Time for the hard men

When most riders start talking about their 'wanna do' rides, typically something like les Alpe d'Huez, Galabier, or one of the other great alpine climbs comes to mind. Riding your dream bike, weighing a touch over 7kilos, on silken tubulars, carefully selected to minimize rolling weight and maximize climbing/descending efficiency. Traveling  the beautiful roads of southern France, climbing for hours in the sunshine and crystal clear blue skies to gain the insight and wisdom that come from attaining one of the legendary summits of Le Tour.  The warm summer breezes, good French wine and cheeses that await you at your pension upon your return to the valleys.

On the other hand, there are those (like me) who yearn for the cold, grey mornings of March as the wind comes off the North Sea in Belgium and Flanders. Straddling a slightly workmanlike steed shod with distinctly plump tires, low profile rims, and lots of tire clearance. Wearing a rain cape in the damp morning, with the distinct smell of embrocation providing a wakeup call.  No spidery lads from Columbia and the Basque country.  These are the days for the hard men.  Names like Boonen, Cancellara, Flecha, O’Grady, and Voight.  Men who revel in the knowledge that only the strong will survive the day and only the bravest will win...  Today was a day of that sort. Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is the opening race of a series of one-day 'classic' rides in the north country.  Ian Stannard beat Greg Van Avermaet in a sprint.  In the end, only 33 riders could be considered 'in contention' at 10km, and only the two at the finish.  Hard men.  The dominant features of most of these are long, windy flats, secteurs of cobbles, and short, narrow, steep and often greasy climbs.  The legendary Kapelmuur - Muur van Geraardsbergen has pitches approaching 20%, cobbles, moss and mud - on the dry days!  Hard men win bike races here.  Cancellara launched an insane attack on Boonen here in the 2010 Ronde van Vlanderen (Tour of Flanders) that had people talking about a motor in the seatpost (honest!).  

I love the Classics and the hard men who race them at the front.  It’s a particular kind of misery that isn’t for everyone, but God help me, I love it.  Watching a rider court that thin line between speed and disaster as they attempt to thread between the fans on one side, bowler hat cobbles on the other while tapdancing down a little stripe of gravel, grass or hammering a big gear in order to skip across the tops of the cobbles, all while battling dust, grit, rain, mud…It’s poetry of the soul. But it's the long sections of flat and windy roads that send the sunshine riders out the back.  One hundred and eighty or so kilometers of wind, rain soaking through your cape, wet gloves, dripping glasses, and leg numbing cold are sure to make the sunny boys look to the warmth of the team car, and another 'training ride' come to an end. 

There's a special reverence in the pits and garages for the mechanics who carefully select the wheels, tires and frames, all customized to meet the individual needs of their riders.  The perfect saddle, just the right combination of bar tape. That extra O-ring or zip tie to hold the computer in place, or a bit of friction tape on bottle cages to ensure they stay put.  Top tube charts noting the cobbles, feed zones, sprint spots.  The legion of 'team staff' recruited for the day to carry spare wheels to remote locations on the course.  Team cars or neutral support may be many minutes behind the leaders in the special sections. Having a wheel at the end of a cobble section may be the difference between winning and not even being in the group.  And by the end of April, all of this gear will be carefully disassembled, inspected, lubricated and stored for next season.

Tires and bikes play a huge part in the Classics.  Building a bike for the roads of Belgium and the North is very different from a ‘climber’s bike built for the mountains. In the first place, it needs some shock absorbing characteristics.  Longer forks, chainstays and more relaxed angles help, as do double wrapping the bars, and maybe a slightly more padded seat.  Probably even more important are wheels and tires. 

If you look across the pro tour team pits, you’ll see a wide array of sponsored equipment, some of which may even carry the actual manufacturer’s logos.  And some that carries the branding of the team’s sponsors, but doesn’t look quite ‘right’.  Wheels are often a bit suspect.  It’s amazing how many different logos you see on the old standby Mavic SSC tubular rims.  It’s basically unchanged in 30 years, but still a benchmark for ride quality and reliability.  And glued to those?  Well, *anybody* can make tires, but as often as not what you actually see are Dugast or FMB tubulars in ‘drag’ – with someone else’s label carefully applied.  There are a few real brands (like Challenge), but mostly, it's a rebranding game.  In the end, it's really about feel - supple casings resist punctures, soak up shock better, and provide better road feel.  Better contact means better power transmission.  It's hard to be powerful if your tires are off the ground part of the time. 

OK, what the hell does L'enfer du Nord and the other spring classics have to do with riding gravel roads in Minnesota?  Quite a lot, actually.  We don’t really have cobbles here – or at least not enough, but we’ve got an abundance of crappy pavement, gravel roads and crushed limestone trails, a few B roads to explore, and maybe even a ski trail or two.  I’m at a point that criterium setups don’t do much for me.  They’re fun for a quick blast around the lake, after which you make reassuring comments to the kid that let you ride his/her pride and joy, and then give it back.  After riding such an awesome bike, my general thought is “glad I don’t ride *that* all the time!”.    And honestly, the older I get, the more I want something that’s got a bit more ‘give’ vertically than you get from a traditional road race bike.  (I have a very nice Ridley Noah for sale if you are interested).  There are so many good bikes out there now. Custom designs from people like Steve Hampsten, Linskey, Moots, Peacock Groove and a whole host of others (NB - Steve is an old friend from Seattle days).  And lots of production bikes from Foundry, Trek, BMC and many others all targeting the current 'gravel' market.  If I were to guess, I'd bet gravel is the 2nd fastest growing segment of the cycling industry behind fat bikes.  And this is good for bike shops -- and consumers.  Getting people out the door and onto bikes is a good thing.  Having people believe that they are onto something new is a great thing.

Our spring gravel races have a lot in common with the Classics.  Weather is often marginal, the roads are sure to be pitted, gritty and often littered with 'poodles'.  It's that great chance to have an adventure, and finish the day with a beer (now if we could only get good frites!  

And it's a chance to reflect on the hard men.