The Professor - my tribute

Laurent Fignon (12 August 1960 - 31 August 2010)

My beard and me

Four years now I have had a beard. Its been wooly and its been designer stubble. Its been a goatee and and its been Amish. At the moment it is full and its fluffy. I'm aiming to grow it to a full on grizzly beard and maybe trim in some funny shapes or a handle bar moustach.

This got me thinking. You dont see many sports men and in particular cyclists sporting face fur. The only ones i could think of were Sean Eadie and Steve Cozza in recent years. Dave Zabriskie - Captain America himself has been known to sport some unfortunate ginger face fungus now and then. Go back to the beginning of the 20th century, and virtually every man in society had a cracking soup strainer on his top lip.

Its odd how fashions dictate the growth of facial hair. Its became a lot more common for men to have beards recently and this have been seen in the other sport I love - rugby. virtually every team at the last rugby world cup had a beard in the squad. The most fearsome had to be Sebastien Chabal.

So today, lets cheer the beard and welcome those little treats of food we find hiding in it after we've eaten.

Tour of the Resevoir

Fabian Cancellara

Lets go clubbing

Among my cycling buddies, there has been a lot of chatter about cycling clubs. Are you in one? I'm not. Never have been never will be. I think it comes from riding out with a cycling club and being tortured sneered at and the subsequently dropped. From talking to friends its absolutely astonishing that so many people have experienced the same thing. And, with different clubs. So you cant say its just the one club. Why do they feel the need to humiliate and destroy new comers.

What we have found out is that this means there is an opening for a cycle club that actually looks after its new members and openly encourages new comers - even if they turn up on a £200 argos special. Surely the important thing is to enjoy cycling. the old club ways should be banished and made way for riding the way we do it. @to the cake shop and back'

True there are occasions when we put the hammer down, but only when everyone is up to it. and true we dick about a lot. but what we do the most, is enjoy every minute of being on our bikes.

If you would like to ride out with me and my friends on a regular basis be it at 8mph or 18mph drop me a line here on on twitter via @hardboiled2006

"Now go ride like him"

Do I look like Charlie Wegelius yet?

No I didn't think so. We all have out favourite teams and we all like to wear the kit of our heros and those we respect. I have quite an extensive collection of jerseys and kit. I have a Unitied States Postal Service jersey. The 2002 edition as it matched my USPS Trek bike. And also because I am a closet Lance Armstrong fan. Love him or hate him. He has change cycling forever.
Then there is my extensive collection of BBox Bouygues Telecom kit. I just love the french team. They dont seam to win a lot of stuff, but they have a great deal of flaire and joie de vivre. Tommy Voekler for instance, who can forget his stunning 10days in Yellow?
Then the original british super team Linda MacCartney kit. We all hoped the would be the big thing for the UK cycle scene(1st time i ever saw Charlie Wegelius race too)And lets not forget the super team of Liquigas jersey.

Latley the kit to be seen in is undoubtably the SKY kit of wiggins et al. It is incredibly popular and you lose count how many times you see the jersey on your sunday ride out. But i've never been one to follow fashion. Take my rugby support for West Hartlepool for instance. Our my devotion to the Scottish Rugby Union. No i have never supported the Manchester United's of any sport and I dont think I ever will. I've always had an affinity to the northern european teams. Lotto and Quickstep are among my favourites. Along with the plethora of French teams. But, what i want to say didnt come from my empty head but from a Twitter contact @mmfs04 Mike McConnell is answer to my question, Do i look like Charlie Wegelius(i'm his biggest fan)

"If you look like him, you feel like him. Now go ride like him"

And that my friends is the point. We all, as fans of cycling, would love to emulate or favourite pro-cyclists. But in truth, we are but shadows of those great men. Wear your Astana strip with pride. Maybe it will give that little bit of extra help when climbing a nasty hill. Show off your Saxo Bank kit with honour and try to ride with the spirit of Jens Voigt.
Yes wear your favourite colours and get out and ride like those stars

Kings and Heros pt2

Question
who are the real heros of cycling? The grand tour winners? World champions? Cancer survivors? All worng. For me the all time true greats of our sport are the 'domestiques'. We all have our favourites and they come in many different shapes and abilities.

Such as the super hard men like Jens Voigt or the super stars like Fabian Cancellara. The super tall too like Johan Van Sumerin but these are all capable and proven of winning races too. Which for me, means they really arnt burrying themselves or giving 100% for the team. No I think the real heros are those riders who roll in almost dead on the bike having left everything on the mountain for their team leader or GC contender. The riders who only just cut off every day on the tour because they have been back to the car 20 times and chased back on at almost 60kmh. These men are few and far between. There is but a handful currently in the pro-peloton. Undoubtably my favourite is Charlie Wegelius. Ten years a pro now and never won an individual victory. Why? because throughout his carrear he has consistantly made himself available to work for others. Selflessly surrending his own ambition for others. I have been a fan of Charlie since his days at Mapei and whilst he rode with Liqigas, I think we saw just how brilliant he was, leading the peloton up the dolomites with Pelozotti hanging on his wheel and the peloton just strung out. Then there was this year the Giro 2010. OH MY GOD! 29th? are you shitting me. Charlie Wegelius, ladies and gentlemen is a hard riding northern bloke and I absolutely adore this guy. He is also insanely generous and donates countless goodie to auction off for charity. He is an all round nice bloke and I will go on record and say, there is no other selfless dedicated domestique in the business. I think there will never be another like Charlie for many years to come. Keep up the good work champ!

Kings and heros

I've been thinking, and it was whilst listening to the dulcet tones of Dave Harmon and King Kelly on Eurosport that it occured to me. We as cycling fans shower so much love and attention on the faoreign riders and heros of past and present. Why? we have a legend living in Ireland who supassed so many of the euro riders. He won so much and excelled at putting others in the hurt locker. He didnt win just the easy races either. We're talking Paris-Roubaix twice, Milan-San Remo twice and liege Bastonge Liege twice and many mnay more. This is a true cyling great. True, he didnt win the Yellow jersey 7 times. but he suffered and won some mighty hard races.

Lets hear it for our own living god.

King Kelly