Marianne Martin Finally Gets Her Due--Somewhat

 It's one thing to call a baseball player "the Black Babe Ruth."  One player wore that moniker.  But some called "the Bambino" "the White* Josh Gibson."

Gibson died at age 35, three months before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier.*  Yet he wasn't enshrined in the sport's Hall of Fame until a quarter-century after his passing.

Five years ago,  Rogatien Vachon was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame--more than three decades after he played his last game in the National Hockey League.  When he retired, he was among the sport's top five or ten in several categories for his position.  He spent the bulk of his career with the Los Angeles Kings, where he became the franchise's first superstar. But, as great as he was, he was overshadowed by other goalies like Ken Dryden, who played for the dynastic Montreal Canadiens teams, and Ed Giacomin, who spent his career with the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings.

So why am I mentioning them on this blog?

Well, a parallel just played out in the world of cycling.  On 6 November, Marianne Martin will accept her induction to the US Bicycling Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.  She actually was inducted last year but, due to the pandemic, her ceremony was postponed.  

Her enshrinement comes three decades after she retired from competition and nearly four after her most notable achievement on two wheels.  That her induction was so late in coming is also a sad commentary on the state of competitive cycling.

Marianne Martin and Laurent Fignon, winners of the women's and men's Tour de France, 1984

In 1984, she won the inaugural edition of the women's Tour de France.  The race, 18 days long, ran in tandem with  (though on shorter courses than, with the same climbs and peaks as) the men's version.  Six editions of the women's Tour were held, the last coming in 1989, the year Greg LeMond came back from a near-fatal hunting accident to win the men's Tour for the second time.

LeMond got his induction, well-deserved as it was, five years after his last race.  Martin's honor took a quarter-century longer to come her way.  Still, she doesn't express anger or resentment. "Half my friends don't even know that I was a cyclist.  It's not something I carry out in front of me," says Martin, who is a photographer.  While she says that cycling was something she did, not who she was, it's hard not to compare her post-cycling life and reputation with that of LeMond who, in turn, is less famous than the disgraced Lance Armstrong.

*--The only athletes I respect as much as human beings as I respect Jackie Robinson are Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali, Colin Kaepernick and Simon Biles. That said, I will not refute (or confirm) the rumors that Jackie wasn't the first Black Major League Baseball player, as others--including Babe himself--were rumored to be Black.  Also, it wouldn't surprise me if some light-skinned Black players moved north (where all of the MLB teams were, and Jim Crow laws weren't) and passed themselves off as white.  

Employee Killed At Bicycle Company Headquarters

When it comes to hazardous occupations and workplace violence, the bicycle industry probably isn't the first that would come to most people's minds.  Even less likely to occur to some would be an employee killing another in a well-respected bike company's headquarters located in a town that is home to many young professionals who work in a nearby city.

But the scenario I've described seems to have played out in the headquarters of Jamis, in Northvale, New Jersey.  Yesterday morning, Northvale police responded to a call about an injured employee.  When they arrived, they found the body of 43-year-old Jeanette Willem, a 20-year employee.  

She had a head wound which, according to authorities, was caused by a blunt object.  They believe that warehouse employee Christian Giron inflicted that wound with a hammer. He was arrested and charged with murdering Ms. Willem, weapon possession and hindering his own apprehension.

In light of these developments, Jamis' headquarters will be closed until Monday, 1 November.

 

If You Can't Find It...

Some of you may already know what I'm about to say:  Some bikes and parts are really, really hard to find right now.

Those woes seem to have begun a month or two into the pandemic, when lockdowns shut down factories, warehouses and distribution centers, and disrupted supply routes.  In some places, even bike shops were shut because they weren't deemed "essential businesses."

Now, a year and a half in, the situation doesn't seemed to have improved.  I was able to do my most recent build only because Mercian built the frame (which the insurance settlement paid for) and I had most of the parts on hand.  

Mat Brett (Good name for a hero in a detective novel, isn't it?), on the British road.cc website, relays some of the recent woes of Matt Page, a  contributor on sibling site (We can't be sexist here, can we?) off.road.cc, in sourcing replacement pads for his Shimano disc brakes.  He's set up stock alerts, it seems, with every online retailer in England as well as the country's official Shimano distributor.  His alerts include notifications for, not only original equipment replacements for his model of brake, but any other compatible pads.  I'm not familiar with all of the disc models, but the situation he describes seems something like what you might encounter if you had to replace your Dura-Ace 9, 10 or 11-speed cassette or front derailleur and couldn't find, not only Dura Ace, but also Ultegra/600, 105, Tiagra, Sora or other Shimano road parts.

Page also encountered another problem. Here in the States, some people have managed to find stuff, sometimes via Amazon, from retailers in France, Germany, Spain and other European countries.  But some of those outfits won't ship to the UK.  Or, if they will, customers have to pay sometimes-hefty import duties now that the UK is not part of the EU.

Not long ago, Bicycle Habitat, one of my longtime go-to shops, started carrying Giant bicycles, I would guess, because they actually had bikes to ship to Habitat.  Many shops say they don't expect to have new stock, whether of bikes, parts or accessories, until some time next year, if at all.  That means that if the shop you patronize doesn't have the bike, helmet or shoes in your size, let alone the color you like, you have to wait or buy another model--if indeed that is available.  I would imagine this situation, like the one Page describes, is also further complicated in the UK because some companies, even those based in Asia, serve the UK through distributors in Continental Europe--which means, of course, import duties.

(Ironically, for a time earlier this year, all-leather Brooks saddles like the B17 and Professional were unavailable in England--where they're made--because after they're finished, they're sent to the parent company's distribution center in Italy.)

So, while I don't encourage hoarding, I think that if you don't have some spares of brake pads, chains, casettes, tires, tubes and other parts that normally wear, it might be a good idea to buy them--not to mention the bike you want, if you can find it!

Oh, and be aware of fake websites--like the one of a "Shimano Clearance Store"  Page encountered in his searches: