Classics or monuments?

A couple of years ago I mentioned Nalini's Le Classiche collection.

(As before, we borrowed this picture from Wielerjargon. Hope that's OK!)

From Italian cyclewear company Nalini, a collection of five really good looking bicycle jerseys (or at least four good looking, we're not entirely into the red one), celebrating five Classic bicycle races. Liège Bastogne Liège (or Liegi Bastogne Liegi, as Italians would spell it), started in 1892; Amstel Gold Race, started in 1966; Ronde van Vlaanderen (or Giro Delle Fiandre, in Italian), started in 1912; Milano San Remo, started in 1907; and Paris Roubaix (Parigi Roubaix in Italian), started in 1896. I have to say that I was a little wondering over the selection, what races Nalini considered to be Classics. Couldn't La Flèche Wallonne, first run in 1936, be considered a more Classic race, than Amstel Gold? Or Omloop Het Niewsblad? (OK, Omloop Het Niewsblad was first held in 2009, but its predecessor Omloop van Vlaanderen was first held in 1945.) But anyway it's a great collection, as well as celebrating the bicycle races, the jerseys are also made of recycled PET bottles. Good lookin and eco friendly, that's awesome. Unfortunately though, not available anymore.

And right here I just want to mention the Italian word "giro". If you say "giro" in Sweden, if they know at all what you're talking about, they will think that you're talking about the Giro d'Italia. But "giro" is just Italian for "round". For example, my Italian neighbour Rolando always refers to Tour de France as "Giro di Francia". But then he also see Tour de France as slightly inferior to Giro d'Italia... Which I, until the announcement of Giro d'Italia 2018, would agree upon. Giro d'Italia was a better looking, more exciting, more monumental race, filled with heroic efforts, drama and passion. (In short, the race was more Italian.) But I am most disappointed that the 2018 Giro d'Italia will start in Israel, as well as the weak attitude shown by the Giro d'Italia organisation towards the force politics and demands of the Israeli state. I will write more about this in the future, because I can't just stay quiet as the Israeli state continue to oppress the Palestinians and Palestine, while now trying to get goodwill and publicity by hosting the first three stages of Giro d'Italia.

But right now, let me get back to the cycling jerseys. Nalini released their Le Classiche jerseys a couple of years ago, and this year Swedish sportswear company Craft released three bicycle jerseys, celebrating three Classic bicycle races. Or Monuments. Craft's definition of Classics, Monuments are Milano San Remo, Paris Roubaix and Ronde van Vlaanderen, which made me wonder which races are considered Classics and/or Monuments. According to wikipedia, there is a problem with the definitions, since there is no consencus about what a Classic bicycle race is. And so the term "Monument" was introduced, and the Monuments (in cycling) are Milano San Remo, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris Roubaix, Liège Bastogne Liège and Giro di Lombardia. Was Nalini opting for Amstel Gold Race and omitting Giro di Lombardia because one of Giro di Lombardias official sponsors is Castelli? I mean, why else would an Italian company not consider an Italian race a Classic?

Anyway, the jerseys from Craft (with a pair of bib shorts matcing the Ronde van Vlaanderen jersey) are really good looking as well. Check out for yourself:

(The Milano San Remo, or La Primavera jersey)

(The Paris Roubaix, or L'enfer du Nord jersey)

(The Ronde van Vlaanderen, or De Ronde jersey)

(We borrowed the pictures from Craft. Hope that's OK!)

What's especially cool about the Craft jerseys is that they also have the pet names of the races on their jerseys (on the sleeves). Just a couple of questions. Will Craft release Liège Bastogne Liège (La Doyenne) and Giro di Lombardia (Classica delle foglie morte) jerseys as well? And if so, why not now? Or doesn't Craft want to intrude on a race sponsored by Castelli? As far as I can tell Ronde van Vlaanderen is (among other) sponsored by sportswear company Doltcini, if Paris Roubaix is sponsored by any sportswear I can't tell, because I can't find any sponsors page on their pretty messy web site, and lastly Giro di Lombardia is sponsored, again, by Castelli. And lastly, shouldn't the Milano San Remo jersey really be pink? Well, you could write to Craft and ask them. (I really am too busy to do it myself.) If not I suppose time will tell.

Anyway the jerseys Craft have made are sold in with really good looking photos on their web site:

 (Milano San Remo)

(Paris Roubaix)

(Ronde van Vlaanderen)

(Again, we borrowed the pictures from Craft. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!

Darkness is upon us!

If there's something we're good at up here in the North it's darkness. From Tove Jansson's books (some of them, and there's always a light in the dark ones too) to death metal (OK, technically death metal wasn't invented in the Nordic countries, but you can't say that were not good at it) we excel at darkness. And as we're heading into midwinter it's literally dark outside as well. Just today I heard on the radio that parts of Sweden got their last share of sunlight today until some time in January... That's harsh! Down here in the South (of the North!) it's not that bad, the sun is still there in winter, it just comes up later and goes down earlier. As I'm writing this it's 3PM and it's already getting dark. It's pretty cold and it's raining too. And to top it all off I've had a cold for about three weeks now and yesterday I got lumbago. Good times...

Actually, though, it could be worse. If I would have had a cold and lumbago during the summer season... now that would have really sucked. As it's dark and cold and raining or snowing (or both) outside I pretty much consider the cycling season 2017 over. Instead I focus on some of my projects. I have three frames (bicycle frames, obviously) up in the attic: a Mongoose Tyax 29 Comp and no less than two Peugeot Aubisque. If I'm lucky the Mongoose is my size and then it will become my new hard tail mountain bike, but the two Peugeots are actually the exact same size and they are too big for me so I will simply fix up and sell them. I hate seeing good bikes go to waste, and while the Peugeot Aubisque may not be a great bike (for example the groupsets were pretty crappy) it is an OK bike and the retro 1980's paintwork is just awesome. (Check it out here and here!) If you're tall, at least 185 cm, you can buy one from me right now, before I have even started on any of them.

But before I start working on the above mentioned three bikes I have a couple of other projects. First there's a wheel that I'm building for a sort of guest bike (for anyone visiting) and then there's the misery.

(The misery)

I have started working on a fifth cut through the seat post, but it's just hard, tedious work. I have been really close to just scrapping the bike and go out and buy a brand new cheap bike, but other than the bloody seat post it's the perfect subject for building a winter bike. You know, a bike that you can use in the winter, it gets dirty and rusty and you don't have to mind. It's perfect because it' so ugly. I mean, I really like Kona, "Lava Dome" is a super cool name for a bike, and I have even seen really cool examples of this model, but this bike is just really effing ugly. I'm pretty meticulous about my three bikes (a road bike, a mountain bike and a standard bike), I keep them clean and in as good a running order as I can but this Lava Dome I would just simply mistreat. I wouldn't even mind too much if someone stole it, since it's so ugly.

And after those two project I will give my road bike a winter cleaning, when I go through it completely, and after that it's time for the last (?) upgrade. I will change some components, give it a new seat post, a new stem and a new handlebar, all from Deda Elementi. After that almost everything else on the bike will be either Finnish - the frame and fork - or Italian - the wheels, inner tubes and tyres, the stem, handle bar and handlebar tape, the saddle and seat post and the groupset. It will look fab.

(This stem, handlebar and seat post are from the awesome looking Ventisei series. And I borrowed these pictures from Deda Elementi. Hope that's OK!)

Talking about groupsets, I read that FSA is to realease a completely new groupset, the WE (or possibly We), an electronic, wireless and connected solution. It sounds exciting! Actually I'm not that into electronic groupsets, I prefer my bike to be completely mechanical (I do have a wireless bike computer though, I'm not a taliban), but quite possibly all new advances in the electronic groupsets will mean advances in the mechanical ones as well, so these really are exciting times. It also means that we now have:

- Campagnolo
- Shimano
- SRAM
- Rotor
- FSA

all making groupsets. Have I forgotten someone? And no, I don't mean anyone like Simplex or Sachs-Huret. (For Pete's sake, it's 2017, not 1977.) I only use Campagnolo and Shimano, and they work just fine. And anyone following this blog know that I love Campagnolo and my Campagnolo products (groupsets and wheels). I doubt that either SRAM, Rotor or FSA will give me a bike with a complete groupset to try and test (but if you're thinking about it, please do!), so there will be no future product reviews here, but since I am rather curious myself I will try to read up on them, and if I find anything interesting I promise to share it with you. And I am really good at having opinions on the aesthetic part of things! So keep your eyes open, and we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, ride safe!