I've just realised that I was subliminally imprinted with a particular image of bicycling years before ever thinking of perching my butt on a saddle myself. That image was of Miguel Indurain. Because there was one point of comparison where we matched - exactly the same height and weight! (Inside, of couse, his resting heart rate was a fifth of mine and everything else ten times citius, altius and fortius.) But those dimensions and biometrics - now I watch him on YouTube and channel everything I can about how he rides a bike. He too sat more upright, and if that was good for him, it's good for me too!
And I channel his bike - the frame size (mine 60cm, his 59cm), crank length (mine 175mm; his 180mm); the rise of his stem... and the look of his white Pinarellos during his reign at the TdF and GdI, referenced in the clean, slim, straight lines of my '94 Giant Cadex CFR1; so unlike the slope-tubed moulded forms of today's designs. Above all, the proof he offered that you don't have to be a little whippet to be a bike rider; a big guy could be the best in the world too. (As long as you had eight-litre lungs. Mine, six, minus 20% for smoking.)
And I channel his bike - the frame size (mine 60cm, his 59cm), crank length (mine 175mm; his 180mm); the rise of his stem... and the look of his white Pinarellos during his reign at the TdF and GdI, referenced in the clean, slim, straight lines of my '94 Giant Cadex CFR1; so unlike the slope-tubed moulded forms of today's designs. Above all, the proof he offered that you don't have to be a little whippet to be a bike rider; a big guy could be the best in the world too. (As long as you had eight-litre lungs. Mine, six, minus 20% for smoking.)
