Same as it ever was…
 Photo source: LIFE photo archive |
“These punks today, riding bikes, getting paid mad money, they don’t know what it was like when blah blah blah blah…”
I’ve been poking around some on the LIFE photo archives, unsurprisingly perusing their images related to cycling. When you enter the phrase “bicycle racing” into the search engine, 31 photographs are returned. As one would expect, there are some Tour de France photos, some 6-day photos from the ’40s, several Little 500 pics, and then there’s a certain Monsieur Fourcet (as seen above).
The caption to this photograhs reads, “Veteran cyclist Fourcet expessing low opinion of modern racers, saying they no longer have good legs and are much too lazy.”
The location is France.
The month is July.
And the year is 1953.
Jeez, you’ve got to wonder what it takes to impress this guy. It’s quite likely the photo was captured while the 1953 Tour de France was in progress, won by that well-known slacker Louison Bobet, his first of three consecutive Tour victories. Alongside other perennial softies such as Raphaël Géminiani, Gino Bartali, Wim Van Est, Fiorenzo Magni, Hugo Koblet, Charly Gaul and Jean Robic.
And as luck would have it, there’s some stellar prose recently created concerning Louison Bobet: the ever-interesting Dave Moulton penned a Bobet primer and Rouleur #12 has a profile of Bobet’s younger brother, Jean, a rider (and writer) of no modest abilities in his own right. You’ll have to get your hands on the issue (or better yet, his book Tomorrow We Ride) to read his account of Louison laying waste to the field on Mont Ventoux during the 1955 Tour, while he endured his own personal level of hell to finish his first Grand Tour.
Laziness, indeed.
Jim wrote:
That’s a great find.
He may have had a minor point, since the riders were no longer using fixed gear bikes (Damn you to the seventh circle of hell, Tullio Campagnolo!) and the stages were no longer 500km long.
He’d also fill his Depends to bursting over the softness of today’s pro riders with their carbon fiber bikes, recovery drinks, and frequent withdrawals from races due to stomach ailments and ‘just not feeling it today.’ He’d also definitely tell us to “get off my lawn, you hoodlums.’
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 6:23 am | Permalink
Cyclocosm - Pro Cycling Blog » Starting to Feel Like Home Again wrote:
[…] the rumbly bits of today’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, the venerable Bobke Strut proves that even retro grouches had retro grouches, and Robbie McEwan loves crappy weather fancies his chances of a win. All in all, it’s a lot […]
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 8:56 am | Permalink
brewmeister wrote:
Pietro I read this just before reading your blog:
Wim Van Est was born on March 25, 1923. He died on May 1, 2003
The Dutch rider won one of the five monuments in cycling.
Van Est won the Tour of Flanders Classic in 1953.
He was also the first Dutchman to wear the yellow jersey of race leadership in the Tour de France.
Happy Birthday Wim…not forgotten
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 6:59 pm | Permalink
brewmeister wrote:
Pietro I read this just before reading your blog:
Wim Van Est was born on March 25, 1923. He died on May 1, 2003
The Dutch rider won one of the five monuments in cycling.
Van Est won the Tour of Flanders Classic in 1953.
He was also the first Dutchman to wear the yellow jersey of race leadership in the Tour de France.
Happy Birthday Wim…not forgotten
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 6:59 pm | Permalink
K-Ro wrote:
Welcome back You’re posts were missed.
Posted on 26-Mar-09 at 1:12 am | Permalink
Gabriel Vargas wrote:
And now, 50’s veteran road cyclist could say that today racers “no longer have good legs and are much too lazy”.
Posted on 03-Apr-09 at 3:44 pm | Permalink
Pete wrote:
Are you still alive? How about updating this blog once in a while?
Posted on 03-Aug-09 at 12:28 am | Permalink
JoeP wrote:
new post needed…
Posted on 07-Aug-09 at 10:24 am | Permalink
jame wrote:
YY
Posted on 19-Nov-09 at 7:17 am | Permalink
JoeP wrote:
Peter, you should take your blog down if youre never going to update it…
Posted on 07-Jan-10 at 12:40 pm | Permalink
PeterW wrote:
It’s been almost a year since your last post. Give us more!
Posted on 13-Jan-10 at 2:40 pm | Permalink