Argyle Armada: Behind the Scenes of the Pro Cycling Life (Book Review)

Argyle Armada: Behind the Scenes of the Pro Cycling Life by Mark Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Mark Johnson is a journalist and photographer for VeloNews, part of the same company that published this book. He is certainly well qualified to write something like this. The short description is that Johnson was "embedded" with the Garmin-Cervelo team for the 2011 pro cycling race season, taking photographs and interviewing riders, coaches, and others as the season progressed, then publishing the results as this coffee table book. Johnson says nothing controversial (at least from the team's point of view) and in the preface Johnson notes, "Neither Slipstream [the team's parent company] nor Garmin commissioned this book, but it is nevertheless an outgrowth of my long relationship with the team as a freelance writer and photographer." So this is not anything like Wide Eyed and Legless (from 1988) where an "embedded" journalist had much to say about a British team's Tour de France campaign that the team was probably unhappy about.

Most of the book's chapters are a chronological presentation of the season, starting with training and ending with the Vuelta and races in Quebec and Montreal. A final chapter, in some ways more interesting than the rest of it, is called "the business of pro cycling" that lays out in more detail than one might expect the economics of Garmin-Cervelo operations. The book runs about 200 pages with somewhat over half the space devoted to photographs rather than text. There is a good index, which is helpful in something like this.

This team is known for its unusual approach to fighting doping and that it started its anti-doping more aggressively and openly earlier than most teams. The team director, Jonathan Vaughters, talks about this generally and the topic comes up in different parts of the book. Even though things have changed with fallout from Lance Armstrong's confession, those parts of the book seem relevant.

While I was happy to get this book from the library and to page through it looking at the photos, it took me a long time to get through all of the text (which I eventually decided I should read from start to finish). Johnson's writing seems a bit stiff in this extended book-length presentation compared to his usual much shorter news items in VeloNews. Also Johnson of course had no control over the flow of the season and much of team's greatest successes came early - the narrative doesn't build to some particular success (or for that matter, failure). I also have some quibbles with the photographs - many are action shots using very wide angle lenses which I (personally) don't like all that much and because there are so many photos in what is a small-ish coffee table format book many group shots are reduced to small sizes that make me wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have fewer larger photos.

The last chapter and comments throughout the book make clear the importance of the business aspects of this team (and one assumes, to a greater or lesser degree, other teams). The mention in various places of efforts to provide special services and activities for sponsor representatives, for example. And the analysis by Vaughters of how valuable the team is for its sponsors relative to the absolute dollar cost of the team compared to other teams - Garmin was a low cost team compared to the highest spending teams but was in fourth place (out of 18) for "sporting value." Somewhat complex financial issues are laid out - for example, rider salaries are a huge part of the operational cost of cycling teams and Garmin relies on a balanced approach and avoids paying "star" salaries - this also means that if they lose a star rider who has "points" that count towards the team's WorldTour points total (that is vital to it keeping its team license) the team will not be endangered in staying part of the circuit, which is good for all the riders (and something they understand).

Johnson has a video about this on the VeloNews site.

View my reviews of cycling books.

OK Why DId I Believe Lance ?

I was surprised to see an extensive story in the NYTimes about people who had different things related to Livestrong tattooed onto themselves and what these people think about having done that given that Lance is a cheat (to use the shortest possible summary of his situation). Apparently the "Lance story" (or Lance stories) is not going away any time soon. (The folks with Livestrong tattoos state that the tattoos are about cancer survival, not Lance. By the way.)



I started thinking about why back in the early 2000s, when I was paying some (although not that much) attention to Armstrong and the Tour de France annual victory that I believed he wasn't doping. Looking back today, this is what I remember thinking:

* It's a kind of cancer survivor justice - that a guy would come back from cancer and become the best cyclist in the world seemed cosmically right. This is just an emotional reaction, of course.

* After cancer, Lance was able to mold the "new Lance" perfectly for winning the Tour de France - I remember reading (probably in one of his books) that his pre-cancer physique was more suited to a triathlete than a general category stage race cyclist, but when he recovered from cancer he changed that. There is likely some truth to this but of course by itself it wouldn't make him better than anyone else for seven years.

* Huge VO2 max - I know I read more than once that Armstrong had unnaturally large oxygen capacity. Surely that's important? Of course since then I have read that it wasn't that much greater.

* High cadence - in addition to reading about his high oxygen capacity, one would see comments praising his unusually high cadence. More efficient, or something.

* American ingenuity - notwithstanding that his team sports director was Bruyneel (not American) I think I felt that Armstrong's success was a modern example of an American coming up with solutions that others had not seen in order to succeed. Armstrong talked about the importance of small advantages that cumulatively can mean success. Better equipment, better training, better diet - it all adds up to victory! Well, it sounds good.

* Focus on the Tour de France exclusively (or so it seemed) - of course Armstrong was in other races, but they were almost part of a training program for the Tour de France (in effect). He certainly didn't race as difficult a schedule as most riders - of course now it turns out (thanks to Tyler Hamilton for explaining this) that this was part of his blood bag management and otherwise to avoid too much exposure to doping tests. So it was part of his "focus on the TdF" strategy but not in the way I had hoped.

As I look back, the way conversations went, my summary feeling was that if you looked around for reasons (see above list, plus others I'm probably forgetting) it didn't seem impossible that Lance was clean. If anyone could do it, he could. That kind of thinking.

Eventually I became disillusioned because even though I thought it was possible that he was clean, it seemed like his team (Landis, Hamilton) wasn't and given Armstrong's personality it was hardly possible they were doping without his knowledge and even support and encouragement. So if Armstrong was winning with a team of dopers to support him (since bicycle stage racing is a team sport, really), that almost seemed worse than if he wasn't himself doping. To me, anyway.

And now when we read Hamilton, we see that the advantages from EPO and blood doping were far greater than a single percent improvement in performance that Lance talked about - he describes races where Bjarne Riis moved back and forth in the peleton as if on a motorcyle, effortlessly, clearly enjoying a PED-fueled advantage more like ten percent than one percent. This turns out to be the kind of gain in advantage Armstrong was seeking, not just a little bump from more aerodynamic helmets and the like.


Wearing my Astana jersey that arrived in the mail the day before Vinokourov was busted in the 2006 Tour de France

Modern Snow Bike

K-Trak Snow Bike System

In my two previous posts, here and here I have looked at 100+ year old ideas for how to get around on a bicycle in the snow and ice. Aside from the simple approach of using studded tires on a bicycle (which works for most urban snow) there is also the above snow bike inspired by a snowmobile.

1896 Ice Bike Demonstrated by Woman Rider

Short article about ice bike demonstration in The San Francisco Call, January 19, 1896.

An Ice Bicycle.

A bicycle has been invented for traveling on ice or snow, says a New York paper. The long runner or skate, which replaces the front wheel of the bicycle, in itself is made for ice alone, but when the machine is used on snow-clad roads a metal shoe is fitted over the skate, and it is claimed that the machine will carry a rider over the ground, or rather snow or ice, at a greater speed than the regulation wheel.



Miss Davidson, who is young and enthusiastic, mounted the ice wheel at a rink last evening with but little difficulty, and, after a few "wobbles," started off around the rink gracefully. The half dozen spectators were astonished at the perfect work ing of the machine. After two or three turns about the rink Miss Davidson did a few fancy moves and then dismounted.

Converting Bikes to Snow/Ice Use - Patents

Snow Bike Patent, 1900

"The invention contemplates the employment of a bicycle of any preferred style, in combination with supporting sleds or runners and means for imparting motion thereto." and . . . "The rotary motion of said shaft is converted . . . to a reciprocating motion upon the part of the push-bars, which are alternately projected and retracted, engaging the snow or ice at each stroke, and so propelling the vehicle."

Apparently the idea was to propel the bicycle as though it was someone's crazy version of a cross country skier, in which the poles do all the work.


Snow Bike Patent, 1900 - augmented wheels

To make this work, rather elaborate changes are made to the tires, fixing a set of teeth to the outside edge of the tire. Uhm, wouldn't it have been easier to run the chain down directly to do this??

The "ice velocipede" below looks more sensible, although since it preceded the above by six years, apparently it hadn't caught on.


Ice Velocipede 1894

The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved snow and ice velocipede, which is simple and durable in construction, and arranged to enable the rider to travel over the snow and ice at a high rate of speed. and The invention consists principally of single front and rear runners supporting the frame, and connected thereto by horizontal pivots and a propelling chain mounted to travel along the rear runner and driven from the crank or pedal shaft through the medium of a sprocket wheel mounted on the pivot connecting the said runner with the frame. (Crazy way to write.) and The propelling chain is provided with spikes or blades adapted to pass into the snow or ice, so as to propel the vehicle forward. Aha! Well, it might work. But again, we don't see these around . . .


Snow Shoe Attachment for Bicycles

This is the simplest of the bunch, although it seems likely to have traction problems.


Traction Vehicle

This isn't actually a patent for a snow bike (snow isn't mentioned in the patent) but rather a tracked bicycle that could, presumably, have been used on snow as well as on other difficult terrains. (Also it seems to be a purpose build device rather than a conversion.) Could this be used for cyclocross? Again, we don't see these around today, do we. Presumably the energy required to get this to move at all was a bit of a problem.

Keep in mind these are 110+ year old patents - what is interesting is that there are plenty of patents from the last 20 years that aren't that different. Go to Google's patent search and simply search on "bicycle snow" and see what I mean.

Washington Post Doesn't Know What Bike I Want

Recent ad on WashingtonPost.com providing a crazy assortment of bikes

I have burst out laughing when I have spent ten minutes gazing thoughtfully at some bike wheels on Amazon.com and then a while later, a sidebar ad on WashingtonPost.com tries to interest me in the very same bicycle wheels on Amazon.com. Well, uhm - I haven't changed my mind, as a matter of fact. Still don't want them.

This assortment, however, was quite amazing. What algorithm is behind this sort of thing?

A road bike called the "Tour de France" for . . . $209.99. Well, sure if you want a bike that allows you to answer the question, "do you have a bike" in the affirmative but don't plan to ride it. Because that's what a bike like this is intended for - not being ridden.

Then next up, a Pinarello Dogma - only $13,200!! What ?!? I don't pay attention to this market, so I can't say if this is a "good" price or not but that I'm not buying any bikes that cost more than the last new car I bought, I'm pretty sure of that.

Logically what should be in the third position here after the total crap bike and the bike that was hand carved by the most experienced Italian carbon-fiber-carvers would be the "just right" bike priced somewhere in the real world at around $800 - $1,200. But no, the algorithm goes completely off the rails and offers an even crappier bike. Regardless of price and anything else, there can be no worse a bike than one that is named after a car - and not just any car, but a monster SUVs, the GMC Denali. Who buys bikes with names like that? (I am not denying

I guess I should give them credit for somehow detecting my interest in road bikes over mountain bikes, but other than that this seems pretty clueless.

Don't get me wrong, monster SUVs have their time and place. But I have trouble seeing the connection between one of them and a road bike, in a good sense anyway.


On a visit to Iraq some years ago, GMC Suburban vehicles made sense for my travel plans - otherwise not so much

Holy Spokes! A Biking Bible for Everyone (Review)

Holy Spokes!: A Biking Bible for Everyone by Rob Coppolillo

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



The WashCycle blogger gave me a review copy in return for which I wrote a review that is posted there

View all my reviews on Goodreads of cycling related books (including this one).