It’s a sunny 23°C (74°F) day in Brisbane today (like almost any other winter day) and a good time to talk about Northern Classics. Specifically, about The Lion of Flanders (De Leeuw van Vlaanderen), a title Flemish cycling fans christen badass riders with when they do badass heroics in Flanders.
How many times have you heard an up and coming rider is the next Eddy Merckx? Me, I’ve lost count. Here’s a Top 10 list I compiled 2 years ago in a post where I argued why Remco Evenepoel is not the next Eddy Merckx:
Nineteen-eighty Moscow Olympic Games left a footprint in my memory. This is when aero helmets and skinsuits hit cycling scene’s prime time. And funny bikes.
Just when we thought the disc brake debate has ended, here comes Chris Froome saying: I don’t think the technology is quite where it needs to be yet for road cycling.
Bike crashes hurt. To paraphrase Tyler Durden: On a long enough timeline, the crash-free rate drops to zero. It’s the law. Philippe Gilbert, quoted by VeloNews, said as much: “I have already ridden more than 1,000 races in my career and there was perhaps one without a crash.”
Putting on a cycling kit before a race is a ritual. If you want to do well, or hope you will, you pile up your kit next to your bed the night before. On a nightstand if the room has one or on top of your travel bag next to bed. Pin the numbers.
People love to compare great athletes from different eras. What if Bernard Hinault raced against Eddy Merckx? How would that go? Or how would Wayne Gretzky and Valeri Kharlamov go against each other if both played in the NHL?
Michael Hutchinson, an author of 3 books, gave a 5-star review of the UAE Tour on Twitter yesterday. He had been heard and promptly echoed. I suspect no one, except the inner circle of the UCI, knows why UAE Tour exists.
As historians say, here we go again. Remco Evenepoel asked the media 2 years ago to stop calling him the next Eddy Merckx. Or is it the next next Eddy Merckx?
December 28, 1895 is the official birth date of cinema. On that day, Auguste and Louis Lumière screened the first projected film in the Salon Indien of the Grand Café in Paris.
