thewashingmachinepost




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all show, all go

merckx tt bike

does it really cost £13,000 ($26,000) or more, to make a track bike? well, that seems to depend on who you ask, and depends also on whether you think this is value for money. it's kind of difficult to tell right at the minute, because the bicycles to which i refer, are being ridden to gold medal after gold medal by the british track team. if we all go with our gut feeling on this, chris hoy could probably demolish a good proportion of his opposition on something out of the early learning centre (i exaggerate, but probably not by much) - you have to believe that it's the man (or woman) and not the bicycle; an argument chris boardman will be well acquainted with. and i would imagine that graeme obree building a world beating machine out of washing machine parts would tend to support my supposition.

so while we cyclists are all very grateful for the large wads of cash showered upon the british track cycling endeavour by the lottery fund, i do wonder whether building custom carbon frames to catapult messrs hoy, maclean, pendleton, romero et al to world track fame is specifically the best use of part of this money. this isn't one of those knee-jerk reactions, nor is it a build them up, knock-em down approach; i do remember asking myself the very same question long before track success headed our way in such large quantities.

as evidence for my undoubtedly unpopular assertion, the mighty vicky pendleton was beaten for gold in the women's keirin by jennie reed, and ms reed was riding a look carbon bike (incidentally wearing the same five spoke mavic wheels as miss pendleton) which could probably be had off the shelf for a darned sight less cash than the anonymous british carbon. of course, this is all pure conjecture - the only way to find out whether i am right, or i am wrong, would be to put the whole team on 'standard' carbon frames, take a step back, and watch what happens. is the bike really that good, or is it dumbo's white feather? but i shouldn't think anyone's willing to risk that, particularly at beijing.

what brought this all to mind once more, was seeing the bicycles ridden by the extremely young belgian women's pursuit team. while they fared less successfully than the british team (actually, they came last, about ten seconds slower), the oldest member of the team was only eighteen, and like many of the women pursuiters, somewhat unused to the discipline. they were all riding eddy merckx easton alloy frames (yes, alloy) in one of two derivatives: the frame can be had in either track or road time-trial format. ironically, graeme freestone king, the uk merckx importer told me that these frames can be had by ordinary mortals (that's you and me) 'though it'd need to be reasonably well-off ones, though, as they retail at about £2275 ($4500) for frame and forks'. ironic because that's about one-sixth the cost attributed to the british frames. graeme also suspects that the belgian women's team version benefitted from amadeus carbon aero track forks, because the easton ec-90 road going version, would be unlikely to cope with the higher side-loads imposed by track riding.

belgian women's pursuit team

observations such as that posited above, may lead the passive reader to suspect that i watch track cycling from an entirely different perspective than those cheering fans at manchester, but i must now either detract from, or provide support for that myth. watching the belgian ladies doing their youthful best on the manchester boards, it was the rather stylish block merckx lettering emblazoned on the not insubstantial down tubes that attracted my attention. good old white on black. while eddy's looking the other way, i must confess that i'm not a huge fan of the font generally employed on merckx frames (i think it's a variant of arial rounded), but this lettering really looked the biz.

is that really trifling of me?

eddymerckx.be

pursuit photo: cyclingnews.com

posted on monday 7th april

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competition result

anquetil book

not only am i quite overwhelmed with the number of entries received for thewashingmachinepost competition to win a copy of paul howard's sex, lies and videotape - a biography of jacques anquetil, but so was the author. from the uk and europe came the bulk of the entries, but also from as far afield as canada, the united states, japan and australia - very comforting to know that there are so many people reading the post in so many different places. maybe islay is the hub of the universe after all.

however, i did only have one copy to give away, courtesy of publishers, mainstream, and it was won by tom fitzpatrick in dublin. congratulations to tom, and a copy of the book will be in the post on monday - i hope you enjoy it as much as i did. for those who missed out on winning, time to go to your local bookshop or amazon, and buy a copy. i asked which rider was most associated with jacques anquetil throughout the majority of his career, and the answer i was looking for - raymond poulidor. if it's any consolation, pretty much all of you got it right.

posted on sunday 6th april

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you know when you've been tango'd

wind

in the words of robert millar there's training, and then there's training, and today's ride was just the wrong side of training. having employed thomas chapple's heart rate method up as far as easter weekend, the base training part of the equation is now considered to have been completed. it is arguable as to whether this is actually the case, but with only just over eighty days to go before jez and i have to emulate honed athletes (we are, we are) on the way out of hampton court golf club, heading for paris, that will have to suffice for now. no more mister nice guys.

now we're going for distance and speed, and failing miserably at both. however, i can confidently put my hand in the air and confess that it's not really our fault. the plan for today was to have covered 100km in a smattering of minutes, before retiring to debbie's for a couple of well earned double espressos. the only part of this story that came true was the double espressos. granted, we pretty much knew we were in for a kicking (so to speak), after a free ride along the island's high road, but when we turned onto the low road (we're a simple people up here) we weren't prepared for the headwind; there are headwinds and there are headwinds, but heaven knows where this one came from.

suffice it to say that conversation was extremely limited for the next fifteen kilometres, and neither bike's computer was troubled much above 21kph. as i sit typing this, my legs are still not speaking to me. one of the few occasions when i have left home looking like robert millar and come home with thighs like chris hoy (just leave me to my world). pity debbie's doesn't do bed and breakfast, because there were still another 15km to go to reach washingmachinepost towers.

something else to mention, that is probably unique to islay, and definitely with an adverse effect on our bike handling skills on uiskentuie strand. at the village of bridgend is sited the island's agricultural auction mart; today saw the first big cattle sale of the year, so there were very large cattle trucks driving up and down the strand, transporting to and from the local farms. when one of these goes past you, in this wind, all you can do is grab tightly on the bars, close your eyes and hope that you're still upright when it has passed. doesn't half play havoc with your training.

first london-paris overseas training camp with emma davies takes place in majorca on may 4th - we're going to pass on that, because there's training, and there's training.

posted on saturday 5th april

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show me the way to go

anthony mccrossan

if you have read the article below this, concerning the ride of the falling rain, you can see just how ad hoc the organisation of same has been, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. we're quite happy about that, but certain correspondence in the comic last year had the opposite point of view. not about the ride of the falling rain specifically, but aimed at the less than professional events on the cyclosportive calendar, both national and international. when you've ridden the london-paris, you can see exactly what they were getting at; fully closed roads, professional technical backup, lead car, organised feed stops, motorcycle outriders, pace car - i could go on. and the fact that some organisers have raised the bar to such a height, in the opinion of our mystery correspondent, means that those in the lower levels should now be honour bound to raise their game accordingly.

but suppose, like for me, organisation at that level is like a foreign language - incomprehensible. where would i find the sponsorship to fund just such a venture? how could i have the event photographed or videoed, maybe even recorded for broadcast (not that i have an ego that would allow me to think of the latter)? and how could i go about letting folks know i'd dome all this in the first place?

left to my own devices, i'd have to start sending e-mails and phoning people that i thought/hoped might be interested in helping in someway or another. but usually before approaching potential funders, the event (and i) would have to appear to be of a professional standard, and i'm not sure i'd know how to go about that. fortunately, there is a company which does, run by somebody with a suitably high-level profile in the business of cycling, and who could tell me to go out for a ride on the colnago, and he'd e-mail when it was all done and dusted.

the company is cyclevox, and the man behind it is anthony mccrossan. let's not be too modest here; i know a lot of people in the cycle business, but anthony knows people who know people, who know people. in the words of cyclevox: 'you bring us a problem, a vision, an idea - we consult with you, our network, and our associates and we provide you with a strategy or a solution.'. but don't get the idea that cyclevox stops short at organising rides or races - they're just as adept at putting potential sponsors in touch with potential team owners, liaising with the media and bringing in associates such as brian smith cycling, peloton design, sprocket promotions - take a click over to cyclevox.com for the full sound and vision. sound, because, unlike my lame and irregular efforts, anthony has promised weekly podcasts, keeping us up to date with the world of cycle media and sponsorship.

maybe we could get anthony to commentate on the ride of the falling rain.

cyclevox.com

posted on friday 4th april

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a wet day out

ride of the falling rain

on sunday 5th august 2007, the idea of stuffing a stowaway jacket in one of the three back pockets of my ardbeg jersey was one of those defensive actions that i'd hoped would be surplus to requirements. history has, of course, proved me entirely wrong; as i proceeded on my merry way to debbie's in bruichladdich to join with the assembled multitudes (and for once there really were multitudes) that grey, fluffy ceiling precipitated on me. and, as also recorded by history, it continued to do so for most of the rest of the day. well, all of the rest of the day, as far as those of s on bikes were concerned. hence, the ride of the falling rain.

but such is the propensity for today's cyclists to not only experience pain and suffering, but be keen enough to do it all again one year later that, in the summer sun that arose on the following day, tentative entries were promised for 2008. now, the cyclosportive calendar is full to bursting, and the majority are of an order of merit higher than islay's ride of the falling rain - nobody knows that more than we - but the company we experienced last year was wonderful, and we can hardly wait until sunday 5th august to get soaking wet all over again.

however, if you check the date on your computer as you read this, the 5th august is some way off. surely we can't be on your case already? well, actually yes, we are. there is no entry form, no entry fee, no feed stops, no motorcycle marshals - in fact all we provide is an illustrated map, and you even have to download that yourself. and any food and drink you may need en route will need to be stuffed in one of your back pockets and in a couple of bottle cages. but we like it that way, because there are not enough of us on islay to handle all the above duties, and we want to ride too. after all, some of us have been riding this (pretty much on our own, most years) for over ten years, and don't have too much intention of stopping now. so it's sort of a case of take it or leave it. we're hoping you'll take it.

however, the one pressing need is accommodation; with islay being of a finite size, the option to stay somewhere nearby doesn't actually exist. so all this is a very long winded way (would you have it otherwise?) of telling you that, if you fancy popping across for a day in the pouring rain, now would be a good time to sort out somewhere comfortable to put your head at night. i can't actually tell you where such accommodation is placed, but i do know a man who can; islayinfo.com should provide enough to get you started, and a quick float over to calmac.co.uk to make sure you're not left on the mainland at a less than strategic moment.

of course, there is a website for all this, on which any meaningful statements of intent can be found, along with the previously mentioned downloadable, illustrated route map - rideofthefallingrain.net - and also an e-mail address where you can sign up for some intermittent newsletters. if you're really thinking of entering, an e-mail of intent would be nice, and while it's not compulsory, we would strongly suggest that you garner at least a modicum of sponsorship to benefit the braveheart fund. it's nice that scotland's younger riders might gain from our intended soaking.

we'd love for you to join us, and we might just have an informal post ride munch, so that we can get to meet all those who dropped us on the first hill out of bruichladdich, and we never saw again for the remainder of the day. and as an added enticement, ardbeg distillery are generously providing a free dram to all participants at the half-way refreshment stop at the old kiln cafe.

the only worry is that it doesn't rain

posted on friday 4th april

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a grand day out

three jerseys

i wrote in these very pixels not so very long ago about robert millar's incredible ride on the way to superbagneres in the 1989 tour de france. unfortunately, that tour is pretty much only remembered for one thing - greg lemond beat laurent fignon by eight seconds in the last day's time trial. however, at least two of the protagonists in that year's tour have a bearing on the present.

i'm not a great frequenter of youtube, but i'm willing to bet that you could find millar's subsequent victory at superbagneres documented somewhere amongst the many others concerning the diminutive scottish climbing hero. and were you to watch the latter kilometres of said stage you'd see the spaniard pedro delgado (who stole millar's 1995 vuelta), catch robert on the final climb, but receive his just desserts as millar outsprinted him for the stage win. delgado rode for the reynolds aluminium team that particular year, his blue and white jersey contrasting with millar's less conservative z jersey.

in 1984, robert millar won the king of the mountains jersey in the tour, but the overall was taken by laurent fignon, and one place ahead of millar in third place, was the american, greg lemond - both the french winner and lemond rode that year, in the colours of renault-elf gitane. in 1984, renault-elf gitane also won the team prize.

mercier cap

of course, it's only coincidence that three of the above riders have racing connections to each other separated by five years; and a modern-day connection to prendas ciclismo. why? because in two of the above jerseys are now available in the flesh, so to speak - and one of them isn't millar's 'z' shirt.

beautifully made and exclusive to prendas, the renault-elf and delgado's reynolds aluminium jersey can be had for £35 ($70) in ten sizes in short sleeve fashion. of course, delgado's star was later eclipsed by one of his reynolds team-mates - miguel indurain. and for that final necessary accessory, matching elf-renault and reynolds casquettes have also been added to the prendas range for only £6 ($12) each.

and just while we're sitting here discussing the availability of matching casquettes, not only is the mercier-hutchison-bp jersey now available (in the flesh, a jersey that is seriously impressive) for a similar £35 ($70), but an equally stylish cap to match sneaks in, similarly priced at £6 ($12). however, such is the magnanimity of the chaps at prendas, add one other cap to your list, and you can have the four for only £20.

can you afford not to?

posted on thursday 3rd april

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road bike maintenance by guy andrews. published by a & c black. 199 pp illus. £16.99 spiral bound softback.

road bike maintenance

there is the ever present dilemma within the realm of bicycle ownership. judging by some of the wrecks that are left to try my maintenance skills, bicycles have a phenomenal survival instinct; i, along with probably every other cycle mechanic in the land, have seen some frighteningly dead looking machines that still seem to function in a manner that would not completely divorce them from the description bicycle. almost.

but move up the food chain a bit, and it becomes necessary for the bicycle to perform a darned sight better than just ok. i know that there are professionals who will ride anything they are presented with, and who would struggle big time if there wasn't a yellow car with mavic painted on the bonnet somewhere in their depth of field. however, the art of cycle maintenance is not something that need worry the professional, but it most certainly is something that should concern the wannabe pro or cultivated amateur. and here we are back to the dilemma - do you fix it yourself, or do you drop it off at the local bike shop and let the professionals deal with it?

obvious difference in the long term is the cost - those guys in the shop have to earn a crust or two, so they're not going to smile cheerfully and wave your proffered cash away on collection. but in the short term, todays bicycles demand a plethora of tools that are not particularly cheap, and with the current rate of progress in component development, an upgrade in parts probably means a few more tools. and anyway, it's all very well buying a comprehensive set of bicycle spanners, but who knows what to do with them (even though they look very impressive hanging on the bike shed wall)? short of going on a cycle maintenance course, the only recourse is to thumb through the various how to books.

years and years ago, i owned (and probably still own, if i could only find it) a copy of richard's bicycle book, an earnest tome that enthused the newbie cyclist and provided a solid overview of bicycle mechanics as they pertained to the bicycles of the day. however, illustrations of each procedure were sadly few and far between, and the warning that removal of bottom bracket cups might result in myriad bearings spewing forth, did little to inspire confidence in the do it yourself method. (this was in the days of loose bearings inside a cup and cone, square taper bottom bracket.)

whizz forward a substantial number of years, and bicycle maintenance books are rather thicker on the ground, from the 'i could have bought a bicycle for that price' barnett's and sutherland's manuals, to the rather more affordable end of the market. and working on the principle that there are only so many different ways to remove an inner tube, such books are much of a muchness. or at least, they used to be.

enter guy edwards, who seems to have been hiding his light under a well concealed bushel all these years. granted, he and rohan dubash treated thirty lucky blighters to a display of race preparation of a colnago just over a week ago, but mr andrews really knows his bananas. and doubtless his considerable experience of editing roadcycling.co.uk and latterly rapha's luxurious roadie magazine, rouleur, has benefitted not only the writing style of road bike maintenance but also the photography, expertly and artistically provided by gerard brown. road bike maintenance you may consider this a conceit in a book concerning oily bits and bobs, but believe me, it makes more of a difference than you'd think. and it's composed in a pleasant, chatty style that never treats the reader as the incompetent he/she may well be - but not for long.

this is also one of the first, if not the first book of its type to deal with sram components - with the precision required in the maintenance of many contemporary gear systems, there's little point in trying to bodge it by making it up as you go along. cheerfully, it's not just modernity that fills the clearly illustrated pages; having just assembled an elderly steel frame, fitting a one inch chris king external headset for a quill stem, it's nice to see such componentry adequately covered.

neither has practicality of use been ignored - i have several cycle maintenance books that employ a standard perfect binding, a format that does not lend itself easily to being left open at a specific page without lying something heavy on at least one corner. mr andrews' team issue, is spiral bound and printed on stiff paper; reading, while both hands are trying manfully not to drop miniscule but screechingly important titanium parts, has been brought within the realms of practicality.

inspiringly, chapter four is entitled all in a mechanic's day which does exactly what it says on the heading, and which reader of thewashingmachinepost could possibly miss out on a book which has a colnago on the cover, and a photograph of graeme obree inside? for reasons i cannot fathom, this manual seems not to have received the widespread publicity it so richly deserves (or maybe i just lead a sheltered life) - if you've a notion that you might like to maintain your own bicycle, or have decided that it's definitely a possible maybe, buy this one, and start getting mucky.

now

posted on thursday 3rd april

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chewing on cobbles

brooklyn jersey

it's only just over a week to the high point of the spring classics, and perhaps the finest cycle race on the entire year's calendar. paris roubaix. while those with an inclination towards punditry speak with great confidence on who they expect will win the 2008 event, its history has hghlighted the careers of many of the greats - many who became recognised as great, due to their association with being first across the cobbles and first across the line of roubaix velodrome. such a one was roger de vlaeminck, a rider who became known as mr paris roubaix and also one of only three riders along with rik van looy and eddy merckx who won the five monuments of paris roubaix, the tour of flanders, milan sanremo, the tour of lombardy and liege-bastogne-liege. (incidentally, merckx won the five monuments twice).

de vlaeminck won paris roubaix four times (so now you know where the nickname came from) having ridden the race fourteen times, never finishing worse than seventh and only failing to finish once. and during five of those years in the 1970s, de vlaeminck rode for the brooklyn chewing gum team - a team with one of the most distinctive and fondly remembered jersey designs of recent history. and who do we know that specialise in resurrecting many of the great cycling jerseys of yesteryear?

indeed. having obtained all the necessary permissions from perfetti van melle (milano) to use the brooklyn logo, prendas ciclismo are the only company to have the luxury of offering - in a total of ten sizes, and in short and long sleeve versions - santini's modern replica of roger de vlaeminck's jersey. sadly, these will not be in stock in time for a veritable army of us to sit in our armchairs on sunday 13 april, wearing said jersey and the already available brooklyn casquette, but they are available to pre-order for late april/early may delivery. costing £45 and £55 ($90 - $110), the weather is bound to have warmed sufficiently by that time, enabling the wearing of short sleeves - if not, there's the long sleeve. heck, buy both.

and a cap.

prendas.co.uk

posted on wednesday 2nd april

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an erudite lot

embrocation magazine

prompted by the arrival, in more than one format, of screeds of the printed and pixelled words on cycling, makes one realise just what an interesting bunch of people some of us are. i don't wish to appear blase, but i am occasionally privileged enough to be offered the opportunity to read forthcoming titles before ink has hit the page, along with a seemingly regular flow of review copies, and the standard of writing has been noticeably on the increase year upon year. with the exception of such as maintenance manuals and touring books, many of them are of a standard that punch well above their weight, in the congested world of non- fiction publishing.

it's probably not too much of a stretch to realise that i am, through the auspices of these pixels, preaching to the converted. other than the few who arrive at these yellow pages searching for a tumble drier or an actual washingmachine (yes, it still happens) you are probably all cyclists; if further evidence of this were needed, i could point you in the direction of the number of correct answers i have so far received for the anquetil competition - an unlikely scenario from passing browsers. and many of the books i have recently read, or currently reading/proofing, have attained the ability to transcend their subject matter; you wouldn't need to be obsessed with cycling to find them of interest. and the capacity to write thus, relies on a developed degree of intelligence and strong writing.

i'm not decrying books written about other sports - i have neither the time nor the inclination to read about football, rugby, motor racing etc., which may well be my loss, but it almost proves my point, in that there is a more than sufficient stream of cycling literature and photography to fill pretty much all the spare time i have when not exercising the company colnago. yesterday, all the way from the good old usa, came volume one of a somewhat loosely defined cycling magazine entitled embrocation, promulgated by a mr jeremy dunn about whom, sad to say, i know very little. this first volume of what is hopefully to become a regular affair concerns itself primarily with the world of cyclocross; imagine something like rouleur eaten by a fanzine from the eighties. it's a wee bit rough around the edges (i should talk) but it is exciting, has some intriguing (in a good way) notions about graphic design, and a way with words that fringes on cutting edge. and for the fontaholics amongst us, body text is gill sans.

i have no idea whether volume two will also concern itself with cyclo-cross, but a bit like my earlier pontifications about transcending the medium, it wouldn't worry me if it did or didn't. and a bit like fixie inc.'s betty leeds and rapha's rouleur, it's worth buying a copy on the name alone. should you be persuaded to avail yourself of a copy, embrocation volume one can be ordered via jeremy's embrocation blog ($19/approx £10), and presumably future copies will be available via the under construction website.

so cycling's almost as good as the open university, but much more fun.

posted on wednesday 2nd april

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