I am a software developer, a former road racing cyclist (at the amateur level), and a science enthusiast. Also an animal lover! I write about cycling on this website, cycling-passion.com. I also take care of stray cats & dogs. Please consider supporting me on Patreon.
Colnago C35 equipped with Campagnolo Super Record gold: it is not only an artwork, but it is also a milestone in the history of cycling technology. It was produced in 1989, as a commemorative model created in celebration of Colnago’s 35th anniversary. Developed from the work with Ferrari Engineering, it was one of the first frames to be manufactured using a carbon fiber composite and was equipped out with a gold-plated Campagnolo Super Record groupset.
If you watch Jørgen Leth’s great documentary about the 1973 Giro d’Italia, “Stars and Water Carriers” (Stjernerne
On one of the early climbs of the day, Eddy Merckx escaped bringing Spanish climber José Manuel Fuente (KAS) and the young Italian Giovanni Battaglin (Jollj Ceramica) along for company. Foolishly, Fuente took his pulls with the powerful Belgian and after having burned his matches, was spit out the back.
102-year-old Robert Marchand beats his own Hour Record for the category created especially for him by the UCI (100+) this afternoon. He rode 26.927 km – 10% further than the distance he set in 2012 at the age of 100!
102-year-old Robert Marchand still holds the Hour Record (see notes 1) for the 100+ age group. Tomorrow, the evergreen Frenchman will attack his own record.
On February 17, 2012, Marchand rode 24.25 kilometers (15.1 miles), setting a one-hour speed record in the new over-100s category created by the UCI. Tomorrow, almost two years later, he’s aiming to exceed 25 km on the new velodrome in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, just outside Paris.
Today’s quote is from Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton was a teammate of banned cyclist Lance Armstrong during 1999, 2000, and 2001 Tour de France where Armstrong won the Yellow jersey. He is the only American rider to win one of the Five Monuments of Cycling (Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2003). Unfortunately, he was doping when he won the race, like the vast majority of the pro peloton, in the “dark ages of cycling”.
But after reading his book, The Secret Race, I am convinced that Hamilton is a good guy. You can also read the comments about the book on amazon.
Here’s the quote of the day by Eddy Merckx: “In cycling, being sure of yourself is an almost inevitable guarantee of not winning.”
Another cycling-related song. This time, from Tom Waits: Broken bicycles. A very, very beautiful, romantic, and sad song. From the 1982 album named “One from the Heart”, a soundtrack album of Tom Waits’ compositions for the Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name.
I always liked the songs, movies, and music videos about bicycles, or those using bicycles as visual materials. Folon (meaning “in the past”) is a beautiful song from Malian artist Salif Keita. According to Wikipedia, Keita is unique not only because of his reputation as the “Golden Voice of Africa” but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita.
Here is the music video of that beautiful song, enjoy.
I’ve inspired by GCN’s video titled “Top 10 iconic road bikes in racing history” while writing this post. I made some changes, excluded some of Daniel Lloyd’s choices, and extended the list by including a few bikes. Here are the top 12 iconic bikes in cycling history (IMHO, of course).
Robert Marchand continues to inspire us. The evergreen Frenchman has set a new goal: breaking his own hour record in the over-100s category in January 2014, at 102 years of age.
In February 2012, Marchand rode 24.25 kilometers (15.1 miles), setting a one-hour speed record in the new over-100s category created by the UCI. Then, on September 28, 2012, the ever-green Frenchman set the 100-kilometer cycling record for the 100+-year-old category, with four hours 17 minutes and 27 seconds, at the Parc de la Tête d’Or Velodrome in Lyon.