This past Saturday was springlike, but winter fought back on Sunday with cold and even a little snow, and so I stuck to my side of the river:
And to a more voluminously-tired bicycle with flat pedals:
Though I’m sorry to report I was forced to dispense with the Brooks Cambium saddle, which was one of the few remaining classy components on a bicycle that over the past six years has evolved from showboat to workhorse:
Sadly, while I find the rubber Cambium exceedingly comfortable, this particular specimen had begun to squeak like a dog’s chew toy, and I have been unable to quiet it despite liberal application of all manner of lubricants. Eventually I could take it no longer, and so I changed it for something from the ol’ Saddle Pile, and the blissful silence is well worth the slight downgrade in aesthetics and sumptuousness.
You might think that lavish upgrades in the form of costly baubles from companies like White Industries and Paul are a sign that a bicycle is loved, but I maintain that the opposite is true, and the more you value a bike the more you defile it with odds and ends. The Homer looks the way it does precisely because I value it highly and ride it often, and so over time I have changed this and that to optimize it for all conditions and for as many uses as possible, from sunny-day pleasure rides to commuting to wet weather road duty:
However, in so doing, I’ve looked whenever possible to stuff I already have, and the result is a pragmatic yet disheveled style I’d characterize as “slovenly minimalism:”
Hey, it ain’t pretty, but it works:
Sure, if you’re a dick break apologist this is the sort of image that haunts your dreams:
But one man’s nightmare is another man’s reverie, and when the spring finally does come I’ll hose it down, maybe give it a new chain and cassette, and it’ll be good as new:
Honestly it’s good as new even now, but it just doesn’t look it.
Speaking of old and dirty things, doping scandals almost destroyed pro cycling. Now the sport is in trouble again because…there aren’t enough doping scandals?
This sport really can’t win, can it?
Apparently cycling is somehow going to look better if one of the big stars gets busted:
According to two different sources close to the UCI, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, the sport’s governing body has been pressing the International Testing Agency (ITA) — which manages anti-doping programs for cycling and more than 70 international federations — to find a high-profile case of cheating within the sport.
Those sources explained that many at the UCI believe the absence of a big-name suspension in the past decade cannot be wholly due to the sport’s cleanliness.
According to those sources, the UCI believes that a prominent figure being sanctioned for doping would be a healthy development, proof that the anti-doping program is functioning. It would also act as a deterrent to others — if a big rider can be caught, anyone can.
Wow. You’ve got to wonder who they’re about to throw under the autobus. Because piccoli pesci fish like this aren’t gonna cut it anymore:
The most bizarre recent case came from Italian rider Andrea Piccolo, who was stopped at an airport in 2024 on suspicion of transporting human growth hormone. American team EF Education-EasyPost sacked him, and he briefly opened an OnlyFans account with his influencer girlfriend. In early February 2026, he was arrested by Italian police in Naples with counterfeit money. The investigation is ongoing.
I can’t believe I missed this one:
Sadly for the UCI, cycling can no longer count on these sorts of salacious Cipollini-esque exploits to boost its popularity, this being the post-woke era and all. Therefore, one of the big riders will have to go down in a big drug bust faster than an OnlyFans influencer on a disgraced pro cyclist’s piccolo. Only then will we return to the “transparency and openness” that once characterized professional cycling:
Another point worrying journalists is the general mood of the doping conversation. Whereas questions on doping were encouraged a decade ago, as the sport sought to cleanse its image, enquiries on the topic are much more likely to be rebuffed and snarled at. Transparency and openness have given way to secrecy.
I can’t believe I just read that.