By Guest Author • 1st December 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
WORDS: Jack Thurston | PHOTOS: Wig Worland
Extract from Rouleur Annual 5, on sale now
By the third night, the roads are strewn with bodies. “It looks as though a serial killer has been on the loose, wantonly slaying cyclists and laying their bodies in a ritual manner at the side of the road,” says Kieron Yates, slurring into an audio recorder he carried while riding the 1,230km from Paris to the western tip of Brittany and back, in the company of the world’s toughest cyclists. “Occasionally they are covered with bin liners or a bit of matting, a silver survival blanket, as though a generous member of the public wanted to hide the bodies from the view of the other passing cyclists.”
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By Guest Author • 12th September 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
Words: Christian Vande Velde | Photos: Yazuka Wada
Extract from the Rouleur photography annual volume 4
La Vuelta Espana is the least known Grand Tour of the ‘big three’. It lacks spectators, TV ratings, the massive ambition that the Tour and the Giro bring, and of course, the history. However, almost all of these traits are because of where it falls on the calendar year. And we all love it for that. Smashing through the arid countryside at speeds unfathomable to almost anyone (including myself sometimes), all for the sake of racing. If you are motivated, fresh and have goals past the month of August, at the Vuelta you have already won.
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By Guest Author • 22nd August 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
Photos: Paolo Ciaberta | Words: Rohan Dubash
Photographer Paolo Ciaberta witnesses Aldo Gios re-building the legendary blue machine ridden to victory in the 1977 edition of Paris-Roubaix by Roger de Vlaeminck. Rohan Dubash casts his expert eye over the components.
Cinelli's 1A stem is a classic use of forged alloy, an item of pure elegance and simplicity and a world apart from today's industrial (but far more practical) Ahead-compatible offerings. The solid construction allowed manufacturers to get creative and personalise the riders' bikes.
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By Guest Author • 8th July 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
Words: Guy Andrews, editor of Rouleur magazine
Where have all the heroes gone? I do wonder. In the over-calculated, controlled and predictable racing world, is there any room for panache?
I’d like to suggest that it’s something you ‘have’ rather than ‘show’? Some riders just look classy whatever they do. And sometimes panache is about throwing it all into the race and having a go, after all, is panache all about winning and good luck? I also wonder if it’s a cultural thing too; the Belgians are a class apart when it comes to style and Phillipe Gilbert has it in spades. On the other hand George Hincapie (and most US riders, to be frank) have a lot less.
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By Guest Author • 28th June 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
WORDS: Jonathan Bacon
“Just like Beggar’s Canyon back home!”
And that is it really. My approach to cycling psychology. My go-to technique when needs must. I’ve read Shrosbee and Carmichael and a fair few others and written plans and weighed myself. I’ve attached myself to a heart rate monitor, although never a Powertap, and I’m guilty of fiddling with various nutritional nonsenses but, really, it all comes back to the Death Star.
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By Guest Author • 20th June 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
Words: Ian Cleverly | Images: Timm Kölln
Extract from Rouleur issue 24, coming soon.
A series of missed calls and voicemails between David Millar and myself evolved into text messages. “Sorry for not answering”, I wrote, “but I was derny training. Call now?” The reply came straight back: “No. I’m at the cinema.”
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By Herbie Sykes • 26th May 2011 • Posted in Rouleur
PHOTO: Guy Andrews
Extract from Maglia Rosa by Herbie Sykes, available here »
Many would have us believe that everyone deserves a second chance, and of course in principal they are quite correct. However, in giving them that second chance, the people responsible for the wellbeing of the professional sport in Italy play Russian Roulette with the livelihoods of those employed within it, and close to it. The likelihood is that the majority of cyclists are now competing without recourse to doping products. If this is the case then they, and the hundreds employed behind the scenes, their sponsors and those building the bikes on which they ride, deserve better than the Giro’s current largesse. Modern doping techniques are not only deeply injurious to the credibility of the sport but, much more importantly, to the cyclists themselves. That Italian riders, those operating within an expensively sponsored team structure at the top end of the sport here, continue to be caught cheating whilst racing abroad is the most damning of all the sport’s truths. The Giro, the great standard bearer, is well beyond the point at which it can afford to keep handing out second chances; what it needs, and what the public demands, is that it starts making examples. The future wellbeing of the sport here depends on it.
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