Love and hate and fondling your cobbles.

Cycling is all about love-hate relationships....at least for me.  I hate the way I feel at the start of almost every ride...my legs are like lead, I'm either too hot or too cold, and something is clicking or creaking somewhere.  Eleven miles later, I'm finally warmed up, I'm either catching a breeze to cool off, or have generated enough body temperature to stay warm and I'm too into the ride to notice the creaking anymore and once again I'm in love with the bike.  Similar to this are my feelings about almost everything I encounter about the sport....one part of me loves it, another part of me may end up hating it.  Thus, I bring you Johan Museeuw and Rapha:

As you likely know, Museeuw is a retired Belgian pro who shattered his knee during Paris-Roubaix in 1998.  A subsequent infection in the same knee nearly cost him his leg.  And yet in 2000, Museeuw won the same race (his second victory there) which earned him the nickname The Lion of Flanders.  As he crossed the finish line, he pointed to the same knee that was nearly his downfall.  In 2007, Museeuw confessed that he had doped in 2004 and last year he left his wife and two children to move in with his girlfriend.  And I don't know for sure, but something tells me he may also be an unofficial spokesman for the Hairclub for Men.

And now onto Rapha, the cycling apparel company that gives truly wealthy cyclists someplace to spend their money so that they don't have to shlep around bargain bins with the rest of us.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to own me some fine Rapha shit....and if any Rapha execs are reading this and need someone to test drive some of their jackets this fall/winter, I'm your man.  But judging by the $55 price tag on a simple Rapha T-shirt, I'm guessing I won't be actually buying any of this stuff anytime soon:

The cost of this shirt could provide a hot meal for 4 hungry PooBahs

Well, this Friday (August 13), the Rapha website will be web-casting a full-length film directed by Nick Livesey with Ridley Scott Associates inspired by Johan Museeuw's "brush with fate in the Forest of Arenberg" during the Hell of the North, Paris Roubaix.  The film is entitled "A Throw of the Dice".  Here's the trailer.

A Throw of the Dice - trailer from RAPHA on Vimeo.

According to the website, Rapha will be showing this film during a special "one-time-only" web screening all day on Friday.  The following two Fridays, two more films will follow inspired by stories of Sean Kelly and Dario Pegoretti.  I've watched the trailer and witnessed, as one would expect, much blood and mud and even a little cobble fondling.

Not to mention a scraggly looking dude who has some kind of psoriasis or beard lice that causes him to scratch incessantly.

But it's all shot in the classic Rapha graininess that makes it look even more epic than what it already is.

 If Paris-Roubaix tickles your cobbles, you may want to check this out online for free on Friday, cause I'm guessing if you wait for the DVD, Rapha will likely be selling it in an "epicly" packaged boxset with the other two flicks for the same price as a brand new Museeuw-brand bicycle....made from carbon and flax.....(yes - they are actually made from flax).

Afterall, something has to finance the divorce attorney and hairplugs.