Bric-à-brac!

Still struggling to work and weeks away from riding my bike, I'm reduced to wandering lonely like a cloud and floating on high around my workshop looking for various objets d'art to take photos of to keep my love alive. As well as alleviating my boredom, I figure it's good to disseminate these images to hopefully alleviate the boredom of others too, as the piles of bikes and bike-related crap I possess are wasted if no one is actually looking at them.



So now I present to you several photos of some of the piles of crap that I so love to look at and play with - I hope you enjoy looking at them too.

First up we have some unusual, rare and stinky car air fresheners given away with an early issue of Cycle Sport magazine. These are courtesy of my old friend Ben of Cactus Clothing fame - that's Ben on the left with Paul in their hip Cycle Services skinsuits...



The two teams featured on the air fresheners are the Castorama squad of the late, great Laurent Fignon and grand échappé specialist Jacky Durand, and the other is the famed Banesto formation of five-time Tour winner, the majestic Miguel Indurain.



Also donated by Ben to the Roadworks Museum of Bicycle Esoterica is this Giro pamphlet from the 1994 Giro d'Italia won by Evgeni Berzin.





A quirky bit of old stock left over from Cycle Services days. This is The Boot (see what I did there?)...



A NZ Cycling badge has pride of place on my workstand.



The inspiration for the blog title is the Tashkoff Cabinet of Bric-à-brac, filled with a selection of random precious items/junk such as Onza cable straddle hangers, Chongming good luck charms, Ringle bottle cages, Rawleigh's Bicycle Wax, Tour Down Under beer coolers and a model bicycle that my Mum gave me on my 14th birthday, along with my new Bike Pure wristband and headset spacer.



The head tube badge of my Hillbrick which waits patiently for it's next iteration as a complete bicycle.



Sadly after nearly six years my Wholly Bagel team socks are finally dying, so here they are before I turn them into Belgian Overshoes.



My helmet has also seen better days, but is another place I continue to wear the Mighty Bagel logo with pride.



Il Cavatappi BIG. Genius inventor Tullio Campagnolo is well known for his invention of the ubiquitous quick release we all rely on to remove or fit our bicycle wheels, and his jewel-like refinement of racing bike componentry, but he's less well known for being the inventor of this popular style of wine bottle opener.



I've got an old, old Team Raleigh 531 that used to belong to my friend Greg that awaits eventual restoration. Here is the famed heron head badge.



And a spare one I've hung onto since my Raleigh owning days in the early 80s because, well, you just never know...



The seat tube and the evocative Reynolds 531 decal.



Greg had it built up with some of the finest components of the mid to late 70s, such as a Brooks Professional saddle, Universal side-pull brakes, Campagnolo derailleurs and this very cool drillium Stronglight chainset.



Any excuse to show off the Celeste - this is my Silca Impero Bianchi frame pump.





My prized Marco Pantani edition Flite saddle sits amid my Look pedals, my Arione, Bianchi bidons and frame pump.



A Campagnolo cap I bought on my trip to Geelong in 2007, alongside the tattered remains of a NZ Supporters t-shirt from the 1993 World Championships in France.



Some of the many badges I've accumulated over the years. Left to right, top to bottom: Campagnolo 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Ritchey, Mavic, Eddy Merckx, New Plymouth Amateur Cycling Club, Volvo-Cannondale Tinker Juarez, City of Regina (Saskatchewan, Canada - I have no recollection of why I have this at the moment?!), Tour de France, Giro, 3ttt.



I thought I'd save the best till last; here are some shots of my Campagnolo kit. This is my pair of Super Record track pedals with titanium axles.



My aero bottle and cage, some sadly cracked Super Record cranks (complete with drillium Sugino 42t 'ring), a 1981 Nuovo Record rear mech, C-Record front hub, Syncro 8 left-hand gear lever and an Elite Sartchari aluminium bidon.



Front and centre is my prized Campagnolo 50th Anniversary front derailleur (thanks, Jase!), a Nuovo Record front mech and my lone Super Record brake lever - hopefully one day I'll be able to afford a mate, and possibly even some hoods!



Campagnolo Croce d'Aune Delta brake calipers.



This relatively rare 1977 Super Record rear derailleur came off the Team Raleigh above, and is one of the only parts of the whole bike to survive the ravages of time virtually unmarred. The gear levers need a polish but otherwise are as they were on my old Ferrari "DeRosa" of the early 90s...




(Weird Al, moi and Wheels, prior to racing around Taupo in November 1992)

And closing with a Stronglight chainset, Regina America cluster, Cinelli stem and saddle and my prized Tour de France bidon...Thanks for reading, Oli



STOP PRESS:
John Randal gets the Vets silver medal at Singlespeed Nationals dressed as an Easter Bunny!!

Also, I've recently been pimped on the great Velominati website - please check it out.

Paris-Roubaix Tele-Blog

Eddy Merckx (winner 1968, '70, '73) rides the pavé in the 1977 Paris-Roubaix, won by the looming de Vlaeminck.

The legend of Paris-Roubaix is writ large upon the annals of professional road cycling. This hellish race is run over 260-odd kilometres of roads from Compiègne outside of Paris through the historic battlefields of Northern France to near the border of Belgium, and for over 50km it takes the peloton over old roads and farm tracks dating back to the Napoleonic Era. These pot-holed and decaying "roads" are erratically paved with the most brutal cobbles known to man; the size of loaves of bread and spaced at times inches apart, in foul weather they are slick with a vile covering of mud, or on fine days dangerously slippery from the dust that is thrown up by the passing race. Paris-Roubaix has been won by some of the biggest names in cycling over the years, but it's also a race that sometimes rewards the brave and tough adventurer who perhaps wouldn't often get a chance to win in the hillier races that predominate on the cycling calendar...


Roger De Vlaeminck will be forever known as "Monsieur Paris-Roubaix" for being the only four time winner (1972, '74, '75, '77). Here he rides through the Forest of Arenberg in the 1973 edition won, perversely, by Eddy Merckx.

So, thus inspired, here's my slightly random perspective of the 2011 Hell Of The North. The cycling-related interbongo is full of the most up to date crystal clear images and crisp, apposite commentaries of this incredible race, so I figured that I'd add a blurry and abstract point of view of it using photos taken of my telly as I watched late last Sunday night...

Firing up the laptop as Sky begins showing the live TV coverage of the "Queen of the Classics". As the race unfolded I was dicking around between my Facebook page, my virtual living room Vorb, Cyclingnews live coverage and Velominati, hoping my US friends would be watching and commenting too...



The race hits the pavé. Despite the summery conditions the cobbles are treacherous with the patina of dust stirred up by the riders and their motorised escorts.



A Skil-Shimano rider passes through the town of Maing.



The lead break hits the terrible Trouée d'Arenberg.



Flanders flags fly in France. Despite Paris-Roubaix being held entirely within Northern France it has been adopted by the Belgian fans to such an extent it's almost regarded as a Flandrian Classic. Just as a point of interest, the last French winner was Frédéric Guesdon in 1997!



I always chuckle when I see a sign advertising Dirk Hofman Motorhomes. The favourites arrive in the Trouée chasing down the break.



Poor Tom Boonen was left stranded for over two minutes by a mechanical when his chain got jammed. Amazingly, the Belgian race co-favourite almost made it back up to the chasing group before being taken down in a crash.



Hot favourite Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) drags the World Champion Thor Hushovd (Norway) along the dry, dusty cobbles. Hushovd wouldn't work with Cancellara as his Team had two men in the break, but he was clearly champing at the bit.



Cancellara didn't seem to be able to rid himself of Hushovd, who was able to cover everything thrown at him with ease.



Cancellara still towing Hushovd and also 2008 World Champion Allessandro Ballan (Italy), both of whom had perfectly justifiable cause to shirk work due to them both having teammates up the road in the break.



Belgium's Sepp Vanmarcke was another Garmin-Cervelo teammate to Hushovd in the chasing group that Cancellara had to contend with.



The French are huge fans of cycling.



The chasers hit another secteur of pavé with only 24km to go to catch the group about one minute ahead.



Hot pursuit.



Hushovd's main man in the break, Johan Van Summeren (Belgium), has gone it alone, attacking the leaders on the feared cobbled secteur of Mons-en-Pévèle.



But behind him things are hotting up - with a withering burst of power Cancellara rids himself of Hushovd, Ballan and everybody else, as he desperately tries to chase down the lead group and the lone leader on the road.



Spartacus (as Cancellara is known) was easily the strongest man in the race, but for the second Classic in a row another team's tactics ultimately thwarted him.



Van Summeren puts his head down.



In an amazing display of strength and power Cancellara reels in the last survivors of the break, but Van Summeren is surely safe now.



As JVS entered the velodrome in Roubaix his audience didn't realise he had a softening rear tyre! Although on subsequent viewings it is visibly squirming as he makes the sharp turn into the track...



The fabled Roubaix Velodrome.



Van Summeren has a lap and a half of the track to soak in the thunderous applause before crossing the line.



And he nears the line in the style of the great Champions, solo.



Johan Van Summeren's victory in the 2011 edition of the Queen of the Classics was a true multi-media event in Roadworks HQ.



Tired but happy, JVS crosses the line 19 seconds ahead of the storming Cancellara who catches the remnants of the break and outsprints the Dutchman Martin Tjallingii for second.



Usually regarded more as a top domestique, Van Summeren's performance and his previous 10th and 5th places in this gruelling race meant he was a great wild card for Garmin-Cervelo to play, and he proved himself a most worthy winner.



The race over, I sat there happily absorbing the results from what had been a thrilling edition of PR...



Somehow JVS hoisted his cobble trophy aloft.



The podium of the 2011 Paris-Roubaix. It was a great win by Van Summeren, but also a fantastic ride by the heavily marked Cancellara to ditch his wheelsucking companions and outsprint the remnants of the break for second place. Top race, would deffo watch again.



Finally, I'd like to send out props to my friend Kris Withington who built the bike that carried Van Summeren to his biggest win. Kris was head mechanic on my first international trip for BikeNZ, and you couldn't meet a better dude. His unselfish help and teaching was invaluable, and he's a great mate. He graduated from the BikeNZ program a few years ago to become a highly rated wrench for the team that is now known as Garmin-Cervelo and this year was given the prestigious but stressful job of working Car One at Paris-Roubaix, as well as helping build the team bikes including those of JVS and Thor Hushovd...


Spare bikes.


Race bikes.


Team leaders bikes.

Congratulations Grom on your first Paris-Roubaix win!!



I hope you enjoyed this slightly odd view of this most classic of Classics. Until next time, thanks for reading. Pedal on, Oli.

Lineage

My Aunt just sent me this photo dating all the way back to 1904. It is of a bunch of cyclists standing outside the Riverton bicycle shop that belonged to my Great-Great-Great Uncle Bob Murie, who truly was one of the earliest New Zealanders to really grasp the concept of the bicycle and all it could be.



Bob is mentioned a couple of times in the Kennett Brother's seminal volume "Ride - The Story of Cycling in New Zealand" as a pioneer bicycle racer, entertainer and stuntman. He was passionate about riding and this enthusiasm led him to creating a hugely successful bicycle importing and retail empire spread around the entire lower South Island, an empire which set him up for life.

His clever marketing came not only from success in racing (both his own and the riders that he sponsored) and newspaper advertisements, but also clever gimmicks - he was famed for owning one of, if not the, first hot air balloons in NZ, which he used for spreading the word by having the logo of his Phoenix Cycles company emblazoned upon it and flying it around the South Island to various fairs and track racing carnivals.

I believe he was also one of the first New Zealanders to own his own aircraft and, somewhat ironically, he was an early motoring enthusiast who imported several of NZ's first motor cars. In family circles he was also known as an adventurer and explorer - a lion's head and pelt prize from one of his African safaris that later used to decorate his hallway was in our possession until relatively recently, and I still have a scrap of the pelt to this day...