Flahute Awards 2011

Merry Christmas wielersupporters... hope you all had a good one, and didn't overdo the cookies, cake and beer.

Well, it's that time of year again.  Time for Flahute to put down his cobblestone shaped Christmas cookies and announce our 2011 Flahute awards.

It's OK, pour just one more trappiste ale, sit back an savor a great year of cycling.   Then get out on the bike and emulate these inspirations of 2011!

King Phillipe:   OK, let's get the most obvious, expected one out of the way.   Phil's doesn't top our list because of his cannibal like series of Ardennes classic victories.  Nor is he here because of his maillot jaune. Nor for his solo to win the Belgian championship.  He's here because of his old-school orientation.   Don't need no steenking race radio, I'll slay you all anyway.   Training on 'sensations'.   And racing with teeth bared aggression in the finale.  Attack, attack, attack.  And because no rider has united supporters from both halves of Belgium like this since Eddy Merckx himself.    Flandria cafe's man of the year.

Braveheart Johnny Hoogerland:  Getting up to finish after sliding along a barbed wire fence?    Say no more.   Where does a guy get the strength of character to do that?   Maybe it's in the wind, along the Zeeland coast.

Well ok, we'll say one more thing...  How 'bout that attack in the finale of the World's with Voeckler,  giving it all in a attempt to break Cav's royal coronation procession.   Here's hoping Johnny will be as good in 2012.  And less battered.

Quote of the year:  Laurens Ten Dam.   Another never say die hardman example, the Dutchman took a page out of the PouPou book by getting up from a smashed face to finish the Tour.

His Rabobank team called him 'hard as a rock'.   His Tweet, "You don't quit the tour because of a fat lip" is our line of the year.

Crosser of the Year: Kevin Pauwels.   The quiet man, the one who broke out this year, solidifying a hard-earned place in the top tier of world cyclocross.  The kind who will 'nod yes to a radio reporter's question', Pauwels may not be the most loquacious of interviews, but to us it doesn't matter one bit.  He's the anti-Cipo, and we like him for it.   After so tragically losing his older brother Tim to a heart-attack during a race a few years ago, Kevin has, without fuss, quietly and diligently fought his way to the top of World cross.  And based on his World Cup win in Zolder yesterday, it seems he's feathering back his top form just in time for the Worlds.   A pro with class who lets his legs do the talking, we'd like nothing better than seeing him top of the podium in a rainbow jersey.

Jock, and team Rwanda:  Sometimes, one good man is all it takes to bring hope to those whose lives seem devoid of it.   Jock Boyer has spent the last several years slowly and patiently bringing 'the knowledge' to a group young riders in a nation that have personally lived through unspeakable horror (read this great New Yorker article).

Once a pioneer, always a pioneer.  The first American in the Tour de France.  First American in the top 5 of the World's Pro road race (1980, nearly winning it two years later).  Ultramarathon RAAM winner.  I'm betting Jock's shoestring program will see a Rwandan in the pro peloton before he's done.

The resurrection of Nick Nuyens.  They'd all pretty much written him off.   So close to winning the Ronde in prior years, after a succession of new teams and unfulfilled hopes culminating with an abandon into the Rabobank team car last year.

Last chance hotel at SaxoBank, where just like with Jens, and with Bobby Julich, Bjarne Riis' magic and quiet team ambiance re-instilled the faith and confidence that had somehow gone missing.   Nuyens tactical savvy and sniper's instincts provided the rest.   In the wheels till it mattered. On the right move in the end.   Outsprinting the two strongest men of the race.   The 'resurrection of the sniper' is our moment of the year.

Tommy V's podium.   (Reuters Photo)

Image of the year - Thomas Voeckler on the Galibier.   He was on our list last year, can there be any surprise he's there again.  Just when you think this champion of heart has gone as far as his talent will let him, he surprises you again.  This year, he surprised, and delighted an entire nation.  In the process, he just might have surprised even himself.

He kept smiling at the cameras, saying he couldn't hope to win the Tour, and then proceeded to defend the jersey like not only his life, but the future of la Patrie of France depended on it.   In the process, he gradually brought belief to a nation of passionate fans who'd perhaps over the past decade become conditioned to lose hope they'd ever see one of their own in a with a real shot at victory again.    Hindsight is 20/20, but if it wasn't for that energy sapping desperate chase on the Galibier, Voeckler might just have been up there on the podium in Paris.   No matter though, for Thomas Voeckler's podium was the roof of the world - the summit of the Galibier - mounted with one arm raised in relief at having saved the maillot jaune for one more day.  

Unsung hero of the year:  David Boily.   Once upon a time, if a North American had led most of, and nearly won the Tour de L'Avenir, it would be the lead story in every cycling publication.  If he came from the Northeastern corner of the continent, his name would be on everyone's lips in these parts as a tip for the future.

Perhaps after a decade filled with an embarrassment of talent riches, we North Americans have almost come to expect an endless stream of young cycling talent.   With a few exceptions, we tend not to celebrate the victorious stepping stones of new hopes anymore, saving the media plaudits for when they hit the top rung.  A shame I think.

Almost unnoticed this year while the cycling world came to race the ProTour in Quebec and Montreal, a young rider from Quebec City was across the pond, wearing the maillot jaune in the Tour de L'Avenir right up until the final day, only beaten into second by a mere 17 seconds.  David Boily is a member of Steve Bauer's Spidertech team who certainly looks like he's got a great future ahead of him.   For this is no fluke result, but the race of the future.  The Tour de France for U23's.   The race who's yellow jersey adorned future stars like Gimondi, Zoetemelk, Baronchelli, LeMond, Soukhoroutchenkov and Indurain.

Boily.  Remember the name.   And learn a little more about him here and here.

Photos of the day: Kim Andersen going solo

Wow.  That last little rant on top end pro bike pricing went pretty viral.   Flahute's building me up to add fuel to the fire with addtional commentary to come.  But for now, something completely different!  

Just a good old shot of a good old solo artist to connect today with 'my generation bay-baaay'...

Andersen in the Ardennes.  Fleche Wallonne, 1984.  
Photo: Miroir du Cyclisme, Feb. 1985

Photo: Miroir du Cyclisme, Feb. 1985

Many may not remember that the Directeur Sportif for Leopard Trek this year (and with Riis at Saxo Bank in prior years), Denmark's Kim Andersen was quite the monster back in the day.

Here's a look back to the year he was at his peak of his powers: 1984.  That April, he soloed to win the Fleche Wallonne, after pulling along a nine man early break containing Henk Lubberding of Panasonic and eventual second place finisher Willi Tackaert.  Andersen left them all, and authored a long solo to a four minute victory.

The quinessential rouleur, Andersen was a master of the long solo escape.

Later that same year, he tried to pull off the same stunt during the World Road Championship on the hilly Montjuich circuit in Barcelona.  On a super hot day while other favorites like Hinault, Kelly and Moser wilted, he took his chance with a 45km solo.   This time, it didn't work.  The Italians chased, Kim was reeled back in, and like most that day, he ended on the sidelines.

Andersen's solo wasn't the only one that day.   His came after American Tom Broznowski's.  Broz had won the Nationals at Bear Mountain in NY '81 I recall, a pretty strong boy!

After that, Spain's Juan Fernandez gave it a go, but to no avail.  Finally, it was Claude Criquielion whose solo lasted to take the arc-en-ciel.  It was a day of one after the other heroic, suicidal efforts.  A killer-hard worlds.

Ah, the solo.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.   But every glorious time, it requires guts and character - as well as fitness and strength - just to even attempt.

Something that will fortunately never change in cycling.

Will the real one percent please stand up: How much should your bike cost?

Bernard Thevenet,  in a 1975 Tour time trial.  Averaging 27.9 mph on a stock
steel Reynolds 531 frame, with crap (sorry) Mafac, Simplex and Stronglight components. 

Read with some amusement the other day that article about the advent of the $10,000+ road bike.   'Halo bikes' they call them.  

Halo Bikes.  Hallelujah, let the pigeons loose.   

Ten to twelve grand for a race bike?   Utterly ridiculous.  On oh, so many levels. 

It got me shaking my thick-mick head, and thinking longingly back to the good ol' days.  The mid '70's, when road racing bicycles were all hand brazed, lugged steel tubing.  Your wheel choice?  Pick 28, 32 or 36 spokes.   Grouppo?  Either Campagnolo Nuovo Record, Super Record or maybe Shimano DuraAce.   There were a lot of bicycle company 'brands' (e.g. frame designers, brazers and assemblers), but the basic ingredients were all about the same really.   Funny thing was, guys still rode 30 mph on them, no problem.    In fact, I think they could handle them a heckuva lot better in a peloton too.

And the best stuff, and by that I mean the bikes and technologies used by top professionals - even by winners of the Tour de France - weren't the luxury goods they've become now.  Their prices were startlingly cheap.   But what would yesterday's pro team bikes cost in today's dollars?   Here's a fun and illuminating archival magazine dig, and quick analysis using an online inflation calculator...

If you take the PX10 'outlier' out of the equation (my first race bike), it seems the sweet-spot present value for a pro-level ride hovered between $2,000 and $3,000.  For quite some time.  

Van Impe's '76 Tour winning Gitane w/Campy Super
Record.   $10 says he'd drop Andy Schleck with it.   

In the late '90 though, the cost of the best inexorably started creeping up.  I recall back in 2002-2003 when I owned a retail bike store, the top of range race bikes - like an all Campagnolo Colnago C40 - sold for around $4,000, or so.  Most people thought that was insane money.   $4k would be ~$5k today.  

It's just in the past few years, flying in the face of global economic crisis, that 'pro team' cycling equipment has rocketed to levels of absurdity.   A $10,000 -$12,000 Halo bike is between 4 to 6 times the cost of Thevenet's, Moser's or Battaglin's grand tour winning rides.   Does this application and transfer of available- albeit high-priced - technology deliver a real competitive advantage to the elite pros it was designed for?  

Can you say 'PLA-CE-BOOO'...?

It's a diminishing return on investment if you ask me.   As much as they'd have us believe it, engineers don't win bicycle road races.   Heart does.  

I respect engineers.  It's just that I think they should spend their valuable, expensive time figuring out how to make our road and bridges better, and come up with a substitute for nailing power lines to poles that every snowstorm and hurricane takes out.   Just one man's opinion.

Raphael Geminiani said it better, in his new book 'mes quartre verites'.  "I want to pass a message on to the youth...you can still hope to be a champion, even in the age of WiFi, the iphone and the i-pad.   My message is clear.  One isn't born a champion, like one is born rich or poor, white or black.  One becomes one. By work, and only through work."

Not by buying a better bike, Gem.  So is this new technology 'worth' such a premium?   Depends on to whom you're referring to jongen...

"Hmm..I guess I'll take the
one in the middle"

Pricing strategy 101:   I once read an interesting article on some research done on consumer shopping behavior using wristwatches.  Two watches were presented to a pool of shopping subjects, bearing two different prices. A pretty low percentage (naturally) chose the more expensive of the two.   But an interesting thing happened when for a second test group, a third, super-high priced watch was added to the line-up.    A much greater percentage of the total 'upgraded' to the middle watch than with the first group.  Marketing types call it the law of the middle choice.  Adding a third luxury item 'pulled' more consumer 'up' to a more expensive item

Hey, what do I know, I'm just a simple caveman.  But I think these stupidly-expensive luxury bikes are there to get more consumers feel like they're actually saving money, by (gladly) spending up to $4,000-$5,000 on that next bike instead of the more prudent $2,000- $3,000 option that's still available, probably more appropriate and frankly, way more than good enough for their ability.  


'But honey, look how much I saved 'us' by only buying the $4,000 model!' 

Last time I checked, real road cyclists crash and break stuff.   All the time.  You don't need the very best stuff.  Just adequate and reliable.

Just say no to $10,000 bikes. 

It's a disturbing trend for the cycling as a sport I think.  Increasingly positioning cycling as an 'elite' activity.  It parallels other developments in professional cycling.  I know it has never been the 'real world', but the sport is increasingly moving into an elite bubble.  Literally and figuratively.  With teams formed and supported by private equity benefactors vs. the 'commercial' sponsors ever since Nivea and St. Raphael used pro cycling to sell affordable stuff to normal people.

Young Coppi.  He'd drop you.
All of you. And on this bike.  Guaranteed.

Today, we've got bike companies playing NASA, supplying teams with bikes that are only really marketable to the '1%'.    A positive development?  Maybe if you're Mike Sinyard at Specialized, or one of the other oligarchs of Chinese carbon-layup.  But I can't help but think it's all become a little bit sick.   Especially when you think about where this sport came from, and what it's really about.  

Give me the artisinal.   A Masi working in a tiny shop in the far corner of the Vigorelli Velodrome making frames for Simpson, or Merckx.

Contrast the investment banker (1% in income) buying a 'halo bike' to ride in the PanMass challenge with the story of young teen named Fausto Coppi (1% in ability) dropping the local racing team on his butcher's delivery bike.  Or of flower delivery boy Lucho Herrera doing the same thing in the Colombian Andes.  That jongens, is cycling.    Won by heart, legs and the head.  Not with the pocketbook.  And not with technology.

Road cycling is a sport of the people, (or so they say anyway... I'm starting to wonder).  Let's see how that 4-6X rise in pro level bike prices compares to other things 'normal people'... we 99%... bought over the same time span...

OK, you can probably quibble with the calculation, but I don't see a 4-6X increase in these other items, do you?

Now I many of you cafesupporters who know me, also know I'm a founding member of 'cheap p****s anonymous.'    I admit I still have a dated 10-speed Campy group on my Flandria.  The cranks are not carbon, nor are the bottle cages.  And you know what, it doesn't flippin' matter one iota.

What does matter is the eternal quest to ride the thing longer, higher, faster.

OK, I admit it, I'm a retro grouch.  Maybe an increasingly cantankerous one.   A pal recently labelled me the Andy Rooney of cycling.  

Maybe he's right.  I put in over 50 miles on a 42x16 steel winter fixed gear bike this past Saturday.   And you know what, it was great.  Thank you very much.  Didn't go much slower than my race bike either.    Still spanked it along at 18-20mph for three hours.  Halo bike, me arse.  

What do you think about 'Halo bikes', cafesupporters?     Weigh in...