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all good things come to an end

danile wakefield pasley

that's the tour's big time trial over and done with, contador has done his bit on another trek variation of carbon fibre, and unless something screamingly horrendous happens on the ventoux on saturday, he's going to have that yellow jersey and some cuddly lions to play with on sunday. of course, the first loser (as brian smith would have it) has yet to be finally decided, and the ventoux could reasonably be expected to make that decision. despite the fact that this year's grande boucle has failed to hold my attention (and i confess i find myself in a minority of one, right at the moment), come monday, i will be amongst those wandering aimlessly through the following week, wondering what is going to fill the vacant spot on the imac come lunchtime. and if you are expecting the same feeling of emptiness, save a thought for messrs harmon and kelly, who have been haring around the inner regions of france, spain and switzerland for three weeks, telling us every move and strategy: what are they going to do (apart from rest)?

but it's not just the end of the tour de france that impends upon the cyclist's psyche come the latter days of july, for as one epic ends, yet another draws to a similar close. the rapha continental guys have been operating a rota system since the beginning of may (with a few weeks off in june) documenting the more remote, inaccessible and eccentric rides that the great big continent of america has to offer.

throughout the extended period that these rides have been criss-crossing america, i, and several others, have become addicted; the fact that the updates adhere to a rather loose schedule, means that you just never know, and it's this constant feeling of anticipation that brings the thrill of the chase. i have had the luxury of keeping in touch with several of those involved in the rides at various stages of the epicness, particularly mr pasley (above) who is almost solely responsible for the continental's existence in the first place. while the idea of sitting in the back of a van providing moral support to riders subjected to the wide variations of america's summer weather, as well as documenting most of the goings on in a manner that keeps me coming back for more, does have an aura of glamour about it, the reality is likely a deal different. but they all seem to have had an absolute ball. and me too.

so i'm really not looking forward to the time when opening rapha's website no longer brings that welcome little picture announcing another ride, or, if we're incredibly lucky, another of dave christenson's imaginative videos. oh that i had such visual talent. and talking of visual talent, the progenitor of what i now regard as the complementary site to thewashingmachinepost, michael robertson (velodramatic), joined the chaps for around a week of taking photos, and enjoying the ambience that goes with epic. i wasn't even remotely jealous.

there have long been suggestions of a rapha continental coffee table book with accompanying dvd, but since most of these have been mine, i can only hope that slate, carey, daniel and jeremy have the clout and wherewithal to make such a reality. after all, the tour de france has a large legacy of film and print, much of which fills substantial space in thewashingmachinepost bookcase.

but there's always space for the rapha continental.

photo of daniel wakefield pasley by michael robertson

rapha continental

twmp

posted on thursday 23 july 2009

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what i did on my summer holidays

port mor wheelers

if this article comes across as at all smug then that's fine by me, because during a school summer holiday on islay, when there were numerous alternatives to getting kids on bikes, we had 21 kids on bikes today. i've regaled before the fact that mr hastings and i hold fortnightly saturday mornings of cycle fun and training at port mor centre, just outside of port charlotte, islay. since the schools are on holiday, we thought we'd attempt to add to the variety of choices that the kids of islay have available to keep them occupied during days and days of holiday time. the smug bit comes from the fact that there were numerous other activities available with a similar idea in mind: golf coaching, football coaching, shinty, swimming and probably one or two others that i am unaware of.

the golf coaching has only recently surfaced, and is therefore gathering a degree of momentum due to its relative novelty, plus with the never ending, and to me, inexplicable popularity of football, it would have been of no surprise to anyone, including us, if there had been little take-up of a day of cycling for kids. what was a surprise was that 21 kids aged from five to thirteen turned up around 10:30 this morning for several hours of warm-ups, bike control, riding skills, team and individual pursuiting and generally great fun on their bikes. that's nine more than signed up for the football coaching in bowmore. smugness vindicated.

while it perhaps made only minimal impression on a bunch of young kids, mr hastings and i were ably assisted by brian smith, twice british road race champion, eurosport commentator and pundit, and general all-round good guy. great fun was had by all, though tribute has to be paid to the aforementioned mr hastings who, having recently completed a course in cycle coaching, was the day's master of ceremonies: the two brians just either got in the way, placed or picked up coloured cones, or in some cases, one brian prejudiced the outcome of the individual grass pursuit by pushing the competitors whom he was responsible for starting.

with more than a nod towards the pdx cross scene, an inspiring cross course over the corner of port mor's campsite, including a limbo dancing obstacle between two wheely bins (thank you mr smith), the afternoon led into a relay race and a large amount of pursuiting, resulting in an all-girl final. coaches were happy, because parents were happy, because children were happy; and if we can continue this degree of momentum, maybe chris hoy won't be the last scot to win gold medals, or having a brit in the top three of the tour will become commonplace. but to be honest, even if it never goes further than lots of islay kids on bikes growing up to be lots of islay adults on bikes, i can sleep easy in my bed at night.

it's what the summer holidays are for.




twmp

posted on wednesday 22 july 2009

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minimalism

steve reich drumming

some of you will likely remember the days when records were records: round plastic things with grooves (sometimes in both senses of the word) and a hole in the middle. someday, when we've got more time on our hands, we'll digress onto the delights of the gatefold album covers, but since that is hardly germain to our current discussion, we'll move on. presently, we can emulate those bygone days of yore, envisaging ourselves flicking through rack upon rack of record sleeves, perhaps trying to find a particular recording, or simply whiling away the hours hoping to come across something inspiring. but in reality, we're on itunes, and all the flicking is merely metaphorical.

it was doing just this idle searching process in a long defunct record shop in cambridge street, glasgow, that i happened upon three inner sleeves, minus the cover, of a piece of music by steve reich entitled drumming. as a drummer, you can imagine just how enticing this would be, especially since a substantial amount had been removed from the price tag due to the aforementioned missing cover. in those days, i was far more likely to take chances on new music than i am now, having become much more conservative in my tastes, but i had, at the time, never heard of steve reich. (oh you may laugh).

for those unfamiliar with this particular piece of music, it consists of six players starting on low pitch drums, playing a set pattern, with one joining after the other, then varying the beat by one note on each successive repetition (you had to be there). as the piece moves on, the musicians shift to marimba, xylophone, and glockenspiel; same rhythm, different pitch, still changing one note every so often. it turns out that this style of music, purveyed by reich, john adams and others, was classed as minimalism.

and it seems highly apt, now that i have left black plastic, and moved on to black carbon, that the indigenous cycle club pertaining to islay has also ascribed to minimalism, though simply because there are only four of us on a residential basis (though a fifth is showing more than just minimal interest in adding to the peloton.) this minimalism has its benefits though, because should we ever decide to hold an annual club dinner, we could probably manage to do so in the phone box at carnduncan. however, it has become an almost time honoured tradition that a club dinner, even one as minimal as that of velo club d'ardbeg, should finish off a fine repast with an after dinner speaker. this, at one time, was either a good mate of the club chairman or secretary, or one of the members who did not have the presence of mind to think of an excuse as to why he/she was a bad choice on that particular eve.

worrying about who to invite, and just how entertaining they are likely to be, is a problem that may have just passed its sell-by date: cyclevox, in their continuing bid for world domination, have now at hand a league of specialists able, willing, and ready to brave the heckling reserved for such special occasions. these include scott sunderland, ned boulting, michael hutchinson, magnus backstedt, brian smith and anthony mccrossan. with the organising of the end of year events likely due to kick in just after the tour finishes, a swift phone call or e-mail to the cyclevox people might just solve one part of the equation. then you can concentrate on what colour the napkins ought to be.

since mr smith is currently on islay, i'll hold a brief audition this evening.

cyclevox

twmp

posted on tuesday 21 july 2009

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that little white bird

pegorichie tubing decal

it's the little details that matter the most. because once all the big stuff has been appreciated, written about, photographed and tidied away, it's the little details that you either notice or miss. after the first of the alpine stages in the tour de france, we have alberto contador in that nice yellow jersey, mr armstrong with little option but to pledge allegiance to the flag, and the less than verbose mr wiggins now quite comfortably in third place, poised to take over robert's mantle as highest british finisher in le tour.

the spat between cavendish and hushovd, if not forgotten, has certainly been relegated to yesterday's news, while the specialist cycle press will be looking towards the time-trial later this week in the hope that, aside from the possibility that the top ten places may be juggled once more, there might just be some super-wow technical gizmos on display by those hoping to do the juggling. but with pretty much all the hardware sculpted from the omnipresent black gold, that little white bird has all but gone.

at one time, it could still be seen on the carbon fork legs of a colnago c40, but i am led to believe that this was more by association, than in any direct affiliative connection: now it seems to have gone missing altogether, at least from the professional peloton. and yes, whatever you think of carbon fibre, it is a crying shame, both from an aesthetic and athletic point of view, that the little white bird has flown.

however, step down a level from what we comfortably refer to as the professional peloton, and it can still be seen in the odd corner of some very fine bicycles, occupying its rightful place in the niche area at the top of the seat tube just under the joint with the top tube. or occasionally at the bottom of that very same tube, diffracted by a pair of spinning rings. and in its most forceful and spartan form, it will likely be on a fire engine red background.

co-invented by dario pegoretti and richard sachs towards the end of 2004, the columbus nobium steel alloy known as pegorichie (you don't need me to explain that) found its way into the bicycle market around the same time in 2005. both dario and richard were concerned that builders such as themselves and their peers were surviving on the inventories of tubing that had existed for quite some time, not keeping up with the times now being dictated by the black weave. the rarefied atmosphere of steel framebuilding had become a trifle static. the two eccentrics (i'm sure neither will take exception to that epithet) aimed for a new set of tubing, made specifically for those endeared to the lugged method of construction; basically both wanted metal that would allow any builder of merit to make a frame of the times - as richard says 'a 21st century frame set that felt modern and looked modern'. pegorichie tubing was born.

richard has used nothing but pegorichie tubing since 2006, and all the frames ridden by the sachs cross team have been built using the very same. lest you judge either man as a bicycle luddite, building with an allegedly outdated material, richard feels that non-ferrous materials have their place in our world of mass produced bicycles. as an independent frame builder plying his considerable expertise in the same modern world as the rest of us, he's of the mindset that a lugged joint not only means a better joint, but has as much right to be considered cutting edge as the latest carbon monocoque. the good news here is that not only does this offer a branch for that endearing little white bird, but that its new nest is being feathered by mr sachs himself.

as of now, richard has dispensed with leaving the fate of pegorichie tubing to the various importers and distributors that have accompanied its brief five year history, and taken to dealing directly with columbus on your behalf. that is, if you happen to build lugged steel bikes. the little white bird may yet find itself closer to yellow than red one day soon.

richard sachs

columbus white bird logo

posted on monday 20 july 2009

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the daily telegraph book of the tour de france - edited by martin smith. 259pp hardback. £16.99

daily telegraph book of the tour de france

every country has its variety of newspapers, some are populist, some middlebrow and the remainder oft-times considered elitist. in the uk, the latter category is covered by the times, the guardian, possibly at one time, the independent, and the daily telegraph. sports coverage in the first two categories seems limited to football (soccer), football and perhaps football. move up to the serious press, at one time known as the broadsheets, when they were all a size that made them very hard to read on the train or the bus, and the football is augmented with a variety of others, likely to include golf, certainly cricket, and if we're really lucky, some cycling. actually that's being slightly unfair, because the former broadsheets are likely the only newspapers (in the uk at least) that stretch as far as publishng the results of several of the spring classics, and undoubtedly the three major tours.

however, bearing all this in mind, it was still somewhat of a surprise to discover that the rather conservative daily telegraph should release a book of the tour de france. at the risk of repeating the sentiment expressed in my earlier review of the lance armstrong book, the question does have to be asked do we really need another book about the tour de france? of course, this is me back to judging a book by its cover, because it turns out that this substantial volume is a compendium of reports from the tour de france, published in the daily telegraph since 1903. different, and entirely welcome.

the earliest of thes reports dates from the tour's earliest years - in fact since the very first version, july 2nd 1903:
"sixty cyclists left villeneuve saint georges, a southern suburb, this afternoon, under a scorching sun, for a tremendous race called the tour of france. the total course mapped out is 1,506 miles long"

this was posted by special wire from our own correspondent; the second article was posted the following day under the heading cycling and motoring. the early stuff is fascinating, not only for its historical significance, but for the incredible formality of the reporting, something that has all but gone the way of the dodo over the last century. it's an interesting thought that in this modern age, if i wrote thewashingmachinepost in such a manner, you'd likely all shift your allegiance elsewhere.

it's also a lovely sort of book to have at your side during david harmon's commentary on the current tour: when those terrible adverts interrupt the live action on eurosport, you can reach over for your copy and swiftly despatch a chapter before the action resumes. it's that type of book, and all the better for it. by 1964, the articles had started to identify their writers, perhaps the most famous of past years, being the almost mythical j.b.wadley, who dispensed with some of the formality of the early years but still displaying a sight more than is often the case today. other correspondents include phil ligget, chris boardman, david millar, jacques goddet, graeme fife anad james cracknell.

but as is the way with thewashingmachinepost, i shall leave you with a quote from scotland's own king of the mountains winner in 1984:
"when i see the big guys having trouble with all the questions and all the supporters, i know i'm not prepared for life at that level. but if i have to, i will cope. let's face it, i'm being paid to do something that i would do for nothing. i know what it's like to work in a factory, so i can put up with not being just another rider."

the daily telegraph book of the tour de france is published by aurum press at a cost of £16.99.

twmp

posted on sunday 19 july 2009

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prendas new generation track mitts

prendas summer track mitts

it doesn't seem that long ago that cycle mitts - which are seemingly always called track mitts even though most never see the inside of a velodrome - either had no padding worth speaking of, or minimal amounts of the stuff frequently in the wrong places. maybe we were tougher in them days, or simply not educated enough to know that the mitts were supposed to suppress all that road buzz. maybe that's why they invented carbon forks.

but the world has moved on apace and our roadie hands are now cossetted to levels that those skinny little digits can scarcely believe. and those little handies have started to become a touch blase about their luxurious short finger coverings. summer is supposed to bring warm, dry weather (and for once, it actually has), probably not the ideal conditions for overworked and sweaty palms, but provision has been made. these latest summer weight mitts from prendas not only look the part, but have padding aplenty in just the right quantity and location. and because they're summer mitts, what's left of the palms after the padding has been taken care of is mesh. these really would suit those who generally prefer not to wear mitts at all in summertime, since the mesh allows almost gulpable quantities of fresh air about the palms; when retiring to the coffee stop, removal will display cool, calm and collected hands when grasping the handle of those oversize cappuccino cups.

and just to aid removal, should such aid be needed, there are a couple of loops affixed to middle finger and little finger, allowing the mitt to come off right side out. the padded area, which includes the whole of the forefinger, has been ascribed the prendas logo in a rather inviting repeating pattern, and rather uniquely, there is an extended wrist flap making it easier to put them on in the first place, and providing extra protection for the base of the hand. the back of the glove has not only the terry snot wipe on the thumb (exactly where it should be), but a stretchy lycra back that allows a pleasant freedom of movement. and just in case you forgot where they came from, the legend prendas ciclismo is inscribed in silver.

prendas have a virtually unrivalled reputation as providers of practical and economic cycle apparel without pretension: these summer mitts extend this reputation. if it's summer where you are...

prendas summer mitts are available in four colours and a variety of sizes for a very reasonable £29.95.

prendas

twmp

posted on saturday 18 july 2009

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lance - the making of the world's greatest champion. john wilcockson, da capo press, 383pp illus. hardback. £15 ($26)

lance - john wilcockson

as i'm sure you're tired of hearing, i live midst eight malt whisky distilleries (nine if you include the one on jura), and a portion of the daily workload involves working at the local newspaper, though not as a reporter, you'll be pleased to hear. and as is often the case in the world of newspapers, we occasionally receive review copies of books, not coincidentally often whisky books. you can perhaps imagine the rapture with which yet another book about malt whisky is greeted in the office, not least because each successive author seems hell bent on explaining the process by which barley and water is alchemied (not sure if that's a proper word, but it is now) into the gold liquid which earns the british exchequer a veritable fortune, and draws thousands of visitors to our shores year on year. simple statement of fact: the world does not need another book about malt whisky.

transfer our loyalties over to the world of cycling, and a similar mode of rejoicing tends to be associated with yet another book about lance armstrong. and lest you you infer that mr armstrong does not feature on my favourites list, i am happy to prove you wrong. granted, i have grown particularly weary of the incessant media attention that seemingly accompanies his every move, and i can't say that his twitter account has added to my wordly education, but someone who has been through cancer and come out the other end to win seven tours de france (and currently sitting in third place in this year's tour) is deserving of more than just a little respect. i do think sometimes lance is his own worst enemy, but that's something that could be said about any number of folks, both in and out of the cycling world; i have the greatest respect for the guy.

and somebody else for whom i have a great deal of respect is the author of this new book on lance; john wilcockson. during the everybody has a book in them about marco pantani years, john was one of the very few who produced a volume that remembered marco in the light that showed him at his best. and this book about lance follows a similar set of optimistic values. this is a sport that ostensibly we are all in love with, and while there may be aspects of it that deserve to be analysed and despised in great detail, it's a joy to read pages that celebrate the career of one of the giants of the sport, without feeling it necessary to dig some dirt, or imply underhandedness without so much as a shred of real evidence. i agree that there is no point in pretending all is roses in the professional peloton, but there's a time and a place.

of course, a book about lance without the mention of the accusations that have been made across the seven wins would be a bit like winnie the pooh without eeyore, but mr wilcockson has seen fit not to have the book revolve round these accusations. if you've ever seen one of those documentaries about how movies are made, you will be aware that each scene is filmed from several different angles before being finally edited into a seamless sequence, presenting the director's reality in a manner that will be (hopefully) appreciable to all. john has achieved the literary equivalent, interviewing a vast number of lance's friends and family from across his entire life; from childhood to the point where he decided that an eighth tour might just be a cycling reality. his astoundingly clever strategy that has threaded the whole book together, is the masterful way that the author has put these interviews together in a filmic manner: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. it is part tribute, part appraisal of the life and career of a cyclist the like of whom we are unlikely to see again for many a long year.

so while many of you will have greeted the heading of this review with perhaps the same cloud of anticipation as myself, this is a stunningly good book. if we separate content from structure, there is a lot of concrete evidence in here that explains why lance is lance, and whether you're a fan or not, there is stuff here that may change your mind, or perhaps confirm the opinion already held. either way, it's an excellent read that is certainly deserving of your attention whether pro, con or sitting on the fence.

however, given the 2009 comeback, it is unlikely to be the last word.

da capo press have very sportingly given me a copy of the book to give to one reader who can provide me with the correct answer to the following question: throughout his seven tour de france wins, who was lance armstrong's trainer? e-mail the answer to lance@thewashingmachinepost.net along with your full postal address, and the first correct answer chosen at random on friday 24th july will be deemed the winner.

twmp

posted on friday 17 july 2009

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