le grimpeur

The grimpeur in decline?4
Guy WR posted in Posts on February 22nd, 2010

A recent debate hosted by Cosmo Catalano on climbers in cycling raised two important questions: firstly, is there such a thing as a pure climber, a grimpeur; secondly, are pure climbers – assuming that there are such riders – becoming rare, due to better training by non-climbers and doping.

To address the first question, your author offered the following definition of the pure climber: the riders that win many mountain stages off the front and only ever rarely win a grand tour (though many famous ones have done so). They duke it out for the mountain points and leave the flatlanders wallowing – unless those flatlanders can also hold their own (Anquetil, Hinault, Fignon, LeMond). (more…)

Cooling off with le blaireau1
Guy WR posted in Posts on February 7th, 2010

A cold and rainy day in Vancouver might have been a good day for your author to complete his series of posts on Greg LeMond (see part 1, part 2, and part 3) , or to perhaps do some further research on an upcoming feature on the 1983 Tour de France and the arrival of the Colombians (much to the chagrin of Laurent Fignon, apparently).

Instead it was an opportunity for blog maintenance (finally replacing the lost pictures from a very early feature on the Col de la Croix de Fer), which was a reminder that le grimpeur first hit the blog-waves in January of 2007. While looking for the lost pictures, one classic shot jumped out of the file: a favourite of Cor Vos, part of a feature done for Pez Cycling News.

The picture captures Bernard Hinault at a light-hearted moment; for such a serious rider, there were – at least in this photo – some brief moments of levity. Whether he had words for the water thrower, though, is left undisclosed in the photo. If Hinault’s expression subsequently turned sour, perhaps the words he uttered might not have been fit to print anyway – in any language.

Back in the archives, too, is a feature on le blaireau and his climbing methods. For those readers who have not been following this blog from its inception, perhaps you may enjoy the article while the work on new features continues…

Climb like a badger – May 2007

Fignon: jeune et insouciant4
Guy WR posted in Climbers on January 25th, 2010

Ah, mais je vous reconnais: vous êtes celui qui a perdu le Tour de huit secondes!

-Non, Monsieur, je suis celui qui en a gagné deux.

Good news indeed that William Fotheringham has taken on the task of translating Laurent Fignon’s book Nous etions jeunes et insouciants, We were young and carefree. Seemingly the epitome of Parisian haughtiness and hardened professional during his career, the excerpts available from the published French version suggest – like the title itself – that Fignon has taken a very nostalgic view of his career and racing days. (more…)

Goals, nostalgia1
Guy WR posted in Local Climbs on January 11th, 2010

Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days. ~ Doug Larson (newspaper columnist)

In cycling, as in perhaps all human behaviour, nostalgia is a powerful force. The ‘good old days’ always present a simpler template for the complexity we face today, as well as a stylistic cachet. What is Rapha, for example, except for nostalgia well-filed and with an extra lustrous sheen added?

Nostalgia is an opportunity to strip away the excess baggage of complications and view the past with the comforting glow of fondness. Ah, how much better it was in the 80s (substitute your favourite era here), with Hinault, Fignon, LeMond, Herrera, Hampsten, Roche and so on. (Of note, someone remarked recently that 2010 is to the 80s as 1990 was to the 60s, in terms of time elapsed – a sobering thought.) (more…)

Reflections and memories1
Guy WR posted in Posts on December 13th, 2009

Winter is a pensive time for cycling fans. We have no longer our own exploits or the daring deeds of the professional peloton to sustain our enthusiasm; thoughts inevitably slip to plans for next year – usually inflated by bravado – as well to quiet contemplation, perhaps assisted by a glass of the appropriate festive spirit.

What exactly is it about cycle racing that captivates us so? Part of it, surely, is the spectacle of athletic achievement. We like to see a job well done; human capacity pushed to its limits; and – let’s admit it – pain and suffering in the service of elusive glory. (more…)

Ride less now!1
Guy WR posted in Climbing Skills on November 22nd, 2009

If the weather for your November has been anything like the weather that has afflicted your author, then you will have certainly been doing less riding.

Winter has a way of closing in shockingly fast. Add in three weeks of constant rainfall and training time has been next to zero. Eschewing an indoor trainer means the only option for saddle time is to tackle the cold, rain, and the dark. Frankly, it is not worth it.

Not being able to keep up a stock of base miles is a source of constant stress for cyclists. Regular riding is required to keep that basic level of fitness, which is the building block for the top-end speed that is stacked on top of it. (more…)

Défaillance, part 3: les hommes forts7
Guy WR posted in Climbers, Doping on October 29th, 2009

The 1992 season for Greg LeMond was the beginning of his slow descent. But what we can now see with hindsight was not so evident at the time. “I can’t believe that a rider of his quality is finished at 31,” his director, Roger Legeay, had said.

Before looking in detail at LeMond’s disastrous seasons in 1993 and 1994, it is worth pausing to comment on the adversaries that he was up against in those years and the performance shift that was underway in professional cycling.

At the press conference after the 1991 Tour, where LeMond finished 7th, Miguel Indurain – the winner – sat down next to him. “L’homme fort,” LeMond said, according to Samuel Abt (Indurain did not speak French, nor did he understand it when LeMond repeated it in English, Abt noted).

But it was not just Indurain ‘the strong man’ that LeMond had to worry about. (more…)

L’étape colossale0
Guy WR posted in Classic Climbs on October 14th, 2009

One hundred years after the Tour de France first ventured into the Pyrenees, the 2010 parcours will pay homage to the 1910 Tour’s queen stage, l’étape colossale, as L’Auto called it at the time.

The media are billing next year as the showdown between the returning champion, Alberto Contador, and the former seven-time winner on the second year of his comeback, Lance Armstrong.

Gone, it would seem, from the pages of L’Equipe, is the old mistrust of Armstrong – Le Mensonge Armstrong – in favour of the Tour as ‘a battlefield’ between the old champion and his former teammate on his ascendency. (more…)

Défaillance, part 2: the slow descent2
Guy WR posted in Classic Climbs, Doping on September 29th, 2009

From a quick glance at the results sheet, 1990 was a pinnacle season for Greg LeMond. He won the Tour de France for the third time, whilst in the jersey of the World Champion. In professional cycling, there can be no greater display of dominance.

Yet, as we saw in part 1 of this series, LeMond had expressed doubts about his condition going into the Tour. And commentators were also quick to note that his win in the Tour had hardly been a dominant performance. Those doubts were also there in the lead-up to the 1991 Tour, where LeMond would start in the number 1 jersey of the previous year’s winner.

“I don’t feel I’m at my very best right now,” he told Samuel Abt just before the Tour’s start. “I’ve done a lot of work this year and things haven’t come together as I’d hoped.” (more…)

Urban climbing revisited0
Guy WR posted in Local Climbs on September 29th, 2009

The first installment of urban climbing appeared here back in February. (more…)

Défaillance: an interlude, a parody2
Guy WR posted in Climbing Skills, Local Climbs on September 22nd, 2009

They’re good wheels, he thought to himself. They’re good wheels and they’re strong and true and light. Not the best wheels ever made; not the most expensive. Not as good as a hand-built set of Italian wheels, the sort of wheels that Pantani rode in his prime. But good wheels nonetheless. American wheels.

“Muck straight gauge,” he said to no-one in particular as he spun the wheels holding onto either side of the axle with both hands, feeling the smoothness of the bearings, feeling for any pitting in the races: that slight tension, or catching of the motion that would be his signal for further maintenance.

Cyclists spend a lot of time obsessing over wheels, he thought. Only a damn fool would think that they weren’t the most important part of a bike, with the possible exception of the tyres. There was a reason that Merckx fussed over his wheels – like everything else – and had his hand-stitched tubulars curing in his basement for months or years to harden them against punctures. (more…)

The art of snacking0
Guy WR posted in Climbing Skills on September 4th, 2009

There’s a scene in the Eddy Merckx documentary movie, La Course en Tete, where Eddy’s soigneur Guillaume Michiels and another Molteni helper are in a kitchen preparing the team’s ride snacks. They move with practiced ease, a steady succession of tiny bread rolls carefully cut in half, spread with jam and butter, or ham, then reassembled and individually wrapped. Repetitive work, but the end result appears to be literally hundreds of the rolls all ready for a race or training ride.

The rolls looked pretty tasty, but the job of preparing the ride snacks these days can be much less laborious – just grab a handful of gels and energy bars and one is good to go. But a steady diet of modern ride food gets boring rather quick, which is why we often prefer to reach for the Fig Newtons, some dried fruit, or pastries for those with a more continental bent.

But what is it we’re actually trying to achieve with ride snacks and what are the nutritional principles to be kept in mind? What can be on, and what should be off, the menu. To get some professional answers, your author earlier this year asked Team Garmin-Slipstream’s ace physiologist Allen Lim to offer some suggestions. (more…)

The limits of performance5
Guy WR posted in Doping on August 20th, 2009

Cycling fans, and fans of climbing in particular, were able to enjoy an epic Tour de France this year. While the race may have whimpered through the Pyrenees for the overall contenders, there was plenty of action in the Alps before the final torture test of Mont Ventoux.

The transformation of Bradley Wiggins from track star to a grimpeur of the highest order was one story. The other stories, perhaps to be told here later, are of the breakaway victories on major climbs, most notably on Mont Ventoux itself. The major story, though, was the incredible climbing performance of Alberto Contador.

While the Tour overall certainly raised the bar from last year – and more on this below – it was the ride by Contador on the relatively short climb to Verbier that sent commentators and pundits into a frenzy of analysis and, ultimately, finger pointing with the thinly-veiled accusation that Contador was doping. (more…)

Défaillance, part 12
Guy WR posted in Classic Stages, Climbing Skills on August 9th, 2009

The diocese of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne honours Saint Aprus, who founded a refuge for pilgrims and the poor in the seventh century. Greg LeMond found little refuge in the town of the same name during stage 14 of the Tour de France in 1992 but could certainly feel our pity.

The town is at the foot of the road that climbs westward up the Col de la Croix de Fer on the main local highway that leads to the local alpine ski resorts and over the border into Italy. On this day during the Tour, LeMond had already made it over the lonely road that climbs the Col du Galibier but abandoned before the tough ascent of the Croix de Fer.

LeMond had failed to ignite the race. But it had already been a thrilling affair. Continuing to lead the so-called Italian renaissance in cycling, Claudio Chiappucci had completed an epic escape the day before, leading for 250 kilometres – almost the entire stage – and winning at Sestriere, over the border in Italy. “One of the finest escapes I’ve ever seen in any of twenty Tours,” said commentator Phil Liggett. LeMond was 130th on the stage, nearly 50 minutes adrift.

And on stage 14, LeMond’s American compatriot, the leader of the Motorola team, Andy Hampsten, was setting himself up for a massive win on Alpe d’Huez, holding off the big names chasing his breakaway and cementing what would be an impressive 4th place overall in Paris.

It would be triumph for one American and disappointment for another. Already lagging behind as he rode with a teammate into Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, LeMond looked tired. Almost emotionless, he pulled over to the side of the road, hopped his bike up onto the curb, and abandoned the Tour. Just two years prior, LeMond had won his third Tour; now, he was stepping off his bike – defeated. (more…)

Intervals and racing to train1
Guy WR posted in Climbing Skills on July 28th, 2009

C’est tout! The Tour is over for another year, with many fine performances and much to write about. While the numbers are being crunched and the VAM rates analyzed, a response to some reader feedback.

A recent commenter asked whether your author had any recommended intervals for climbing faster. Simply put, I would recommend anything by Chris Carmichael or Joe Friel.

As regular readers will know, however, le grimpeur is a fan of what might loosely be called old school training. What this means is that any type of routine that involves, for example, “repeat 6 times”, or “x minutes at x% of threshold” is out. It’s a fair guess that Sean Kelly didn’t know what his ‘threshold’ was, except that it was probably measured in terms of suffering and a good deal higher than yours or mine. (more…)