Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.  ~H.G. Wells

To Mount Warning

Mount Warning is on the North East Coast of New South Whales, Australia. It is a mountain shrouded in mystery.

To the Bundjalung indigenous people this mountain is known as Wollumbin meaning ‘patriarch of mountains’.

It is the central volcanic remnant of an ancient shield volcano, and this volcano erupted around 23 million years ago as history goes.

                                                   

But it’s not this that’s the main focus in this article. Today as I was driving to a forested area in the direction of Mount Warning I took a bend in a very twisty road littered with thousands of trees and I had to slow down on an incline. Before me was a woman on her bicycle in her 60’s. I waited then passed by carefully and after just a few hundred meters or so there was another.

This early in the morning on such a hard stretch of road there must have been at least 20 riders between the ages of 48 and 65.

There bicycles laden with sleeping gear, food and themselves was a sight to be hold.

To me this was simply magic to see men and women at this age trekking across a very undulating valley road towards a place called Springbrook.

We spoke to them briefly and one gentleman said they were cycling to Mount Warning and then they would climb the mountain when they arrived.

The road ahead of them on the border of Queensland and New South Whales had a whale of a climb, steep and arduous and the descent, a very narrow road with numerous switch backs and even steeper on the New South Whales side to say the least, and this is where they were still heading.

Where we had met them to the border was filled with little climbs, this was a testament, one is never to young or to old to enjoy the sport of cycling.

They still had 70kms to go, I could not believe it but this sight brought a smile to my face and a happy heart.

Long live cycling!

                                                                                                   

LE NUBIANS DE AFRIQUE

In this photo: Adrien Niyonshuti

A little bit of History or shall we say DraGonstory…

About 1 billion years ago Dark Green DraGon brought forth the human specie of the dark skinned races on Earth, Blue DraGon brought forth the brown skin races and Yellow DraGon brought forth the white skinned race. Then there was a war.

It would seem that this trend has continued ever since but the one thing I can say that in my country of birth, cycling was one of the first sports to be racially integrated.

A few years back The Societe de Tour welcomed one of the greatest cyclists ever, back to his rightful place in the halls of fame, the one Marshall W. Taylor.

Born in Indiana in 1878, Taylor grew up in a different age. He fought racism as hard as he pedaled, to the front of the pack in the velodrome races in which he excelled. One reason he moved to Massachusetts was because he was banned from racing in his home state.Known as the "Worcester Whirlwind," Marshall W. Taylor set a slew of world cycling records at the turn of the last century and became the first African-American athlete to achieve worldwide celebrity.

Recently a larger than life-size statue of this larger-than-life athlete will be unveiled in front of the Worcester Public Library on May 21. Speaking, will be Taylor's successor on the world cycling stage -- Greg Lemond -- and three time-Olympic medal winner Edwin Moses.

Information about Major Taylor courtesy: Major Taylor statue unveiling in spring by Gene Bisbee Above: Major Taylor and below John Cupido on Ventoux

The first African cyclist took part in the Tour de France in 1913: Ali Neffati from Tunesia. Neffati had been discovered by Tour organizer Henri Desgrange, and would later become a driver at l'Auto, the newspaper that organised the Tour de France.

We first saw the Africans in the Tour de France through …..the ‘black board man’ a friend of Lance Armstrong’s but he was no competitor. Later on we met Robbie Hunter of South Africa but he was Caucasian, yet worth the mention as an African.

The dark skinned races like the Columbians and the Mexicans brought us Fabio Parra and what a grand contender he was. In the late nineties he was still very much in contention but as fate/kismet would have it, crashes spoilt his chances and what sadness impressed on our souls that sometimes the best go down prematurely as was in his case and so many others.

Lucho Herrera the Polka dot Jersey wearer, quiet yet powerful filled our TV screens with excitement also and more recently Oliveiro Rincon from teams

Amaya and ONCE on his long break away from Bourg-Saint-Maurice - Le Grand-Bornand on stage 15 of the 1993 Tour de France.

Andy Hampsten and Motorola brought us Alvaro Mejia who was unafraid to challenge Rominger and Indurian.

But the enigmatic, slender, tall Columbian from the South African Barlow World Team Maurizio Soler in the 2007 Tour King of the Mountains and main protagonist in the Alps just would not lie down and attacked time after time making that years tour very memorable for all of us.

We see in the end that the dark skinned riders just never make it to the top 5 in this great event and if they do it doesn’t last to long, could it be money, sponsorship or prejudice? It is not my place to judge but this we know, they are magnificent contenders.

Rahsaan Bahati leading the bunch below and on the right Sebastian Engelbrecht and Mark Florence racing in France in 1999

Rahsaan Bahati from South LA is one of the cycling’s brightest and fastest stars, who many say can be the first Black Tour de France champion. He will be a man to watch for in the future.

Below the great South African hope, Stanley Namayane

In August of 2008 a month like no other for two Kenyan cyclists. Plucked from obscurity in a remote tribal village,

Zakayo Ndbri and Mwangi Samwel spent three weeks near Alpe d’Huez as part of one man’s dream to see the first black Africans take part in the Tour de France.

Hopes and dreams are all good and well on paper but we will watch closely to see if Le Nubians can make it through les herbes folles as more dark skinned riders are crying fais-moi plaisir!

We keep our fingers crossed because when they reach Le Grand Boucle we wouldn’t like any of them crying Le Nubians Paris ne respond plus… Below: Paul Minaar leading the bunch in the 2003 Giro Del Capo and below this Director Sportif Conrad Lesch

Now back to my country of birth South Africa, I first saw black riders when I followed the Rapport Tour of 1988 while meeting Willie Engelbrecht for the first time in the start village of Simonstown.

That year there were no less than 5 black riders in the bunch. Later on a real strong contender and a young man adored by the ladies and the public, Owen Hannie, flourished and raced

not only in South Africa but abroad as well.

One is tempted to say that it was he that has been a real role model for riders of colour in the modern era.

There is nothing more beautiful than a Director Sportif who is concerned about his rider and in this photo above the face of Douglas tells it all, Douglas Ryder (photos), Adrien Niyonshuti

In between the Rapport Tour years and Douglas Ryder, we have riders that I have to mention, who perhaps did not make it to the front pages of newspapers or television but

still I feel paved the way to what cycling is today amongst riders of colour in South Africa

Victor Johnstone, Francesco Solomons, Wayne Stevens, John Cupido, Henry Cupido, Mark Florence, Marwaan, Jeremy, Norman Isaacs,Kayoum Matthews, Jeremy Tuis, Faizel, Freddie, Paul Minnaar, Kevin Green and Nolan Hoffman and my good friend, Director Sportif, Conrad (Coenie) Lesch to name a few. There are others and in our hearts we have not overlooked you.

Today Douglas Ryder, whom we are thankful for, is doing his fair share to bring more of these riders forward in a sport that is truly the most difficult sport in the world in his country of South Africa.

I am sure that it is not only riders of colour who would like to see Le Nubians on the podiums of world professional cycling but I can safely say Jean Marie Leblanc, Christian Prudhomme and the late Henry de Grange would like that also.

“There is something uncanny in the noiseless rush of the cyclist, as he comes into view, passes by, and disappears.”

Popular Science, 1891

14th March 2003 Giro del Capo - Cape Town, South Africa

VOUT ETES MES AMIS

In the East there is a saying; ‘you only know your friend once you’ve fought with him’, I don’t know if this is true but I find it quite funny sometimes when I browse on Facebook, I see some folk have a thousand friends. I wonder if they ever talk to them all.

In my life over the years I have known folk from all over the world, at any given week I would speak at least to 500 of them or make some kind of a connection. To me a friend is everything and is someone you spend most of your day with or most of your week with. A friend is someone who has shared your anguish and pain, has shared your happiness and the adulation.

Those men and women who have ever ridden a bike whom I have mentioned in this blog, you have been my friends, you know who you are. You have ridiculed me, you have praised me, you have beaten me and you have suffered by my exploits. We have been together in the rain and cold and also in the summer sunshine. These memories are sweet and colourful like fields of Lavender.

To some this might seem as a trivial thing but to me, you have been…………………………………………………………………my friends.

MONTAGNE, LE GRIMPEURT

The sadness and the happiness of cycling on a mountain...

Some of the greatest mountains in the world hold the deepest spiritual secrets and so too, in world cycling, the same could be said.

The mountains more than any other place in cycling is what inspires both riders and spectators alike and its magnetic attraction has been this way for millennia, its magnitude, power and sacredness whether on or off the bike is a pilgrimage each human must make.

All have stories to tell, but some mountains and some riders come to an impasse. Who would know their shared secrets or why a mystery like a cloud has been formed with a rider and their final moments on a descent like Fabio Casartelli or ascent for that matter with Tom Simpson? Maybe we will never know.

But one of the saddest stories is to see a great rider go down knowing full well that the rider is a great challenger as in the case of Joseba Beloki.(in the photo below)

On 14 July 2003, during the ninth stage of the 2003 Tour de France, Beloki was in second place overall (just 40 seconds behind Lance Armstrong) and negotiating a turn at speed while descending the Cote de La Rochette, just 4 km from the stage finish at Gap he made his acquaintance with the mountain. To me, this will always be one of the saddest moments in world cycling as I am sure if fates did not rule that year, Beloki would have toppled the great American’s hold on the Tour title. Joseba, you will always remain to me a very great champion. A similar occurrence many years earlier between the great Spaniard Luis Ocaña and Eddy Merckx of Belgium saw Ocaña unable to dethrone The Cannibal.

Even so it is not always doom and gloom, no, not at all. My fondest memories, my greatest memories in fact, have been on the mountains of the world. One of my favourite climbs has always been the Tourmalet and in English, for you, it means ‘bad detour’.

I first climbed this monster in 1997, when I arrived there I had already covered 160kms for the day but going over it was to say the least, magical and my fondest memories was when Pedro Delgado of Spain rode away from the main peloton as if they were standing still, the way only he could do.

Pedro Delgado once said when he ‘breaks away’ on a mountain pass he is willing to give his life for it. I know just what he means and to hear the adulation or the screaming crowds fade away, so all that you hear is the beat of your heart in your ears, is a sacredness that only a racing cyclist can tell you about.

And so back to South Africa: I worked in the 2000 edition of the Giro Del Capo when the race organization was bold enough to have a real mountain top finish from Table View to the top of Franshhoek Pass. Owen Hannie of the Lotus IBM Team punctured at the bottom of Melkbos, the cross winds split the bunch into four groups on the road. He made his way from group to group that day with a few other riders, eventually getting into the breakaway group with Douglas Ryder and Jacque-Louis van Wyk. Owen sacrificed himself for Douglas and did everything possible to put him in a position to win the stage while van Wyk rode himself into the leaders pink jersey for team HSBC.

On this particular year it was really a non climber that the crowds were going mad for. Owen Hannie of the Team Lotus IBM had ridden strongly and he decimated the rest of the field riding away from some of the best climbers to place in the top five finishers of the day. That particular ride by Owen in 2000 will always be my favourite performance of his career.

How can we speak of mountains and not mention Claudio Chiappucci of Italy. The monumental ride he did to Sestrieres in the Tour of 1993, that was truly one of the greatest exploits in the mountains ever in any Tour de France and then there is Roche’s pursuit of Pedro Delgado to La Plagne both men superb climbers as ‘Perico’ sent him into oxygen debt.

Memories come flooding back and there are so many, such sublime moments, such ecstasy, such pure motion. And as Diana Ross, the Boss sings: ‘there aint no mountain high enough’ we can recall Pantani or the greatest rider of all time Miguel Indurain on his way into the mist on Hautacam, what a superb ride by a great champion yet so quiet, so humble and who never humiliated his rivals, ever.

Many remember Alpe de Huez as the shrine of world cycling and one year when I was there, there were no less than 1 000 000 spectators on those 13kms but there are others too: The Col de Joux Plane, the Col de Porte de Aspet, the Plan de Dette, the Col de Mont Cenis, Cold de Marie Blanc, the Col de Glandon, Jacca, the Col de Aubisque, the Col de Sulour, Valouron

Azete, Col d'Aspin or the Pas de Morgan we have been on them all.

The mountains are great levelers and the one man who would always go on a long solo break without fail, I don’t know how each time they let this man get away but it’s only fitting to end this off with the greatest mountain climber of them all, Richard Virenque, of France.

He has won the King of the Mountains jersey on no less than seven occasions. Un grand merci for all the years you have spoilt us so with your finesse and to all those who are coming after us we wish you well, fly like an eagle.

From top to bottom: Robbie Hunter, The great Richard Virenque of France, Luis Ocana, Joseba Beloki, Team Lotus IBM from front: Simon Kessler, on right: Owen Hannie and at the back Douglas Ryder, Pedro Delgado and Miguel Indurain leading Claudio Chiappucci of Italy.

All photos are from the Internet and Roadcyling.com and from my friends.