The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France (Book Review)

From Flickr user Anders - Greg LeMond and the 1989 Tour de France

My rating: 4 of 5 stars - from GoodReads.

It's odd, but the title on the hardcover version I have is "The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France" which is quite different from "30 Shotgun Pellets, and the World's Greatest Bicycle Race."

The central event of the book is, as the title (on the copy I read) suggests, on LeMond's amazing win over Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour de France after recovering from being shot in a hunting accident. But to describe this properly, the author presents a reasonably complete biography of LeMond and narrative description of his career both before and after that Tour.

Perhaps of equal importance, this book is about the transition from the LeMond era of professional cycling, when racers could win without doping, to the Lance Armstrong era, when the could not. For the author, then, LeMond is "the true king" of American professional bicycle road racing and Armstrong is not.

After the detailed description of LeMond's second tour victory and a shorter description of his third victory the following year, the book becomes tendentious. The tone changes since for the most part, it is no longer build around bicycle races but instead focusing on who-did-what-to-whom-and-why. Armstrong is the villain while LeMond is a tragic hero. I don't disagree (not that I'm an expert) on anything said here but my sense was that the author ends up launching a discussion of the EPO era in cycling to end his book that is less than convincing because it is so much less detailed and nuanced than what came before - and yet is hardly just a few pages in closing.

One problem for me with some of this is that two different issues are mixed together. One is simply that EPO was so much better a substance when used for doping than all the preceding ones (from strychnine to amphetamines) that it allowed mediocre racers to become winners. The other is that Lance Armstrong in particular was an evil person who orchestrated a successful campaign to discredit and demean LeMond. This is true not just of this book, but other discussions of this time that one reads.

Perhaps a problem is simply my own shame since I was one of many who began to follow the Tour de France mostly thanks to Armstrong's success. This coincided with my own developing interest in cycling (of a far more utilitarian nature). With the complete discrediting of Armstrong I lost interest in bicycle racing generally and the Tour de France in particular. (It is July and I have no idea who any of the leaders are and have not watched one second of footage.) Still, I have found I am still willing to read some books about road racing history, such as this one. And to be clear, I think this is mostly very well done.

This book complements rather nicely "Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11435656-slaying-the-badger published in 2011 that centers on the 1986 Tour de France that LeMond won over Hinault.

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Danes Have Used Bicycles for a While

Photograph of "Danish election returns" in Flickr from the Bain News Service, about 1915

I was slightly surprised to see the prevalence of bicycles represented in this photo of Denmark one hundred years ago. Probably should not have been? The newspaper office that is shown in this photo is in Copenhagen.

I see five or perhaps six bicycles here - all seem to be in the service of men in suits who are riding them in the same way most modern Americans would use a car, that is, to get around, not for exercise or sport.

New Bicycle Project - Panasonic Sport

Purchased as-is yesterday from Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative in Alexandria VA

A project, of sorts. Other than the foam handlebar (tape) and one assumes the tires, it appears to be all original. Some parts are not worth speculating about too much - say, the chain. Is this the original chain? Doesn't really matter, I'm not concerned with ending up with a modern operating version of the bike as it was.

To my surprise, the tires hold air and I could immediately ride this thing. The gear levers shift the gears correctly both front and back. I wouldn't ride down a hill at high speed on it since the tires have fatigued looking sidewalls but riding around the block, sure. Also the front wheel spins, but it seems like something with the front wheel bearings is not right. It doesn't seem crunchy like the bearings have deteriorated; more like the grease is gunked up (for lack of a technical term). So with the front wheel as it is, riding more than a short distance would require needless effort.

Slightly over 30 lbs. This was the lowest end Panasonic road bike model available at the time (whenever that was) based on what I see on the Internet. The highly curved front fork, the presence of only five cogs in the back, and the type of rear drop out suggest this is from some time in the 1970s. I like the periwinkle color.

The 1982 Bridgestone road bike frame and fork I once purchased and turned into a good commuter bike presented different issues than this older bike. Also with that, I planned to purchase and add the components while this thing comes "ready to go" - but how much would one really keep? And it probably doesn't make sense to invest much $ in this frame since it is not as good as the Bridgestone was. But the way to learn is from practice, I guess.

Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative, which sells used bikes that it receives as donations after refurbishing them, ends up with too many bikes, so they periodically have these "as-is" sales. I purchased a 1995 Trek SingleTrack from them in December 2015 that I am extremely pleased with, but its situation was quite different than this periwinkle bike. It was missing pedals and a seat and was filthy - like it was covered in kitchen grease. Very odd. But once it was cleaned up and pedals and saddle added, it was good to go. I added some slick more narrow 26 inch tires and it became an outstanding commuter bike. I don't expect anything so useful from this, but who knows.


Previous purchase from Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative

Dog Trailer - a New Experience

Laika (the dog) outside of the trailer

I purchased a Schwinn "Rascal" dog trailer to haul around our Springer Spaniel. She weights around 39 pounds. This trailer is supposed to be OK for dogs up to 50 pounds.

The trailer by itself weights 24 pounds. It is a little on the heavy side, I suppose - which isn't surprising, this trailer costs less than $100 (online). After all, this bicycle by itself only weighs 27 pounds! It has 16 inch wheels, which seems reasonable - that is, bigger isn't necessary in order to have a reasonably smooth ride. It takes a little extra care to make sure that the trailer wheels don't encounter something that they shouldn't, to give the dog a pleasant enough ride. One change I will probably make is to lower the air pressure in the tires; I think the tires could be doing more shock absorbing if they were softer.

Once I discovered that there are trailers intended for dogs, I stopped looking at ones intended for hauling small children. A trailer for one child seemed too small while the ones for two children were larger than this one.


Laika in the trailer

I don't think of this as being a high speed experience. I don't think Laika would care for it, for one thing. This bike is good for that since it has lots of low gearing.

Bike to Work Day 2018

6:30 in the morning at the Shirlington "pit stop" for Bike to Work Day in Arlington, VA

I was surprised to read in the Wikipedia entry on Bike to Work Day that it was created by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956. I would have guessed much more recently.


From BTWD ride in 2011 - it doesn't always rain on BTWD

I have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with BTWD - I commute almost religiously; that is, I hardly get to and from work any other way than by bicycle. In theory I want more people to ride because it is the logical thing to want, but I have found in fact that so far for my commute, increasing use of the Mount Vernon Trail in particular has not led to significant improvements in the trail's usability. Most of the asphalt is the same as it was 20+ years ago - and this isn't because it is aging well or that there is enough of it (in terms of the width of the trail in particular).

Also, my sense is that the DC area BTWD has had amazingly bad luck in terms of weather - that is, more often than not, it rains. And in fact it rained yesterday for BTWD 2018 and it was fairly steady and heavy enough to keep many from riding. I had signed up and stopped at the local "pit stop" in Shirlington to get a free BTWD 2018 t-shirt (as I did last year, when the weather was better) as a way of showing interest and support (I suppose). It is inspiring (or something along those lines) to see the volunteers there, even at 6:30 am when it started. I was amused to see a small "convoy" of riders there right as they opened. A few seemed underdressed to me, given that it was wet and not really May warmth. (This turned out to be a ride where at the start the rain was light, but over the 10 or so miles it got more and more heavy, to the point that upon arrival at work I was pretty well soaked. Fortunately I have my own office and it is fine to have a clothes line, more or less. Well - fine with me, anyway.)


Another slightly out-of-focus shot

I was glad to get my yellow BTWD 2018 t-shirt. During the past year I have been amused how many times I have seen people wearing the lavender colored BTWD 2017 t-shirt - amused that I recognized it, as much as anything. I suppose eventually they will give away the 2018 t-shirts somehow but I assume most were not picked up by riders on the way to work, because I think many people took a pass on riding yesterday. Still, a good souvenir of what was not a bad ride - it was just another ride. The rides - they're all good.

Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism (Book Review)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mikael Colville-Andersen has a strong set of views about urban cycling - I'm not sure I agree with all of them but it seems good to have a person able to voice a positive approach for urban cycling infrastructure and changes in attitudes so clearly.

http://www.copenhagenize.com/ the web site for Colville-Andersen's cycling infrastructure consulting company (in English) gives some flavor for what the book is like. Colville-Andersen is Danish but grew up in Canada, so he writes in English (as well as Danish . . .).


Photo of Copenhagen bicycle "superhighways" - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

Here is the table of contents - the book is in three sections.

Introduction
1. The Life-Sized City
2. Bicycle Urbanism by Design
3. The Bicycle's Role in Urban Life
4. The Redemocratization of Cycling
5. Taming the Bull in Society's China Shop

The Learning Curve
6. Copenhagen's Journey
7. Climaphobia and Vacuum-Packed Cities
8. Arrogance of Space
9. Mythbusting
10. Architecture
11. Desire Lines & Understanding Behavior
12. A Secret Cycling Language
13. A2Bism
14. The Art of Gathering Data

The Toolbox
15. Best-Practice Design & Infrastructure
16. Prioritizing Cycling
17. Design & Innovation
18. Cargo Bike Logistics
19. Curating Transferable Ideas
20. Communication & Advocacy

Conclusion


Colville-Andersen speaking at a TEDX conference, from Flickr user TEDx Zurich

Most of the positive examples are taken from Europe, with some mention of Japan. From north America, Montreal and Washington DC are mentioned the most - I don't think either Seattle or Portland OR are mentioned. (The book does not have an index.)

As an American who favors development of better infrastructure for cycling along the lines of what is described here, the distance we have to go to get there is distressing. Also, according to Colville-Andersen, as a bicycle nut I am not the ideal advocate - that advocacy for cycling does better when it comes from "regular" people. Hmm.

Much of the current DC area bike cycling measures do not meet Colville-Andersen's approval - in fact, the center-0f-the-road bidirectional cycle track on Pennsylvania Avenue is specifically taken as an example of what not to do - of what is done by people who think they know what to do but who have really really bad ideas. DC provides several other such examples, alas - I agree with his analysis completely.

It was fairly late in the book, but there is some discussion of "vehicular bicycling" which was a theory from the 1960s onward that advocated strongly for cyclists to use the same infrastructure as motorists - which he dismisses easily enough. He also has a brief discussion of e-bikes - he is generally not thrilled with their typical use at relatively high speeds, creating a new hazard for other cyclists and even more so for themselves.

There is a brief discussion of bikeshare as a good "last mile" measure but dockless bikeshare is so new (outside of China) that it isn't mentioned - suggesting to me at least that even though bicycles have been around for more than a hundred years, we are having a period of change or evolution. Interesting.

The books is readable. The author as noted has strong views, but doesn't (in my view) hit the reader too hard over the head with them.

An odd complaint - the typeface used in the text for the book has very fine lines and I discovered my lighting setup for reading in bed wasn't enough to let me read this book comfortably, which was a surprise. I felt it was a kind of ironic statement that a book that advocates simple intuitive designs in one area (urban cycling infrastructure design) failed the test of simple access this way, making the book more difficult to read because of some font-fashion decision. (I read a lot - this is an unusual problem for me to have.)

There is a lot here to try to get one's head around - I should likely read this again in a few months.


Photo of cargo bikes racing - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

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Crawford Bicycles Poster (1896)

Title-Ride a Crawford Bicycle
Summary-Young couple with bicycles pause by side of road.
Created / Published-1896.
Notes
- Chromolithograph by Strobridge & Co. Lith., Cincinnati-New York, 211 x 102 cm.
- This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Medium-1 print (poster).
Call Number/Physical Location POS - ADV. 19th c. - Bicycles. S778, no. 7 (in 3 parts) (D size) [P&P]
Repository-Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
www.loc.gov/item/2002719169/

The summer of 1896 was the height of the "bicycle craze" of the 1890s - a price range of $60 to $75 at that time was fairly good (that is, inexpensive) compared to Columbia bicycles that were offering their most expansive models for $100.

"For Health & Recreation" is an amusing slogan to feature on this poster, given that the couple seems mostly to be enjoying one another's company. Also, the width of the byway upon which they are traveling seems fanciful - not realistic one suspects for the time (or any time, in fact). Still, cyclists were (ahead of motorists, who didn't yet exist!) leaders in the "good roads" movement. Well - some cyclists along with some bicycle manufacturing companies. There had to be some good roads in order for the product to be useful.



A modest ad for Crawford Bicycles - see how it appeared here: archive.org/stream/cyclinglife00test#page/n759/mode/1up in "Cycling Life," a trade journal. This small ad ran frequently in 1896-1897.

Crawford Bicycles had its factory in nearby Hagerstown MD. (Nearby from the perspective of the Washington DC area.) In 1902 the Crawford brothers sold their bicycle business to a larger bicycle company and proceeded to start up an automobicle manufacturing company, Crawford Automobile.