Road Riding Youtube footage

Nice video from 50's
http://www.stickybottle.com/blogs/video ... ing-1950s/

"the prizes were handed out, Toast holders, desert bowls and ash trays"

No RVV today, of course, so here's the very wet 1985 edition, when only 24 riders finished...



Easy to spot Eric Vanderaerden in his Belgian champion's jersey, behind after a broken wheel, riding up a very slippy Koppenberg on his Raleigh, when many of those ahead of him got off and walked.

https://www.velonews.com/news/studying- ... ast-laugh/

Stay safe, everyone. x

Thanks for posting that link! Those were the days!! I remember buying my Raleigh Services des Courses 753 back around then - £425 and I was skint for months afterwards! Didn't make me ride like Vanderaerden, but it sure was fun pretending!!

Ouch! My Team Corsa 12 was (I think) a whopping £250 all-in, courtesy of the Bank of Mum and Dad. A great bike, and I'd love another one now.

April 12th, 1981, Paris-Roubaix.

In the front group heading into the velodrome, Roger De Vlaeminck, hoping to add to his four wins, and Francesco Moser, going for four in a row. Meanwhile, the lad in the Worlds jersey is somehow still around after a Sunday in hell and seven falls. You can just about make out the black dog that takes him down at the start of this clip:



Paris-Roubaix est une connerie! (M. Hinault, soon after the finish, famously describing the race as bullshit.)

Absolutely "incroyable"!! How someone can come back from a crash in the closing kms, take the lead in the velodrome and keep it until the end - THAT's why Hinault has always been my cycling hero!
I remember taking this race on dvd to my pal's place in Germany and we sat down to watch it. His son watched the first ten minutes and then got up suddenly to leave and exclaimed, "How on EARTH can you guys even SEE what's going on - it's so blurry!!"

Here's another stunning performance from Hinault - how someone can stay up out of the saddle for so long is totally beyond me - I can just about manage 30 seconds on the trainer and my legs cave in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyhnNon96X0

Great post, a lot of stuff in here i did not know about

Welcome to the world of the past! You'll never see cyclists like Hinault again - an absolute one-off!