downhill mountain biking gobi desert style

yes i know it is the start of the road race season proper today with omloop het nieuwsblad but it is worth spending a moment watching a fellow by the name of darren berrelcloth who likes nothing more than to take his bicycle and ride it as fast as he can down very high mountains in the gobi desert...nutter!


2000 vert with Darren Berrecloth from NWD films on Vimeo.

classic tommeke?

it was over a month ago that the professional road racing season started with the tour down under in australia.  since then the season has slowly gained momentum with other races such as the tour's of qatar and oman in the middle east.  in europe we've had volta ao algarve and currently being raced is the giro di sardegna.  all of these races are no doubt a very important part of the build up to this year's main events, a chance for the riders to help tune up their racing legs without there being too much pressure.  that is all well and good but from the perspective of a fan i have to admit i find it difficult to get excited about these races. for me the real excitement starts with the opening events on the belgian cycling calender, i'm of course referring to the flemish semi-classic's omloop het nieuwsblad and kuurne-brussels-kuurne.

since the first edition's of both these races that took place in 1945 belgian's have dominated the other nations.  philippe gilbert was belgian's last winner of het nieuwsblad in 2008 making it fifty three victories in total for the belgians.  it is a similar story with k-b-k where the belgians have taken fifty two (i think) victories.  a certain mr boonen was the last belgian victor in 2009.  the point i am trying to make is that all the riders place great importance on these races because their  rich and prestigious history with many greats having the honour of being able to add these races to their palmares, including i may add a select few non-belgians.  ask george hincapie what it means to have won k-b-k, i bet he puts it near the top of his sporting achievements.  the same cannot be said for the seasons openers they cannot become classics over night, this is the difference.

het nieuwsblad and k-b-k are races that matter a hell of a lot.  this is meat and potatoes racing belgian style where the hard men battle it out over rough terrain and often through terrible weather.  tom boonen is the epitome of the hard man stereotype and although he says het nieuwsblad isn't a priority tomorrow we all know he would dearly love to take the victory.  i wonder if boonen can get back to the kind of success that saw him win paris-roubaix in 2009?  the build up so far this season has looked smooth.  boonen is already on the score sheet with victory in stage one of the tour of qatar.  with some quality racing already in his legs he must be one of the favourites for both races this weekend.  unibet have boonen as second favourite behind edvald boasson hagen and in front of philippe gilbert and juan antonio flecha for tomorrows het nieuwsblad.  with both fabian cancellara and heinrich haussler postponing their season in belgium, for the moment at least, this will be a great opportunity for boonen to add the only other missing flemish classic or semi classic to his palmares.  i for one hope he does it, i can't wait!

check out online streaming option for both races here or here.

fausto coppi, velodromo vigorelli, 1953

via milano fixed

hampsten gran paradiso

there are a plethora of blogs out there publishing plenty of quality bike porn and doing a damn better job than i could do which is why i don't often feature bikes here.  however on this occasion there is an exception to the rule.  as soon i saw the latest gran paradiso creation from hampsten cycles i knew i had to profile it here.

sporting a shiny brush finish the titanium frame features an integrated seat post, internal cable routing and is paired up with carbon edge forks and deep mad fiber wheels.  this bicycle is a true north american thoroughbred that will no doubt be turning heads at this year's north american handmade bicycle show.  although i understand this machine is a pure breed, as i enter the realms of fantasy i imagine all i'd need do to create my ultimate road bike would be to switch the groupset on this piece of art from sram red to campagnolo super record 11.  with that done and maybe a spare set of lightweight ventoux's for windy days my choice of bicycle would possibly be set for life.  dream on boy!

laurent fignon: we were young and carefree

i approached reading this book from the angle of somebody who didn't really know a great deal about laurent fignon.  i used to watch what little expose on television there was during the time when he raced but he seemed to pass under the radar for me.  the memories engraved in my mind are of riders like stephen roche, greg lemond, robert millar and of course the terminator himself miguel indurain.  like many i thought of fignon mainly for his defeat at the hands of lemond during the 1989 tour de france when lemond famously clinched overall victory by eight seconds during the final stage, a tt through the streets of paris.

having finished the book i can certainly say it was a pleasure to read about fignon's life especially since he writes with such an easy to read style that is also in no small part due to william fotheringham's beautiful translation into english.  i know this isn't every one's experience, somebody else i know who has read the book found it a difficult read but each to their own.  i just don't see that, i discovered about a rare talent who's rise to the very top of the sport was a swift ascent indeed and certainly of great interest to a fan of cycling such as myself.

on his day fignon was truly a great.  his style of racing was to attack, not in any frivolous manner but in such an intelligent way that when he did push himself into the red he'd leave his opponents for dead.  there would be no answer to his persistent application of power.  i wish i'd paid a little more attention during those rare opportunities many years ago when i watched him on television, it's ironic really that riders like lemond and indurain should be so engraved in my mind when it was always fignon who'd have been the most entertaining to watch.

better late than never though eh?  i now have an appreciation of fignon's achievements which include wins at the tour de france in 1983 and 84, giro d'italia in 89, milan-san remo in 88 and 89, la flèche wallonne in 86 and the critérium international in 82 and 90, all achieved in what fignon might have termed a carefree manner although one may also term his attitude as fearless and although he was no angel i think it is safe to say he was one of the last champions before epo and human growth hormone drugs were to riddle the sport at a time when riders were losing their minds, dignity, honour and in some cases their lives.  fignon claims to have opted out of the madness that spread through the peloton like wildfire, as lemond did.  it is no coincidence that they both retired around the same time, unable to keep the pace with the nobodies who they'd have previously crushed without a second thought.

if you are into reading up on one of cycling's greats, and still the last french man to win the tour de france (i've just realised more than a week after posting this that actually it is bernard hinault who is the last french man to win the tour de france in 1985), then this book is an absolute must.  it is one of the most entertaining and insightful sports biographies i've ever read. it is a great loss to cycling that mr fignon had to pass away at such a young age with yet so much more to give.

laurent fignon: we were young and carefree is published by yellow jersey press.

la course en tête

released in 1974 la course en tête is a classic documentary movie, directed by joël santoni, following belgian cycling super star eddy merckx at the peak of his career through europe's best races.  there is not much talking, just footage of the great man at home, training and racing all accompanied to either ambient sounds or baroque music.  below is the entire film, lasting 110 minutes, broken down into eight parts.  a must see?  definitely.

toy de france

keirin training

via numerius.

i love this guys flickr stream.

route for london 2012 olympic cycling road race

this looks to me like a very exciting route and nice to see it will be one long lap rather than incorporating multiple laps.  it would be good to see the profile too, i suspect there will be a few hillocks to contend with.  for further details click here.

laurent fignon and supercompensation training

i'm currently reading laurent fignon's biography - we were young and carefree.  it certainly is a fascinating read and there will, of course, be a review posted here as soon as i've finished the book.

in one little nugget from the book fignon talks about a method of training i'd never heard of before called supercompensation.  in 1988 prior to milan-san remo fignon and then therapist and close friend alain gallopin used this training method to devastating effect.  in fact fignon used the method prior to his back-to-back milan-san remo victories in 88 and 89.  maybe this method of training used to be or is common place and i've just let it pass me by.  in any case i thought it worth bringing to the attention of those who haven't yet had the pleasure of ready the book.  below is fignon's description, taken from the book, of how supercompensation training works.

just after the 'race to the sun' finished, gallopin and i put a radical plan into operation.  it was supercompensation, in which you go out to exhaust yourself three days before a major race.  it was well thought out, as the future would prove.


there were exactly six days between the end of paris-nice and the saturday of milan-san remo.  here is what i did.  monday and tuesday were devoted to active recovery.  i rode, but no more than necessary to turn the legs over and help me recover.  wednesday was the day for a massive session.  i had to go to the very limit of my strength, until i was exhausted.  the physiological principle was simple: on this day, your body burns up all its reserves, the glycogen that it stores up.  once your stores are empty, your organism overreacts and puts back more than it actually needs.  it takes the body forty-eight hours to do that: three days later, usually, the process of supercompensation is at its height.

so supercompensation is a method of training used to help increase the amount of glycogen the body can store.  i wonder if it could also be applied to running and exactly what level of effort is necessary in both cycling and running for supercompensation to take effect?

olympic gangster: the legend of josé beyaert - cycling champion,fortune hunter and outlaw

olympic gangster: the legend of josé beyaert - cycling champion, fortune hunter and outlaw, written by matt rendell, is the biography of french cyclist josé beyaert who is famous for winning gold in the road race at the 1948 london olympics.  born in lens, beyaert was the eldest of two sons of a flemish labourer who migrated to northern france in 1920.  their father then became a shoemaker and moved his family to paris.  beyaert trained and raced in and around paris during the second world war and put his own life at risk by shipping weapons on his bicycle for the resistance.

apart from his olympic gold, and maybe later victory in south america, beyaert never really fully achieved his potential as a cyclist winning just a handful of races in a career that drastically changed when he and his wife louisette moved to columbia for what was supposed to be a relatively short amount of time only for them to end up staying there for 48 years.  what i mean when i say beyaert's career changed is that although he continued cycling after his move abroad, racing in and winning the prestigious tour of columbia, he never again raced in europe.

his career changed in other ways too, while his wife ran an excellent french restaurant in bogota, he became something of an adventurer.  not only did he become a coach bringing columbian cyclists to race in europe for the first time, he also traded in emeralds and built and ran a sawmill extracting balsa from deep inside the rain forest.  Rendell suggests beyaert may have dabbled with illegal business on multiple occasions but did he really have a hand in the drugs trade and worse of all did he really murder anyone?  the evidence for the last two allegations is flimsy to say the least although considering his lifestyle entirely possible.  beyaert was a character of contradictions.  although there is much he may have done in his life that most people would see as wrong he was also seen by many as a kind, fair, fun loving and a likeable man.

at 331 pages olympic gangster is a fairly heavyweight book which i suppose is justifiable considering what a rich and colourful life beyaert led.  Rendell's research of beyaert's life is extensive due to his interviewing of Beyaert, prior to his death, as well as interviewing family and many who new him.  I found the book to be difficult reading at times, with so many intricate anecdotes maybe Rendell went into too much detail.  having said that though in today's homogenised world where there is a definite lack of characters in the peloton Rendell points us to one of the most flamboyant and free thinking of professional cyclists ever to be written about.

olympic gangster: the legend of josé beyaert - cycling champion, fortune hunter and outlaw costs £11.95 plus worldwide shipping and can be purchased from urban hunter.biz.