Cyclopedia. Part 5

Whereas amphetamines act in the short term on a cyclist's nervous system, anabolic agents alter the body's physical state in the medium term, increasing muscle ma.s.s and in theory a.s.sisting recovery after training. Given that cyclists don't want muscle ma.s.s, their use may often be counterproductive. Gradually the testers caught up with these, although the male hormone testosterone was still being used into the 21st century, according to the Scot David Millar.

Avoiding drug-tests was something of an art, according to the SOIGNEUR w.i.l.l.y Voet, the lead protagonist in the Festina scandal of 1998. Initially, riders simply didn't show up, but after JACQUES ANQUETIL's hour record was refused in 1968 because he didn't give a sample, that stopped. The most famous case of attempted evasion was that of the Tour de France leader Michel Pollentier, shopped in 1978 (see page 114). Voet describes how a rider would stick a condom filled with clean urine up his a.n.u.s and how urine samples might be switched by distracting the tester. More recently, it's said that the EPO test can be avoided by urinating over fingers that have been dipped in laundry detergent.

"Not me, guv"-the best excuses for doping/possession from cyclists =.

Franck Vandenbroucke: "The steroids and EPO were for my dog."

Raimondas Rumsas: "The 40 diffferent drugs in the back of my wife's car were for my mother-in-law."

Tyler Hamilton: "I was one of twins, one of which died in the womb, that's why I had two different types of blood."

Ivan Ba.s.so: "I had blood removed and saved for reinjection but it was 'just in case' and I never used it."

Floyd Landis: "I got drunk after a bad day in the mountains, hence my high testosterone levels."

Richard Virenque: "I had no idea what I was being given. If I was given drugs it was without my knowledge."

Belgian mix was a c.o.c.ktail of drugs that might include heroin, morphine, amphetamine, and cocaine. It was used mainly for training in bad weather, for partying, and to help stay awake while driving between races. It was either sold by dealers or produced by a group of cyclists who would all put a different drug in the pot; as a result, its effects would vary depending on which drug was there in the greatest quant.i.ty.

Blood boosters became popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first and most popular was erythropoietin, or EPO, a synthetic version of the hormone that stimulates the body to produce more red blood cells, thus increasing its capacity to supply oxygen to the muscles; this in turn enabled more power to be produced. This was a variant on blood doping, used in the 1970s and early 1980s, where blood would be removed from an athlete and reinjected just before compet.i.tion. That eventually evolved into using someone else's blood, leading to rumors that some teams hired staff according to their blood group. After the introduction of an EPO test in 2000, the practice came back into vogue, along with sophisticated EPO variants such as CERA.

Blood tests were introduced by the UCI in 1997 and have become more and more sophisticated over the years. Initially they were intended to limit EPO use, but now they are used more to discover cyclists who are suspect-these are put on the UCI's red list and they are then targeted for testing. In 2009 the UCI brought in the blood pa.s.sport system, which draws up a detailed picture of each pro rider's blood parameters; anomalies can result in a ban or in highly targeted testing.

Cortisone, the painkiller the body produces during exercise, was frequently injected in artificial form during the 1980s and 1990s for its euphoric effects, but can now be detected.

Insulin was found occasionally at races in the early 21st century and was a.s.sumed to be used to speed up sugar intake to aid recovery after tough stages.

Legal Drugs have also been commonly used, most notably caffeine, which was once banned above a certain limit but is now permitted. Most riders drink coffee before a race, and c.o.ke or Red Bull in the final phase, but suppositories and tablets are also used.

Out-of-compet.i.tion testing is carried out all year round, with cyclists declaring their whereabouts for set periods each week.

Painkillers were popular in cycling's early days, with morphine and heroin used in the late 19th century to help riders complete six-day races. They were also taken in the 1950s as part of the Anquetil c.o.c.ktail: a.n.a.lgesic to take away pain in the legs, amphetamine to counter the drowsiness these induced, sleeping pills to bring the rider down at night.

Police raids on races in search of banned substances became more common after the Festina scandal of 1998. The Italian police were the most enthusiastic, but the country's slow-moving legal system meant convictions were rare; French customs men also became active, most notably in 2002, with the detention of Edita Rumsas, the wife of Raimondas, who finished third in the Tour. Her car was crammed with drugs.

Recreational drugs are not commonly found in cycling, although there is evidence of a cocaine problem. The 1998 Tour winner MARCO PANTANI died of a cocaine overdose, as did the top Spanish climber Jose-Maria Jimenez, while the Belgian champion Tom Boonen was found to have taken the drug on two occasions.

Sleeping pills have been used for recreational purposes (the Cofidis scandal of 2004 involving Millar revealed this) but were also used to counter all that caffeine, and, in the past, other uppers. As one Tour rider said, "You can tell which week of the Tour you are in by the number of sleepers you take: one in the first week, two in the second, three in the third."

DRUGS; SLANG.

One ill.u.s.tration of the depth of doping culture in cycling is the fact that French, cycling's lingua franca, has an almost endless repertoire of slang referring to drug use. Some selected highlights: PHRASE ENGLISH MEANING ACTUAL MEANING.

Charger la chaudiere Warm up the heater Use amphetamines Allumer les phares Put on the headlights Use amphetamines Saler la moutarde Salt the mustard General use of drugs p.i.s.ser violet p.i.s.s violet General use of drugs Avoir la valise magique Have a magic suitcase General use of drugs Diner chez Virenque Dine with Virenque Use drugs (refers to the Festina drug scandal of 1998) La fleche Arrow Needle or adapted syringe Tonton, tintin, fifi Various kinds of amphetamine.

La topette Small bottle with a stimulant English racing slang refers to this as a "charge bottle"

Spain has the following: Marker pen = cortisone Oil change = blood transfusion Pelas (slang for pesetas) = units of EPO E.

EASTERN EUROPE Sports were an important way in which the communist nations of Eastern Europe a.s.serted themselves during the Cold War, and cycling was one of the key disciplines. The value of international victories as propaganda-at home as evidence of the system's power, abroad to show it could compete on equal terms-had been rapidly appreciated, and entire sports infrastructures were built, with the finest talent creamed off into academies based in the biggest cities: most legendary was the Russian pursuit school in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) run by the hyper-tough Alexandr Kuznetsov.

Training regimes were draconian, the demands on personal life and health were considerable, but the rewards were tangible: privileges, apartments, cars, and, above all, foreign travel and the chance to earn hard currency. Cycles produced in Eastern Europe were often crude and poorly made, however, so the Soviet team rode Italian bikes made by Ernesto Colnago. The clubs tended to get the hand-me-downs. Western gear of any kind had high black-market value into the early 1990s, as did Western cycling magazines and posters.

By the 1970s Poland, the Soviet Union, and East Germany all boasted "amateur" cycling teams that were not far off the standard of pro squads in Western Europe, with full-time cyclists whose "jobs" were often military. The East Europeans were almost unbeatable in their own events. The biggest of these was the BerlinWarsawPrague Peace Race, founded in 1948 and sponsored by newspapers in East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. A blue jersey with a white dove on the front was worn by the leading team, and in its heyday the route covered 2,000 km in front of crowds numbering in the millions.

East-bloc racers were just as fearsome abroad, dominating major amateur events and walking off with many of the medals in world track and road champions.h.i.+ps. "We were like amateurs against pros," said Bob Downs, a British cyclist who was one of the elite few who had the legs to put up a decent fight against the Russians and Poles in the MILK RACE in the 1970s. "The whole Russian team used to get on the front and not let anyone else in. The only way you could stand a chance was to ride as near as possible to them and wait for them to make a mistake."

"Every time an East German climbed on to the rostrum, win or lose, there was the same unsmiling solemn glare. There is no getting away from it, [they] are consistently phenomenal, technically brilliant athletes," wrote Les Woodland in the 1981 International Cycling Guide. The East Europeans were often impenetrable for the media but had a love of shopping, selling anything they could-most often tubular tires-to get currency.

The system was comprehensive and sophisticated, recalls the former East German trainer Heiko Salzwedel. At the bottom of the pyramid was a network of sports clubs attached to major enterprises such as the police or railways. At the top were the half-dozen national cycling centers across East Germany, each with about 10 trainers, dealing with up to 100 athletes. Children were selected from an early age, partly through biometric tests that a.s.sessed their capacity for various sports, partly through their parents' background, partly through selection races.

There were official guidelines, but coaches had a fair degree of flexibility in setting their own criteria; riders' Stasi files would be checked-to see whether a potential athlete had West German connections, for example-but coaches might push better athletes with undesirable backgrounds higher up selection lists to ensure they got in the team anyway. The screening systems were later adapted for use by the cycling teams of Australia and GREAT BRITAIN.

The sudden collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 left the sports centers across Eastern Europe short of money, and a vast number of talented amateurs came on the market: they flooded into cycling. The sprinter DJAMOLIDIN ABDUZHAPAROV made the biggest impact alongside Olaf Ludwig, Andrei Tchmil, and Zenon Jaskuta, who in 1993 was the first Pole to make it to the Tour podium. Jan Ullrich was the first product of the Eastern system to win the Tour in 1997.

The legacy of the old Eastern Europe is obvious now. Individual nations from the former Soviet Union such as Ukraine and Belarus punch above their weight on the international stage, while almost every professional cycling team in the world has at least one "Goombah."

This term was coined by LANCE ARMSTRONG's biographer Dan Coyle, who wrote that Viatcheslav Ekimov, Alexandr Vinokourov, and Jens Voigt "had been selected as children, their growth plates and femurs measured against that of a 'superior child' and [had been] whisked away to ... sports schools throughout the former Soviet empire. Once there their life became an endless series of training exercises, the governing philosophy of which was summed up by a former coach: 'you throw a carton of eggs against the wall, then keep the ones that do not break.'"

Six Great Unbreakable Eggs =.

Olaf Ludwig: Ludwig's sprint win in Besancon in the 1990 Tour de France was the first and last for East Germany, as unification came not long afterwards. Prior to that the rider from Gera had won the Olympic road race in 1988, two overall victories in the Peace Race and a record 38 stages, and two East German Sportsman of the Year awards. As a pro he landed the World Cup in 1992, the green jersey in the 1990 Tour, and the Amstel Gold Race.

Sergei Soukhouroutchenkov: 1980 Moscow Olympic games road race winner, dominant in amateur racing from 1979 to 1981, with two wins in the Tour de l'Avenir, two in the Giro delle Regioni, and one in the Peace Race. Turned pro briefly in 198990 but by then his best days were gone.

Gustave-Adolf "Tave" Schur: East German double world amateur champion (19589), gave up his chance of a third t.i.tle by helping his friend Bernhard Eckstein. He was also a double Peace Race winner (1955 and 1959). He later became a parliamentiary deputy; his son Jan rode briefly as a professional in the early 1990s. His 1955 biography sold 100,000 copies, such was his popularity.

Viktor Kapitonov: Russian who won the Olympic road race in Rome in 1960, sprinting twice-with a lap to go because he misread the lapboard, then for real a lap later. He became national trainer, masterminding all those dollar-winning trips to the west in the 1970s.

Viatcheslav Ekimov: Took four world pursuit t.i.tles (three as an amateur, one as a pro), and two Olympic gold medals, the first in the team pursuit in 1988, the second in the time trial in 2000. He was the finest product of the Kuznetsov cycling school. "Eki" went on to ride and finish 15 Tours de France. He was a key domestique to Lance Armstrong and went on to work with the Texan at the RadioShack team.

Andrei Tchmil : Turned pro with the first batch of Russians in 1989, and went on to take victories in PARIs...o...b..IX (1994), ParisTours (1997), MILANSAN REMO (1999), and the Tour of FLANDERS (2000). He changed nationality several times, riding for Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belgium, and went on to be minister of sport in his native Moldova before founding the Katyusha pro team.

END TO END The 850-plus miles from Land's End to John O'Groats-from one end of Great Britain to the other-is one of the most evocative long-distance rides, tackled for charity or simply for the sense of achievement it engenders. It is also the most prestigious British long-distance record. Most End-to-Enders start in Cornwall, to take advantage of the prevailing southwesterly winds. The toughest sections are early on, over the constantly climbing roads of Cornwall and Devon, and in the final quarter through the Scotttish highlands.

The first End-to-Enders were H. Blackwell and C. A. Harmon of the Canonbury Bicycle Club who did it on old ordinaries in 1880, taking 13 days. The first name on the Road Record a.s.sociation record sheets is G. P. Mills-also a winner of the BordeauxParis Cla.s.sic-with a time of 5 days, 1 hour, 45 minutes, on a penny farthing with a 52-inch front wheel. Mills was paced by other cyclists, as was customary in those days; the first unpaced record was set in 1903 by C. J. Mather, in 5 days, 5 hours, 12 minutes.

The first man to achieve the distance inside two days was d.i.c.k Poole, in 1965. Poole then went on to attempt the 1,000-mile record; frustratingly, he covered 1,010 miles (enough to allow for error, so his timekeeper thought) but was still found to be a few yards short so the record was not ratified. Attempts on the record have led to extreme feats of endurance, partly because the only way to break it is to go without sleep as far as possible, but also because the wind can change over the 48 hours from a helpful southerly to a northerly headwind. In 1980 the Viking Cycles professional Paul Carb.u.t.t benefited from the opening of the Forth Bridge which cut 13 miles off the distance to break Poole's record but collapsed due to heatstroke southwest of Edinburgh. He was unconscious for about 25 minutes but was put back on his bike to continue with a damp facecloth under his racing hat.

The record set by Andy Wilkinson using the highly aerodynamic Windcheetah REc.u.mBENT was unofficial but was as extreme as any of the others. Because of the temperatures building up inside the enclosed bike, Wilkinson needed about two liters of fluid an hour to avoid dehydration, so it took a 20-strong support team to give him a bottle every half-hour, collect discarded bottles, and then overtake him to hand up new ones. His fluid output was also high: "We rigged up a special condom connected to a metre-long tube to provide relief without having to stop. The tube exited the Windcheetah at the back of the fairing," says the Windcheetah website. Wilkinson reached close to 80 mph on long descents, and covered the distance in 41 hours, 4 minutes, 22 seconds including a stop of almostan hour to replace a rear axle.

d.i.c.k Poole's End-to-End Eats =.

Between Land's End and John O'Groats in 1965 Poole got through 2 pounds of fruitcake, 11 packets of malt loaf, a gallon of rice and fruit salad, 7 pints of Complan, 12 oranges, 8 pints of coffee, 13 pints of tea, and 8 pints of Ribena.

ENVIRONMENT Cycling is now a recognized means of lowering one's carbon footprint. The figures speak for themselves-100 calories takes a cyclist 3 miles, a car all of 280 feet. In 2009 research indicated that if cycling use in cities doubles from 4 percent of journeys to 8 percent, there would be a total drop of 1.1 percent in carbon emissions. If those journeys are intermodal (public transport + bike), the figure can go up to 1.8 percent because greater distances can be covered.

On the other hand, cycling as a pastime rather than a means of transport is by no means carbon friendly. Driving from London to the south of France with a bike on the roofrack creates 360 kgm of CO2; taking the train and hiring a bike creates 100 kgm; flying with the bike in the hold creates 850 kgm, more than heating the average house for a year.

Few studies exist into the carbon footprint of bike races but the number of vehicle miles involved suggest that it is horrendous. That is borne out by a study from the International Inst.i.tute for Sport Science and Technology, which calculated that the Tour of Romandie, a six-day stage race for pros, produced 138 tons of CO2, which is just under the amount of CO2 emissions produced by Nauru, an island state in the South Pacific.

eTAPE DU TOUR The most celebrated CYCLOSPORTIVE event, and the first with the now universal format of prerace party, cla.s.sic route, accurate timing, well-filled goody bag, and ample technical support. Founded by the Velo magazine editor Claude Droussent in 1993 the etape is run each year on one of the rest days (usually a Monday) during the TOUR DE FRANCE and covers one of the Tour's mountain stages with only the tiniest variations. In itself, the etape is rarely tougher than other sportives such as the Marmotte or the Nove Colli, but it is by far the hardest to get into, even though 7,000 places are available.

Cyclists outside France have no option but to enter through one of the companies that sell places. Its popularity comes down to two things: the road closure is total, unlike in many other sportives, and riding the etape feels like riding the Tour. The same motorcycle outriders from the Garde Republicaine are used to ensure roads are totally free of traffic.

The etape is also a fertile celebrity spotting ground. The winner tends to be a pro who hasn't got into the Tour, while Alain Prost, LAURENT FIGNON, MIGUEL INDURAIN, and British Olympian CHRIS HOY have all been spotted riding in the past.

F.

FERRARI, Michele The most celebrated and controversial trainer in modern-day cycling; a miracle-worker to his disciples who included the seven times TOUR DE FRANCE winner LANCE ARMSTRONG, but tainted with doping allegations according to his adversaries.

Ferrari comes from Emilia-Romagna in Italy and came to prominence as one of the coaches who guided FRANCESCO MOSER to his HOUR RECORD successes in 1984. He was Moser's team doctor in the 1984 season when the Italian won MILANSAN REMO and the GIRO D'ITALIA; in the early 1990s he worked with the Swiss star Tony Rominger, a triple winner of the Tour of Spain, and by 1994 he was doctor at the Gewiss team, which was, briefly, spectacularly successful, winning that year's Giro with Evgeni Berzin and several CLa.s.sICS-including a clean sweep of the first three placings at the 1994 Fleche Wallonne. He was thrown off Gewiss after he told reporters that the banned blood booster EPO was no more dangerous than orange juice unless it was abused. In 1995, he was introduced to Armstrong by the American's friend EDDY MERCKX.

Armstrong's biographer Dan Coyle (see BOOKS) described him as "dark-haired and darty-eyed," adding that he was nicknamed Dr. Evil because of his notoriety. Coyle related an episode in which Ferrari jokingly said that Parmesan cheese should be banned because it was good for those who ate it, thus giving them an unfair advantage. Ferrari said that he and Armstrong had been in close contact since the early stages of his comeback from cancer in 1998, even though their relations.h.i.+p did not become public until 2000.

The Italian estimated that he spent one week a month in the cycling season with Armstrong. The Italian tested Armstrong to a.s.sess his power-to-weight ratio and lactate tolerance and worked to make him climb mountains using a higher, more efficient cadence. During some stages of the Tour, and most famously in the 2000 race, Ferrari would be in touch with Armstrong via a mobile phone to his team car to advise him on tactics at key moments. The partners.h.i.+p drew fierce criticism from Armstrong's fellow American, triple Tour winner GREG LEMOND.

Armstrong officially ended their collaboration in October 2004 when Ferrari was found guilty of unlawful distribution of medicines and sporting fraud, after a trial that had lasted several years. Subsequently the sentence would be rescinded on appeal. The main witness was Italian professional Filippo Simeoni, who alleged that Ferrari had advised him to use drugs: other witnesses disputed this, as did the trainer himself. There were no allegations concerning Ferrari's work with the Texan.

FIGNON, Laurent (b. France, 1960 , d. 2010) After retirement, the bespectacled, blond-haired double TOUR DE FRANCE winner ran motivational courses for industrialists. At his first meeting, he was greeted with the words "Aren't you the guy who lost the Tour de France by eight seconds?" Fignon replied solemnly that he preferred to be remembered as a man who won the race twice and also took back-to-back wins in the MILANSAN REMO cla.s.sic (1988 and 1989).

Part of the legendary Renault squad (see TEAMS), Fignon was one of the few cyclists to win the Tour at their first attempt (EDDY MERCKX and FAUSTO COPPI are two others). He followed up that 1983 win with an epic victory in the 1984 Tour, when he won five stages along the way and completely dominated four-time winner BERNARD HINAULT. He was also unlucky to lose the 1984 GIRO D'ITALIA to FRANCESCO MOSER.

His dramatic defeat by GREG LEMOND after a ding-dong battle throughout the 1989 race is what has stuck in most minds, however: it concluded what many saw as the finest Tour ever. Fignon began the 25 km final time trial stage from Versailles to the Champs-Elysees wearing the yellow jersey, with a 50 second lead on LeMond and victory seemingly in the bag.

Unfortunately he had a sore on his backside that made pedaling a penance, and, in addition, LeMond, a better time triallist at the time, was using radical new triathlon handlebars that gave him an advantage estimated at 1 second per kilometer (see AERODYNAMICS for other tricks). Fignon was at another disadvantage: he started three minutes after LeMond, and the crowd along the route could see he was behind the American. Their shouts of "25 seconds" and "you are behind" played on his mind.

Fignon was never the same after that defeat, although he won a stage in the 1992 Tour. He retired and ran the ParisNice race for a while and worked for French television. His memoir, Nous etions Jeunes et Insouciants (We Were Young and Carefree), was published in 2009 and included a confession that he had used the drugs cortisone and amphetamine; the book was sympathetically received as before publication it was revealed that Fignon was suffering advanced cancer of the intestine and pancreas. He finally succ.u.mbed in August 2010. (See also DEFEATS.) FILMS The best cycling films of all time: a subjective list.

Breaking Away (1979, dir. Peter Yates) A growing-up movie, wistful and hilarious by turns, written by Steve Tesich and starring Dennis Christopher as an Italian-cycling obsessed lad in middle America. Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern costar. Dave Stoller's cycling pa.s.sion is a framework for exploring his and his friends' fraught relations with the local college boys and the exhilaration and disillusion of their entering the adult world. The best scene, for me, is where Dave attempts to talk Italian to a group of professionals who visit for a local race; they respond by putting a pump in his front wheel. The film is based on a real-life race, the Little 500 race in Indianapolis; Dave Stoller is named after a legendary rider Dave Blase (like the film Dave an Italian enthusiast) and his manager Bob Stoller.

American Flyers (1985, dir. Steve Badham) Stars David Grant as Marcus, a young cyclist who dreams of winning a prestigious bike race in Colorado, with a young Kevin Costner (sporting a cheesy 1980s moustache) supporting as his elder brother, a failed international. Also written by Tesich, this one uses cycling to explore the tensions within Marcus's family following the death of his father. Great '80s soundtrack, the most fearsome beard in cycling (see HAIR for other tonsorial nasties), and fine location footage from the Coors Cla.s.sic (see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA for more on this race). Badham was also responsible for the iconic disco film Sat.u.r.day Night Fever.

Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette) (1948, dir. Vittorio De Sica) Iconic black-and-white Italian film about the economic deprivation that followed the Second World War. The central character is a man dependent on his bike to earn a living: it is stolen, and he and his son desperately try to recover it. Finally he faces a dilemma: should he become a thief as well?

Sunday in h.e.l.l (1977, dir. JRGEN LETH) Probably the greatest cycling doc.u.mentary ever, based on the 1976 PARIs...o...b..IX race, seen from different viewpoints-riders, spectators, mechanics, protesters who stop the race-and including stars of the time such as EDDY MERCKX and Freddy Maertens. The slow-motion footage of cyclists bouncing over the cobbles is spinechilling. (See Leth's entry for his other doc.u.mentaries.) Less Well-Known Cycling-Based Films =.

Beijing Bicycle (2001): Similar plot to The Bicycle Thieves and Pee Wee's Big Adventure but with a backdrop of the economic boom in urban China.

Un Affaire d'Hommes (1981): Stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as a member of a group of bike racers who uses cycling to cover up the murder of his wife, with the final showdown involving bikes rather than guns.

Six Day Bike Racer (1934): US comedy with SIX-DAY RACING as its backdrop.

The Flying Scotsman (2005): Based on the life of GRAEME OBREE starring Jonny Lee Miller but not quite living up to the strength of the book.

Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1969): Swinging '60s romance in which a shopowner finds love through his MOULTON folding bike.

Jour de Fete (1949): Comedy starring Jacques Tati as a village postman who delivers mail on his bike but has to come to terms with the modern world.

Death on the Mountain (2005): Award-winning BBC doc.u.mentary on the life and death of TOM SIMPSON.

La Course en Tete (1974, dir. Joel Santoni) Follows Merckx in the 1973 Vuelta and Giro, shot in the style of French cinema-verite, including the iconic scene in which the Cannibal rides the rollers in his garage with the sound constantly increasing. Combines live and archive footage to a bizarre baroque soundtrack.

Le Velo de Ghislain Lambert (2001, dir. Philippe Harel) Belgian comedy narrated by Antoine de Caunes, starring Benoit Poelvoorde as a cyclist who wants to be a great but can't quite make it. Includes a defining scene in which two cyclists try to inject amphetamines in each others' b.u.t.tocks in a very small toilet cubicle.

BIZARRE CYCLING FILM FACTOIDS:.

* A Bollywood film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was inspired by Breaking Away.

* Ladri di Biciclette is partly based on a real episode in which a cycle thief was lynched by a mob in postwar Italy.

* Ridley Scott's first feature was a short cycling film, Boy & Bicycle, which depicted his brother Tony playing truant from school to explore the coast of North East England.

* Diana Dors starred in a 1949 English rom-com, A Boy, A Girl and a Bike, with Jimmy Savile making a brief appearance as an extra.

* The 1948 Italian comedy Toto Al Giro included the finest lineup of cycling stars ever to figure in a single film: Fausto Coppi, GINO BARTALI, Fiorenzo Magni, LOUISON BOBET, and Ferdi Kubler all appear as themselves.

4.

Les Triplettes de Belleville-Eng: Belleville Rendezvous (2003, dir. Sylvain Chomet) Hilarious, poignant, and beautifully drawn cartoon parable. It stars a cyclist with a distinct resemblance to FAUSTO COPPI, his unfeasibly supportive grandmother, and their loyal if depressed-looking dog Bruno, set against a backdrop that can only be the Tour in the 1950s. The cyclist is kidnapped by villains who make him race continually on a stationary bike to recreate the Tour for gambling. Granny and dog set out to rescue him.

FISHER, Gary (b. 1950) Together with his college roommate Charlie Kelly and frame-builder Tom Ritchey, Fisher is considered one of the founding fathers of MOUNTAIN-BIKING. Fisher was a CYCLO-CROSS rider, initially a road racer, but was suspended for a time because officials considered that his hair was too long.

By the mid-1970s he had begun modifying a 1930s SCHWINN Excelsior X bike for off-road use, fitting salvaged drum-brakes, motorcycle brake levers, and triple chainrings. Such "clunkers" were the prototype for today's mountain bikes.

Fisher was one of the partic.i.p.ants in the REPACK downhill race run by Kelly, who began using the term "mountain bike" in 1979 to describe the fat-tired, multi-geared, and-in those days-extremely heavy bikes the Repack crew were using: in that year he and Fisher founded MountainBikes, the first company to make the off-road bikes. Ritchey was their framebuilder and later founded his own brand, an industry-leader to this day.

The first year's production was just 160 bikes, retailing at $1,300 each. With no cashflow Fisher, Kelly, and Ritchie relied on trusting customers to pay up front. MountainBikes ceased trading in 1983, and Fisher then formed his own company, which is now owned by Trek and still makes bikes bearing his name.

FIXED-WHEEL Curiously, even as cycle component makers pushed the number of gears available on most road-racing bikes into the 20s and 30s, London and some other major cities worldwide were hit by a new craze: fixed-gear bikes that were based on the stripped-down models used by cycle COURIERS and by HILL CLIMB specialists.

Top London shop Condor Cycles, which produced the first new-era "fixie" in 2002, estimated that it had sold several thousand of the bikes in their first seven years. Relatively few were visible on the streets, implying that they were retained for weekend use or simply to be admired.

Fixie adherents were happy to crunch up hills in an over-large gear and rev out downhill, because the machines were stylish and minimalist. They were also retro-hinting at the halcyon club cycling days between the 1920s and the 1950s when virtually every clubman would turn out on fixed for racing and social rides.

"The bike is a blank canvas on which riders express an individuality or a community ... an aesthetic reference point shared with designers and artists who have helped shape fas.h.i.+on and street culture," said the intro to Fixed, a glossy book about the bikes.

(SEE GEARS FOR HOW BIKES BEGAN TO MOVE BEYOND THE FIXED-WHEEL BACK IN THE 1890S).

FLANDERS A small chunk of Europe that has an influence on bike racing out of proportion to its area or population. There are more bike races held in the Flemish-speaking area of Belgium than anywhere else in the world; the local people are simply obsessed with the sport, and above all with "their" CLa.s.sIC, the Tour of Flanders, founded in 1913 and now the climax of a series of gritty races in late March and early April.

One episode sums up the local mania with cycling and "De Ronde": in 1984 a farmer who lived on the race route grew jealous of all the attention given to the race's most notorious climb, the Koppenberg, which was situated on his neighbor's fields (see COBBLES for more on this ascent). He announced in the papers that he was going to create his own climb. Within 18 months a strip of cobbles had been laid up his fields: the Patersberg has been part of the race since 1986.