So much hotness and looking sharp. The cap backwards over the hairnet!

I'm gonna guess this photo is circa 1988 to 1990? move up a year or so, and you start to see another transition as Giro helmets and STI shifters start to make their way.

Also, who are the riders? The two guys in the lead are easy, Perico Delgado (Reynold) & Sean Kelly (PDM) the two in the back a little harder, I'm guessing Gert-Jan Theunisse (TVM) and Leo Sierra (Toshiba) -- although, I am not sure Sierra ever rode for that team.

Phil Anderson , in the yellow cap ,not sure on the other guy

upon further investigation I am sure the Toshiba is NOT Leo Sierra.

Hotness!  

It's 1989.  The blue-fronted shorts on the Reynolds-Banesto squad were only that year.

Judging by the fact everyone was in a helmet, I surmise that it's in Belgium, possibly an Ardennes classic.  

I think those were Time glasses on Delgado and Oakley Pilots on Anderson.  I, like most of my friends, also rocked these mega-Oakleys; there weren't too many choices in eyewear back then.

The Brancale shoes on Anderson (which I had) and the Times on Delgado were amongst the first shoes designed specifically for clipless pedal systems.  Both accounted for stretch with panels and straps that wrapped around your feet, and beefed-up soles.  

Seeing these guys in pictures doesn't always give you a sense of size.  Kelly, when I met him in 2001 was much bigger than I expected, easily 6'2", maybe a bit taller, possibly because he rode a relatively small frame for his size and sat kind of low on his bike relative to his leg length.  Anderson, whom I rode with a bunch of times in 1991 was a good bit smaller than I expected, but still big for a guy who was once a Grand Tour contender.  

Ankle socks. They're all rocking ankle socks. This pleases me.

ankle socks are obviously so 1989.

Those are polarizing words.

BTW, for those who waste teim on FaceBook, There's a page called Classic New York City bike racing.  It's devoted to bike racing pre-1990 in NYC.  But the treat is that Charlie Issendorf has been scanning some of what I assume is a mountain of pictures that his dad took.  

https://www.facebook.com/groups/109292772739609

There was a big-money race in Prospect in 1984 that you get to see--Steve Bauer showed up, the 7-Eleven team did as well.  And no jogger's lane rule.  Lots of pics of Charlie in old Kissena colors as well as Rich Hincapie, John Loehner, Greg Avon and others.  Shots of racing at the Kissena Velodrome.  

Code Geel: behind the scenes with Jumbo-Visma at the tdf

https://youtu.be/pwoAtDyiCVE

Lael Rides Alaska.

Have slowly but surely become a major fan of Lael Wilcox, she distills her motivation to such basic simple awesome things: Home, family, ride from here to there, take good photos so you can remember...

Found this little piece honestly moving:

https://youtu.be/UQKL7kWqTZs

I only follow a couple of pros on Strava, would probably follow more if they posted power numbers --

In any case, Elise Chabbey is a Canyon/Sram swiss domestique that I follow on Strava, today she went on a 100km ride and posted a photo of her two companions including Jolanda Neff wearing a Canyon jacket. 

Neff, of course, is famously sponsored by Trek. In fact, in the photo, Neff is wearing the canyon jacket but riding a trek frame. I have a super busy day at work, so of course, I went deep into the rabbit hole, and while there are no official announcements, social media posts from both Elise and Jolanda suggest that she might be making the move!

It's interesting, as of course, the olympics were moved from 2020 to 2021, and PfP also posted photos from a ride today, where she was riding a BMC and no longer wearing Canyon/Sram kit.

Anyway, meant to write a quick note about this, but don't have a lot of time, so here's a very long one

https://www.strava.com/pros/17418861





(it could also be that Jolanda got cold and borrowed a jacket, and then they all had some fun with it)

I think PFP rides for Julien Absalon (her partner)'s team now. Interestingly enough, Sarrou, 2020 men's world champ left that team to race with Specialized. 

These sponsor changes are always interesting to me, particularly like you said in an olympic year. The delay definitely messed with some contracts I'm sure. 

Yes, that's what I mean, the Canyon PFP deal originally would have gotten them a possible olympic medal. 

It is also a bit strange to me how the money flows, would be interesting to know the details... logically looking at results, it would seem that PFP should be able to get a raise, but can BMC/Absalon actually pay more than Canyon?? Or is there less pressure to ride cross/road, and that's enough? Similarly, Neff lack of results could suggest less money, etc... guess we'll never know

Somewhat related to sponsorship swaps, here's Wout celebrating/cooling down after nationals on a cervelo aero road bike:

@eloy  Elise Chabbey's ride title translates to New Canyon recruit. Just saying

Warm-down bike is as close as they’re likely to get this year 😂

Jules said:

Warm-down bike is as close as they’re likely to get this year 😂

THey're not saying, but I'm guessing WVA has one or two issues with the Cervelo Aspero.

1. sloping top tube.  Might be harder to shoulder at his preferred size.

2. Bottom Bracket Drop.  It's 75mm, which is pretty deep for CX.  Ridleys can be around 61, more common is 68mm.

I'm guessing the relatively short trail isn't an issue, but maybe he's afraid of hitting his toes.

^the good news is it seems like his contract says he can ride whatever bike he wants so when we do see him on a Cervelo I guess we can assume it's fairly high quality. Hambini has lots of issues with their BB tolerances as well, those can be fixed with custom parts.

Curious if this is a good endorsement for those Bianchis or if they were told that these were the bikes they needed to ride. I feel like they must have a deal with Bianchi because Vos is riding one too (switched from a Liv/Giant). It looks like Vos switched brands because she had to return all of her Liv bikes to the team when her contract ended. 

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/marianne-vos-swapped-her-giant-cross-bike-for-bianchi-despite-jumbo-visma-switching-to-cervelo-heres-why/

This has been incredible good marketing luck for Bianchi. By far, this shift is being mentioned more than any other brand in 2021.

Jumbo Visma 100% do not have a deal with Bianchi for 2021, if they did they would not have painted over the logos. I am sure a few of people in the marketing department at Cervelo are pretty unhappy about this. Had they actually just made a deal to keep riding Bianchis for cross (like Bianchi is the cx sponsor, and Cervelo the road sponsor) this would have fared so much better for everyone.

Otherwise what happened here is pretty obvious. Vos had to return her bikes, Jumbo had a few (or a ton) of extra Bianchis they owned, that need not be returned. Prompted by Wout they painted a few of them and offered a few to Vos, and I'm guessing to a few other riders.

It also speaks a bit about Giant/Liv, if Vos had been completely enamored with the frames, she could have asked Jumbo to buy them, or even she could have. My feeling here is that pros see frames as a tool, and other than changing mid season, as long as the geometry and material is competitive they don't care that much. 

I'll be here all week over interpreting pro bikes.

Speaking of which, sure looks like Neff just got cold and borrowed a jacket and had some fun on social media with her friends. This is her latest IG post:

Lael got together with a couple of other friends and did this little video for Wahoo. Let's go ride bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khhIE-bC9Ao

Or walk bikes 

haha, that's right, I like that they fully planned for it!

Emily Batty moves to Canyon

I saw the build up to that announcement and I thought she was moving on from cycling! Glad to hear she's still racing and cool to see Canyon support some more privateer women. 

Batty finished 4th in the Rio Olympics Cross Country race. Find the post race interview if you can, it is about 2 seconds long and heartbreaking -- her results from 2019 - 2020 suggest otherwise, but very few athletes will be as motivated in Tokyo.

Mark Taylor said:

Keep up Lycra boy

https://twitter.com/cyclingtips/status/1351660982834061313?s=20

“It’s for comfort...”