man in the mirrors

greg lemond / nissan classic-tour of ireland 1988

via numerius

mr lemond sports the ultimate in mirrored shades.  i worked in the sunglass industry for many years and can honestly say i've never seen a finer example.  bravo!

chris boardman hour record documentary

having become a household name in the uk following gold medal success at the 1992 olympics, chris boardman set out to conquer the prestigious hour record.  this documentary follows the youthful boardman in his first successful 1993 hour record attempt (later downgraded by the uci to the best human effort category.  for more information on this click here), set in the bordeaux velodrome.  boardman gives an honest opinion of himself in terms of the sacrifices and single mindedness needed to succeed.  the documentary also goes into detail about boardmans famous battle with scotsman graham obree who with far less resources competed for the hour record at the same time.

paris-roubaix 1994

here is the last couple of hours (albeit in dutch) of a wet and muddy paris-roubaix 1994 featuring such greats as winner andrei tchmil, franco ballerini, gilbert duclos-lassalle and johan museeuw.  sean yates finishes in a respectable fifth place with frankie andreu ninth (top 25).  oh yes and nearly half the peloton are using rock shox suspension forks with some bikes featuring full suspension, gnarly!

history of oakley

i worked for the company that owns oakley until very recently. guess i'll have to buy mine like everyone else now!  nice bit of history here on the oakley brand.


History of Oakley from Defgrip on Vimeo.

the dude

via numerius

andy hampsten looking the epitome of retro cool in his oakley factory pilots and matching tag heuer formula one watch.  nice green and red colours on the seven eleven uniform too.  kit designers of today, take note.

what i talk about when i talk about running

i found this book to be very readable, so much so that i finished it in just two days. that may well rank as a record for me in the speed reading stakes.  my good fortune in being able to read  what i talk about when i talk about running is down to my friend dan who put me on to the book a couple of weeks back.  Thanks for that mate.

the books author haruki murakami is not only an accomplished novelist with a career spanning more than thirty years, he's also a marathon runner, ultra marathoner and triathlete.

this book is murakami's own story of his life as a runner and later triathlete, from the perspective of a man who understands and enjoys the benefits his sports, particularly running, give to him in a creative, healthy life style and spiritual sense.

in the early part of the book murakami writes about how he started out making money as the owner of a cafe / jazz bar with his wife before one day deciding to become a novelist.  it was an idea that came to him completely out of the blue.  for a time he burnt the candle at both ends working in the cafe until late at night then once home he'd sit down to a few hours of writing until the sun came up.  

If my memory serves me right murakami had his first prize winning novel, hear the wind sing, published in 1979 and it was shortly after that he and his wife sold the cafe / bar business and he started out in a new life as a full time novelist.  it's no mistake that his life as a full time writer and runner were to begin at the same time.  a sixty a day smoker, murakami bravely kicked the habit and started running in a bid to get himself fitter so his career, as a writer, might last longer and hopefully help him maintain good productivity.

murakami appears to have invested in himself and in doing so became both an accomplished writer and runner accumulating, again correct me if I'm wrong, 24 marathons, 1 ultra marathon and a handful of shorter distance triathlons along the way.  murakami explains his way through the ups and downs of his training and racing schedules from a period mainly during the mind to late noughties but fear not he hardly touches on times, although times are important, one gets the impression feeling and expression are a priority.  along the way the reader is treated to many insightful gems and all the while he's also going into details to do with the writing side of his life, parallels between runner and writer are, of course, drawn.

one of the main reasons i enjoyed the book is because i myself am a runner and  was able to empathise with many of the sometimes humorous anecdotes murakami tells along the way.  there is more to the book than just that though.  getting to better understand the life of, to my mind, an interesting, highly intelligent, well travelled man/runner/writer such as murakami was an absolute pleasure and one I highly recommend.

to find out more about haruki murakami or to buy any of his books click here.

eddy merckx portrait

a great portrait by one of my favourite photographers kristof ramon.

soviet cycle training movie

here is a soviet educational movie for cyclists created in 1988 by the management of applied sports national sports committee of the ussr, filmed using 16mm film (around 18 minutes long). Nice to see some of the boys are riding de rosa bicycles.

ex us postal rider dylan casey on ridng in the pro peloton

whilst listening to the speed metal podcast earlier today i was put onto a talk dylan casey gave to his fellow google employees back in 2008. dylan casey? i hear you ask.  yes casey used to ride for us postal service in the late nineties and now works for google.

i watched the entire 54 minutes of footage from casey (see below) in which he goes through all the fundamentals of being a rider racing on the pro scene in europe.  alot of the information is pretty basic but their is also so much interesting stuff in there like when he brushes off the idea of doping scandals as having been hyped up by the media to sell publications (he rode for mr armstrong), or less controversially when he tells anecdotes about his racing experiences including a good one about jan ullrich.  all in all i found the talk to be very informative and worth watching.

santos tour down under 2011

not long now before the elite pro road race season kicks off with the santos tour down under which will run from 18-23 january and with no time-trial or mountain stages it is certainly a sprinters stage race.

all eyes will be on the last years winner andre greipel who'll be up against his ex-team mate mark cavendish for the first time since their very public fall-out last season.  theres be no love lost between these two and it's probably safe to say we can expect to see the proverbial fireworks between them especially since greipel will be out to prove a point with his new team omega pharma-lotto.  looking at the provisional start list cavendish's htc-highroad train team look, on paper, like they should clean up with all of cav's favoured lead out men starting.

other names to watch out for will be the two robbies, mcewan and hunter now at radioshack, tyler farrar who's the only american from a predominantly aussie packed garmin-cervelo line up, previous winner's michael rogers and simon gerrans will both want to put early wins on the board for team sky, previous winner alan davis (astana) will do well and lets not forget about another two time winner stuart o'grady who's captaining the brand new and much hyped team leopard-trek.  did I forget anyone? surely graeme brown (rabobank) isn't finally going to come good is he?

for further details and live streaming options visit steephill.tv.

freddy maertens taking the sprint

via douglas siple

great image here of freddy maertens giving his all to take the sprint ahead of sean kelly, in the blue of the splendor team on the right. not sure who the rider is on the left shoulder of maertens.  delving a little deeper into the history of this picture i'm pretty sure it's taken during the tour de france probably in 1981, the last year maertens was to take any more major wins during his illustrious career.  maertens won five stages during the 1981 edition of the tour and also took the points classification (green jersey).  kelly didn't do too badly either winning stage 17.  maertens also went on to become world road race champion in the same year.  not bad eh?

brian robinson tribute - sunday 30th january

hammersmith Cycling films - brian robinson tribute
london's cycling film aficionados return to riverside studios for a tribute to 80-year-old brian robinson. a british and european cycling legend, he was one of the first english speakers to try their luck in the heartland of cycle racing in continental europe, and the first to make a major impact in the results. He was the first englishman to finish the tour de france and the first to win a stage. This was in 1958 and was followed with a stunning 20-minute winning margin the following year on stage 20, cementing his reputation as a tough yet friendly racing cyclist, popular with his fellow professionals. brian was also the first englishman to win a continental professional stage race – the dauphiné-libéré in 1961. extracts from his biography, brian robinson: pioneer will be read by its author, top cycling writer graeme fife. There will be extracts from a previously unseen film about robinson by ray pascoe, as well as footage of him in the 1953 tour of britain. also, archive film from herne hill and a profile of 1937 tour de france winner, roger lapébie.

films screening this afternoon include: brian robinson: a gentleman cyclist (ray pascoe, uk, 2010, 40m); a wheel in britain: 1953 tour of britain (uk, 26m) and keep going lapébie! (nicolas philbert, uk, 1988, 30m).

start time is 1.45pm.  £8.50 (£7.50 concs.).  for further information and to buy tickets click here.

british track team art

sir chris hoy

bradley wiggins

rebecca romero

team pursuit

via 14 bike co

watercolours by worcestershire artist jeremy houghton.

Looking Back: Cadel Evans Wins A Giro Mudfest Across The Strada Bianche

The organises of the Giro d'Italia must be very satisfied with the way the 2010 edition went.  Italy's grand tour was rightly hailed as being a great one, arguably even more entertaining than this year's Tour de France.

Of the many great Giro stages that took place last May, the 220km 7th stage from Cararra to Montalcino must surely go down as being one of, if not, the most entertaining and iconic stage of the race.  Passing through the rain soaked Tuscan region usually reserved for the Monte Paschi Eroica the Giro raced over sections of  usually white roads or Strada Bianche, which consists of sand, mud and gravel.  Because of the rain though those sections were more Strada Marrone than Bianche making the stage look like something out of a northern classic rather than a grand tour race.

Australia's Cadel Evans clinched an historic victory that day in a hard fought battle against the likes of Damiano Cunego, Alexander Vinokourov and Marco Pinotti who all finished within a handful of seconds behind the brave Aussie.

I've been wanting to post a look back on this stage for a while but didn't want to until I'd found some footage I could post with it.  I'd been searching high and low and surprisingly found nothing until today that is.  Below is the Eurosport coverage (albeit in Polish, I think) of the last 30km, or so, broken down into five parts in all it's mud soaked glory.  This is must see racing, truly epic!

Eric Yahnker Art

TESTICLE, 2009, colored pencil on paper, 39 x 52.5 in.

To see more of Eric Yahnker's work click here.

The Peloton - Timm Kölln

I've been a massive fan of Timm Kölln for a few years now so you can imagine I was very happy when I was presented with a Christmas gift by Betty of his book - The Peloton.

Below is a little taster of photos from this must have publication of portraits of professional cyclists, both past and present, taken by Kölln since he started the project in 2005.  In fact I'll say no more and let you read an excerpt from the introduction of the book written by Guy Andrews who perfectly captures Kölln's talent, skill, effort and determination in creating such a fine piece of work, a work Kölln should be very proud of.

...As we sat in hotel foyers waiting for riders to finish dinner, I noted, not for the first time, that he has an unbridled ability to wait for what he wants.  Waiting patiently has become a regular pastime for Timm Kölln.

Back in 2005, Timm Kölln knew exactly what he wanted to do and set out on a journey that would take him to all the major European one-day races and Grand Tours on the professional calender: a total of nine countries and some 70,000 kilometres travelled, mostly in a very tired-looking VW, in six years.  A familiar sight at the races would be Timm and his assistant with a roll of white paper filling the car.  It certainly didn't look very comfortable but regardless, his gear and his backdrop travelled everywhere, from the rain-soaked cobbles of Flanders to the sunny peaks of the Pyrenees.


Timm would be at the start, talking to riders and anxiously persuading them to stand for their portrait at the finish-which in itself, as you can imagine, was never easy.  Then at the finish line he'd be waiting again, with camera and backdrop in place, for the riders.  All day-all that effort-for one shot.  Perhaps two, if he was lucky.  But for every success there would also be disappointment: sometimes the riders had good days and would forget, or they'd be whisked away by their soigneur, or just not have the time.  And the riders who had bad days often just wanted to be alone.


Nevertheless, Timm photographed more than 150 riders.  Of the 96 that made it into this book, he tracked most of them down a second time, interviewed them alongside a seasoned journalist, and gave them a print of their portrait.  In the presentations I witnessed, the look of delight on the rider's face was only matched by Timm's smile of relief after the interview-they rarely get to see themselves as Timm does and these moments clearly matter a great deal to these professionals.

For further information on Timm Kölln's work click here.

Musumemiyuki Art

These beautiful images are created by Japanese artist Musumemiyuki who's style is truly unique.  Check out more of their work here.