A one-eyed, Irish stoic and the "weakness" of being kind...

[Rolf]

For your Friday reading pleasure, here's an engaging tale of Shay Elliott, an Irish domestique who, fifty years ago, helped open the door to "Internationals" racing in the continental classics. The piece comments on one of those paradoxes of team-based, pro cycling:

[C]ycling is no sport for romantics, no sport for fools who believe in chivalry and just rewards and things like that. The meek might inherit the earth but they win fuck all in bicycle races. Jean Bobet noted how Elliott’s act of kindness toward Robinson coloured the way some in the peloton viewed him:

• "He got criticised a lot because in this ruthless world an act of kindness could be seen as a weakness. So, as a racer, Shay was ‘weak,’ as hard and rotten as that might sound.”

This reverance of ruthlessness is a common theme in road cycling (espoused by crap like The Rules and "HTFU") which to me is the manifestation of a particularly male kind of insecurity.

Shay Elliott died within a month of turning 37, depressed and at the business end of a shotgun: his prize for winning a Vuelta stage into Valencia. One day I'd like to ride past his modest roadside stone memorial -- just off the road to Clara -- and pay homage to a 'weak' rider.

Tripleshot Tour o' Ireland, 2014. Who's in?

[EricS]

I'm in for sure. If it's in the first half of the year, I'm in!

I think we have much of this kind of "weakness" in the ranks of TS. That's one of the things I love about this club.

I must however take offense at you disparaging remarks about "The Rules". They are all true, and must all be followed at all times. Actually I did laugh while reading them because they point out how silly roadies can be sometimes, and as I read them, I could picture a member of TripleShot for each rule. Myself included.

Thanks for that post Rolf.

Eric