The Netherlands is sending staff to the gravel worlds in Australia. They are housing Marianne Vos and Geerike Schreurs. The riders pay for their own travel. And the federation gives them kit to hand back after use. After use. I read that in the van, phone on the workbench, and I stopped degreasing.
A gravel kit after a race is no longer a kit. It is a soil sample. Dust in the seams, sand in the chamois, Western Australian dirt that will still be turning up in the Netherlands three washes later. Who washes before handing back? The rider or the federation? At what temperature? Nobody says.
With the British it is the opposite, according to Cyclingnews: the rider buys. £60 for the jersey, £120 for the race suit. Maddy Nutt told Cyclingnews she could wear kit from two years ago, but then she would not be in the correct GB kit in the photos on her social media. “I don’t think it’s my responsibility to finance that,” she said. Fair enough. A two-year-old jersey, I keep for the workshop.
Schreurs told Cyclingnews: “We get really good support from Specialized Off-Road, so for us riders it’s actually just like normal travel to a race.” That is a well-tuned bike. Nothing rubbing.
In my day we handed the bidons back. Never clean, but we handed them back.
The diagnosis is simple. A lent jersey is pool equipment. And pool equipment always comes back with some junk in it. I’ll stick a “rinse before return” label on the club’s jerseys, then. Alright?
It’s true, we checked: Cyclingnews.
