some choice quotes:
“Machismo is disappearing, I can’t find it in Contador, Contador has the anonymous face of a surveyor or an accountant.”
I read an interview with Umberto Veronesi, a scientist, a reputed oncologist and Minister for Health. In five hundred years or more, human beings might have both sets of genitalia, male and female. I don’t want this evolution to have started already in cycling…”
and if those quotes don’t persuade you, please peruse this photograph:
Head to ABC cycles in High St preston (I think that is what it is called), and in the special rack for about 20 bux you can get a Zebra Acqua & Sapone jersey. I would have, but without the matching knicks I was not interested…
I think there is a general loss of ‘Machismo’ sociologically across the board, not just in cycling. I don’t know what I actually think about it, philosophically or otherwise, however there is definitely something happening in the softening of the male figure. Should male grace exist? I’m sure mens rights lurkers are muttering something about growing up in a time of feminism.
Wrong there is so much more you should know. (Thanks Wiki)
Cippolini is god.
Cipollini made no secret that he did not like climbing stages, and while he completed all stages of the Giro on many occasions, he infuriated purists by not attempting mountain stages at the Tour or Vuelta. While this is a common practice with sprinters without points jersey aspirations so as to save themselves for the rest of the season, Cipollini’s practice of releasing photos of himself lounging at the beach while the others struggled in the mountains earned him more than his fair share of attention in this regard.
Cipollini also became infamous for extravagant clothing, especially racing uniforms, sporting custom-made skin suits. Some of memorable kits include a muscle suit,[2] zebra,[3] and tiger[4] prints, and a techno-skinsuit[5] inspired by the 1982 movie Tron. Off the course, Cipollini and his Saeco squad dressed as ancient Romans during a rest day at the 1999 Tour de France, to celebrate Julius Caesar’s birthday and to commemorate Cipollini’s record fourth consecutive Tour de France stage win. He was fined for wearing an all-yellow outfit while leading the Tour de France.[6]
These antics violated UCI regulations, which resulted in Cipollini and his team being fined thousands of Swiss francs. The muscle suit fetched 100 million lira (US$43,710) in a charity auction, nearly 100 times the fine. Some organisers, especially Jean-Marie Leblanc of the Tour de France, took offence at his hijinks and he wasn’t invited to race in the Tour from 2000–2003, despite being the world champion in 2003. Later in 2003, he drew the ire of the organisers of the Vuelta a España when he quit after the prologue time trial. His team had been invited to compete with the condition that Cipollini participated. He said he was recovering from injury and should not have been forced to race in the first place. Three years earlier, Cipollini got kicked out of the 2000 Vuelta a España after he punched Vitalicio Seguros rider Francisco Cerezo to the ground before the start of a stage.
There is a small hard cover book with shitloads of stories about the tour de france. There is a section dedicated to Cipo which is gold. Oh and the man himself has released a line of his own bikes…
I think it has little to do with feminism and more to do with cycling sportsmen being too scared to state their opinions or buck the system. We’ve ended up with brow beaten, corporatized, eunuch’s who are so afraid of losing their next pay packet and who’d rather toe the line than sit out, cop fines and be refused invites to the biggest races. What we have now is cash cows and silent dopers and pro-cycling is to me another boring commodity propped up to fuel cosumerism and satellite TV.
Cippo has right to say he thinks todays cyclists are lame.
I’ve just seen discussions of a similar vein where this is brought up.