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neil pryde bura
the name neil pryde is, it may surprise you to know, far more synonymous with the world of surfing than it is with cycling. neil pryde bikes were originally introduced as a means of diversification for the surfing dudes and though initially well received they were arguably in need of a smidgeon of ass-kicking. this they received in 2015 when a few interested individuals, including 2pure director george bowie, invested in divesting the brand from its originators.
plans are currently afoot to make them more of a uk brand under the direction of the current distributors at 2pure. the range currently consists of four models, each of which proffers one or two variations. the bura is the model under consideration here which can be ordered with shimano's 105 groupset or, as reviewed here, with shimano ultegra. above the basic model sits the bura sl, featuring a lighter frameset and available with either ultegra or dura-ace.
the bura frameset is a bang up to date carbon monocoque constructed in the far east, one which all but eschews roundness at any point of its form. the top tube is pretty much square where it meets the tapered headtube and interrupting the metallic greyness of the frame with a red, elongated flash. personally, i'd have loved to have
seen the frame in red with a grey flash, but that probably wouldn't make me go any faster. at the seat-tube/top-tube junction is an inset wedge to replace a more traditional seatpost clamp, a feature that has necessitated a small gusset between the lower surface of the top-tube and the seat tube.
it's worth my mentioning that this wedge is only held in place by the force exerted on both its sides. after loosening the bolt when removing the seatpost to alter the saddle, as the seatpost came free from the frame, the wedge almost fell inside the seat-tube, a mishap that would undoubtedly have involved turning the bike upside down in the hope that it would simply fall out, intact. perhaps neil pryde could investigate a means of retaining the wedge within the frame to avoid such a potential iniquity?
though the seat-tube begins life as a round tube to accommodate the fsa slk aluminium seatpost, as it heads towards the press-fit bottom bracket region, it asymmetrically flares outwards becoming massive enough to meet the substantially profiled down-tube. the latter has the name neil pryde writ large along its girth, but i think it would suit better if the lettering matched the red on the top tube rather than being seen in slightly anonymous black. but once again, i touch on rather superficial matters.
the seatstays, in comparison to the front end of the frame, are somewhat anorexic, meeting the seat-tube, in the modern idiom, a few centimetres below the top tube junction. any predisposition to anorexia is remedied by the large, rectangular sectioned chainstays, the inner faces of which mirror the red seen on the top tube. thankfully, or perhaps out of necessity, the ultegra front mech clamps to a rivetted 'braze-on' bracket, for the tube shape at that point rather mitigates against any clamp currently on the market.
impressively, the bura incorporates a full ultegra groupset, from the sti levers, to the gear mechs, to the brake calipers to the latest trend in compact chainsets (52/36). the cassette is a hill-friendly 11-28 attached to a fulcrum racing 7 rear wheel, one that is matched by a similarly branded front wheel. according to the neil pryde website, this particular model is fitted with schwalbe durano 25c tyres, but the review model arrived with clement strada lgg 25 rubber, presumably because distributors 2pure are coincidentally clement's uk distributors. matching the fsa seatpost is an slk 120mm stem taking secure hold of carbon slk bars wrapped with lizard_skins bar tape (another product from the 2pure wardrobe). the carbon forks, sporting carbon dropouts, mate with the rest of the frame via an fsa integrated headset. the saddle on the review model was a tried and tested fizik arione.
maintaining that modern appearance, gear and brake cables are routed internally to maintain the frame's sleek, almost aero lines. though i've had more than just a few review bicycles over the years, i can but say that the neil pryde bura has received more admiring comments from my fellow velocipedinists than almost any other.
going for a ride
patrick lefevre has been reputedly quoted as stating he doesn't pay his riders to be comfortable. this by way of justification for the stiffness of the frames provided for the quick step team. i doubt that the neil pryde bura is quite aimed at the upper regions of the world tour, but nonetheless, its stiffness came as something of a surprise. as an ageing rider who likes to pretend he's jeremy powers when offroad and gerben de knecht when road riding in the autumn, i have no real need of a stiff frame. however, i cannot deny that this aspect was not only a somewhat intriguing prospect, but one to which my honed physique adapted more quickly than i'd expected.
the inherent stiffness, however, is not present purely for fun; or maybe it is? probably at the behest of of that colossal bottom bracket region and the rectangular chainstays, any input of energy from the rider, even one as wimpish as yours truly, results in an initially surprising burst of acceleration. find a smooth bit of road (not the easiest of challenges) and the bura will graciously reward your power to weight ratio. and despite this professed stiffness of constitution, neil pryde have not sacrificed much in the way of comfort; even a lengthy ride over less than billiard table flat road surfaces did not result in unwarranted fatigue to the rider.
on those days when your inner pantani manifests itself and forces you to stand when climbing, the balance of the frame is all but impeccable, allowing the ability to lift one hand to wave or gesticulate at oncoming traffic without upsetting the bura's upward trajectory. and, in the secure knowledge that what goes up must also come down, the handling on the descents was well off the mythical chuckability scale. this particular aspect is one of great and special interest to yours truly, being totally bereft of any skills in this department whatsoever. i need the bike to compensate for my inadequacies.
i confess that i have an inbuilt prejudice against press-fit bottom brackets based on pretty much nothing whatsoever. it seems likely that the component in this style can but contribute to the frame's stiff persona and in truth, it gave no specific cause for concern. shimano's latest variation on the compact chainset, veering perilously close to the orginal 53/39 standard, still suffers from the left/right two-step, featuring as it does a 16 tooth difference between chainrings as opposed to the 14 tooth gap of yesteryear. this frequently results in having to change down a sprocket when shifting up to the big ring. however, that's no different in practice to the previous 50/34 manifestation.
i do approve of the ultegra 6800 sti levers, the latest being ergonomically far superior to the original design of yesteryear. there's a delightful little curved inset at the top of the lever blades eager and willing to cossett either the middle or forefinger while riding on the hoods. braking was good enough to have any sane person questioning the need for discs on a road bike, while gear-changing maintained shimano's reputation for slick, almost silent shifting both front and rear.
i cannot deny that, for a complementary review, i replaced the arione saddle with a brooks weatherproof cambium carve c17, an alteration that proved at least a smidgeon of that perceived stiffness had been aided and abetted by the fizik seating. however, the arione was exactly the same saddle employed on a campagnolo bike en-route from london to paris, with less apparent rigidity. either way, it proved, if nothing else, that the frame's inherent stiffness of constitution can be tamed without any lessening of performance.
after a few weeks of riding the bura, i was pretty much sold, particularly if taking the price of around £2,250 into consideration. many of its competitors sport 105 at this level, so ultegra is a welcome level of unexpected luxury. rather subjectively, i tend to classify road bikes as those inherently destined to be for the one-day classics or more suited to the grand tour. bear in mind, i have no experience of riding either, meaning my designations are utter tosh and nonsense but nonetheless, the neil pryde bura slots itself unequivocally into the classics genre; were i vincenzo nibali, i'd happily win liege-bastogne-liege on this. it's a superb bicycle at a most attractive price and deserves space of its own in a bikeshed near you (or me).
the above forms part one of my review of the neil pryde bura. thanks to the forebearance of the distributors, i have been allowed an extension of time to fit the bicycle with a wheelsmith pavé wheelset. unlike the fulcrum factory builds supplied as standard, these handbuilt wheels feature 28 spokes up front, built two-cross, while the rear sports four more spokes built three-cross onto flat section ambrosio rims. the review will appear sooner, rather than later.
sunday 29 october 2017
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................galloway cycling holidays
the kids in the senior years at the local secondary school have the opportunity, every second year, to travel abroad as part of an organised expedition. these generally land in one of the less industrialised regions of africa and by less industrialised, i mean the sort of towns or villages where the houses are built from mud bricks which lie in the noonday sun to dry. the sort of place where it may be necessary to trudge a mile or two to collect fresh water. the purpose of these trips is to let the pupils see the difference between their own, smartphone obsessed lives and those who have only a wee bit more than nothing at all.
these have been a feature of the school year for at least the last decade and have proved largely successful. many of the kids have come back with a better attitude to life than when they left. for a while, at least.
disappointingly, however, the majority of those participating in these travels have visited very few parts of their own country. most will have been to glasgow and a few may have made it as far as edinburgh, but i doubt if any have visited the stones at callanish, smoo cave at durness, or could actually point to the cairngorms on a map of scotland. i'm scarcely innocent in such matters; i have ridden pretty much every single road on the island, and i've dabbled round arran many years ago, but the rest of scotland remains untramelled by my bicycle tyres.
yet scotland is obviously a desirable holiday destination, judging by the numbers arriving from north america, the antipodes and northern europe each year. embarrassingly, i have probably cycled more kilometres in france and miles in america than i have on the scottish mainland. but while there are those intrepid velocipedinists who would think nothing of barging their way up the bealach na ba into a searing headwind and torrential rain, the majority would prefer something every bit as adventurous, but a tad more sedate.
warren and esther are a couple i have known for many a long year from their visits to islay and participation in the ride of the falling rain. several years ago, they rented out their edinburgh home and set off round the world on their bicycles "cherry picking the best places in the world to cycle". but you can only ride round the world for so long before you've exhausted not only most of the possibilities, but a large chunk of your savings. having come to a similar conclusion, esther and warren have settled in south-west scotland's galloway region, an area that incorporates castle douglas, dumfries, and kircudbright, the latter town being the base for their galloway cycling holidays.
in the light of this, it seemed quite a good idea to ask why galloway? "Well, you could probably thank/blame in equal measure the living hell that is The Edinburgh Bypass for us moving to Dumfries and Galloway. At the end of the working day, it was quicker and less soul-crushing for Esther to commute south to home, then leave to go even further south on a Friday than it was to get involved in heading north to the highlands with our tent and bikes. Which is how we got to know the Borders and Galloway. You could be pitching your tent and have a brew on within two hours rather than still be trying to cross the Forth road bridge and going north at less than walking pace."
that explains the reasons behind the move to a beautiful part of scotland, but it doesn't really provide much of an insight into why they decided to set up in business offering guided and self-guided bicycle tours in the area. granted, many years ago, i had harboured similar thoughts of doing likewise on islay, but it took only a few investigations to prove that i really don't have a very good head for business. and in point of fact, the rest of me isn't much better. so how did this become the way forward for esther and warren?
"We wanted a nice small house with a lawn. So I bought a 300 year old former pub with a stupidly large garden for someone with a bike obsession. I have taken longer to choose a pair of shoes.
We moved down in February and shortly after, gave a talk about our ride around the world. At the end, we were approached by someone who owned the local bike holiday company. He wanted to retire, we weren't quick enough to think of a reason not to take on the company, so the deal was done."
it took me several years, when at school, to scrape through for an o level qualification in mathematics. a lack of ability in this direction rather put paid to any thoughts of a career as a particle physicist. what i'm getting at, in a rather round about way, is that occasionally, simply wanting to do something doesn't necessarily mean having the wherewithal to achieve it. so what makes esther and warren confident that they have the necessary skills to run a cycling holiday company?
"Well, not much more than watching the world go by from the saddle of a range of bikes for over 100,000 miles. Some of the time with numbers on our backs, sometimes with panniers, often with an Audax route card attached to the handlebars, but more often than not just on our way to a coffee stop. I love planning routes, finding obscure roads and bits of forgotten history. I have a background in ecology and agriculture and love pointing out these things that you only pass slowly enough if you are on a bike. I want to know every road, every track. The seed was planted even before we moved."
so far, so good. galloway cycling holidays offers its clients the opportunity to sample some excellent local accommodation, self-guided or guided cycling routes, but the question is bound to arise as to why i would give warren or esther a call as opposed to my finding a decent bed & breakfast and simply riding around on my own?
"We want to work with all cyclists, from the ten mile pootler to the sportive rider. For those wanting to progress to multi-day journeys, we have linear routes along the coast for 200 miles, rides going into the upland areas that fringe the coast. In both situations your luggage is transported to each day's destination
.
Or they can choose a hub-base option at Kirkcudbright where you get to pick your rides every day. You get to pick from a ten mile ride all the way up to 100 mile loops from the hub, with most being in the thirty to fifty mile range and always with a café stop included. All of these routes are self-guided, though groups of four or more can book us to lead the rides."
cycling holidays such as those described are supposed to be all about the scenery, the company and, dare i say it, the cuisine. but while i figure i'd be rather partial to the excursions on offer, i cannot deny that transporting a bicycle off the island is more faff than i'm willing to suffer. so, assuming i arrive sans bike, can i be assured of a decent hire bike on arrival?
"We have recently started to use gravel bikes, mostly because the area is just such a perfect mosaic of forest and quiet road. Drop bars and wider tyres open up some amazing loop options here that I think are world class. We will be offering these as guided custom holidays that will make for epic long weekends. We have a few gravel bikes, but the offroad stuff can be done on any tyres over 32mm. For the road we have hybrids, carbon or Ti road bikes. You can bring your own bike or just your comfy saddle and preferred pedals. We like chains to be clean and the silver or even gold to shine."
that esther and warren pride themselves on being guardians of the shiny chain is more than good enough for me. but more importantly than bicycles, accommodation and food is whether there might be explanatory sessions on how to pronounce kircudbright?
"Definitely. It's kir-COO-bree and not kirk-cud-bright."
i may have mentioned on one or two previous occasions, that mrs washingmachinepost has no interest in cycling whatsoever. while i see the contents of the bike shed as successful fulfilment of rule#12, she has frequently described it in alternative terms. so if i were ever able to persuade her to join me on a cycle-based trip to galloway, are there suitable distractions to divert attention from the amount of cycling i fear i may be guilty of undertaking?
"For the significant other, as I believe is the correct term, you have the option of cooking school, spa treatments, galleries, antique shops and some fine cafés, followed by walks in all directions. We want this to be an inclusive family thing if possible and we hope to pass on some of the enthusiasm and warm welcomes that we received from the people we encountered on our world trip. People here do pull over and chat; they do wave to cyclists. We have more than a hundred castles or forts, stone circles, viking and smugglers coves, more artists and craftspeople per square mile than anywhere north of Cornwall. There are of course hundreds of miles of quiet lanes for you to explore and the odd hill if you want."
this is traditionally the time when avid velocipedinists settle cross-legged on the floor in front of the central heating in order to plan next year's cycling holiday. as a matter of public service, i've just done all the hard work for you, for which you can thank me later.
you're welcome.
saturday 28 october 2017
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................ventoux - sacrifice and suffering on the giant of provence. jeremy whittle. simon and schuster hardback. 315pp illus. £16.99
in april of 2014, i was kindly invited to provence with rapha travel to inaugurate their opening retreat at le grand banc, an agglomeration of rough, stone-built dwellings converted into contemporary, yet rustic individual rooms. i spent a fabulous four days at le grand banc, dining well and riding some quite maginificent roads in the surrounding area. as i've mentioned on more than a singular occasion, being somewhat geographically challenged, i hadn't realised that mont ventoux was pretty much within a 70km spitting distance of my temporary french abode.
it transpired that the friday had been designated as the-day-we-ride-up-the-giant-of-provence, but as can frequently be the case, the weather and visibility near the summit of the ventoux contrived to prevent a day of purgatorial ascending on my rapha-badged pinarello. instead, we rode the gorges de la nesque which i still count as the finest day's bike riding i have ever experienced. though many of the others were a tad disappointed at missing out on one of road-cycling's major box ticking exercises, as one who has never subscribed to such entities, i was more than happy to ride through limestone arches near the la nesque's highest point.
mont ventoux occupies a possibly exaggerated importance for the british cycling fan as a result of tom simpson's untimely demise in july 1967. each and every time the tour de france ascends this idiosyncratic climb, commentators are duty bound to make mention of simpson or, better still, show some black and white archive footage. as a result, the ventoux has effectively been anthropomorphised; to all intents and purposes, it was the mountain that robbed simpson of his life. that would explain chapter one of jeremy whittle's intriguing paean to the ventoux, entitled 13 july 1967, printed in stark sans serif, allegedly documenting simpson's thoughts as he approached the giant of provence.
these excerpts of fact-based fiction continue throughout the book.
somehow it's of great surprise that no-one has attempted a biography of the mountain before now, other than the possibility that i considered on commencing this impressive tome "how do you write an entire 300 plus page book about a solitary mountain?" that the narrative never really flags at any point across all three distinct sections, is of great tribute to whittle's tenacity as a writer. of course, aside from the simpson debacle, the mountain has a character all of its own that has existed presumably for millions of years prior to 13 july 1967.
"Wind and the Ventoux are old mates, old muckers, old bedfellows. [...] If the heat doesn't get you, the Mistral - the wind that picks up, builds to a frenzy and then dies at a moment's notice - will."
not unnaturally, whittle opens with a bike ride to the summit, choosing the route favoured by the tour de france. it takes a man of character to begin a paragraph by admitting "It's not so bad at first - really, it's not. You start to wonder what all the fuss is about." of course, were that found to be true, this would have been a much shorter book. but the author is not so naive as to assume geographical knowledge on behalf of the reader, though it seems unlikely that anyone would have lifted it from the cycling section bookshelf were they not at least slightly acquainted with its velocipedinal importance.
at least a part of the ventoux's allure depends on its topographical eccentricity: "It exists in other-worldly isolation, an aberration of nature, a child's fantasy mountain of strange flora and fauna, dark forests and wild animals, eerie deserts and astral winds, topped off with a cartoonish meterological observatory that looks like Tintin's rocket to the moon.". but aside from describing the numerous opinions expressed by the ventoux's many combatants ("it gets so quiet, you can hear a fly buzzing through the peloton." Merckx), it appears jeremy whittle may have had a hidden agenda that remains hidden until the chapter entitled 'The americans'.
along with many others, whittle found himself on lance armstrong's list of those he considered persona non grata, but now that several years have passed by, he visits the texan at his home. the pretence, as far as the reader is concerned, concerns armstrong's gift of a stage victory in 2000 atop the ventoux to his arch-rival, marco pantani. if i'm honest, this particular chapter, though offering a tenuous connection with the book's title, is worth more than the price of admission. having carefully curated his innocence of all travesties throughout the period of his now excluded seven tour victories, armstrong seems to have totally dropped the pretence and denial.
when the author states that he had run-ins with then uci president, the late hein verbruggen over armstrong's protestations of innocence, lance replies "Yeah, but what was Hein gonna do?... Go to 1997. What do you do? You know that everybody's using EPO..."
very much to his credit, whittle celebrates britain's finest victory on the giant of provence, when nicole cooke, racing the 2006 women's tour de france left her nearest competitors standing by attacking on the ventoux when already comfortably in the lead. it was a ride which the author describes as "...definitely Merckx territory". cooke apparently took considerable persuasion to agree to be interviewed. with a nod to the protagonist featured in the previous chapter, "My moment in the sun was taken for ever, by people who thought so little of my efforts because they were so wrapped up in writing eulogies for the corrupt" a situation for which she still holds whittle at least partially responsible.
but, with the mountain's shadow still looming large in the background, whittle continues in his stride by taking a critical look at the mores of team sky, once more linking it to his professed subject matter by including chris froome's "now infamous and decisive attack" on stage 15 of le tour in 2015. he cites froome's evasiveness to be interviewed along with that of sky team manager, dave brailsford. though the author is not alone in his suspicions of 'team clean' and their oft repeated 'zero tolerance' he finds it hard to understand the behaviour of a team manager whose reticence for discussion, whittle likens to the actions of a man with something to hide.
though the book ends with the author beginning another ascent of the ventoux in sombre mood, preceded by a meeting and interview with simpson's daughter, it's whittle's considerable talents as a journalist in the latter part of the book that made this more than just the story of a french mountain. it features insights into past deeds that you'd scarcely have appreciated were there purely from the book's innocent title.
"It's going to be awfully hot tomorrow. If the guys start taking stuff, we could have a dead man on our hands."
thursday 26 october 2017
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................loma living custom bike rack
situated on the corner of glasgow's sauchiehall street and cambridge street is a rather trendy looking edition of costa coffee, on a site that was once home to a purveyor of camera equipment; tripods, cases, lighting and the like. this particular branch of costa features comfy sofas by the windows and very trendy, bare brick walls. but in the years long before costa coffee was a twinkle in its barista's eye, indeed, long before designer coffees were quite so de rigeur in the uk, cambridge street, on the opposite side of the road, was home to a record store selling all styles of vinyl.
during those teenage years of faux independence, several of us would make the occasional pilgrimages to glasgow city to create a nuisance of ourselves in both music shops with drumsets and guitars as well as record stores with acres of vinyl-filled racks. it was in this particular shop in cambridge street where i came across a copy of steve reich's drumming, seemingly remaindered due to being presented only in its inner-sleeves, the cover having obviously made a successful bid for freedom. though the two deutsche grammophon vinyl records were in pristine condition, without a glossy cover, the price had been reduced to the point where it would have been rude not to purchase.
of course, i had no earthly idea who steve reich was, nor was i aware at the time that his 'drumming' was not anything like that practised by ringo starr, ginger baker or even john bonham. for those as ignorant today as i was then, reich's drumming consisted of a simple pattern played by (i think) four musicians, each of whom would, at strategic points of the composition, move deliberately out of sequence. this eventually resulted in a complex sounding rhythmic pattern created by these out-of-step simple beginnings.
as the lengthy compositions progressed, the musicians moved onto marimba, xylophone and finally glockenspiel, continuing reich's original, minimalist pattern. it was, perhaps, the musical equivalent of making a silk purse out of sow's ear; use the least number of notes to create an implied complexity. the two principal proponents of the minimalist musical genre were/are arguably reich and philip glass, the latter renowned for his soundtrack to the ecological film koyaanisqatsi and the succeeding poyaaniqatsi. not only had i found a cheap double album to while away the hours, but discovered a musical style that i still find relevant to this day.
of course, minimalism is hardly the sole preserve of the musical milieu. it's reach extends into daily life, worryingly, even in contradiction to rule#12, but more demonstrably by way of homely decor and feng shui, where one lives as simply and starkly as is practicable, veering close to the strictures of zen buddhism on occasion. in a contemporary world of endless unnecessary gadgetry and social complexities, that can hardly be seen as iniquitous and though the bicycle may have resigned portions of its original simplicity, it ill behoves us to ignore the simpler aspects of the velocipedinally minimalist existence.
keen to support this particular mindset is craftsman ken holiday, who hails from bucks county, near philadelphia, usa. having recently founded loma living to offer sustainable products to the cycling world, ken fashions distinctly minimalist yet immensely practical wooden bike racks on which to place your pride and joy when there's either no shed, or no room in the current one. these can be acquired made from either mahogany or maple, the former in small or large sizes, as can be seen from the illustrations. these racks are so simple in their origination that you really have to wonder why no-one's inhabited this level of design simplicity before now.
the shelf of each rack features a shallow slot into which the top tube comfortably sits. ken says that if the bike's handlebars are wider than 9" or 25cm from the wall, the front wheels will sit slightly askance from the straight and narrow, but since that is rarely an oily part of the bicycle, there should be no real danger of incurring the wrath of any civilians with whom you may share your abode. should you have need of greater space, there's a larger mahogany version available at extra cost.
though loma living is based in philadelphia, the fact that the pricing appears in uk sterling for british based cyclists would hopefully indicate that shipping to the uk is a distinct possibility. yes, transatlantic carriage may add a pound or two, but in my humble opinion, it's always worth investing a little extra when style and pragmatism are at stake.
the loma living standard size mahogany or maple bike rack retails at £83.41 ($110) while the larger mahogany version costs £106.16 ($140).
loma living mahogany bike rack
wednesday 25 october 2017
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................virtually ridiculous
though storm brian imposed its weather-borne iniquities upon the southern portion of the uk, its ministrations pretty much avoided the portion that lies north of the border. this is not to pretend that the hebrides and scotland basked in the glow of an indian summer; we were still well catered for by way of strong winds and heavy downpours, it's just that they were bereft of a boy's or girl's name for identification.
though it's not a point that i'm about to labour, all is not fair in the realm of climatic conditions. last year, when the south of britain was about to be thrashed by yet another atlantic weather front bearing winds allegedly gusting to 70mph, once more, the meteorological office invoked their anthropomorphic abilities and implemented the aforesaid naming procedure. less than a couple of weeks later, scotland bore the brunt of similar but possibly slightly stronger winds and heavier rain, but for us apparently it's simply regarded as nameless weather.
this is not a moan. scotland has been receiving atlantic gales and storms for thousands of years prior to the met office's new name game; it's just the way it is.
but bearing this in mind, on saturday past, the weather fulfilled every bit of the promise offered by xcweather by delivering a deluge of biblical proportions. some of the rivers of water pouring down most, if not all of islay's single track roads, turned an adventurous cycle in to a verisimilitude of white water rafting. one member of g. c. ristorante debbie's who ventured further west than yours truly found his hubs, bottom bracket and both feet immersed in a large pool of water near ballinaby farm.
however, most of us western flandrians are past the point of caring; modern-day waterproofs, though not perfect, now have the ability to keep us warmer and drier than was once the case. when there's a whole section of the cycling wardrobe given over to weatherproof clothing, it is far harder to justify remaining indoors to watch the rain dribble down the sitting room window. and to be honest, who really wants to? one of the greatest features of being a cyclist is the ability to go out riding in any set of weather conditions that stop short of endangering life (that's a story for another day).
not so many years ago, riders were being blown off the road during the spring classics and though it's been a long time since anyone experienced a mud spattered paris-roubaix, we do tend to like our spring classics to be weather-beaten if at all possible. you would, therefore, be forgiven for thinking that the path to a professional cycling contract ought best to be sprinkled with a variety of meteorological conditions, toughening the individual to a hard, yet potentially rewarding career.
however, the worlds of artificial intelligence and virtual reality would appear to be conspiring to make such difficulties a thing of the past. before long, if life progresses in the manner that gives serious cause for concern, there will be no need for motorbikes or helicopters to provide stage by stage coverage of our once favoured races. i make this somewhat far-fetched prediction based on the news that zwift has produced the first round of top graduates from its academy for 2017, moving closer to a contract with top ranked men's and women's professional teams.
the telling portion of the press release announcing this bizarre set of circumstances includes the news that the semi-finalists (20 of them) "completed a structured program of group rides, races, and workouts over a six week period in the Zwift online cycling environment. (the emphasis is mine). if you read that to mean what i think it means, these potential top level cyclists have achieved their status without having set cleated foot out of doors. and as if to add insult to injury, the canyon/sram zwift finalists, along with those participating in a similar programme sponsored by team dimension data will receive turbo trainers as just reward while they progress to the next round.
it's not too hard to envision the likelihood of riders such as the graduates of zwift's academies eventually completing entire seasons of racing without ever coming into contact with the great outdoors. and eurosport's commentators will be simply commentating on computer generated parcours and a peloton of avatars aboard digitally generated carbon fibre.
that, however, will scarcely trouble me at all. for i'll still be out in the wind and rain enjoying real cycling.
tuesday 24 october 2017
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