograde step; no longer is the chainset shiny and smooth, now it's flat and angular - industrial almost, though i think the current term is aggressive. similarly styled are the new caliper brakes, which are a definite step forward in the style council; the word organic springs to mind. campagnolo split the efforts between front and rear; the back brake is a single pivot, while the forward set are the more prevalent dual-pivot. campag's reasoning behind this was that the rear wheel requires less braking pressure than the front. as far as i can see, shimano do not concur with their italian counterparts, since the new 7900 dura-ace calipers appear to be dual front and back.
long champions of forged alloy, the big s have seemingly capitulated slightly on this new top end groupset. the sti lever blades are now carbon (an ideal idea - carbon doesn't conduct heat, so carbon brake levers don't get cold in the winter), and the jockey cage on the rear mech now follows its record counterpart with carbon front and back, as well as a composite knuckle. unfortunately, the latter makes it look cheap. and the new shimano chain will leave campagnolo as the only ones requiring a chain tool to fit and remove; it now falls into line with almost everyone else in using a special link in place of rivetting. having had one of those links (not on a shimano chain, i hasten to add) pop off in motion several years ago, you will perhaps excuse me if i maintain a healthy scpeticism and stick to campag for the time being.
with campagnolo due to release eleven speeds at the end of the month, and shimano promising delivery of the new dura-ace at end october, it seems that we'll be mechanical for a few more days yet, despite both having more and more pro bikes fitted with the electric sets.
photos courtesy shimano
posted on friday 6th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................it's been over four years since il pirata, marco pantani, sadly died on valentines day 2004. yet during this year's giro d'italia, there were countless of his supporters holding aloft fairly sizeable banners on most of the mountain stages. and emanuele sella was hard put to restrain his emotion during two of his three stage wins, since both were stages won at sometime by his hero.
it's unlikely that any of us will ever be able to emulate pantani's climbing style, and it will probably be some considerable time before another italian wins the giro and le tour in the same year. but thanks to mick and andy at prendas, we can now wear our own pirate outfit even when it's not hallowe'en, thanks to the imminent arrival of mercatone uno bibshorts. these match the jersey of the same name which has been on the prendas' stock list for some time. even they thought the arrival of shorts was unlikely to ever happen, but are quite happy to be proved wrong.
the design of both jersey and shorts is from pantani's magic year, 1998, manufactured by santini of italy. the shorts bear santini's proven coolmax padded insert, while the short sleeve jersey arrives with short 14cm zip. the shorts are priced at £49.95 ($100), with the jersey at £45 ($90), though prendas are giving you the opportunity to buy both at once with a discount of £5. the jersey is currently only stocked in xs and 4xl, but stocks of more human sizes are due to arrive with the shorts towards the end of this month. pre-ordering may be advisable, since il pirata is still a popular chap.
posted on friday 6th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................after living on islay for around nine years, it became prudent to purchase a motor car; not something i really wanted to do, but it had become harder and harder to avoid. so a small, compact, family hatchback was duly purchased with four forward gears and one reverse. this made it relatively easy for the latent motorist in me to manage to drive, at least on islay's roads - the mainland was an entirely different story. when i learned to drive (and that wasn't yesterday), all cars had four forwards and one reverse.
however, after a number of years in the salt air, so beloved of malt whisky advertising agencies and marketing people, car number one started to show serious signs of ferrous oxide attack, and was replaced by a larger, and ostensibly more comfortable family saloon, a car that even had power steering (apparently a little bit of decadence is good for the soul). but worryingly, this car had five forward and one reverse; what the heck was i supposed to do with that fifth gear? the car still had a theoretical top speed that i never even approached (the traffic police once threatened to pull me over and ask me to speed up), but i found myself driving around still in fourth gear because, search as i might, i couldn't find any semblance of instruction that would tell me when i was supposed to change to fifth, or even if i was supposed to at all. the extra gear seemed possibly ideal if hammering at speed down the motorway, but since islay is bereft of those (as well as roundabouts and traffic lights), i was still mystified by this extra gear.
i am now carless, the family saloon having succumbed to the same rust blight as the first, but now the subject of gearing has me mystified once again. my first bicycle had five sprockets on the rear wheel (a screw-on freewheel, if you will) and the two rings at the front gave me the archetypal ten speed racer. unless you've arrived at the post because you were looking for a good price on a tumble dryer, you are likely to be aware that things have moved on a few sprockets since then; there are now ten speeds at the back alone, with the couple of rings up front doubling that to twenty.
both shimano and campagnolo will point out that more sprockets equals enhanced cadence; since there are smaller jumps between the number of teeth on the sprockets, it becomes a snap to keep those pins rotating at an optimum number of revolutions. while this may be the case for someone in a hurry, such as alberto contador, or emanuele sella, it's perhaps less of a consideration for the rest of us, for whom five were just dandy, thank you very much. now i'm not knocking this progress through the gears; i am quite happy with my twenty, even if there are a few unused ones when time comes to renew the worn, and there is little doubt that the advent of the cassette and subsequent demise of the screw-on freewheel, has prevented many a touring expedition from ending in a snapped rear axle. however...
...the strong rumour on the block (pun intended) is that campagnolo have gone all spinal tap and added an eleventh sprocket - either only on record and chorus or down as far as centaur, depending on who told you. it also transpires that these eleven either will fit in the same space as ten, or they won't. (see below) if it's the latter, suddenly a whole new market for wheels opens up. but perhaps more to the point, and here there is an almost uncanny resemblance to the controls on nigel tufnel's marshal amp: there is no real benefit, but 'these go to eleven'. i have tried in vain to elicit a response from campagnolo since i first heard this was in the offing, but either the pr department is on holiday, or i've struck a nerve.
i did read many years ago, that shimano had patented a chain design that would allow them to run as many as fourteen sprockets at the back. i, for one, hope they never have to use it.
as an update to the above, i have now discovered that the eleven speeds will fit a ten speed hub, and that expected launch date is end of june. this may mean we see more than one team in the tour de france with spinal tap on their ipods.
posted on thursday 5th june updated 6th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................i can't really complain about this (but you kinda know i'm going to) because it's only a few thousand pixels since i praised someone else for doing exactly the same thing, only different. we're back to cycle sport again, but not really getting at them this time; well, not yet. and there's also a numbingly horrible realisation that this might be turning into thewashingmachinepost advertiser, so i really must apologise for my seeming obsession with this aspect of modern day media life.
we're talking not preaching to the converted again, something i was keen to lavish praise on swinnerton cycles for, only a wee while ago. if you remember, they are advertising cervelo road bikes to the knobbly tyre brigade in singletrack magazine, with some success i understand; an excellent entrepreneurial example of the power of crossover marketing. however, much like star wars, there's a dark side, and someone's just used the force. in the very same issue of cycle sport that could be used to wallpaper mellow johnnie's, is a full page advert for a mercedes clc coupe, something that costs about the same as three colnago c50s with full record groupsets. unfortunately i don't know any cyclists who have the wherewithal to afford something of this nature and speed; if i did, they would be made to pay for the espressos at debbie's every sunday for a year.
but either some of you have been filling in those cycle sport survey forms and telling a few fibs, or there are those amongst us who have been hiding their lightweights under a bushel. because i don't think mercedes would be the least bit interested in advertising their £20,000 ($40,000) plus sporty things, if they didn't think some of you could afford one. come to think of it, the slipstream team have mercedes team cars, so perhaps this is the backup plan. in which case it is comforting to realise that car companies can present the same faux pas as those six cycle companies i pilloried recently; if you're going to sponsor a cycle team, why not present the cycling world with this information while pressing us to increase our carbon footprint (and then some)? and has anyone else noticed that the car is shown against a black background? remind you of some bike ads you've seen lately?
i'm tempted to write an angry of bowmore letter to robert garbutt, but i know he'd only ignore it anyway, however i'm hoping that this isn't the thin end of the wedge, and by december every second page will have four wheels rather than two. however, this does rather beggar the question why trek, specialized, or even colnago aren't advertising in top gear magazine or autocar. the mercedes ad states that this mercedes is a car that says: you've made it.
which bicycle says the same thing, or is it only cars that talk?
posted on wednesday 4th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................it's quite amazing how you can experience the highs and lows of cycling in the space of about five minutes, and yet be nowhere near the bike. through the letterbox today arrived the latest issue of cycle sport magazine, which generally equates to a high in my book, because i am somewhat of a voracious devourer of the printed (or pixelled) word when it relates to cycling or bicycles or anything that's close enough to confirm association without too close an examination. however, the low followed quite closely on discovering that here was the annual tour de france issue. this seems to be where all rational thought is suspended, each page concerning itself with some major or minor part of what is undeniably the worlds biggest bicycel race.
so, to quote that well known punchline 'why the long face?'. it's a great pity that the height of the season can also be the lowest; the race itself is great (well, usually), but i for one, would rather wait till it starts on july 5th, and watch the excitement, despair and yes, even the racing. surely i'm not the only one who leafs through the colourful maps of each stage with that same look on his face as a deer caught in the car headlights? i have no idea who's going to win, much the same as those who prognosticate on eurosport's and ctv's pre-tour programmes, or the fine upstanding chaps who write for cycle sport. actually, it's not fair to single out one magazine, since next month's procycling, cycling plus and countless others will be doing much the same thing. but whatever happened to just watching and waiting?
what i'd like to know, however, is - are we presented with all this tour paraphernalia because it's what we really, really want, or because it's what we're going to really, really get anyway? when i were a lad, my father and brother used to watch a football programme at lunchtime on saturdays, where so-called experts would analyse every angle and feature of one or two of that afternoon's football (soccer) matches (for those of the sky generation, football used to only be played on saturday afternoons, as opposed to eight days a week nowadays). this analysis would be used to back up their predictions of the results which, of course, invariably proved to be rather wide of the mark. and it seems cycling has fallen foul of the same malady.
the cover of cs proclaims great value! only £4; while that is true for the other eleven months of the year, i'm afraid i beg to differ on this occasion. further down the page full route, maps, profiles, analysis & predictions - hmmm. still, since i have three excellent books to read and review for your delectation, i will have all the more time up until london-paris and subsequently the tour start to do so.
the only fun part might be to hang on to this issue and have a laugh at the end of july, when we know that the butler did it.
posted on wednesday 4th june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................i have tried not to hide the fact that the majority of cycle advertising leaves me rather cold, due to what can only be called a lack of imagination. so often we are presented with a photo or drawing of the component/clothing/bicycle in question with some indication as to how we might lighten the wallet or plastic by adding it to our presumably already extensive collection. to a degree, i do understand the (lack of) thought behind this process, but i rarely have the feeling that the seller understands me, the customer.
so it is particularly gratifying to find an advert, that not only understands me (and hopefully several others besides), but one that actively encourages my immersion in a world that has many more facets than simply wheels and chainsets. oh, and carbon.
if you have been spanner wielding for a number of years, the above advertisement contains an implement you will readily recognise, and may even (as do i) have hanging on the peg-board just behind the workstand. it's a campagnolo crank bolt tool, designed with the express intention of allowing the release and fixture of campagnolo 15mm crank bolts. it was pretty much the only tool that would suffice for the job; if you check your socket set, you will likely find that the only size missing is 15mm, and check an old enough, non-campag crankset to require bolts in the first place, they're almost all 14mm. aside from that, there is/was something that bit special about owning a real campagnolo tool, one that would probably outlast its owner.
of course, progress did away with the crank bolt in its simplest form, replacing it with 8mm allen key/wrench operated bolts, and more recently, with the ultra-torque system which requires a very long 10mm allen thingy. so this is a tool that no longer has a home to go to, but even when it had, anecdotal evidence suggests that race mechanics, in a moment of hunger, would grab a sheet of bread, jar of peanut butter and whatever was flat and handy enough to allow spreading to commence. to be able to portray all of this in a single picture, is a masterpiece of design and implication. to use it to advertise a product that is neither peanut butter or something that relies on a 15mm crank spanner is verging on genius. if you have to (and believe me, you do) see the big picture, get hold of a copy of rouleur 9 - then you'll understand.
bicycle manufacturers, take note.
the peanut butter advert was prepared by the creative people at antidote.
posted on tuesday 3rd june
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