207: King Kong Classic2

KV reminded me of this today. So good. 2006 Tour de Suisse

Remember when I said that Tom Boonen was going to win Milan San Remo? Well, I was right and finally CD and I can agree on something. At the party last night he came up to me and said...

CD:
"Do you know who won today?"

Me:
"Yes, of course. Tom Boonen."

CD:
"You are correct because Oscar Freire was being helped by the Right Hand of God."
Fact.

And I do not remember who was standing with us when all of this happened, but I am sure that they were mystified beyond reason. This MSR outcome makes me even happier than if Boonen would have won. Oh, I do love our Booger Sugar touting Belgian friend. (That's streetcode for Cocaine.) But Freire? When he is anywhere near the front in the last few K's he reaches into his jersey pocket and pulls out sheer magic. The three time WC is a crafty-crafty man who knows where to be and when to be there. Besides, who would not want a leadout from the Liquigas team?

King-Kong Classic

Number two went off without a hitch. Especially with Daniel Lloyd, the Cervelo Test Team rider pictured in the KKC2 flier being alerted to his participation in at least the photo portion of the ride. This photo was from last years Gent-Wevelgem. Straight up and over the town of Gent, and we were standing at the top of the hill as Daniel and Co. flew past.

The real best part though? MsR was the talk of the town as we rolled out on the now monthly King Kong Classic ride/race/friendly slugfest. Is it monthly now?

Also Dave G. from River City Bicycles was on the ride. And he was all talk about the MSR race as well, I snapped this photo just as I heard him telling Matt Kare that he was actually present in 2002 when Cippolini won. I find that to be pretty damn awesome. Plus, his use of the full on fendered steel bike was a pretty awesome sight to behold.


Abby and I were speculating on whether or not the previous days good weather had anything to do with every ones good moods. People were calling to us from their Porchside viewing spots and we cruised up Thompson and into the hills. She made the great observation that there was reportedly great weather all over the country. "I hope that everyone goes into this Health care Reform vote as happy as we are. And I guess they were.

The weather looked as though it was going to hold off for at least the first bit, but by the time we made it to the top of Thomson it was already starting to come down. And no one wants to stand around in the rain. So, off we went. Things got a little tense when we hit the gravel sector, we will call it Gravel Sector 1, or GS1, if you will. At GS1 is where things really started to heat up and I watched Weaver pedal through a full on two wheel Tokyo Drift through the first right hander. It was awesome.


There were a few things that happened after that but most of them involved heavy breathing, at least on my end, and me staring cross eyed at the wheel in front of me. Especially when that wheel in front of me belongs to a couple of people. 1. Molly testing out her new Ridley Helium. And 2. New father Shannon Skerritt on his fully fender-ed ultra commuter. The bottles were a dead giveaway though.

I flatted out of the first version of this ride/race and did not get to see the entirety of the climb. Well, today I found out what I was missing and it involved a little bit of and incline. Some grunting, and then more of an incline. This (photo below) is what kept me going for the entirety of the ride. While I could not hide in the vast shadow/wind block that is the Weaver (that is not meant as an offense either.) I did have the image burned into my retinas for the majority of the ride.

Weaver got this when he was over for the Cyclocross worlds a couple months ago. And I have to check with a few anonymous sources but I do believe that this is the same character that raced in the full Budweiser kit in the Luxembourg Cross Race last year. I remember this clearly mainly because the only other Americans that I knew there were Yash and his girlfriend (now fiance Megan). But someone else in the crowd, and I couldn't tell where it was coming from - just kept yelling "Goooooo Budman!! YEAHHH BUDMAN."

It made me feel gross and unamerican.

But now I am over it.

Also, we had a little bit of a party over at Ampersand the other night. Great stuff came of that and thank you to everyone who came out to help celebrate and make Volume 5 possible. Take for example this little guy. To end on a cute note is always good. Especially when it involves a super great Spider-Man hoodie...

171: Storytime.

Il Centenario - Una Storia
(The 100th Giro - A Story)

Photos:
Dan Sharp

Story:
Joe Staples
Max Erdenberger
Jeremy Dunn

Take a look at it one more time. It is a little sped, up, but that is just because I know you want to actually get one for yourself. Spend a little time with it. Because this is what this art deserves. But think about the bicycle races that you have been to while you watch it. Think about what it feels like to attend them.



You wake up in the morning and head out to the spot where you know you can watch the race unfold. If you live somewhere like France, or in this case Italy, others may be doing the same thing. Getting in their cars and driving out to similar spots. You will know some of them by their Faema supporters jackets, scarfs, or maybe a cycle cap. On the other hand if you are living somewhere in the Midwestern United States and you are heading out to watch bike racing you might be doing it alone.

Either way, find a spot where you know the race will pass and wait.

Then the race will come. Sometimes it will be followed by the sound of a helicopter, but it will always have a car or motorcycle out front leading the way. Hopefully you are on a mountaintop and get more than a passing glimpse of this spectacular parade.


At the finish line everyone is waiting. Everyone that has come from miles around are all gathered to welcome their hero, whomever it may be, into their arms. The others slink away to try and come back and do it again the next day.

And then as you return to your home via your car, a train or three cafes you are left with those images. Those brief and hopefully vivid memories of the day.


----------------------------------------------

The real reason why I was psyched to go to Dan Sharp's Show the other night was a little more selfish than I made it out to be. And maybe that is wrong. You see, I was involved in the creation of this printed piece that you see in the video. Mr. Joe Staples told me of his idea to help Dan Sharp create a piece with his photos from his trip to Italy (I might be wrong here, but there was something like 5,000 photos that they started with.) And this little beauty (the above publication) is the result.

So, Joe together with Max Erdenberger went through the process of selecting photos that told this story of the daily attending of a race. This is the pared down version of what really went into it, but I would only confuse you with their ruckus tale of mathmatics combined with really, really good taste.* Aside: One of the cool things is that they did this with the entire collection of Giro photos from this year, making all kinds of small stories come out along the way.

Then they went back through (and this is where I got to come in and help) and started to flesh out the story that was to be told through this piece. I didn't really help all that much aside from pointing to photos and saying "Yes! I love that photo" (which was a lot) and "Hrm, I don't know if that works here?"

The result is Il Centenario - Una Storia and it is pretty damn awesome.

Get one: ampersandvintage@mac.com ask for Myles.

And stay tuned while we try to find another venue to show these photos as Vanilla had to get back to work...ha!


Max's Twitter photo alone would shame both Lemond and Millar into giving back their entire Oakley collections.

(also, this is the first Vanilla Sacha White built)

170: Postcards from Italy

The Vanilla Workshop housed the photos of Dan Sharp Friday evening. His photos from the 2009 Giro d'Italia is the setting for a pretty awesome exploration of not only the Italian bike racing experience, but also a study of his surroundings while in Italy.

In early May, Mr. Sharp headed out to Italy with nothing more than a few cameras and a plan to follow the Giro as it wound around through this small country. It was pretty fun to follow his travels through his (and Ira's) Flickr page (as following a pro race can prove to be pretty time consuming) but it was even more exciting to see these photos printed on a larger scale.



It was great to see the photos hanging next to the tools in the shop as well. A sort of constant reminder of what goes into making the bicycles that are being raced. Maybe not these exact ones, but definitely along the lines of perfomace bicycles. This is after all where the race specific Speedvagen bicycles are made.


These photos do a good job of pacing themselves out as well. Open roads, mist covered forests and the huge vistas that are brought on by the Dolomites are reminders that we are still in Italy. Then we see the familiar kits that are seen throughout. That candor captured with some of the Astana riders (and Johan in particular) are nice as Lance is somewhat an afterthought in this story. As every cycling newsoutfit every where had to tell the story of big L it is pretty cool to see what was going on with everyone else.

The waiting, and waiting only to have the riders whiz by in a manner of seconds. Pack up your vehicle and try to find another spot, if you are lucky. Well, Dan must be lucky because in the span of 21 days this man captured more than a few moments that help define what this race is all about.


One should note that Dan also has some of these Giro photos appear in the 2009 Rouleur Photo Annual, of which the opening ceremony took place a few short weeks ago. This should further cement Sharp as a photographer to keep an eye on in the Cycling world. As one of the founding photographers of the Rapha Continental (and also my first glimpse at it when he and DWP helped me with my Embrocation booth at Nahbs) and a regular contributor to the Nike and Nau camps he certainly has more than enough expertise to rely on.



The other really cool thing about the show was that Dan had on hand his own little printed story of the trip. Such a great way to display his great photos. But the interesting thing about this is the story told within. Joe Staples (whom I know you have seen here before) and Max Erdenberger (whom I would just plain like to see more) created the the story that plays out through these pages. Somehow I was lucky to get a credit on this as well, but all I did was to help them choose the photos that helped tell this story. (More on that later).

I can tell, you are now wondering where you can get ahold of this little publication yourself. Dan was selling them for $20 a piece and only printed 1oo. Pretty amazing little stocking stuffer if you ask me. If you are into that sort of thing. Me, I am.

Myles (ampersandvintage@mac.com) over at Ampersand might be able to help out in that arena. I stopped by his booth at the Publication Fare this afternoon and he had them in stock. If you are in PDX and looking to pick up copies of this, Embrocation, or Rouleur he carries them all (and I have been trying to get him to branch out and carry some other, weirder cycling and sports publications...hint hint...).

169: Il Centenario: Tonight.

163: USGP — Day 1 (in pictures)

Molly Cameron and Co. (Jake)

Sideburns (and Geoff)

Neutral Support (starring Chad)

The Vanilla Workshop (with Shannon and Kevin)


TJ


Verg