Claudy's cheezy Ronse replay


Writing about the Ghislain Lambert film got me on kind of a Walloon theme, what with the Fleche Wallone tomorrow and all.

Today's warped TV retro jukebox theme: Waalse World of Sports. The agony of defeat. (Adopt your best Howard Cosell voice imitation now)

"Ronse, August the 28th, 1988. We're down to the final sprint of the World Professional Championship road race. The local walloon hero, ex champion of the World Claude Criquielion is there with Canada's Steve Bauer, and unknown Italian Maurizio Fondriest. They go together under the kite. They're just off the front and hit the final uphill finish together."

Bauer leads it out. Claudy tries to squeeze by on the right between the narrowing barriers and an elbows out Bauer in full flight. Oh no.... I see some illegal contact dandy Don..."

"Down goes Criquielion!... Down goes Criquielion!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, young Maurizio Fondriest has just stolen the rainbow with an 'I can't believe this is happening to me' grin. The partisan Belgian crowd is going crazy. Now Bauer has just been DQ'd, which will luckily save him from what looks like might become very public lynching. I myself am going for cover before one of these frites-eaters steals my toupee. Back to the studio.... Jim?"

It was a wild scene. Must be something in the water in Ronse. At the only other world cycling championship to finish in the town in 1963, Belgian team rider Benoni Beheyt pulled Rik Van Looy's jersey to steal the win. Another Belgian hullabalou ensues.

To those of us who followed the aftermath of the Ronse affair, it seemed Criq had no sense of humor about it whatsoever. He tried for years to sue Bauer for everything his avocaats could drag into the Belgian courts (assault with intent to injure, lost winnings, compensation for childhood trauma having grown up on a farm in the French speaking village of Deux Acren surrounded on three sides by the Flemish...)
Come on. Can you really believe that an ex-Hockey player from Ontario would intentionally put a guy into the boards... er I mean hoardings. I find it hard to fathom.

Well, it appears that 'ol Claudy did have a little bit of humor. Check out this video link. It features a cheezy TV studio recreation of Cri Cri's famous arms up protest as he enters the studio for an interview what looks like pretty soon after the event.

Criq was a great rider. Two Fleche Wallones. A solo World Championship victory in Barcelona 1984. 2nd in LBL many times...
If only they'd had a hockey team in Deux Acren.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time tested, old school early season training advice

Image
I just love the article below. I found it on the web years ago. It's a lecture by Dr. Marco Pierfederici, a trainer who used to work with Eddy Merckx and Italian pro teams back in the ’70 and ‘80s. He delivered this talk at a training camp in Miami organized by a long-gone business called 'Italia Velo Sport'. They imported Battaglin and Francesco Moser frames, Campagnolo and Gipiemme components and other Italian clothing and gear. This innovative, early discount mail order company brought champion Francesco Moser to a winter camp with US amateurs in 1982, and then brought over Giovanni Battaglin and his teammates, I believe in early 1983. The pros spent the days logging early season easy miles with starry-eyed US amateurs, and spent evenings giving clinics to imparting old world 'knowledge'. An old friend and CCB teammate Rick Graham attended that camp. A few weeks later as we were tapping out the miles around Gloucester Mass., I remember Rick talking ab
Read more

Benotto dreams...

Image
Before the US National Road Race Championship, August 1982. Hard to believe now jongens , but once upon a time I could sprint a bike through a crowd fast enough that somebody actually saw fit to sponsor me. It's a faded memory I needed to keep drawing upon several times this past season... Way back in 1981 I was recruited by Constantin Negulescu to join his Northstar Bicycle Club.  The ex-Romanian national team rider had put together an elite US Amateur team, sponsored by a slate of leading Italian cycling brands:  Bicicletas Benotto, Gipiemme components, Ambrosio rims, Hutchinson tires and IscaSella Saddles.   With the exception of Hutchinson (who still makes killer tubeless tires... raced this whole season on one pair), most are brands either dead, or largely missing in action.  But back in '82, well, it was the perfect gear. "Good enough for Roger DeVlaeminck or Moser, good enough for you!" Talk about Christmas morning... I can still remember being in
Read more

Lost races of the Northeast: Le Tour de la Gaspésie

Image
Ever wonder what it's really like to ride a Tour? C'mon, admit it.  Most of us amateurs, from the time we first stomp on pedals in anger, from that first adrenaline rush riding in a peloton, that sound of whirring chains and wind, incubates a dream of riding a ' Tour '.   A real stage race, one longer than the 3 or 4 day long weekend versions available nowadays.  A race with  commissaires,  run from town to town in a place where the road signs are in a foreign language.  A race with stages measured in kilometers, one where words like revitaillement, grimpeur,  hors-delai and  voiture balai  are quickly added to your daily vocabulary. Back in the 1980 and '81, if you were a New England based Cat 1 or 2 rider longing to ride a Tour, you basically had two options:  Get selected for the internationally known Coors Classic in Colorado, or work your way onto a team doing Québec's Tour de la Gaspésie.   While I had neither the talent nor the  palmares for the form
Read more