It is a huge understatement to say that I like cycling. I like it a lot, almost bordering on obsession at times (I just got a new Easton wheelset this weekend).Naturally, then, one can imagine that I'm currently in cycling heaven, as the Amgen Tour of California rolls through the state. The tour gets better each year, drawing more top cyclists and spectators. It's the closest thing to la Tour that we have stateside, and yesterday I got to see it live. The peloton raced over the Golden Gate Bridge, and right through my neighborhood. We were able to see them at the start of their short climb up to the Legion of Honor, and then spur-of-the-moment drove down to Santa Cruz for the finish.
Watching them slice through the drizzle on El Camino del Mar was like watching a phantom ship glide silently through the mist- a soft whir of derailleur and wheel, punctuated by the rhythmic breath of the riders. All is distilled to the essence of man-machine.
The inspiration for this characterization is not lost upon me, as the idea of the man-machine was famously conceptualized by the likewise cycling-obsessed Kraftwerk. Describing the Tour De France EP, founder-member Ralf Hütter explains “the bicycle is already a musical instrument on its own. The noise of the bicycle chain, the pedal and gear mechanism, for example, the breathing of the cyclist...When your bike functions best, you don’t hear it – it’s silent, there’s no cracking, just shhhh – you’re gliding. It’s the same when you’re in good shape and you're in form and you’re riding your bike, you hear nothing – maybe just a little bit of breath." (from "Kraftwerk and the Ultimate Man-Machine" by John Thurston, Rouleur Magazine, August 2005)
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