Favorite cycling image

[hummus_aquinas]

[choke]

This one..



Or this one...



And for those who don't know the story of the 2nd one:

In the 1956 Giro d’Italia, stage 12, Fiorenzo Magni famously broke his left clavicle and still managed to finish second overall. At the hospital he refused a plaster cast and refused to abandon the Giro in the year of his announced retirement. Magni continued the race with his shoulder wrapped in an elastic bandage. To compensate for his inability to apply force with his left arm, he raced while holding a piece of rubber inner tube attached to his handlebar between his teeth for extra leverage. Since his injury prevented him from effectively braking and steering with his left hand, Magni crashed again after hitting a ditch by the road during a descent on stage 16. He fell on his already broken clavicle, breaking his humerus, after which he passed out from the pain. They put him in an ambulance, but when Magni regained his senses and realized that he was being taken to the hospital he screamed and told the driver to stop. Magni took his bike and was able to finish the stage in the peloton, which had waited for him. Of the evening that followed Magni said "I had no idea of how serious my condition was, I just knew that I was in a lot of pain but I didn't want to have X-rays that evening"

That's what you call a serious 'hard man'. And a bit of trivia....his mechanic, who suggested the inner tube trick was none other than Faliero Masi.

[hummus_aquinas]

Don't say you follow cycling if you don't know who this is.

[colker]

Originally Posted by choke

This one..



Or this one...



And for those who don't know the story of the 2nd one: That's what you call a serious 'hard man'. And a bit of trivia....his mechanic, who suggested the inner tube trick was none other than Faliero Masi.

Magni redefining "hard"

[echappist]

Originally Posted by Formulasaab

yep. this one for me as well. along with



and

[martl]

i got two.

De Muynck crossing the Galibier




The young Maurizio Fondriest who can't believe he just won the rainbow jersey

[JStonebarger]

[weisan]

I dunno why, this one just does it for me, and I don't even smoke! Maybe it's the "we are pals" spirit that I like.



The copycats that come after...

[echappist]

the "homage" is trying a bit too hard, which could be said about the branding effort of Ritte in general...

[Dead Man]

Crappy iphone pic of print my wife had framed for me, hangs in my office.. 1934(?) TdF... different days, then.

(yea, I'm wearing a flouro running jacket)



I don't remember exactly what this was from, I think it was a NYT article on the physiology of endurance sports? Something like that..



Just freaking love it. Driving yourself to absolute full body failure... that awful, wonderful experience that only comes through the total denial of physical self in pursuit of that materially worthless yet priceless reward..

[MattTuck]

Surprised we haven't seen the Hampsten Gavia photo yet, so here it is. Not a great photo, IMO... The photo doesn't do justice to significance and epic conditions.

[bicimechanic]

I'm always drawn to the behind the scenes photos. But I have a ton of them...

[echappist]

Originally Posted by MattTuck

Surprised we haven't seen the Hampsten Gavia photo yet, so here it is. Not a great photo, IMO... The photo doesn't do justice to significance and epic conditions.

http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/si/...-image-cut.jpg

funny, we actually linked to the same picture

Originally Posted by echappist

yep. this one for me as well. along with

http://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/si/...-image-cut.jpg

[MattTuck]

Oh, I guess we have already seen it! whoops, missed in the scrolling.

[echappist]

the importance of the occasion merits it to be posted twice