Cyclopedia. Part 3

Further back, the best-known European cycle racing cartoonist was the Swiss-domiciled French artist Pellos, who enjoys a similar place in French cycling culture to the writer Antoine Blondin. Both were key parts of the sport's heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. His caricatures of the greats appeared in French magazines such as Match, Miroir Sprint, and Miroir du Cyclisme from 1931 to 1982. Pellos was the pen name of Rene Pellarin (b. 1900, d. 1988), who competed in the 1924 Olympic Games in the javelin, 800 m, and shot put before taking up drawing full-time.

Pellarin also drew rugby and boxing, and was one of the most successful French 20th-century cartoon artists, producing definitive strips including Les pieds nickeles (which roughly translates to Silver Feet), about three youths who are constantly involved in various crazy schemes, which ran for 30 years. For cycling, he could produce evocative line ill.u.s.tration, but most often his work evokes the characteristics journalists and fans saw in the stars and the sport's backdrops: Tom Simpson is depicted as a beatnik, Jacques Anquetil sitting on a bottle of champagne, Mont Ventoux as a monstrous torturer compared to the benign smiling Alps.

British cycling has produced two longstanding cartoon strips that epitomize two radically different eras and cultures. Honk, drawn by the club rider Johnny Helms for Cycling magazine from the 1940s to the 1980s, was a whimsical character of the kind that could only appear in England. Honk has adventures with wayward dogs and punctures and curious things happen to him in cafes and on tandem bikes with smiling clubgirls. Helms continued to produce cartoons for Cycling until his death in November 2009 at the age of 85, by which time he had been working for the magazine for 63 years, and his drawings looked somewhat outdated.

On the other hand, the other notable British cartoon, Mint Sauce, which stars a mountain-biking sheep, is quite relevant to its time. Mint was created in 1988 by the Brighton cartoonist Jo Burt, initially for Bicycle Action magazine, and has appeared in Mountain Biking UK for over 20 years. Burt cites Krazy Kat and Calvin & Hobbes among his influences; there is a strong mystical Celtic flavor to the strips, which incorporate rock lyrics for added effect. Mint also stars Coleman, a mountain-biking cow, Mint's girlfriend Oonagh Herdwick, and a black sheep with horns named Chipko. There's a dreamy babe named Summer-this being a British cartoon, she is a fickle creature-and a Grim Reaper figure who is always out to get Mint, but never quite manages to.

CATHOLICISM Is cycling the religion's official sport, or is Catholicism cycling's semiofficial religion?

* The pope frequently receives the peloton in the GIRO D'ITALIA, most notably before the 2000 start, when among the blessed was MARCO PANTANI, fresh from being thrown off the 1999 race due to a failed blood test.

* The finish climb at the Fleche Wallonne CLa.s.sIC has the stations of the cross at each hairpin.

* The Euskaltel team from Spain would receive a priest's blessing before traveling to major races.

* Pope Pius XII designated the Madonna del Ghisallo the cyclists' CHAPEL; it has since been visited by Paul VI and John Paul II.

* The Catholic church attempted to force FAUSTO COPPI to return to his wife during his divorce in 1954.

* Cycling writers use religious imagery: a painful race is a Calvary; Coppi has been compared to Piero della Francesco's tortured Christ.

* GINO BARTALI had a chapel in his house and went to Ma.s.s each morning before he raced.

* Most of the greats of cycling have donated jerseys, bikes, or both to the chapels at Ghisallo and Labastide d'Armagnac.

CAVENDISH, Mark Born: Isle of Man, May 21, 1985 Major wins: World Madison champion 2005, 2008; MilanSan Remo 2009; 10 stage wins in Tour de France to 2009; five stage wins in Giro d'Italia Interests outside cycling: design, ballroom dancing, FIAT 500s Further reading: Boy Racer, Mark Cavendish, Velo Press, 2010 Highly talented and volatile sprinter from the Isle of Man who spearheaded the cycling renaissance in GREAT BRITAIN in 2008-9 and was set to dominate the finish straight for years to come. By 2009 Cavendish had set a new British record for TOUR DE FRANCE stage wins-10 in just two Tours-and had become, together with Tom Simpson, the only Briton to win a cycling MONUMENT in the modern era; he was also the first British cyclist to take victory on the Champs-Elysees in the Tour de France. He notched up over 50 pro wins in 2007, 2008, and 2009, a prolific record that bore comparison with the likes of EDDY MERCKX and Freddy Maertens.

Cavendish came out of the British Olympic program's academy for under-23 riders, where he was initially considered underpowered. He worked in a bank on the Isle of Man to finance his racing trips to the "mainland" and credited the academy's founder Rod Ellingworth with turning him from a "fat banker into a world champion." By 2005 he had become Madison world champion (see TRACK RACING for more details of this event) and in 2007 he turned professional for T-Mobile and started the Tour de France, cras.h.i.+ng heavily twice before pulling out in the Alps.

His breakthrough year was 2008, with two stage wins at the GIRO D'ITALIA and four at the Tour, although he was bitterly disappointed not to win a medal in the OLYMPIC GAMES. In 2009 he surprised many continental followers with a last-gasp victory in the sprint that decided MILANSAN REMO; it was, however, the fruit of detailed planning together with Ellingworth. At that year's Tour, he was more dominant than any sprinter since Maertens in 1976 and 1981, winning stages by huge margins. He also wrote a MEMOIR, Boy Racer, which detailed his adventures at the academy and pulled no punches when it came to former coaches and adversaries.

There are various reasons for Cavendish's success. One is his background in track racing, which means he can spin the pedals faster than the opposition. Another is his small size, which enables him to get lower on the bike; he has worked with his coaches to get so far forward over the front wheel that his handlebars and front forks have to be reinforced. This gives him a 4 percent AERODYNAMIC advantage over his rivals. His Columbia team has put in a huge amount of work to give him a perfect "lead-out" train-something Cav acknowledges after every win-while Cavendish himself prepares every race in detail with Ellingworth.

Outside cycling, Cavendish has a collection of iconic Italian design items that includes vintage Fiat 500s and Lambrettas. He lives in an apartment near the British base in Quarrata, Tuscany.

CHAPELS Not surprisingly for a sport that has close links to CATHOLICISM, there are several cyclists' chapels across Europe. The best known is at Madonna del Ghisallo above Lake Como in Italy, which stands next to a s.p.a.cious, modern museum of cycling and has a fine statue of FAUSTO COPPI outside its front door. Inside the chapel are bikes and jerseys donated by many of the greats of the sport, and a panel on the wall bearing photographs of cyclists, professional and amateur, who have died on the roads of Europe, going back to the 1930s; GINO BARTALI's brother Giulio is among them. The bikes on display include Bartali's 1948 Tour-winning Legnano and a futuristic machine used by FRANCESCO MOSER for an hour record. The cyclists who have donated jerseys include BERNARD HINAULT, Mario Cipollini, MIGUEL INDURAIN, and MARCO PANTANI.

The Madonna del Ghisallo was known as a patroness of travelers; in the 1940s the local priest, Don Ermelindo Vigano, suggested that his church should be the site of a cyclists' shrine, as the climb up from the lakeside was the decisive point in the Tour of Lombardy. Leading cyclists including Coppi signed a pet.i.tion, and the Madonna was designated the patroness of cyclists in 1949 by Pope Pius XII, who also blessed the GIRO D'ITALIA and received Coppi and Bartali at the Vatican. The "race of the falling leaves" still pa.s.ses the Ghisallo, where the bell rings as the racers toil up the hill.

In southwest France, a similar chapel at Labastide-d'Armagnac dating back to the 12th century has been known as Notre Dame des Cyclistes since Pope John XXIII made the church a National Sanctuary for Cycling and Cyclists in 1959. Like the Ghisallo, Notre Dame includes a cycling museum including jerseys donated by Hinault, EDDY MERCKX, JACQUES ANQUETIL, RAYMOND POULIDOR, and TOM SIMPSON. There is also a stained-gla.s.s window donated by the 1964 world champion Henri Anglade. The Tour de France began a stage in the village in 1989.

In Spain, the patroness of cycling is the Virgin of Dorleta; one sanctuary of Our Lady of Dorleta is in the Basque Country village of Leintz-Gatzaga (Salinas de Leniz in Spanish). There are shrines to the Dorleta virgin across Spain, including one in Andalucia on the Suspiro del Moro pa.s.s south of Granada, where the inscription reads: Our Lady of Dorleta, patron of Spanish cyclists. Maria, queen of the world, protect earthly roads in all ways for cyclists who love nature's great works created by our Lord.

CHARITIES While the Livestrong charity founded by LANCE ARMSTRONG is the best-known fundraising body linked to the sport, there are several others. The Amy Gillett Foundation was launched after the Australian rower-turned-cyclist was knocked down by a car and killed in Germany in 2005 while out training with the national team. It has as its main goal to "reduce the incidence of injury and death caused by the interaction between cyclists and motorists." Patrons include Tour de France stars Phil Anderson and Cadel Evans and the Formula One driver Mark Webber, and it funds two scholars.h.i.+ps, one to support talented young cyclists and the other to research cycle safety.

The Fabio Casartelli Foundation was formed after the death of the 1992 Olympic champion from head injuries in the 1995 Tour de France and has goals that include supporting ex-cyclists and emerging talent. It runs a Gran Fondo every year.

MARCO PANTANI, the Tour winner who died of drug addiction in 2004, has also inspired a fondazione, which variously supports the disabled, has funded a school for partially sighted cyclists, runs youth training camps, and donates money to a team in the war-hit city of Vinkovci in Croatia. It also runs a Gran Fondo and supports another two, all named after Pantani.

In Yorks.h.i.+re, meanwhile, the Dave Rayner Fund was begun in 1993 after the death of this talented young cyclist; it raises money to help talented young cyclists who wish to race abroad and supported 25 of them in 2009. Among its activities is a fundraising dinner attended by various celebrities and the organization of the etape du Dales Sportive.

The Braveheart Fund plays a similar role in Scotland; as with the Rayner Fund, its dinner is one of the highlights of the British winter cycling calendar, with CHRIS HOY and MARK CAVENDISH among the 2008 diners-Hoy, indeed, went to the dinner rather than the British Cycling function, in the year of his Olympic triumph. Braveheart invested over 35,000 in Scottish cycling in 2009, with cash going to 13 cyclists aged 15 to 23, and to another 3 with a chance of riding at the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Livestrong, however, is the daddy of all cycling-based charities. Founded in 1998 after LANCE ARMSTRONG's recovery from cancer, it invested $21 million dollars in research in its first 10 years of existence and relies heavily on Armstrong's leverage with politicians and business people. Armstrong has worked on cancer panels at national level and is renowned worldwide as a cancer campaigner. The charity turned the yellow Livestrong wristband into a must-have item for celebrities and politicians; they sell at one dollar each and were developed by Nike and their ad agency. They have sparked controversy over pirating and profiteering through eBay, have sp.a.w.ned hundreds of multicolored imitators, and were even spoofed by comedian Stephen Colbert.

(SEE POLITICS FOR A LIST OF LEADERS WHO HAVE JUMPED ON THE BANDWAGON).

CLa.s.sICS The term used for the sport's major one-day races including the five MONUMENTS: MilanSan Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris...o...b..ix, LiegeBastogneLiege and the Tour of Lombardy (see their separate entries; see COBBLES for Cla.s.sics that include this nasty road surface).

Major one-day races come and go but other Cla.s.sics include: * Het Volk (founded 1945): Held in Belgium in early March using many of the climbs from the Tour of Flanders.

* GhentWevelgem (f. 1934): Another Flandrian race, it goes over the steep Kemmelberg, with its First World War ossuary.

* Fleche Wallonne (f. 1936): On the other side of Belgium in the French-speaking area of Wallonia. Finishes at the town of Huy on top of the steep climb up the "Wall."

* Amstel Gold (f. 1966): A complex series of many loops around the Dutch province of Limburg crossing a mult.i.tude of tiny climbs.

* ParisTours (f. 1896): A long, flat, autumn event known as the "sprinters' cla.s.sic" that until 2009 had the longest finish straight in cycling: 2.5 km up Avenue de Grammont. In 2010 the finish was changed as a streetcar route is constructed.

* GP Ouest France (f. 1931): Held in Brittany in August at the bike-mad village of Plouay.

* MilanTurin (f. 1876): The oldest one-day race still on the calendar, although not run continuously since that date: culminates with a climb to the Superga monastery.

* Giro del Piemonte (f. 1906): A race through the Alpine foothills around western Italy, also finis.h.i.+ng in Turin.

* Giro del Lazio (f. 1935): A loop around Rome.

* Scheldeprijs (f. 1907): The oldest cycle race in FLANDERS, held around Antwerp.

* GP Frankfurt (f. 1962): Known for many years as the Henninger Tower, after a vast grain silo owned by the brewery that backed the race until 2008.

* GP San Sebastian (f. 1981): Spain's main one-day race, on a hilly course in the Basque Country.

* ParisBrussels (f. 1893): Actually starts 90 km north of Paris at the town of Soissons.

* Philadelphia GP (f. 1985): Run under various names and sponsors over a course in the city that includes the 17 percent grade Manayunk Wall.

* Lincoln GP (f. 1956 as Witham GP): The oldest extant one-day race in Britain, it features the 25 percent climb through the medieval city, up to the cathedral.

Most of the great Cla.s.sics have CYCLOSPORTIVES run along all or part of their route: PARIs...o...b..IX, the Tour of FLANDERS, the Tour of Lombardy, and MILANSAN REMO are among the most popular.

CLa.s.sICS-DEFUNCT There are several Cla.s.sics that were prestigious in their time but which are no longer run. The best example is BordeauxParis, the Derby of the Road, which dated back to the origins of cycling in the 19th century. It lasted 14 hours and was unique in that the riders were paced by small motorbikes known as DERNYS for the second half; it survived until 1988.

The Grand Prix des Nations time trial was founded in 1932 by the journalists Gaston Benac and Albert Baker d'Isy and witnessed some of JACQUES ANQUETIL's greatest rides. It was upstaged by the inception of the world time trial champions.h.i.+ps in 1994 and was last run in 2005.

The Champions.h.i.+p of Zurich enjoyed the longest uninterrupted run of any Cla.s.sic (19172006) because it was kept going through both world wars thanks to Swiss neutrality, but it eventually succ.u.mbed to a lack of sponsors.h.i.+p.

GREAT BRITAIN was awarded a round of the UCI's World Cup series, a race which always carried the suffix "Cla.s.sic"-although it had no tradition and was a manufactured event-and this ran from 1989 to 1996 at Newcastle, Brighton, Leeds, and Rochester.

CLa.s.sICS GREATS.

The greatest Cla.s.sic cyclist of them all, by a huge margin, was EDDY MERCKX, who took 33 wins in major one-day races. The other great all-around specialists include: RIK VAN LOOY (17), ROGER DE VLAEMINCK (16), Jan Raas (14), and FAUSTO COPPI (12). During the 1980s and 1990s, one-day racing was dominated by SEAN KELLY (11) and Johan Museeuw (12); today, however, most cyclists specialize in either the hillier Cla.s.sics or the flatter cobbled events. Some cyclists achieved particular dominance in a single event: JACQUES ANQUETIL, for example, won the GP des Nations nine times-but only took three other Cla.s.sics, while Merckx managed seven victories in MilanSan Remo.

RIDER MAJOR ONE-DAY RACE WINS.

EDDY MERCKX 33.

RIK VAN LOOY 17.

ROGER DE VLAEMINCK 16.

JAN RAAS 14.

JACQUES ANQUETIL 12.

FAUSTO COPPI 12.

JOHAN MUSEEUW 12.

SEAN KELLY 11.

CLUBS Cycling clubs were born as the world discovered the bicycle, and their history in the United States runs parallel with that of the sport: ma.s.sive early growth, later decline following the development of the automobile, and a depression before a phase of rebirth later in the 20th century. The term "wheelmen" was commonly used, and the clubs' umbrella body, the League of American Wheelmen, was founded in 1880. Its members.h.i.+p peaked at 103,000 in 1898, but it folded in 1902 with under 9,000 members. After several attempts, it was reformed in 1955.

To take just one example of the height cycling clubs reached in the late 19th century, the Detroit Bicycle Club, formed in 1879 and renamed the Detroit Wheelmen in 1890, boasted 450 members by 1896 and had sufficient resources to build an elaborate, elegantly designed clubhouse costing $40,000 that contained an auditorium, card tables, bowling alley, baths, library, and kitchen. The building remained standing in the center of Detroit until the 1970s. Another more notable Detroit club was the Wolverine Wheelmen, founded in 1888 and eventually-after folding and being reformed in 1937-morphing into a club that also catered for cross-country skiers and speedskaters. Thanks to the cross-fertilization between skating and cycling, Wolverine members such as Sue Novara-Reber, Sheila Young, and Connie Paraskevin played a key role in the development of US cycling in the 1970s and 1980s. LANCE ARMSTRONG's teammate Frankie Andreu was also a member.

Perhaps the strongest club the US has produced to date is New York squad GS Mengoni, founded in 1981 by a former Italian racer Fred Mengoni. In the 1980s Mengoni's squad included racers such as Alexi Grewal, Steve Bauer, Matt Eaton, Leonard "Harvey" Nitz, and Doug Shapiro and was able to give the pros of 7-Eleven a run for their money. The stand-out result was Bauer's silver medal in the 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES as a Mengoni amateur, followed a month later by bronze in his first World's as a pro. Mengoni tried, and failed, to get the young GREG LEMOND to race for him, but a later incarnation of the team included George Hincapie, an Olympian for Mengoni and later a Tour de France stage winner. Mengoni was a cofounder of USPRO, the first real governing body for professional racing in the US.

Some of the more curious cycling clubs are to be found in GREAT BRITAIN. The A5 Rangers were named after the road they used for their runs up Watling Street; the North Road and Bath Road followed the same principle. South London's San Fairy Ann, on the other hand, comes from a misliteration of the French ca ne fait rien-"it doesn't matter at all." In the Welsh capital Cardiff, the Jif club was set up as a rival to the Ajax and was named after a competing was.h.i.+ng powder. The Comical Cycling Club of Penshurst (in Suss.e.x) was founded solely so that they could wear jerseys bearing the cyrillic initials of the old Soviet Union.

The Pickwick Bicycle Club claims to be the oldest cycling club in the world; founded on June 22, 1870-and given the name because this date coincided with the death of Charles d.i.c.kens-it is now largely a dining club but keeps to the founding rule that members must display a knowledge of d.i.c.kens's Pickwick Papers. Equally arcane is the 300,000 Mile Club, founded in 1962, with entry restricted to the 70 or so cyclists who have covered more than that distance in their lifetime, with every mile officially logged. In the same vein, the Ordre des Cols Durs is a French club for "pa.s.s-bashers"-cyclists who record the heights of the mountain pa.s.ses around they world they ride each season-while the Cape Wrath Fellows.h.i.+p is open to cyclists who have braved the ferry ride and dead-end road that lead to this remote headland in northern Scotland.

COBBLES Synonymous with two of the sport's MONUMENTS (see FLANDERS, PARIs...o...b..IX) and other one-day CLa.s.sICS such as GhentWevelgem, stone-paved roads are now a throwback to cycling's earliest days. In French they are known as pave, in Flemish kinderkopje (children's heads). Racing cyclists fear them because in the wet they can be virtually impossible to ride on safely.

The threat from any sort of cobble depends on the stone it is made of: blue slate is extra slippery, while granite is a greater puncture threat. Cobbled sections included in Paris...o...b..ix are occasionally put in the TOUR DE FRANCE, most recently in the 1983 and 2004 races, as well as in 2010.

The three most notorious cobbled roads in cycling are: The Trouee d'Arenberg in Paris...o...b..ix, a 2.5 km long dead-straight road laid in the time of Napoleon that undulates due to mining subsidence and has ma.s.sive holes between the stones. The riders used to switch-at speeds of about 35 mph-between the gra.s.s verge and the pave until the organizers erected barriers. It is often tackled in a downhill direction, hence the high speeds and horrendous crashes. The most celebrated victim of Arenberg was the Belgian champion Johan Museeuw, who nearly died after cras.h.i.+ng there in 1999; in 2001 the French cyclist Philippe Gaumont suffered an open fracture of the femur, which cost him six weeks in bed.

The Koppenberg in the Tour of Flanders, a climb that is only 400 m long but has a gradient of 25 percent. It's not always in the route, being so narrow that crashes are a certainty; the most famous happened in 1987 when the Dane Jesper Skibby was inches from being run over by the race organizer as he lay on the cobbles strapped in to his bike. A series of photos by GRAHAM WATSON captured the moment.

The Kemmelberg in GhentWevelgem is as steep as the Koppenberg, but wider and longer, so less conducive to crashes as the riders climb up. It was a focal point for fighting in the First World War, and has a vast ossuary on the top. There is also a fine restaurant in the final meters, where fans gather to munch steak and fries and applaud the riders. What is truly fearsome is the descent: vertiginously steep, over ma.s.sive paving stones, and virtually unridable in the wet.

Another major race that includes cobbles is the Four Days of Dunkirk, which has a stage over the fearsome Mont Ca.s.sel, while the Scheldeprijs at Antwerp has seven cobbled sections. But cobbles are not restricted to French and Belgian Flanders. In Great Britain the Lincoln Grand Prix has a cobbled climb to match either of the latter: a half-mile long 25 percent ascent through the heart of the ancient city to the Norman cathedral. In the US, the Philadelphia Grand Prix includes cobbles on Cresson Street on the fearsome Manayunk Wall climb.

CODES As police forces in Europe investigated DOPING in the early 21st century, tapping phone calls and intercepting e-mails, drug-takers in cycling and their doctors and suppliers began to use cyphers to refer to certain drugs and practices. In one Belgian case, "wasp" referred to the blood booster Aranesp, a "wasps' nest" to a course of the drug, while a "was.h.i.+ng machine" was a centrifuge used to measure blood levels and "strawberry jam" meant EPO. In the Operacion Puerto blood-doping operation, the riders whose blood was stored for reinjection were referred to by coded names, not all of which have been deciphered. "Bella" was the German Jorg Jaksche; Ivan Ba.s.so of Italy was called "Birillo" after his dog; there is still speculation over the ident.i.ty of "Hijo de Birillo" (Son of Birillo).

Codes were also used by FAUSTO COPPI and GINO BARTALI at the height of their rivalry to pa.s.s on instructions to their gregari: Coppi would tell Sandrino Carrea to "slow down" when he wanted him to set a furious pace, while Bartali had a teammate look at Coppi's legs and shout "the vein" when a vein on his calf began pulsating, a sign that Coppi might be struggling.

Lance Armstrong refers to himself as Juan Pelota, most notably on Twitter, the pun being that pelota is Spanish for ball, and Armstrong had one t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e removed during testicular cancer treatment.

In Great Britain, meanwhile, after road racing was banned at the turn of the century, TIME TRIALLING was carried out on courses referred to by coded names to keep the events secret. Courses are still known by their code today, although they are deciphered in the governing body's handbook and website: the most famous of all was probably E72/25: E stands for the region, East, while 25 is the distance and 72 referred to a course starting on the A12 Colchester Bypa.s.s, where many British records were broken.

COLOMBIA Ranks with FLANDERS, northern ITALY, and the Basque Country (see SPAIN) as a nation where cycling is part of the fabric; like the KEIRIN racers of j.a.pan, however, Colombian cyclists are now largely out of the international mainstream. There was, however, a brief interlude in the 1980s and 1990s when they burst on to the pro-cycling scene and performed far better than cyclists from richer nations where cycling was far better resourced.

Cycling's place in Colombian culture is explored in depth in one of the finest cycle-racing BOOKS of recent years, Matt Rendell's Kings of the Mountains (Aurum, 2002). High alt.i.tude, poverty, and poor roads made Colombia inhospitable cycling country, but even so, the first races were held, as in many other nations, before the end of the 19th century. The first Vuelta a Colombia was held in 1951; insanely tough due to the high mountains and abominable roads, 1,154 km and 10 stages long, it was won by Ephraim Forero Trivino, known simply as "the Zipa," amid ma.s.sive popular support.

A brief racing visit by FAUSTO COPPI lent new momentum to the sport in 1957, although whether Coppi was ever paid for his efforts remains unclear. In the 1960s the arrival of the first Colombian to succeed outside his own borders, Cochise Rodriguez, did change things, and by the 1970s, Colombians were dominant in South American racing; Cochise, meanwhile, took the world amateur HOUR RECORD in 1970, and added the pursuit world gold medal in Italy a year later, Colombia's first cycling world t.i.tle.

Controversially, he was refused entry to the 1972 Olympics on the grounds that he had broken amateur rules on sponsors.h.i.+p. Instead, he turned pro with Bianchi in Italy, won two stages in the Giro, and became the first Colombian to finish the Tour.

In the 1980s the Colombians had begun to perform consistently in the mountains in world-level amateur races. When the Tour went open to amateurs in 1983 Colombia was the only nation to take up the challenge, with sponsors.h.i.+p from battery company Varta. The little climbers suffered on the flat stages but performed well enough in the Alps and Pyrenees, with Patrocinio Jimenez spending five days in the polka-dot King of the Mountain jersey.

Varta's sponsors.h.i.+p was a sound move as most Colombians followed the Tour on radio and the gabbling commentators declaiming down phone lines were a distinctive presence on the race for a decade. The following year the country's best racer, LUIS HERRERA, returned with a squad sponsored by Cafe de Colombia and took the prestigious finish at l'Alpe d'Huez ahead of LAURENT FIGNON and BERNARD HINAULT. In 1985 Herrera, "the little gardener," won two more stages and was King of the Mountains; an estimated one million people turned out to welcome him home. He took Colombia's biggest win, the Vuelta a Espana, in 1987; the finish date, May 15, was declared a national holiday.

Others came to Europe with Herrera, mainly racing for Spanish teams, including Oliverio Rincon-winner of a Tour stage at Andorra in 1993-and the accident p.r.o.ne Fabio Parra, cruelly nicknamed "Parra-chute." In 1995 the world road champions.h.i.+ps traveled to Colombia, held on an extremely hard circuit at the town of Duitama, with Abraham Olano winning the pro road race. In 2000 Santiago Botero ground out an improbable victory in the Tour's King of the Mountains t.i.tle.

Since then, Colombian cycling has been off the world stage. Rendell puts it down variously to the rise of the national soccer team, the economic decline and migration that has accompanied the country's narco-war, and the UCI's inability to boost cycling in poorer, marginal countries. As a footnote, cycling has had links with Colombia's drugs syndicates; down-on-their-luck pros traveling to Europe were employed as couriers, while in one of the most dramatic pa.s.sages in Rendell's Kings of the Mountains he interviews Roberto Escobar, brother of the notorious drug king Pablo. Roberto, a fine cyclist, watched Coppi and Koblet on their racing trip to Colombia and ended up making bikes and running teams. His brother, meanwhile, had a velodrome built in his hometown of Medellin so he could bet on the races held there.

COMMONWEALTH GAMES There was no cycling in the inaugural British Empire Games of 1930; bike races appeared four years later. The Games take place on a four-year cycle which alternates with the Olympics. It was not until 1974, after various name changes, that the name Commonwealth Games was settled upon. Women's cycling did not appear until 1990, while the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur saw the introduction of team events, and in 2002, in Manchester, events for athletes with disability were introduced. Alongside the senior Games, the Youth Games for athletes under 18 is run.

Since the advent of lottery funding (see GREAT BRITAIN) the British cycling team has sent large numbers of athletes to compete under their various national banners, but with management and logistics backup from within the Great Britain Olympic team set-up. Years of Australian domination in the cycling disiplines came to an end at the Games in 2002 in Manchester.

COOKE, Nicole Born: Swansea, Wales, April 13, 1983 Major wins: Olympic road race champion 2008; world road race champion 2008; Commonwealth Games road race champion 2002; women's World Cup 2003, 2006; Giro d'Italia 2004; 10 times GB national champion between 1999 and 2009; MBE 2009 Further reading: Cycle for Life, Nicole Cooke, Abbeville Press, 2009 The Welsh woman was the flag carrier for British women's cycling throughout the early 2000s, from her unique triple junior world t.i.tles (road, time trial, mountain bike) in 2001 to her unprecedented double of world and Olympic road race t.i.tles in 2008, when she was elected Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year.

Even while attending Brynteg Comprehensive in south Wales-where rugby star Gavin Henson was a fellow pupil-Cooke was a precocious talent, the youngest rider ever to win the senior women's national t.i.tle, which she achieved at 16. She is known for her total determination and consistency in major t.i.tle races, taking two bronze and a silver medal in world road t.i.tles between 2003 and 2006.

Her career has been disrupted by the economic difficulties that beset women's racing-several of her teams have suffered financial problems. She has also had to contend with injury, mainly to her left knee, which has twice required surgery. After a second operation, in late 2007-which deprived her of a third t.i.tle in the women's World Cup-she contemplated quitting the sport.

Cooke truly bounced back the following year. Her victory in Beijing came on a soaking wet day after her teammate Emma Pooley split the field with a searing attack. It set up the GB cycling team for an unprecedented medal rush. In Varese six weeks later, Cooke rode the perfect tactical race to triumph in a sprint finish from the Dutchwoman Marianne Vos, so often her nemesis in previous seasons. She now spends most of her time in her adopted home near Lugano, Switzerland.

(SEE DAVE BRAILSFORD, CHRIS HOY, BRADLEY WIGGINS FOR MORE ON GB'S SUCCESS IN 2008) COPPI, Faus...o...b..rn: Castellania, Italy, September 15, 1919 Died: Tortona, Italy, January 2, 1960 Major wins: World road race champion 1953; Tour de France 1949, 1952, 9 stage wins; Giro d'Italia 1940, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 22 stage wins; MilanSan Remo 1946, 19489; Giro di Lombardia, 19469, 1954; Paris...o...b..ix 1950; Fleche Wallonne 1950; GP des Nations 19467, world pursuit champion 1947, 1949; world hour record 1942 Nicknames: Faustino, il Campionissimo, the Heron Interests outside cycling: football, shooting Further reading/viewing: Fallen Angel, the Pa.s.sion of Fausto Coppi, by William Fotheringham, Random House UK, 2010; Coppi's Angel, Ugo Riccarelli, trs Michael McDermott, Middles.e.x University Press, 2009; DVD, Il Vero Fausto Voted Italy's greatest sportsman of the 20th century, the CAMPIONISSIMO is famed for becoming the first man to manage the apparently impossible Giro-Tour DOUBLE, in 1949, with a repeat in 1952. Coppi's story, "a novel" said his good friend Raphael Geminiani, includes love, war, scandal, phenomenal success, and personal tragedy and ended with his bizarre death in 1960 when he caught malaria and the doctors did not diagnose it. The c.o.c.ktail of emotions he arouses among fans in his native Italy has made him an inspirational figure, with his tale retold in biopics, television doc.u.mentaries, novels, plays, and even an opera. There are numerous Coppi memorials across Europe as well as sculptures, paintings, and lyrical descriptions such as this, from the Tour winner turned journalist Andre Leducq: "He seems to caress the handlebars, while his torso seems fixed by screws in the saddle. His long legs stretch to the pedals like the limbs of a gazelle. All the moving parts turn as if in oil. His long face is like a knifeblade as he climbs without apparent effort, like a great artist painting a watercolor."

Born into a peasant farming family in Liguria, Coppi won his first GIRO D'ITALIA at 20 with the help of the SOIGNEUR Biagio Cavanna, who was to remain a key influence. He broke the world HOUR RECORD in 1942 as Allied bombs fell on Milan and was sent to fight in North Africa, where he was captured by the British. After the war he relaunched his career together with his brother Serse. As Italy rebuilt its economy and society, Coppi forged his greatest wins in the Giro and MILANSAN REMO. He also managed a record five wins in the GIRO DI LOMBARDIA. For all Italians, his RIVALRY with GINO BARTALI symbolizes a golden era when the country emerged from the war and cla.s.sic designs such as the Fiat 500 and the Vespa left the drawing board. Coppi's 1949 TOUR DE FRANCE win included overturning a 37-minute deficit on the early leader Jacques Marinelli; it came after he had taken his third Giro with a crus.h.i.+ng stage win over Bartali on an Alpine loop between Cuneo and Pinerolo. In 1952 as he rode to his second Giro-Tour double, Coppi's form was so devastating that the organizers doubled the prize money for second place in an attempt to restore a little interest in the race.

Tragedy stalked Coppi as he raced: his father Domenico died not long after his first Giro win in 1940, and Serse was killed in a seemingly innocuous racing accident in 1951. In 1953 and 1954 he scandalized Italy by ending his marriage and beginning a relations.h.i.+p with a doctor's wife, Giulia Occhini, immortalized as "the white lady." Both were married at a time when adultery was illegal: they ended up in court and Giulia was taken briefly to jail. Coppi's career never recovered, but when he died after catching malaria at a criterium in Africa, his country was overwhelmed with grief. His name lives on in Coppi bikes and in the Giro d'Italia, where a special prize is awarded each year on the "Coppi summit," the highest pa.s.s crossed by the race.

Coppi's enduring popularity can be seen by the plethora of memorials to the man all over Italy: at the Madonna del Ghisallo chapel, in his home village of Castellania and the nearby town of Novi Ligure, outside the cycle track in Turin, on the Pordoi and Stelvio pa.s.ses, on the Bocchetta pa.s.s near Genova and the Macerola near Amalfi, on the Col d'Izoard in the French Alps, the summit of the Puy-de-Dome mountain in central France, and at the MilanSan Remo monument on the Capo Berta.

(SEE MEMORIALS FOR MORE PLACES WHERE CYCLING GREATS ARE REMEMBERED; POETRY FOR ANOTHER WAY IN WHICH COPPI IS CELEBRATED).

COURIERS Funny hair, scruffy faces, big bags on their backs, the way they annoy car drivers and pedestrians as they swoop in and out of the traffic: that may be how outsiders see cycle couriers, but in fact they are part of a long-standing tradition of deliveries by bike. That goes back to the 1890s, when Western Union delivery boys began zipping around New York City. Cycle courier races might seem a novelty, but in Paris, the hordes of newspaper delivery boys-some of them half-decent amateur cyclists-raced criteriums for over 50 years, enjoying ma.s.sive popular support.

The peak days for couriering were the 1980s and early 1990s, before fax and e-mail enabled doc.u.ments to be sent reliably by wire. At one point in the 1980s there were 7,000 couriers in New York; among them was Nelson Vails, who made the jump from messaging to become Olympic sprint champion at Los Angeles in 1984. Vails reckoned he was in the top 10 of couriers, carrying out 35 to 60 drops a day, giving 40 percent of his earnings to his dispatch company.

In London in 2003 there were an estimated 400 bicycle messengers: that figure is understood to have contracted during the recession of 20089 so there are probably between 300 and 350. Earnings are about the mininum wage, unlikely to exceed $400 per week without taking equipment costs into account. It is also a dangerous job: a 2002 Harvard School of Public Health report into couriers in Boston estimated that the rate of injury requiring time off work was 13 times the US average.

Couriers use personally adapted bikes. Gear has to be as indestructible as possible, and easy to service and replace. So couriers often ride fixed-wheel for the added control it gives in city riding. Additionally, a single gear has no cables to rust up, even if it is used in all weathers (see FIXED-WHEEL to learn how courier-type bikes became trendy in the early 2000s). Frames may be taken from mountain bikes or track machines, with bars anything from "cowhorn" time trial bars to radically cut down straight off-road bars.

The first courier world champions.h.i.+ps were held in 1993 in Berlin, testing messenger skills such as speed, navigation, and the ability to work under pressure. The annual gathering led to an awareness of the courier subculture worldwide; informal courier races known as "alleycats" became more common.