Photo of the day: Pollentier in the '77 Giro.

Style, schmyle.    It's overrated.


Case in point.  Flandria's Michel Pollentier in the '77 Giro.   Team leader out with broken wrist, the man from Nieuwport just stepped up and took command.    Pollentier may not have looked very good on a bike- sitting sideways, kness sticking out, lots of upper body movement.   But he had the fitness and the motor to make the thing go.

Some say his success was chemically induced.  I'm inclined to believe it came from riding all winter into the wind off the nordzee, and marathon cyclocross sessions in the dunes with Freddy Maertens.

Comments

  1. TedMay 28, 2011 at 7:15 PM

    Not only in the leader's jersey - but the overall leader in GC and winner of the '77 Giro.

    In my opinion, I think Pollentier could've been just shifting positions on the bike during a climb - doubtful he would be that successful with such an unorthodox position.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Giro_d%27Italia

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChrisJune 1, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    Slightly off-center, judging by pics.

    Unorthodox but effective.

    Google Image: http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1259&bih=882&q=michel+pollentier&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=

    ReplyDelete
  3. TedJune 1, 2011 at 6:32 PM

    Thanks Chris - I would say 50% of the photos his position looks good - but the rest look a bit odd - for a European pro of that era.

    ReplyDelete

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

Ras Epilogue: Eating the wolf.

Image
Okay, so it's Thursday night, and we're all in a crowded hotel bar in Clonakilty.  And I mean all of us.  The real Ras is in the same hotel tonight.   There's a quite mighty  craic.  Alan bumps into Emma O'Reilly and gets caught up after many years, a world away from Boulder, Colorado.  Paul chats with former Irish Olympian Seamus Downey, his wife, and their friends.  Seamus tonight is the proud father of An Post rider Sean Downey, who's kicking ass and taking names in the Ras this year as the top Irish rider, sitting 6th on GC.  They're reminiscing with anecdotes and memories of Paul's late dad J.J.  Lots of the Race the Ras guys are here too, all having a great time.  I'm sitting with Aaron and Brian McCormack, and we're enjoying that ever-so-perilous 'just one I promise' after dinner pint. Slouching at stools at a high bar table next to us is a group of skinny, tan, clean cut and identically tracksuited 20-somethings. ...
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 remembe...
Read more