an annual feature in our local newspaper bears the title that was the year that was, in which it takes a look back at the last twelve months as seen through the pages of the last 26 editions. it has fallen to me to compile that quick burst of nostalgia, though i confess that i'm nowhere near as good as a former exciseman who was responsible for composing this quick look back when i commenced working at the newspaper almost thirty years ago. in comparison to my rather dry prose, he had an uncanny knack of making it highly entertaining, making unseen connections between happenstances that, try as i might, i seem incapable of emulating.
not that i count myself as particularly nostalgic, but it is quite bizarre, when rummaging through the past year's issue, to realise just how recently many of these new items took place. in many instances, i would have sworn the events had been either earlier or later. no doubt that explains the number of callers who insist that an article or advert in which they're interested, appeared in print only a matter of weeks past. on closer examination, we discover they were published some years ago. that's the trouble with the past; totally inconsistent to the average memory.
however, what isn't in any doubt, is that every weekend for the past year, at least up until the sunday prior to christmas, i was out riding my bicycle in all weathers. as i have doubtless pointed out on previous occasions, relying on my 37 years of hebridean experience, i know in what conditions it's safe to ride and in which conditions i should stay home and put in some drum practice instead. though some of the windspeeds have been close, by and large, i managed to ride every single weekend up until 22 december, when galeforce winds in excess of 80kph put paid to any notions of holding the annual mince pie ride.
during those months, predominantly at weekends, i like to assure myself that i was in the process of cultivating a healthy degree of base fitness, something that allowed me the luxury of riding in those galeforce winds without the necessity of looking for overnight accommodation at the other end. all the training manuals i have been fortunate to review have advised that, prior to undertaking any specific training programme, it was necessary to cultivate the aforesaid base fitness. before making my attempts to ride from london to paris with hotchillee, i spent up to easter of each year riding 80km each saturday at minimal heart-rate, then ramping things up over easter weekend. surprisingly (to me at least), that strategy seemed to work.
since then, however, i have desisted from any formal training schedule, preferring instead, to simply ride my bicycle around the estates, enjoying the view and the exercise, without once relying upon strava or any other means of online measurement of my exertions. i'll never win anything, but it has kept me fit as i, along with everyone else, get a little older each year. at least, that was my perception.
however, as documented at the onset of the new year, the visit of a family member over the festive holiday break, resulted in both mrs washingmachinepost and yours truly contracting 'flu which, i don't mind telling you, felled us both for several days, preventing several weekend cycles in the forlorn hope that further rest would speed the recovery period. i am in the habit of riding each and every saturday and sunday, with a shorter, fortnightly ride on friday afternoons. as a result, my average weekly kilometreage has been in close proximity to 160km which, i hope you'll agree, is a reasonable distance with which to accumulate a semblance of fitness.
so how come the combination of 'flu and missing a couple of saturday rides, has conspired to relieve me of pretty much all that acquired fitness? yesterday's regular sunday ride returned to the usual parcours during which i suffered like a dog, in temperatures barely above freezing and curated by a stiff breeze, particularly out near the atlantic coast. so it appears that i now have to start right at the beginning and accumulate all that fitness once again.
think of it as a hobby.
monday 13 january 2025
for the purposes of what follows, i have chosen not to mention specific names, either of the bicycle marque in question, or those associated with my inadvertent discoveries. the situation described is, hopefully, applicable in very few cases, but it does rather behove the rest of us to be particularly aware when time comes to invoke the n+1 rule.
as i have mentioned on several previous occasions, i am an habitual visitor to youtube, principally to witness the ultimately redundant percussive skills of the ever-growing battalion of online drummers. aside from marvelling at their ability or acumen in possessing very expensive drums and cymbal sets, it appears that very few of them (male or female) ever spend any time playing with real musicians, preferring to present their technically enhanced versions of existing songs. i can but presume these drummers spend the majority of their spare time learning each and every beat straight from the original recordings (in which case, why not just listen to the original recordings?), but would any of them fare quite so well if informed of the required song only minutes before having to play it in front of an audience? and then doing so again and again until evening's end?
i and very many others have been required to do just that on many occasions. it still happens to me even today.
however, while smugly ignoring the bulk of the above cited videos, i came across a relatively short video in which a respected bike shop mechanic demonstrated why the carbon fibre frame of a known marque should be more closely examined externally and internally. he also made a cogent point about why this particular brand seemed not to be available as frame-only, requiring instead that the intrepid customer purchase a complete bicycle. the mechanic in question clearly and methodically pointed out several flaws in the construction of the carbon frame, particularly notable from the vantage point of the head tube and headset seating.
i should advise, as did the gentleman himself, that this was not a random quality check; the bicycle had been purchased via mail order over a year previously, but the customer had found it to be excessively compliant, and from which emanated more creaks than one would hope to hear from a new bicycle. in desperation, he had submitted it to the care of this bike shop, and so surprised was the mechanic by what he found after the bike was stripped to the bare frame, that it appears he felt it prudent to make the rest of us aware of his findings.
i'm sure many of us have seen similar warnings in the past; i recal an online gallery of images culled from various carbon horrors, demonstrating just how little existed between riders and possibly serious injury due to poorly formed or lay-up of carbon matting. there have been occasions when the more serious cases have only come to light when the frame was cut apart. if nothing else, such instances reinforce why it makes sense to purchase from a reptable source or brand.
however, this particular video, in and of itself was, as we have discussed, hardly a singular example. where reynolds once required licensed builders wishing to use their 753 tubing, to submit several examples before receiving accreditation, there's almost nothing similar required for anyone who fancies making a frame out of carbon fibre, other than the financial wherewithal to get started. and because monocoque frames are no longer constructed from actual tubing, hiding the join, so to speak, has become a darned sight simpler. however, the worst part of this monologue is not actually the above mentioned video, but what followed.
because youtube is owned by google, and because google has a nasty habit of tracking everything you do online, when i refreshed the page, i was treated to another, but entirely different video concerning the same brand. this time, the presenter admitted that he was a bona-fide ambassador for the brand, and had been provided (on long term loan, he said), with the bicycle he was subsequently seen assembling in his garage. all the componentry was already in place, simply requiring him to remove the packaging, fit the wheels and straighten the handlebars. i think it safe to assume that the gent had been supplied with the bicycle in his position as an influencer, competing as he did in time trials and ultra-endurance events.
though he did express one or two qualms about the bicycle he was seen to be riding, generally the outcome was particularly positive, and were you in the market for a similar type of bicycle, it's not hard to think that you might have been swayed by his enthusiasm and apparently sound knowledge in such matters. however, life's not quite like that.
it is a number of years now since i desisted from reviewing bicycles on thewashingmachinepost, but i think it pertinent to point out that never once in all the years that i did undertake bicycle reviews, did any of the manufacturers or distributors question my ability to perform a fair and reliable review. in fact, up until the e-mail landed in their inbox, i would think that very few of those charged with sending out review models had ever heard of me. and it was, overall, a bit of a mixed bag; some were obviously interested in what i had to say, others were really only looking for column inches and showed little concern for any quirks i may have happened upon during the review period. i'd imagine the situation is pertinent to every other reviewer on the planet, particularly individuals such as yours truly, who reviewed bicycles and componentry because they wanted to, rather than on the baisis of being qualified so to do.
like a trained bicycle mechanic for instance.
sunday 12 january 2025
my first road bike was bought as a present from mrs washingmachinepost many, many years ago, when i decided that driving my motor car only a few miles to work each day was hardly the most energetic or, indeed, economic means of arriving at a building to which i previously had cheerfully walked. the bicycle was acquired from one of the era's ubiquitous mail-order catalogues, allowing mrs twmp to pay an equitable sum of money each month, and providing yours truly with a plain gauge, steel frame replete with ten-speed transmission, drop bars and downtube gear levers. thankfully, if memory serves correctly, it did not suffer from a pair of auxiliary brake levers along the underside of the bars, levers that were positioned as a safety feature, but in the my experience, were anything but.
the rear gear mech was sourced from shimano, but i cannot recall if the front mech and chainset were similarly marqued. what i do remember is that the chainrings were the singular option of 42/52 and, as was customary on budget componentry, rivetted together. none of this gave much cause for concern at the time, as i realised that i knew precious little about road bicycles, but was unaware that the gearing was very far from a practical solution to my needs. any such attempt at pragmatism had been heavily outweighed by my desire for a ten-speed racer a style of bicycle i had lusted after for more years than i care to relate, ever since my younger brother had been presented with one by my parents, while i was saddled (literally) with a raleigh shopping bike.
the unsuitability of the gearing was brought starkly to light when i attempted to reprise a robert millar tour de france attack by riding the hill between barassie and dundonald, blissfully unaware that a) i possessed none of millar's skills as a grimpeur, and b) did not possess either the gearing or leg strength to make my ascent stick. in fact, i'd to come to a complete halt only part way in order to throw-up. i later discovered, in my quest to acquaint myself with the nooks and crannies of velocipedinal technology, that millar's inner chainring was either 38 or 39 (i forget which), but eminently more sensible than my rivetted 42. how could it be that a bicycle which arrived with a signed team poster, be less than equal to the machinations of a ten-stone weakling?
only subsequently did i become acquainted with the marketing trend of selling machinery designed for professionals to civilian members of the population who were singularly bereft of the professional attributes. granted, my plain steel ten-speed racer would have been laughed at by any self-respecting professional rider, but its versimilitude to that of the custom frames ridden by my betters, was obviously designed to fool the unwary. let's face it; anyone who bought a road bike from a mail order catalogue (or allowed it to be bought), was probably unlikely to realise the enormous chasm between it and the machinery to be seen in the tour de france.
they were right.
i consider myself to be far better informed nowadays, easily able to identify the gearing that suits my dwindling physique, fully appraised of the chainring size and crank length best suited to my abilities and purposes, and even comfortable in my choice of wheels. all those years that have passed in between have been judiciously employed in adding to my battery of pragmatic knowledge, such that i have occasionally ventured to advise others. i would once have said it possible to learn all i needed to know, before sitting back and wallowing in my self-acquired smugness, but i no longer believe that to be the case. framebuilders and component manufacturers, in their headlong rush to ensure there's always something new to sell, seem to have brought road cycling to a pinnacle that some are now trying to say, might not have been the wizard wheeze it once appeared.
i count myself amongst their number, but it has to be admitted that the opinions of chris froome and belgian, wout van aert, are likely to carry far more clout than a cycling blogger on a west coast island. both of the above have commented to the uci, that they feel road cycling is becoming too fast to guarantee a minimum level of safety for its practitioners. while my rivetted chainset may have sported 42 and 52 tooth chainrings, and though cycling has dallied with compact chainsets featuring inner rings as small as 34 tooth, it has been said that the more modern standard, for flat stages at least, is now 54 or even 56. match those with either an 11 or ten sprocket (my first road bike had a smallest sprocket of only 14 teeth), and you offer riders the opportunity to pedal and possibly accelerate even on the steepest of descents. and that, according to messrs froome and van aert, is compromising rider safety.
on the other hand, of course, it has also been pointed out that the world tour peloton is comprised of experienced professionals, riders ostensibly with the skillset to manage such speeds, and perhaps even make use of such technology to ride even faster. that does not, however, obviate the fact that speeds in excess of 100kph are being achieved with little in the way of personal protection and upon tyres that, at best, are scarcely wider than 30mm. disc brakes may well be the equal of such speeds, but that only makes sense if the tiny patch of rubber in contact with the road, can maintain adequate grip. and it quite possibly can't.
however, if you care to cast your mind back to my first road bike and its 42/52 chainset that was in no way appropriate for this weakling to conquer dundonald hill, it was so constituted, because that's what the pros used. and given the steamrolling of the marketing machine, there's every possibility that a modern-day twmp, buying his first road bike, might soon end up with an aero frame outfitted with a 56/39 chainset, coupled with a 30-10 cassette.
because that's what the pros use.
saturday 11 january 2025
let us, for a brief moment at least, suspend disbelief and pretend that i possess at least a basic level of entrepreneurship, sufficient to have me enter the bicycle industry with some portent of success. though i've conducted little research into the finer points, i'm reasonably assured that i could create my own bicycle brand, farming out manufacture to a factory in the far east which would provide me with a carbon frame that ticks all the boxes, though perhaps a rung or two below what currently passes for state-of-the-art. financial agreements in place, they are ready and willing to place thewashingmachinepost on that oversized down tube.
assuming my faux entrepreneurial prowess fails me not, and it transpires i can demonstrate the marketing nous that i would have you believe is mine, it may well be possible to interest one or two bike shops in stocking my products, (or possibly to opt for online sales) perhaps without so much as the ability to tell the difference between shimano di2 and sram axs. if i can employ the services of a book-keeper with a better grasp of numbers than yours truly, my future is set. i realise that the above is a gross oversimplification of matters, particularly in the light of current industry headwinds, but it would mean that said bicycles, reputedly emanating from the washingmachine stable, are scarcely reliant on me at all, other than as someone who fills in an order form and ultimately pays the bills.
at the risk of incurring the ire of those who well know that life is scarcely that simple, have i perhaps not just described certain portions of the contemporary bicycle industry? for instance, it has been reported that arguably britain's best-loved and well-known brand (raleigh) has experienced a £30 million loss. the relevance here is surely that raleigh is, in fact, owned by dutch conglomerate, accell, and its description as a british bike manufacturer is, in fact, something of a subterfuge. as far as i'm aware, raleigh closed down and sold all its uk manufacturing facilities many years ago. though described as nottingham-based, i believe that refers solely to having administrative offices in the city.
in order to stave off the red figures at the foot of the balance sheet, accell had already made job cuts, the closing of raleigh's parts and accessories business and additionally, the warehousing operations, opting instead, to partner with a third party. surely that leaves only the name raleigh as a reminder of a once glorious past? were we to visit nottingham next week, would there be anything tangible we might image as representative of once britain's best-loved bike brand?
there certainly exists a raleigh chief executive officer (chris slater), whose optimism seems to fly in the face of the financial dismay currently faced in the boardroom. employing a mere 130 staff, mr slater claims that recent changes have "left the company in a strong position when the market returns to a more normal and stable state." who knows when that might happen, but surely there's scarcely enough of a company to experience any return to form? and were matters not bad enough with a £30 million loss, it transpires that the parent company made a pre-tax loss of a whopping £346,673,878 following a £37.6 million profit the year before.
of course, just as the whisky industry continually points to the amount of stock clogging international sales channels to explain a 'minor' downturn, the bicycle industry too, relies on explaining "high inventory levels" as the reason for its woes. however, we are now entering 2025, almost four years on from the covid pandemic that reputedly encouraged the manufacturers to order stock like there was no tomorrow. can it really be that the passing years have not managed to lower the inventory to appropriate levels, and is it prudent to once again ask what brought these professional companies to believe that sales levels experienced during the pandemic were likely to continue ad finitum?
it is, of course, a tad unfair to point the finger solely at raleigh, simply because they are owned by an investment company, and not necessarily masters of its own future. fiercely independent british folding bike manufacturer, brompton, has also posted news of a financial downturn, with profits decreasing 'sharply' by 5%. the company blamed such circumstances on "global economic uncertainty and challenges in the industry". brompton's problems are possibly of slightly more concern, since its market tends to lean towards commuters, rather than sports and leisure cyclists. does that mean, perhaps, that general bike use might still be on the decline?
with rapha, endura, and le col all having noted financial losses and david millar's chptr 3 having gone into liquidation, maybe this is not the time to have thewashingmachinepost emblazoned on a carbon downtube.
friday 10 january 2025
i cannot deny that i was most welcoming of an article floating around the perimeter of my page-layout programme this week, if only for the space it subsequently occupied towards the back of this week's newspaper. its fortnightly publication schedule allows for one week of preparation followed by essentially the 'production week' at which point, all has to be completed and sent to either or both the printers. the preparation is a far more relaxed affair, offering appropriate time to research the next planned series of articles and generally pretending to be creative. the latter situation would be far more amenable as a return to work after the so-called festive-break, but unfortunately the nature of the beast generally means returning straight into a production week.
hopefully you understand all of that, because...
...it's probably exactly the same for everyone else returning to work from any holiday time that may have accrued, and as such, have spent the majority of the week trying to gauge just where they are in whatever timeline is relevant. this inevitably means that, attempting to produce a newspaper when all around could care less about my flipping deadline, entails a probable shortage of content. just imagine e-mailing a regular correspondent on monday morning to ask if their contribution is likely to arrive when needed, only to discover that writing 750 words had not been uppermost in their mind, and sadly, they would have to demur for this particular issue.
maybe you now understand my relative cheer on finding the article mentioned within my opening gambit, suitably constituted to fill the majority of space left glaringly vacant by my correspondent who, i later learned, was in the process of readying a holiday-let. more to the point, augmenting its space-filling properties, the article possessed relevance in abundance. in fact, said article had, at some time in the indeterminate past, been supplied by police scotland and detailed the steps best taken by the island's motorists to prepare and drive their vehicles during the winter months. its relevance will hopefully, under present weather conditions, not have passed you by?
much of the advice contained within the article's five or six hundred words is, i would hope, largely self-evident, but it's more than possible that there is a contingent of drivers who fail to prepare in advance, though such preparation would likely be a tad less onerous than for those living near braemar or the grampian mountains. i do believe there was a light covering of snow overnight on the rhinns of islay, and tales emerged of snow on vehicles north of ballygrant, but not since 2010 has there been any likelihood of finding oneself stuck in snow en-route to school or work on the island. however, as if to prove their contemporaneity, police scotland were wont to point out certain concerns that would likely prove relevant only to owners/drivers of electric cars.
of course, you need only take a brief perusal of the bbc website to learn even more information regarding driving in winter, and it's possible that they too included such information on the basis that it provided ready and prudently relevant content at this time of year. ignore it at present and it's possible that its importance may have been diluted by the time the next publication schedule rears its ugly head. however, while making use of the bbc website, if only to verify the accuracy of the article to which i have now referred too often, it dawned on me that there is a somewhat obvious bias in the presentation of such succour to the brave.
there are reputedly just shy of one million regular cyclists in scotland; 18% of the population who claim to ride at least once a week. now whether they might be inclined to brave the current weather conditions on two wheels, i know not. i'm pretty sure some of them will, and were it particularly snowy in bowmore, i can assure you, i'd be one of them. but nowhere in that over-exposed newspaper article, nor indeed on more than just the bbc website, did i come across any salient advice for cyclists who might find it necessary to ride in icy, winter conditions.
eighteen percent is a figure that closes in on one-fifth of scotland's population, so does it not seem a tad iniquitous for scotland's national police force to effectively ignore those velocipedinists who may have no option but to ride their bicycles on icy or snow-coated roads? perhaps the over-riding advice is thought to consist of a simple, 'don't do it', but i did not come across such a recommendation. i have seen a video on youtube that illustrates how 65% of copenhagen's residents cycle to work daily throughout each snowy winter, on cycling infrastructure that is prioritised by the city council. if nothing else, the video clearly demonstrates just how possible it is to do so safely.
surely this doesn't mean that, in the uk, we're still second-class citizens?
thursday 9 january 2025
i don't doubt i have related the following story more than once, but yet again, its relevance has crept up and demands to be taken notice of. both my late father and my brother were followers of what i believe is often referred to as the beautiful game; in other words, football or soccer. my brother, as far as i know, still is. when we were both in our early teens, i would have to suffer the slings and arrows of saturday grandstand on the bbc, where those reputedly in possession of greater knowledge, would advise which teams were likely to emerge victorious from the afternoon's league games.
following my father's and brother's attendance at one of the area's local matches on each successive saturday afternoon, they would return and i would be once again, forced to abandon my own choice of televisual entertainment in favour of watching the football results and listening to a series of talking heads explaining why they'd got it so wrong at lunchtime. for those of you not in thrall to twenty-two blokes kicking a football up and down a parcel of grass, you may be inclined to share my incomprehension.
for instance, given that the average professional soccer match consists principally of two halves of 45 minutes apiece, i did wonder why supposedly grown men (it was, at the time, almost entirely a male preserve) found it necessary to vent their opinions on the likelihood of any given team either winning or losing during the forthcoming sporting endeavour? given that the object of the exercise was surely to place two teams of eleven in opposition with each other to learn, over the course of the next 90 minutes, which was the better side, was the ultimate object not to endure that hour and a half to learn which would triumph? surely, explaining that the butler did it before the kick-off, rather undermined the whole strategy?
i don't doubt that to those living across the pond, used to the more excessive machinations of american football or baseball, those few hours of bbc grandstand would appear as the very encapsulation of amateurism, but that is, truthfully, no excuse. if the world's broadcast industry was to call for a moratorium on what is technically referred to as punditry, nothing about the nature of any sport you care to mention would change for better or worse. and that includes cycling. no matter how often or vociferously orla chennoui might contend that a specific rider was likely to win the day's stage, the end result is statistically unlikely to alter.
i presume that those involved in television sports broadcasts are every bit as aware of such outcomes as are you and i, yet still they persist in extending the fallacy that matters are otherwise.
when eurosport was first available in the uk and the cameras moved over to a stage of the tour de france, we were presented directly with live footage, accompanied by one or two commentators to keep us informed of proceedings. more often than not, mere seconds after the winner crossed the finish line, we would be whisked away to witness european tractor pulling, before any possibility of watching the podium presentations. the advent of brian and anthony on cycling tv eventually brought with it a preview show alongside rebecca charlton on the couch. i know, because i was once invited to join ms. charlton.
tour de france coverage on either eurosport or itv4 now consists of pre and post studio discussions, where punditry has become the daily watchword. which is why the eurosport/discovery+ coverage of the cyclocross season is a refreshing revelation. i know what helen wyman and jeremy powers look like, because both were once championship winning cyclocross riders. however, their commentary partners (jez cox and marty mcdonald) remain unseen, existing in voice only. each 'cross race allows for a brief discussion about the day's parcours before the inevitable discussion over tyre choices, and then we're off. the only reprise of the day's proceedings consists of brief pre and post race interviews with the riders.
with one or two notable exceptions, the majority of sports are sufficiently well constituted to be of intrinsic interest all by themselves; punditry not required. if only someone would realise the truth of that observation before the road season gets properly underway.
the others mentioned above are probably beyond saving.
wednesday 8 january 2025
i feel it would be stretching credibility just a tad too far to imply that the post has a reputation for querying much of the contemporary technology used in road bikes, whether ultimately destined for 'proper' racing, or simply the sunday morning verisimilitude operating at considerably lower speeds. in this instance, it is my understanding that the word reputation could only be employed were such comments to be recognised by industry stalwarts, ostensibly conferring legitimacy upon their well-meaning disparagement. unless things have changed over the festive season, that's a set of circumstances that continue to remain at arm's length.
that said, the list does bear some consideration, including, as it does, integrated headsets, anything other than square-taper bottom brackets, one-piece bar/stem combos, oversize tubing, anything preceded by the word aero and wheels sporting fewer than 32 three-cross, stainless steel, double-butted spokes and rims deeper than 15mm. while wout van aert has suggested that restricted gearing may be the ideal means of reducing speeds within the peloton in order to re-establish better safety, i would contend that adherence to the above thewashingmachinepost list, would be more efficacious than the belgian's undoubtedly more considered and sensible suggestion.
however, one aspect pertaining to bicycle technology that i have so far omitted, is a questionable trend currently followed by the majority of carbon, alloy and steel frame manufacturers, yet seemingly for no definable reason. i refer, of course, to the annoying habit of moving the seatstay connection point midway down the seat-tube. though i have quoted the great man on previous occasions, i asked the inimitable american framebuilder, richard sachs, whether there was any explicable engineering reason for this ultimately pointless technical innovation. ever the well-versed pragmatist, richard replied that i was effectively asking the wrong question; those responsible were not solely in the business of building bicycle frames, but the business of making money.
there may be a great deal of truth in his contention.
aware of the flippancy of mr sachs' response, i have asked the same question of others, but have yet to receive a satisfactory answer. according to my opinion (sorry, richard), it seems highly likely that this modern-day errant positioning of the seat stays is more the result of aesthetics than of any recently explored engineering principles. yet a more succinct observation by yours truly has meant that i am prevented from laying the problem finally to rest.
within the world of cyclocross, the traditional bastions of the sport (stevens and ridley), have been augmented by the likes of cervelo, canyon, specialized, bianchi and others. races such as that held at dendermonde on sunday past (convincingly won by van aert aboard a cervelo) sport such copious amounts of mud, that it becomes difficult not only to read the name on the downtube, but the actual shape of the double-diamond. nonetheless, there are still useful comparative observations to be made.
the double-diamond description has, it seems, greater credibility on the 'cross scene than has become the case on the road. while i doubt there is a single carbon frame employed in the world tour peloton that does not feature dropped seatstays, the only example i've noted in the mud, has been ryan kamp's colnago, and that's because his frameset is sold as a gravel bike by cambiago. every other cyclocross bike has the seat stays join the seat tube on a level with the top tube, whether traditional or sloping (canyon's offering doesn't strictly fit my description, but it's close enough as makes no difference). unfortunately, since i have been entirely ignored when asking about the veracity of the dropped road stays, i have little confidence that i would fare any better if asking why 'cross bikes maintain confidence in the traditional aesthetic.
though cyclocross races generally last a maximum of one hour, it would be prudent to have it pointed out that a five hour tour stage could be categorised as offering greater hardship for the machinery based purely on time and motion studies. however, taking into consideration the immense number of mounts and dismounts, crashes, powered ascents, circuitous descents and drop-offs in the pits included in the average cyclocross event, it would not be out of place to contend that 'cross imposes even greater strain on the double-diamond.
somebody, somewhere, knows the answer and they're not telling. the very definition of a conspiracy theory.
tuesday 7 january 2025