Jan wrote in response to Marcus Hellman's great questions:
Question 1) Does anyone have pictures or other documentation showing a particular racer using aluminum cranks in the mountains, and steel cranks on the flats?
Incomplete answer 1: Yes. When we wrote the article in question for BQ, I worked with Aldo Ross, who found in his collection of contemporary magazines a number of photos of racers - mostly French - that used cotterless aluminum cranks in the mountains and cottered steel cranks on the flats.
What is missing in the answer: you do not specify any rider by name, nor do you specify if the switch was repetitive or simply one switch during the year. Without such detail, it could be just as likely that the rider made a definitive switch from one type to the other between the two photos. Furthermore, what proof do you have that the cranks are indeed alloy or steel? Many grainy black and white magazine photos could lead one to mistakenly identify a 49d for a 49a or the contrary.
Question 2) In the same season?
Incomplete answer 2) Yes.
How do you know they were in the same season? What documentation do you have to prove this?
Question 3) In the same race?
Incomplete answer 3) I think so, but I'd have to check with Aldo.
You write your editor title on each post as well as on every issue of you rag. You therefore have no right to say you are not sure. You can also not hide behind somebody else's knowledge if you are as thorough in your research as you claim.
Question 4) Was this common or the exception?
Evasive answer 4) The photo in BQ Volume 4, No. 3, p. 16 shows both Louison Bobet and Lucien Lazaridès with aluminum cranks, but Hugo Koblet on cottered cranks. 17th stage of the 1951 Tour, from Montpellier to Avignon via Mt. Ventoux - so it was mountainous. This indicates that several racer at least used aluminum cranks, but others stuck with cottered steel cranks - including that year's winner.
The question posed by Marcus was whether or not a same rider used both alloy and steel cranks in a same season and more precisely in the same race as you had previously intimated. You are now making a red herring statement comparing different riders, hence something completely different to what was asked.
Question 5) Did these racers switch cranks or switch bikes?
Evasive answer 5) That I don't know. However, from what I read, they appear to have used the same bike for the entire race. One report says that the mechanics complained about the workload of switching the gearing on almost every bike almost every night. (Back then, the Tour was for national teams, and for most of them, the Tour's organizers provided the mechanics.)
First you effectively retract what you claimed before by admitting to not having the information. Then you show the depth of your research and background information by stating that you are basing your statement on one person's unverified account. As for the workload of a pro bike mechanic, it has always been one of the heaviest jobs you could even imagine, so what you are saying about workload has no relevance to the question at hand. As for the claim that the tour organizers provided the mechanics, where did you come up with this jewel? This is at odds with all that I have read about all the competitive national teams. Are you perhaps referring to the small also-ran regional teams or the multinational teams where it would obviously be impossible for a national federation to supply a mechanic. Or perhaps you are referring to an earlier period, predating the period under discussion when riders were switching from steel to alloy cranks, and more pointedly, were supposedly so hot on reducing the Q factor.
Question 6) Did they have other specialized equipment for the mountains or the flats?
Evasive answer 6) The literature said that Hugo Koblet switched gearing a lot, but not bikes. See the article in BQ Vol. 2, No. 2 that describes Koblet's bike in detail (taken from the contemporary press, with Daniel Rebour drawings.)
There has not been a single successful racer in the Tour, during the derailleur era that did not study possible changes in gearing from day to day to suit the race conditions. This is a non-issue as this is simply a mathematical equation change, not a technical change. Marcus' question was a more telling: are there other modifications made from day to day: ie different hubs, rims, tires, saddles, stems, brakes, cranks... Up until now, you have not supplied one single example of any change that took place in a race like the tour to get a mechanical advantage due to constructive variations, like different designs or material compositions in componentry.
Question 7) Is there just some quotidian explanation? For example: "the next day, the bike with the aluminum cranks had a flat, so I grabbed the backup bike with the steel cranks." Or, "early in the season we rode the bikes with the steel cranks, but then Guiseppe worked a deal with someone, and we got some of the new, cool aluminum cranks."
Incomplete and evasive answer 7) It seems to be pretty consistent, so I doubt the explanation is just coincidence. In many cases, both the steel and aluminum cranks were made by the same company, Stronglight.
You get on Chuck's case for not supplying you with proper reference material to refute your outlandish claim and then you not only do not supply any reference yourself, but you go so far as to clearly state that you are basing your point of view strictly on your personal opinion. You can't have it both ways. Plus, you state that in 'many' cases both the steel and alloy cranks were made by the same company. I am uncomfortable with the word 'many', can you please define what you mean? Please give details of even one such case. You have still not done so.
At this point, I will follow Chuck's lead and simply say "ça suffit avec ces niaiseries" and will stay away from any further comments made by Jan on this topic. It simply isn't worth anybody's time. I came to this conclusion when a former CR listmember from Boston, with whom I have not had a civil email exchange in a couple years, sent me an appreciated private attaboy email after my earlier posts. If opposition to another CR listmember's posts is sufficient to bridge the gap between the former member and myself, it shows that my position cannot be extreme or isolated.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA