The Bicycle Film Festival, Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18, at the Victoria Theater, 2961 16th Street, at Capp (one short block east of Mission). On Saturday, the festival sponsors a street party at 16th and Capp, next to the theater, replete with track bikes, BMX bikes, fun times, and no brakes.
See the Bicycle Film Festival website for details on programs, to buy tickets, and such like.
A few days ago, I was looking for an online image of a bicycle wheel that I could use as a Twitter icon. Talk about having a high purpose.
I happened upon a Museum of Modern Art image of "Bicycle Wheel," a found or "readymade" art object by French artist Marcel Duchamp. It's a sweet and goofy construction: a bicycle wheel and fork mounted upside-down on a tall stool. Many aspects of a bike lend themselves to wonder and introspection--everything from the the double-triangle frame design to the bearings and races in a hub--but the wheel ranks right up there at the top with its combination of fragility and strength. Duchamp is said to have enjoyed spinning his stool-mounted wheel and is widely quoted as saying, ""I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoy looking at the flames dancing in a fireplace."
The MoMa site has a nice picture of one of the three Bicycle Wheel constructions Duchamp is said to have made The first of the three Bicycle Wheels, dated in 1913, was "lost." The MoMa wheel is dated 1951, is said to be the thirdand features a classic raked-forward fork. The way it's presented on the site, there's no question it's an objet d'arte. (The version pictured here appears to be the same sculpture; it's uncredited and found here. I'm seeking permission to publish the MoMa's image here; we'll see if I get it).
Below is another another Duchamp "Bicycle Wheel" that appears (with no copyright notices) here and there on the Web (this image is from Wikicommons). The source says "replica," but I believe that refers to the fact it's a Duchamp copy of the lost original.
What I love about dipping into something like this is the impromptu museum tour that happens. "Bicycle Wheel" in MoMa: check. Another version in some other exhibition: check. The next stop is (if picture captions are to be believed) is Duchamp's studio a few years after he first put wheel and stool together.
There it is, the object pre-veneration, the wheel askew, apparently just part of the disarray in an artist's quarters. You can appreciate the inspiration and the execution--and the suggestion the creator didn't take it too seriously.
All of which brings us to our final display: the continuing life of "Bicycle Wheel" outside the gallery. For starters, we have the creation of "The Duchamp," a found musical instrument. And this alternate take on the concept. And finally: Duchamp Reloaded, by Ji Lee, an artist who liberates "Bicycle Wheel" to experience the life of New York's streets.
(Photo: Ji Lee, "Duchamp Reloaded." Used with permission.)
A comment on the rather relaxed pace of today's stage? Don't know. No snails were harmed in the making of this picture--the entire peloton and motor convoy seemed to pass without hitting this guy.
Last year, Versus featured a song about "getting clean" for its Tour de France coverage. It was part of the network's attempt, along with its embrace of clean-cycling missionaries Garmin-Chipotle, to position itself as a leader of the clean cycling movment (though perhaps ironically the ratings were better in the dirty-cycling years).
For 2009, Versus doesn't have a Tour theme. But it does have a nice two-minute ad it's playing that highlights some of the sports and events the network covers: pro cycling, bull riding, cage fighting, Formula 1 racing, killing large animals, and pro ice hockey among others. The ad features a voiceover by John Doman. If the name's not familiar, think Rawls, the hard-bitten, cynical (and gay) deputy police chief in "The Wire."
The music in the ad is an ethereal, ringing instrumental called "First Breath After Coma," by a band Thom introduced me to a few years ago, Explosions in the Sky.
Here's the YouTube version of the ad:Dedicated to bringing our dozens of readers only the highest-quality deep insights into the workings of the Tour de France (or TOURdafrance, as Frankie Andreu likes to say), we turn now to podium fashions. Specifically, the migraine-inducing outfits sported by the models condemned to presenting the daily trophy knick-knacks to the leader of the King of the Mountain competition. As the whole world knows, the KOM leader wears a red-on-white polka-dot jersey. Here's renowned Tour non-winner Michael Rasmussen, without the jersey ...
... and with it:
We'd start our fashion advice to Michael with an urgent plea for god's sake keep your shirt on. But he's not the focus of today's essay. No, it's the apparition below we want to address.
Yes, the model is comely as all get out. She almost pulls it off, even with the thing that's been stuck to her head. But in the world of high cycling fashion, as in the world of cycling, almost doesn't cut it. Why? Let's face it, outside a measles ward or a drunken company picnic, polka dots are always a tough look to carry off. But even if the mass of red spots doesn't put you off, the lady cummerbund tied in a flouncy red bow and the parachute-style skirt should. Maybe you can only appreciate this work of fashion after seeing the podium models trying to manage it in a 20 mph wind. After watching the presentations this year, we theorize that the women presenting the King of the Mountain tchotchkes are guilty of something--maybe shop-lifting from Carrefour, the store chain that sponsors the KOM competition--and this is their punishment.
[Note: All three pictures here were uncredited and are used without permission. In order from top to bottom, they were found here, here, and here.]
Without being excessively Twitterish, I'll just say this about Stage 7: Check out the course profiles. A lot will be decided, and a lot will change. (Steephill.tv's Google map of the stage makes that finishing road look like a tiny, little twisting thing.)
Here's the course profile. (I wonder how Mark Cavendish will like the stage.)
Below: The final 10 kilometers.
I've meant to note for the last couple of days that this is the week of the Gold Rush Randonee. My explanation of a randonee usually prompts a reaction combining puzzlement (why would someone do such a thing?) with horror (you mean people really do that without being forced?). Here's your basic randonee: 750 miles in 90 hours, with a series of checkpoints on the way to make sure you're moving along smartly and not taking shortcuts.
So far, you're just quizzical: "Yes? Hmmm. That's a long way."
You are correct. In ballpark numbers, 750 miles is a distance akin to San Francisco to Seattle. If you're very motivated, you can probably do that drive in 13 hours up Interstate 5. On a bike, you want to build up to the adventure. Nice 50-mile increments would be pleasant. Take a couple of weeks to enjoy the scenery. Or maybe you're a cycling animal and you do a 100 miles per diem, a century a day for eight days.
Here's where curiosity encounters fear. "Ninety hours? How many days is that?"
Three and three-quarters. So to do your 750 miles in that time means pedaling a cool double-century a day. Yes, people actually do it. I can bear witness. But I won't detour into some of the odder realities of the randonee--the night-time starts, the all-night rides, the naps in the ditches, the slow descent into an often less than coherent or rational frame of mind. I'd never think of mentioning the equipment fetishes.
Still, you can't help but ask: "How do you sit on a bike seat after all those miles?"
Yes, but not comfortably, and could lead me on a digression on all the ways people try to deal with seating discomfort, their theories about the hidden causes of their seat pain, and the sure-fire method of spotting someone who's ridden about 100 miles farther than their back end can tolerate.
But no digressions from me. I just wanted to note the Gold Rush riders are out there, toiling from Davis, at the southwestern corner of the Sacramento Valley, across mountains and high desert to Davis Creek, just below the Oregon border on U.S. 395. They left Monday at 6 p.m., and the first rider of the 117 who started will be back in Davis in two hours or so -- only 54 or 55 hours on the road. I'd like to know how much that guy slept. I know several folks on the ride, and it's been fun to follow their progress in the Davis Bike Club's updates. My friend Bruce, who will turn 63 this August, seems to be several hours ahead of his pace four years ago. Amazing, really.
Anyway, check out the proceedings:
More on the timing rules:The previous post raised the question of how Armstrong was placed second overall after Cancellara. The answer, suggested by commenter Paul (from the Netherlands) and confirmed on Bicycle.net (here) is that the judges go back to the results of the first individual time trial (Stage 1, which was not a prologue because it was longer than 8 kilometers). As Bicycle.net explains it:
In the event two riders tie for first place in the race for the yellow jersey, their times in the race’s two individual time trials would prove crucial. In such an event the fractions of seconds from the individual time trials - which are usually rounded up to the nearest second - are employed by race officials and added to the riders’ overall time to separate them.
Watching Stage 4, the team time trial, the Versus coverage focused mostly where it always does: on road mishaps, on any and all drama involving American riders, and on the clock. That's fine as far as it goes. But the result of the stage--with race leader Fabian Cancellara and Lance Armstrong ending in a dead heat for their total time--begged an explanation of how the heck the officials would break the tie.
There was mention of a "countback," but no one ever said what that was, who did it, or how it worked. And I have to say, still not having done any homework on it, that I still don't understand how Cancellara and not Armstrong wound up wearing the yellow jersey after the stage.
I'm no statistician or nothin', but the gap between Armstrong's Astana team and Cancellara's Saxo Bank squad was reported at 40.11seconds. Just to be clear, that means Astana's team time, the time awarded to Armstrong, was 40.11 seconds faster than Saxo Bank's. Going into the stage, Cancellara was 40 seconds ahead of Armstrong. Not 40.2 or 40.99--just 40. So if Armstrong was 40.11 seconds faster than Cancellara ... isn't his total time for the race so far .11 seconds better than Cancellara's.
Well, no, if you believe what you saw during the post-stage podium presentation. No gripe from me--I think Cancellara is swell, and Ben Stiller looked cute playing the role of ugly podium girl (the actual podium girl was a knockout if I may say so). So all I'm asking from the genius broadcasters of the stage is to explain this to your public. That's all. And if anyone understands the timing issue and how it was resolved, please tell us.
Another matter the Versus boys didn't get around to explaining on the live broadcast this morning was how riders who get dropped during the team event are timed. Do they get the same time as the rest of the team? That was an especially important issue for Garmin-Slipstream, which had four riders go off the back during the TTT.
Luckily, the official Tour website has something to say on this:
"... The time recorded for a team will be the time of the fifth rider. For those riders who are left behind during the team time-trial stage, their own time (real time) will be applied and taken into account for the individual general standings. The organisers have decided to go for a relatively short stage (39 km) around Montpellier to limit the consequences of the cancellation of this “comprehensive insurance."
Cavendish won Stage 3 because his team (Columbia-HTC) worked the hardest for it. Interviewed by Robbie Ventura on Versus just after the finish, Columbia's George Hincapie, in his 14th year in the Tour peloton, had some pointed words for teams that didn't join in the hunt:
Ventura: Was that the plan of attack? To drop the hammer as soon as the headwinds hit?
Hincapie: Actually, we were expecting to get a little help from the other teams. Nobody wanted to race. You know, it made us a bit angry. We decided if we saw a moment, you know, we were gonna go, no matter what.
RV: Was that more to lessen the odds for Cavendish for his victory or was it more to set G.C. hopes for the likes of your, ah, G.C. men?
GH: It was more just to make the race happen. Nobody wanted to race. As soon as we started pulling, none of the sprinter teams would help us, and uh you know, we kind of found that a bit insulting, so we decided to go.
RV: What team were you most frustrated with? What team do you think had the responsibility today?
GH: There's no reason to name names, but, you know, the sprinters teams responsibilities are to chase down breakaways and make the race happen. This is the Tour de France. You want excitement. You want to race as hard as possible for every race, so uh I think our team did it today and it was an awesome team effort.
That's right: It was awesome. Starting 25 kilometers out, Team Columbia started riding its own team time trial; well, almost--it was impressive to see the Astana and Skil-Shimano and Milram riders rotating through the front of the group to help keep it away from the peloton.
I think what Hincapie is showing off a little bit of tactical anger here Sure, all the sprinters' teams had an interest in chasing down the breakaway. But after watching what Cavendish does, they were all probably thinking the same thing: This race will come down to the last 3 or 4 kilometers. Let Columbia pay the price to pull the escape back and maybe weaken them a little bit so the lead-out for Cavendish isn't as dominating as it was, say, yesterday. The brilliance and daring of Columbia's move was to take up the challenge: Gee, if you're going to make us work hard, we might as well really work and see if we can get a big payoff. A huge, concerted effort from the peloton would have brought them back. Nobody had it in them to try that.
Be interesting to see whether Columbia's effort costs them in the team trial tomorrow in Stage 4. I'm guessing that they're fired up and they turn in a top four or five performance.
