..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
it was bound to happen
you'll doubtless be wondering why this didn't happen sooner (like yesterday), and i must confess to a similar degree of surprise; i did think about it at one point but then i got involved in doing something else - you know how it is. but i am happy to say that someone else (mark rutledge take a bow) was happy to step up to the plate and mailed me in what we'd suspected all along. colnago won the giro.
to put this rather bald statement into perspective, i do know that the man in pink was on a trek, but his pink jersey, while undoubtedly deserved, was achieved without ever having taken that bike over the line first at any point in the race. in fact, none of the chaps in the blue and yellow won a stage. colnago, however, were the beneficiaries of wins by two pro continental teams; csf navigare and tinkoff, which must be a bit of a slap in the face for their two professional sponsored teams - rabobank and milram. what would have been the numbers if petacchi had been racing?
for csf navigare, the well documented three wins of emanuele sella, and matteo priamo, plus a win each for pavel brutt and vasili kiryienka of tinkoff, gave colnago top slot with six wins, second equal placing going to cannondale and giant through the efforts of the liquigas team and team high road (principally, mark cavendish). scott managed two wins, both from riccardo ricco, and felt, de rosa, guerciotti, cervelo and wilier managed one stage apiece.
so doubtless ernesto will be happy to continue handing out extreme c and extreme power frames to the two pro-continental teams, having already promised continuation with landbouwkrediet tonnissteiner (why weren't they in the giro?), though it's quite possible that rabobank may redeem themselves in july, with gesink, freire and menchov.
i know lance says it's not all about the bike, but he never rode a colnago.
posted on monday 2nd june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................a fine giro, if you don't mind me saying
that's the giro over for another year, and in keeping with the apparent view of the riders, it seems a far more stylish race than the all conquering tour de france. certainly an adjective that is no stranger to all things italian. also a fine result for a team who weren't even in the race eight days before the team time trial, and which will surely make tour organisers aso, look even dafter than they usually do. i'm not sufficiently into the politics that seem to be part and parcel of modern day professional cycling, but i am rather mystified as to why they banned astana on the basis of two or three riders who aren't even a part of the team anymore; let's face it, astana in 2008 are effectively the discovery channel in horrible blue and yellow jerseys. let levi ride.
however, the giro was somewhat of a revelation, not least for the performance of the csf navigare team who won the team prize, king of the mountains, expo milano 2015, the combativity classification, and fuga cervelo (whatever that is). not a bad haul for a uci continental team; by comparison, uci professional teams who faired considerably less well include quick step, caisse d'epargne and cofidis to name but a few.
i believe the riders complained of unnecessarily lengthy transfers, but brian smith put it in perspective by pointing out that when he rode the giro, they raced for three weeks with no rest days - the 2008 version had two. i doubt if i'm alone in thinking that the tour de france has grown to the point where it has almost started to become a parody of itself; it's a race that has transcended the rest of the cycling calendar to such a great degree, that it almost seems to have lost any relevance to the rest of the year. you really don't see so many (if any) giro d'italia guides on the shelves of w.h. smith (although how the heck would i know - we don't have a w.h. smith on the island.)
yes, i love watching the tour just as much as everyone else, but races such as the giro seem considerably more laid back - a tad more real if you like. perhaps the giro d'italia is the doobie brothers of cycle racing (look it up on itunes if you're younger than 40.)
posted on sunday 1st june
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................il passo di larch
if you consider yourself a real cycling fan, it cannot have escaped your attention that 2008 is the 20th anniversary of an american by the name of andy hampsten having survived utterly atrocious weather on il passo di gavia during the 1988 giro d'italia, and riding into pink. strangely, the fact that the stage was actually won by eric breukink (currently a ds with rabobank) seems to be of considerably lesser importance. however, you can imagine the joy of the american cycling fans that a guy from home had not only put on the leader's jersey in one of the three major stage races, but had done so after surviving particularly fierce weather in the process (hampsten was in the blue combination jersey over the gavia). hampsten was not only riding for an american based team (7-eleven), but it was generally thought that this was cycling by softies; how could mere americans compete with the best of europe (well, predominantly the best of italy, given that eleven of the twenty teams were homegrown)?
rapha have already preceded the celebrations by having released a very cleverly designed, pink tribute jersey, while the monthlies, and more than one website have been filling their pages and pixels with recounts of the events of june 5th 1998. and the snow. i have no intention of joining the party and adding to the tributes, but i did want to bring to your attention a celebratory ride taking place in that haven of north american cycling (you guessed) - portland, oregon. (just as an aside, if a similar level of cycling entrepreneurship is happening in some other region of the usa, please let me know.)
il passo di larch is an andy hampsten 20th anniversary ride leaving from rapha's portland headquarters at 3811 n. mississippi on thursday june 5th 2008. the ride is to larch mountain in search of snow, a climb, and an epic ride. i'm not entirely sure if the ride is by invite only (i have mine, i am very pleased to say), but if you drop an e-mail to slate@rapha.cc or carey@rapha.cc, i'm sure they'll let you know.
earn major brownie points by riding an eddy merckx bike and either a pink or a 7 eleven jersey.
posted on saturday 31st may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................think of the stag nights
the isle of jura; separated from islay by a stretch of water known as the sound of islay, in gaelic caol ila from where the distillery situated on its shoreline takes its name. the only way from islay to jura is by a small blue car ferry that takes five minutes on a good day, and about ten minutes when the tides and winds conflict. jura is known as the island of deer, prinicpally because there's about 5000 of them in comparison to the 156 people who live there. as jura distillery's promo goes 'you can imagine the stag nights.'
thursday 29th may is jura distillery's open day, as part of the islay (and jura) whisky festival. their separation from islay means it's relatively easy to curb the numbers visiting for the day, so the event is split into morning and afternoon, with around 68 folks (plus me) in attendance in the am. the ferry leaves port askaig at 8:30, so i'm up at 7am to have breakfast, don my rapha suit (long sleeve jersey, gazzetta gilet, and fixed shorts), and get the colnago out thewashingmachinepost bike shed. it's been raining overnight after starting the previous day, and the morning has dawned slightly overcast but clearing from the south west. port askaig is about 20km from bowmore, generally uphill, but not exhaustingly so and the tail wind means it's difficult to tell that i'm not quite awake yet.
the road into port askaig is 14 percent to the hairpin, then nine percent down to the pier. the road bears a nice dotted line a few feet out from the road edge where a white graphic indicates that this is for the benefit of cyclists. if anyone can keep their wheels within this miniscule track, i'd like to meet them; there seems every chance of disappearing over the armco on the corner if you tried. 14 percent isn't flat, as it's possible to find out on the return journey.
having succeeded in arriving at the jura ferry queue by 8:15, jura can barely be seen for cloud, and they don't look to be the soft and fluffy kind. rain was forecast for today, and it looks like the 15km ride from feolin to craighouse might let me find out whether the rapha musette is waterproof or not. however, weather changes very quickly around here, and not always for the worse. by the time the ferry drops the ramp at feolin, the cloud has all but disappeared, and the musette is safe.
with all aboard heading for the open day, the ferry's full, as are, apparently, the next two sailings. it's not recommended to cycle off the ferry, since the forward ramp angles akin to the start ramp of a grand tour time trial, but speed bumps alternate with large hinges that are not friendly to skinny wheels. mind you, it's not easy walking on the car deck wearing cleated shoes.
the road skirts the coastline for just over two kilometres, and it's interesting to note that the vertical (well, some are) black and white hooped posts are prominently labelled passing place, unlike those on islay. i pull in to a couple of these to let some cars pass; as the distillery are happy to point out on posters and t-shirts, there is only one road on jura, and it leads straight to the distillery. it does indeed, but it's certainly not straight.
as the road curves to head towards craighouse, jura's principal village, and home to jura distillery, it starts to climb, and continues to do so for around the next 12 or 13km, flattening off now and again, but easily hitting twelve percent on some sections. much like most of islay, this sole singletrack road is at the mercy of 40ft tankers and trailers taking barley into craighouse and removing whisky and pot ale from it. with both islands consisting of more than their fair share of peat, the roads don't take kindly to such mobile weight. fortunately, the colnago and i are several thousand kilos lighter and skip over the patchwork tarmac.
maybe because i'm not watching, or maybe because they are, i don't see a single one of those 5000 deer on the hills to my left. what i do see is one solitary cow, standing at the roadside intent on staring me out, though she's still staring in the same direction after i pass. cyclists must be a bug, not a feature. the skies have cleared completely by now, the gilet is removed, the jersey unzipped and there's a tailwind. it doesn't get much better than this. colnago and rider roll past jura house and jura house gardens; the tarmac smoothes out a bit, and the sudden appearance of trees gives a modest amount of shade. strangely enough, there's a strong smell of garlic as i pass the gardens, trees and car park; i have no idea why. perhaps unsurprisingly, these are amongst the few trees on the island.
in spite of this being the only road on the island, i don't meet any traffic in either direction. alex, who drives (and owns) the jura bus, was sitting at the ferry when i got off, and since i've not known him ever to drive substantially slower than michael schumacher, i've been constantly looking over my shoulder the whole way up, in case i need to make use of one of those labelled passing places. (he later shows up at speed, after i've reached my destination.)
i roll into craighouse around thirty five minutes after getting off the ferry, to the sight of more than just a few visitors meandering around waiting for the distillery delights to start. i'm not really that interested in whisky; i don't drink the stuff at all, and i'm continually amazed that i meet the same faces year after year, coming for more of the same thing. i'm just along for the ride, and believe me, the cycle back to the ferry was just as great. there's a lot to be said for distilleries and whisky festivals. this was day six.
and yes, the palm trees at the top are actually growing on jura, just opposite the distillery office.
posted on friday 30th may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................del tongo pdq
having flagged up the forthcoming availability of santini's del tongo colnago jersey, purportedly at the end of june, my surprise was probably the equal of yours when mr storey of prendas ciclismo alerted me to their arrival at their dorset headquarters. in fact, better than that, he sent me photographs.
in stock even as i type, are the long and short sleeve jerseys, selling at £55 ($110) and £49.95 ($100) respectively. the shorts and cap will be along in about a month's time. we can wait till then, can't we?
posted on thursday 29th may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................shift magazine
i hope that you will realise that i do mean to infer that my grasp of the english language has deserted me, but i don't quite understand shift magazine. it emanates from the magicalia media stable, purveyor of such online delights as roadcycling uk and bikemagic.com, and i'm wondering what it was that persuaded them to enter the world of the printed word. and sort of more importantly, why they entered with a one size fits all publication.
it always seems unfair to judge a publication on its first issue, because that was usually the frantic will it work, and have we done it right? issue. but unfortunately, since issue two will not surface until august this year, the first issue is all we have available for judgement. little has been spared by way of shiny photography, well crafted writing, and a layout that is more than a little reminiscent of singeltrack mountain bike magazine, but the bit that i don't understand is why they have given it a schizophrenic identity; shift (at least in issue one), covers both road cycling and the bikes used for same, as well as mountain biking. in fact, in pretty much an admission that these are two individual disciplines or enthusiasms (obsessions?), there is a separate editor for each: richard hallett brings us skinny wheels and bendy bars, while mike davis brings us knobbly tyres and farm gates with suspension.
in my limited understanding of the cycling world (i don't get out much), these are verging on polar opposites; while there are folks who partake of asphalt and mud, most tend to favour one or the other. so a glossy magazine that costs £5.99 and features a group test of road bikes and at least a couple of chunky offroaders as well as interviews and features relating to both, to me at least, doesn't seem like a recipe for success.
still, it is only issue one, nobody else produces a magazine featuring thick and thin wheels on consecutive pages - perhaps with good reason, or perhaps not. according to the promotional blurb on roadcyclinguk shift is where we do the things that the web can't do so well; in depth features (?), glorious photos and a handy portable format that needs no batteries. as to the mixture of cycling genres: we don't do pigeonholes, sub genres or tribalism - we just ride bikes. if it's got two wheels and you can have fun on it, it's our kind of thing.
at the risk of being horribly negative and repetitive, if they don't pigeonhole, why have they got an editor for road, and an editor for off-road? still, i shall read the road bits and hope to be proved horribly wrong, and also be very grateful that they mentioned the ride of the falling rain in the calendar section at the back.
shift magazine can be bought from condor cycles, mosquito bikes and rutland cycles. or you can order online from roadcyclinguk.com
posted on thursday 29th may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................puncture repair 101
actually that's sort of a misleading heading, because i don't generally repair punctures anymore. i'm not too sure whether that's because i have completely lost the knack of getting patches to stick, or the rubber for inner tubes is resistant to the glue that accompanies most repair kits. i confess to having never tried those patches that stick all by themselves, but to be honest i find it much easier to carry a spare inner-tube and replace the punctured one. indeed it does bother my conscience that i am throwing away perfectly repairable inner tubes, but a new replacement has a far better chance of retaining the air or co2 that i fill it with. that, of course, is putting aside the time spent finding the hole in the tube in the first place.
in my capacity as islay's self-appointed chief mechanic, if i'm handed a bicycle with a puncture, it is more economically efficient to replace the tube than footer about with a tub of water, looking for the tell-tale stream of bubbles. and there's always the chance that, yet again, the patch won't stick properly and a distraught cycle-tourist will find themselves mid-way between here and nowhere with a flat tyre and mounting resentment. always remember, i have a reputation to live down to.
however, irrespective of which of the above methods suits your own frame of mind or circumstances when the tyre goes flat, there are degrees of common sense that transcend any perceived mechanical ability. if the tyre's gone flat, something caused it; there could be a seriously long list of such causes, depending on what/where was happening at the time. but there's an even chance that the cause is still sticking through the tyre tread; putting in a new or repaired tube and pumping it up will just repeat the misfortune ad finitum. take the tube out and carefully run your finger round the inner circumference of the tyre, and check that there is nothing that could cause another puncture. i say carefully because things that cause punctures can cut fingers.
i have interrupted normal programming because the cycle-touring season seems to have invaded islay, so i'm betting that the same is happening elsewhere, and the above scenario has already happened twice this week. of course, if you have a pannier full of inner tubes, feel free to ignore the above.
posted on wednesday 28th may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................rapha musette
at the end of may every year since we arrived at the new millenium, islay has held a whisky festival. more properly referred to as the islay festival of malt and music, we're still talking malt whisky distilleries and the influx of aficionados from france, germany, holland, belgium, north america, ireland, norway et al, must rival the crowds on alpe d'huez in july, though perhaps not in such large numbers.
in one of those it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it moments, i have the dubious pleasure of visiting each distillery's open day to report for our local newspaper. i say dubious, because i have no interest in the end product purveyed by each, at least not from the point of drinking it, and also because, in its eighth year, the fascination has begun to pall somewhat, though the wonderful people that work at each distillery make up for all that. however, i am quite happy to be alone in my agnosticism, because this annual event brings a whole squad of high spending visitors who simply can't buy enough whisky, and spend a substantial amount in the local hostelries - all good news for the local economy.
anyway, since i am bereft of motorised transport (through choice), preferring to be a car free zone all of my own, travel from bowmore to each of the daily venues is by way of the company colnago. this is a rather luxurious choice, since the c40 currently sports a very fine pair of chris king custom wheels (about which there will be a full test later this week) and the rather superb fsa carbon bars and stem reviewed just recently. naturally, the idea of clambering around some rather spiffing and intriguing buildings comprised of malt barns, still rooms, mill houses, washbacks and filling stores in cleated vittorias not only leaves me sore afraid, but would freak out the health and safety guys. so it is necessary to carry a pair of civvy shoes (a pair of converse basket ball items), along with a nifty little panasonic digital camera, and my real glasses; the latter are entirely necessary because some of thes rabbit warrens are quite dark, and a pair of tinted rudy projects seem less than appropriate.
so the dilemma is how to carry the above minimum accoutrements in a suitably minimalistic fashion. surprisingly enough, it was rapha to the rescue; i already possess a rapha fixed backpack which has been used to good effect over the past year, but sometimes even that seems like overkill. in a rather timely fashion, perren street saw fit to issue their own interpretation of that old cycling perennial, the musette. i will admit to more than a soupcon of hesitation over using this as my cargo carrier for the week, but i have been very pleasantly surprised.
sort of a cross between the traditional musette and a courier bag, the rapha musette is constructed from coated cotton canvas (excellent aliteration) with a fold-over flap held in place by two slot-and-twist closures, that are actually affixed to the bag with screws. there's an adjustable shoulder strap with a small chest strap to keep it in place while you're climbing the tourmalet. i will confess to having a smidgeon of trouble trying to figure out how this arrangement was supposed to work, but the law of if all else fails eventually won out. it would be kinda nice to have had a fitting diagram on the accompanying card for those of very little brain, but you'll work it out eventually.
internally there is a mobile phone pocket with a leather/velcro closure, pen slots, and an ipod pocket with a slot to let the headphone cable escape. there's also a closing hook on to which keys can be hung. but the spiffingly clever bit about all these is that they're all part of a flap attached at the top only. placing my converse shoes in the musette, i could sit the flap on top, giving easy access to the digital camera ensconced in the ipod slot, and sitting the rudy projects on top of that. the closing flap has a leather rapha embossed patch on the centre which would allow hooking a variety of somethings on the outside.
having had a couple of courier type bags in the past, that refused point blank to stay where they were supposed to when in motion, i would like the jury to consider this evidence when examining my reluctance to use the musette for said purpose. but on friday night, i'd to take 200 books of five raffle tickets out to ardbeg distillery (long story; don't ask); 200 books of raffle tickets weigh a lot more than you (or i) think, but not only did they fit into the musette, but it sat comfortably at the back, just slightly below the three rear pockets, and stayed there for 45km. on saturday, it not only had the camera, shoes and rudys, but two ardbeg cycle jerseys as well; and it still closed, and it still stayed put in transit. you can even manage an apple macbook inside, though it did baulk at the larger macbook pro.
the only thing i haven't tried it with is rain (surprisingly for here), though i've a feeling that's going to change during my pedal to jura on thursday. the musette and i have travelled to lagavulin, ardbeg, caol ila, bruichladdich and laphroaig over the past few days, and now we're firm friends looking forward to the rest of the week.
remember: a (rapha) musette isn't just for urban commuters - tested and approved by a hebridean.
the rapha musette can be ordered from rapha.cc for the welcome price of £60 ($105). and while we're here, rouleur nine is available from 31st may.
posted on tuesday 27th may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................'this is no mere bike show'
in february of this year, the north american handbuilt bike show was held in portland oregon, a particularly fitting location, given that there seem to be more frame builders per square metre in portland than in the whole of the rest of the united states put together. however, the nahbs is one of those peripatetic exhibitions and in 2009, moves to indianapolis. strangely, however, where in most locations a large gathering of similar industry would promote a degree of fierce competition, the tube welders in portland manage to expound a very fine example of co-operation. and it's in the spirit of such that they are poised to hold a second handbuilt show in october of this year; the oregon manifest.
this will be a bike show to display the craftsmanship of handbuilt bikes - you'd think that the nahbs was exactly that, but organisers of the manifest have pointed out that this iteration won't look or feel like anything that's taken place before. the intention is to move beyond the regular booth-and-table convention hall style of existing bike shows. since portland's bicycle culture at times seems just too good to be true, the oregon manifest will attempt to present this 'tantalizing mix of bike culture, and wrap it around the builders and the bikes they create.'
and they might just make it work; the creative director of the event is shannon holt, who is, surprisingly, not in the bicycle trade, but a graphic designer. a detached eye (so to speak) can often be a fine thing to have. the event will have close ties with a cross crusade cyclo-cross meet happening the same weekend, and there are even rumours of a handmade bikes category in the cross race. the website (there's always a website) mentions the possible inclusion of things that are symbolic of the joy that is cycling in portland; 'midnight cruising, freak bikes, bakfiesten (?), zoobombing (nope, me neither) and many more intriguing variations on normal bicycle language.
of course, cycling isn't cycling without coffee, so happily there is mention of stumptown coffee as one of the major attractions (prior to becoming known as portland, the town was known as stumptown. it started as a logging town, and when expansion came, the loggers simply cut down trees to give more space, but left the tree stumps in place). aside from the myriad of frame builders taking part, headset and hub kings, chris king are involved, and never ones to miss out on cycle promotion at grass roots (even american grass), rapha too. and with a wonderful nod to the grand history of european racing, there's talk of an eddy merckx shrine - can't argue with that.
where's that flight timetable?
posted on monday 26th may
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................in praise of (part two)
i really hadn't planned on even considering another in praise of, because i had no intention of turning this into a series. and i still don't. however, having witnessed some of the most beautiful climbing since the heyday of marco pantani over the past two days of the giro d'italia, to have carried on into next week without passing comment would have been verging on the criminal. that this vertiginous bravado has come from the team leader of a mere continental team, who are there by invite rather than by right, underlines the beauty and the achievement even more.
emanuelle sella of csf inox navigare started the final climb of saturday's giro stage from verona to alpe di pampeago/val di fiemme only 1minute 59 seconds ahead of tinkoff's vasil kiryienka. byt the time he crossed the finish line, he had extended that lead to 4minutes and 38 seconds, and that after having been out on a break of over 50km. as a rider who apparently holds pantani as a hero, the winning of the same stage taken by marco in 1999 only added to the lustre. no big deal, perhaps, but then the diminutive 27 year-old, did it again on sunday in the 15th stage from arabba to passo fedaia/marmolada.
in a leading group consisting of team mates perez cuapio, and fortunato baliani, liquigas rider nibali and caisse d'epargne's rodriguez, at the base of the final climb (again), sella simply rode away from the group and took first place ahead of his csf navigare team-mate domenico posivivo. not only is this a superb result for an incredible climber, but sella is currently leading the mountains classification by some considerable margin. csf navigare are also leading the rather quizzically named fast teams classification and super teams classification. sella's also top of the combativity for now.
strangely, for an italian team, riding colnago bicycles (i should imagine ernesto is somewhat ecstatic at present), they are registered in county wicklow, republic of ireland. of the two principal sponsors, csf inox make a wide range of pumps for industry, while navigare make trendy italian clothes. bicycles are the aforementioned finest out of cambiago, groupsets are campagnolo (very appropriate, since sella hails from vicenza) and wheels are campag imprint, fulcrum.
it will be interesting to watch the remainder of this year's giro, since sella's efforts on saturday pulled him from 44th to 26th place overall, and today's victory took him up to tenth. it's marvellous to watch the guys who can climb not only well, but with style - sella fulfils both beautifully. there's still time to tune into eurosport's highlights programme tonight and watch in awe (well, assuming you're somewhere on the receiving end of eurosport's broadcasts. i believe its the versus channel that broadcasts in the usa, so here's hoping they have a repeat showing too.)
photo: graham watson/velonews
posted on sunday 25th may