00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 I'm Rob Hales, former Olympic medalist
00:09 and track world champion.
00:11 I was a child of the 80s
00:12 and an aspiring pro cyclist of the 90s.
00:16 This takes me back.
00:17 Best time ever, color TV, fantastic music,
00:22 and hot, hot summer holidays.
00:25 It was a simpler time, a happier time,
00:28 but it was the decade, the mid 80s and the early 90s
00:31 that was the renaissance of cycling.
00:34 The age of experimentation, it's just begun.
00:38 The 80s was mammoth for the technical innovation
00:46 that was introduced.
00:48 There were quantum leaps in design,
00:52 materials and innovation.
00:54 12.21.
00:57 Love it.
00:58 When exotic new materials were shaped
01:00 into sensationally fast bikes.
01:04 Slippery, like a battered otter.
01:07 Way ahead of its time, do you think?
01:10 Way ahead of its time.
01:11 Because how did that not catch on?
01:14 Crunchy gears became crisp and smooth.
01:17 Clicky gears.
01:18 Oh yeah.
01:19 The bikes started to look different,
01:21 but perhaps the most noticeable change is the jersey.
01:24 When you looked at the Peloton coming in,
01:26 it looked like a disco coming.
01:27 You're still banging on about how's a star like one,
01:30 you know, I'm just embarrassed how I looked back then.
01:32 And riders were larger than life.
01:33 Greg really won because of his acceptance
01:37 of new technology at the tri bars.
01:39 And they boo-booed what I was doing.
01:41 We have a lot to thank the pioneers of those days for.
01:44 The bikes we ride now can trace so many of their origins
01:47 back to this period.
01:49 And I want to go back and relive it all.
01:52 (upbeat music)
01:55 (upbeat music)
01:58 (dramatic music)
Comments