Special Ed

If we've learned one thing over the years, it's that when the gentlemen at Rouleur put out a special edition of one of their books, one should not hesitate to jump on it. (Once they are gone, they are gone.) The 2nd edition of Herbie Sykes' essential Maglia Rosa is coming to G+D next month, but if you can't wait, follow up with Rouleur and be one of the lucky few to get an exquisite, hand-bound version of this book in a gorgeous slipcase.

Rouleur goes all-out with these limited projects, they are always well worth the £.

Rouleur special edition Maglia Rosa

What Just Happened?

The Giro d'Italia is well under way, and it looks like it's going to be another great race. Five stages, five different winners, some of them complete surprises. Just how it should be.

One early surprise was Mark Cavendish saying "fuck" on live TV. Even more surprising, Bradley Wiggins hasn't yet.

As you can see, #EARPIECES are to blame.

100 years of kit design has reached its logical conclusion:

(Vini Fantini team breakfasts do not look awkward at all.)

Pippo Pozzato seems to have the most fun of anyone in a Grand Tour. Check out his twitter feed for commentary like this (seriously) on Paolini's Air Attack helmet:

We refuse to comment on John Degenkolb's mustache after his Stage 5 win. Partly because all of twitter already did, but mostly because we don't want it to be mad at us.

For even more Giro, we endorse:

Speed Metal Cycling's Daniel does a daily Giro recap, appropriately titled Skullkrushing the Giro. Wear a helmet.

The recently re-launched and always awesome Manual For Speed is in Italy, bringing us our favorite pictures from the race so far. A daily dose of vitamins for your eyeballs.

Outside of racing, there's some very dirty laundry being aired on twitter over the unfortunate handling of the Paul Kimmage Defense Fund. If you recall, last year the UCI threatened to sue Irish journalist Paul Kimmage, and the cycling community quickly rallied to his defense, raising almost $100,000 in a hastily created fund by the editors of Cyclismas (with some help from NYVelocity and a few others). Aaron Brown, aka @UCI_Overlord was in charge of the fund, but when pressed recently for a reporting of financial activity, was unable to adequately account for a big chunk of the donations. It seems he used the money for tax liabilities as well as Cyclismas expenses, and had planned on replacing it when needed - a clear no-no in the eyes of everyone.

Part of this dilemma was precipitated by the fact that the UCI has dropped its suit against Kimmage, leaving the Defense Fund with nothing to defend. It appears there was then a split among the principals about what should be done with the money–the "Paul Kimmage Attack Fund" doesn't have quite the same ring. Make some popcorn and fire up twitter, but we can assure you this probably won't have a happy ending. 

G+D contributed $120 towards the fund by selling copies of Kimmage's Rough Ride; along with everyone else, we'd love to know what happened/will happen to the donations.
Here's a link to the suit filed by Cyclismas editor Lesli Cohen against Aaron Brown. Some audio files surfaced that also show Brown planning to use Defense Fund money for business expenses. Cyclismas reports on the incident thus far.

In this age of ubiquitous Kickstarter projects and PayPal "Donate" buttons, it's heartening to see that the kindness of strangers can quickly translate into real money. It's disappointing, however, when the folks on the other side of the equation all too often lack the abilities to carry out their endeavors.

Last week, Competitive Cyclist posted this amazing photograph (for many reasons) of Raul Alcala during his time on 7-Eleven.

But that picture is also of Shelley Verses, perhaps one of the coolest characters in all of cycling.

For more, you can hear Mike, Klaus and Daniel fail to fact-check these and many other issues, every two weeks on the Speed Metal Cycling podcast. 

Episode 62 is up now: Raw denim is just like cycling jerseys, Bradley Wiggins keeps his cool, and Merida bikes get even lighter.

And remember, you can always Stay Visually Informed™ with the G+D tumblr - Gage+DePhoto. 

Massimo's Grid

"It’s just like underwear: you wear it, but it’s not to be exposed. The grid is the underwear of the book.” -Massimo Vignelli

2013 Giro Fantasy League

Compete against your friends, enemies, and frenemies in our Velogames fantasy league.

Sign up or sign in at velogames.com, create your team, and then join using league code #30170630.

The winner will get an extra extra nice prize from the G+D selection of literature.

See you in Naples!

Giro d'Italia  |  May 4-26

What Just Happened?

It's been three weeks since Paris-Roubaix, and NBCUniversal's botched coverage continues to ping-pong around the Internet. For a complete rundown of what it takes to be a cycling fan in North America, check out Joe Lindsey's very smart take, and why getting this right is crucial to the future of the sport.

Team Sky has had a rather mixed early season, and Bradley Wiggins personified the team's frustration in the Giro del Trentino with the world's most fussy bike toss. At least it preserved the (malfunctioning) Di2 and the paint job. Not very rock and roll if you ask us. 

Speaking of rock and roll, here's what Sir Brad's best comrade Paul Weller was up to in 1984: 

Klaus from Cycling Inquistion went to Amstel Gold this year. And he brought a camera.

Which reminds us, is 2013 the year of the Colombians? Klaus thinks so, and he backs it up with some solid reporting. On cue, this year's Flèche Wallone came under a withering Colombian attack. Team Sky's Sergio Henao (not pronounced "Hey-now" except ironically) and AG2r's Carlos Betancur took 2nd and 3rd on the podium behind an unstoppable Dani Moreno. A great race that always shapes up in the last 45 seconds, which means we can sleep in a little.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège went to Irishman Dan Martin. We have more than a little Irish blood in our family tree, so to this we say "Sláinte!" A well-deserved victory.

We say goodbye to another Classics season with this bonkers video, On The Wheel Of Eddy Merckx, brought to our attention by the incomparable inrng. 

As of this post, the Tour de Romandie is under way. We always tune in for the stunning Swiss landscapes.

In the spirit of potlach, our favorite twitterer @_mmmaiko_ attended a Tyler Hamilton Q&A in San Francisco sponsored by Mike's Bikes and shared her thoughts. A tough subject that doesn't get any easier once it's personalized, Maiko comes away with some valid questions for fans of cycling.

May 4-26th.  Here is the Official Giro Program (92MB). 

From the Department of Genius Marketing: Rapha takes a cue from other sports and offers up official Sky team jerseys customizable with your name. A nice touch from a team (and a brand) with a devoted fan base.

But we still want to get the lowdown on this new kid "Surname".

If it's great kits you're after, do yourself a goddamned favor and follow the wtfkits tumblr. It's guaranteed to give you a LOL once a day.

For more, you can hear Mike, Klaus and Daniel opine on these and many other issues, every two weeks on the Speed Metal Cycling podcast. 

Episode 60 is up now: Klaus came back from the Netherlands with tons of stories, we learn why Bob Roll purposefully mispronounces shit, and we convince ourselves that Joe Lindsey listens to the podcast.

And remember, you can always Stay Visually Informed™ with our tumblr - Gage+DePhoto.

Le Carré 101

A good spy novel is the perfect palate cleanser between cyclist biographies and race histories.
The John le Carré Starter Kit via the excellent 6th Floor blog in the New York Times is a great list to consult.

We recommend all the titles mentioned without reservation. (Pro tip: amazon.co.uk always has the best le Carré covers.)

What Just Happened?

In what we hope will be a semi-regular post, we take a look back at notable events/news in road cycling.

APRIL'S FOOLS

The Tour of the Basque Country (the race so nice they named it thrice)–won in spectacular fashion by the Colombian Movistar rider Nairo Quintana–started on April Fools' Day, and ended with a couple of fools:

This turned out to be the video clip that launched a thousand blog posts (and was first uploaded by Klaus at Cycling Inquisition). Make of it what you will, but if you spend any time on Klaus's site, you will quickly learn that the attitude on display by Schlanger and Gogolski has a long and ugly history.

For a race that many seemed to think was in the bag for Team Sky, congratulations to Quintana. The level of Colombian talent in the 2013 peloton may very well be the sport's savior as we head into the Grand Tours. At the very least, riders like Quintana will continue to disrupt the contrived media narratives.

MEANWHILE, IN FRANCE

If you slept through Paris-Roubaix, you missed perhaps the best race of the season and a significant win for Fabian Cancellara. Fear not–Cosmo at cyclocosm.com has put out an amazing video recap, the crown jewel of his growing How The Race Was Won series:

And this Dutch video of the Paris-Roubaix broom wagon has some touching (and rarely seen) footage from the other end of the race. 

Almost commented on as much as the race tactics was the coverage. Many cycling fans awoke on Sunday morning thrilled to be able to feel like a normal person and turn on their TVs and watch a sporting event. In HD! But as the race unfolded, it became clear from social media that the "live" NBC Sports coverage was a full 10km behind the action. That is far from ideal in this age of following race information on twitter. Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal had perhaps the most astute comment on twitter (right before he logged off so as not to have the race spoiled for him, as did many others). 

After the race, Jason reached out to NBC for answers:

Paris-Roubaix was running fast, ahead of schedule Sunday. The rep said the way the peloton moved through the early parts of the race put the network was in a hard spot - either skip the Forest of Arenberg (a lot of people's favorite part) or jump ahead and potentially miss a race-winning move. It was a tough call and they decided to go with running everything, albeit a little behind the action. Which led to a lot of jokes from me! And a lot of people on Twitter.

The full report is here.

NOTES FROM THE PODIUM

A small note on the never-ending Peter Sagan/Maja Leye saga. (If you're not familiar with it at this point, even Deadspin picked up on the story.) It instantly divided cycling fans on twitter, forming into 2 camps: the "Get over it, it was a joke" camp and the "Hey, this really isn't cool" camp. One casualty from the latter amid all this nastiness was well-known cycling twitteratrix @mmmaiko. After valiantly fighting off trolls of varying levels of meanness, Maiko called bullshit and set up a locked account at @_mmmaiko_ If you're not a total creep, follow her at the new account for continued pro cycling hilarity (along with the occasional dick joke, Vitamix recipe, and yoga class observation.) She vows to be back at the Maiko 1.0 account in time for the Giro. Let's make sure that happens.

For more, you can hear me, Klaus and Daniel on these and many other issues, every other week on the Speed Metal Cycling podcast. Episode 59 is up now. (Don't pretend you don't know what a Clopper is.)

Digital Newsstand

2r Magazine is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the sport of procycling. If you have an iPad and an hour, download it now and take a look.

An ambitious digital-only undertaking from Gerard Vroomen featuring content from the likes of inrng, Paul Kimmage, UCI Overlord, issue 2 is on the (digital) newsstand now.

Paper Or Pixels?

The New York Times' David Carr and A.O. Scott discuss what it means to be a book.

Brace Yourselves...

... De Ronde is coming.

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Ronde van Vlaanderen  | Sunday, March 31

Are You Ready?

Five days 'til RHC. Get the official timing app for iPhone here.

Because We <3 NY