Mario Vicini

Here's another of my paintings. Mario Vicini in the Giro around the end of the 1930s. His bike is fitted with an early form of dérailleur similar to the one shown in the photo.

Climbing Mont Aigoual

At least once a year I like to chuck the bike in the car and go and ride somewhere new. 

Last spring I decided to climb the Mont Aigoual. It's the second highest peak in the Cevennes at 1567 metres. I started at Le Vigan, about a two hour drive from my place. The ride begins with the ascent of the Col du Minier, a fairly gentle climb but twenty one kilometres long. It was a beautiful morning, but rather clammy as there had been massive rainfall the day before. Every hairpin bend seemed to have it's own small stone bridge with a stream, swollen from the rain, crashing down the side of the mountain. Lots of lush vegetation and trees too, so whenever I stopped to admire the view or to take a photo my glasses steamed up. As I climbed higher the trees began to thin out and be replaced with grass and wild flowers and in places the road twisted and turned around enormous rock formations that almost touched my shoulders as I rode by. Even a gentle climb can be hard when it's as long as this, so I was glad when I reached the sign for the col. I stopped  to eat a cereal bar and take the ritual pic of the bike in front of the sign. From the summit the road flattens and even dips slightly down to the village of l'Espérou where you turn left and begin the climb to the top of the Aigoual. There had been very little traffic on the Minier so I was shocked to find myself suddenly in the middle of bikes, cars and tourist buses. Rather too crowded for my taste, still, after about thirty six kilometres of almost constant climbing, it felt like being on top of the world. The big photo which heads my blog was taken about fifty metres from the summit on my way down. A shame the horizon is a bit hazy, but I really like that pic, as to me, it seems to really sum up what the freedom of riding a bike is all about. 

The descent to Le Vigan was incredible. By now it was lunch time and there was hardly any traffic, it was warm and sunny with very little wind, so I had the pleasure of twenty one downhill kilometres with sweeping curves and hairpin bends. During the whole descent only one car overtook me and I counted two going the other way! After a while my hands and wrists began to ache from being constantly in the same position but with the speed and the warm air I began to feel as if I was floating, as if the bike wasn't quite touching the ground. It was easily the most pleasant downhill ride I've ever done, and I can recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in the region.

Photography

I love taking photos, although technically, I don't know much about photography. I use my camera alot for recording references for my paintings, or taking snaps of bikes. I was on the Place de la Comédie one day snapping passers by for a project I was working on, when I saw these two go flashing by, so I just aimed and fired. There's a nice ironic twist of a cheap mode of transport carrying two people in front of Le Café Riche!

Paris-Nice

An advantage of living in France for a bike nut is that one is never too far from a race, be it amateur or professional. I like to watch at least one race per season, and a few weeks ago managed to get across to Aix-en-Provence with a couple of cycling pals for the time trial of the Paris-Nice stage race. We spent the morning at the start wandering around the team vehicles, watching the mechanics get the machines out of the buses and getting up close to watch the fine tuning and last minute preparation of the bikes. Although they must get sick of being asked the same questions by the public at a time when they're obviously so busy, some of the mechanics are happy enough to chat for a while. After lunch we got out on the course to watch the riders. Unfortunately, the only conveniant spot was on a slight downhill stretch with a following wind! The speed they were doing was phenomenal, so we only saw them aproaching, then a low swooosh as they went by and disappeared round a curve. Mind you, I got some great "speed" shots which might well be worked up into paintings some time soon! 

Hmmmm....the captions are all over the bloody place despite trying different corrections. I suppose cheap blog software has it's limits, or maybe there's a tweak I must learn.......

Bradley Wiggins' TT bike

Geraint Thomas' road bike

up close with the mechanics

Geraint and Jeremy Hunt warming up

Nico Roche









Vinokourov

Sprint

Here's one of my recent paintings. Massed sprints, especially between the best sprinters in the world, are one of the most exciting spectacles sport can offer. It's not easy to capture the colour, movement and sheer speed involved but that's what I was after. It's acrylic on canvas.


click to enlarge

Here we go

I've started this blog as a way of presenting two of my passions; bikes and painting pictures.

I like everything about bicycles. I like riding them, I like taking them to bits and building them back up and I like looking at them. And there are no limits to the kind of bikes I like. I happen to ride what are usually termed as racing bikes, but I'm actually interested in anything with pedals and two wheels. The bicycle could be called "the world's greatest invention", and indeed, there was a recent article in the Guardian on this very theme.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/mar/03/guardianspecial4.mattseaton
The article also includes a well liked quote from Iris Murdoch "The bicycle is the most civilised conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart."
Amen to that!

Future entries will include descriptions of local rides, past and present, in this wonderful part of the world which has such a huge culture and history of cycling and cycle racing.