snipped: "Coppi never contested in the Milk Race but we won't hold that against him."
the milk race was for amateurs! e-RICHIE chester, ct
On Sun, 6 Jun 2004 13:50:53 -0400 "P.C. Kohler" <kohl57@starpower.net>
writes:
> Steven assertions about the British contribution to what I call CR
> Cycling
> (lightweight sport cycling c. 1940s-mid 80s) are jawdropping.
>
> The simple fact is that British produced more of what we like to
> collect and
> opine about, quality lightweights, than any country in the world.
> Indeed,
> most likely equal or greater to all of the others combined. And
> except for
> what was shipped to the USA, most of this was for dometic
> consumption. For,
> again, Britain had more folks doing what we like to do: sports and
> competition cycling, than any country.
>
> Just take the circulation figures for the major cycling magazines in
> Britain
> during the time and tell me Britons had no real interest in or
> talent for
> sports cycling! Or did they just read the mag for the ads for jock
> itch
> cream and bodybuilding regimens? 60,000 folks read "Cycling" every
> week in
> the 1930s. And that was one of four or five major cycling
> magazines.
>
> Steven also mentions "international" championships and the dearth of
> British
> champions. Here, he forgets that British cycling was rather
> provencial and
> national... the country had its own major cycling races and
> countless local
> time trials. It had its own flourishing national cycle culture that
> predated
> that on the continent in many aspects. Heck the British invented the
> safety
> bicycle and were the first to mass produce it. To assert that
> "internationalism" denotes quality is absurd. Coppi never contested
> in the
> Milk Race but we won't hold that against him.
>
> During the CR period most of the "international" roadraces were not
> international but European. If your idea of an international event
> is three
> Italians, two Frenchman and a Dutchman heading a peleton, then you
> must
> think the World Series is just that.
>
> Again, my point is not that one country is or was better than another
> in
> cycling but that there is simply no question that certain
> countries--
> France, Italy and Britain--- had more of a defined sports cycle
> "culture"
> than others. If a zillion Chinese ride roadsters to work, does that
> translate into a sports cycle culture? No. Do a score or so
> talented
> American framebuilders and a core of dedicated and talented riders
> constitute a national cycling passion? During the CR "Period"? I
> wish. Then
> I could have joined my high school cycling team. Instead we had
> drivers ed
> and basketball.
>
> I don't think one can doubt that this cycling culture in France,
> Italy and
> Britain influenced the design and manufacture of the bikes we
> collect.
> Anyone out there who thinks otherwise, can exchange his Italian
> made
> lightweight for a Chinese made one, no questions asked. How you guys
> can
> cherish an Italian or French made bike and think it was just an
> accident it
> was designed and built by those unique cycle nations is just beyond
> me.
> You've all gone native in your "global village".
>
> Peter Kohler
> Washington DC USA