OPQS the only world tour team still using proper casquettes?

neeb

Every time I see a podium presentation or post-race interview these days the winner is wearing an idiotic looking American base ball cap instead of a proper cycling cap.

As far as I can see Omega Pharma Quickstep (to their credit) are the only team that has consistently stuck with casquettes.

I hate base ball caps with a vengeance and it seems a real pity that the traditional style of cycling cap has now all but been replaced by the alien base ball cap, the symbol of a different sport entirely as well as of sartorial bad taste in general.

Is there a movement to save the casquette?

Omar Little

There was a social media campaign of sorts last year during the Tour which Cavendish and Martin and some others on OPQS backed

neeb

The worst thing about it is that if it disappears from pro cycling it will become the exclusive property of the fixie/retro/rapha crowd..

rolf_f

They look particularly stupid with the enormously elongated brims.

neeb

Rolf F wrote:

They look particularly stupid with the enormously elongated brims.

You mean the baseball caps? Yes, and the way the brim curls downwards as if it is almost becoming tubular...

I think what most annoys me about them is not that they are baseball caps but that they have been imported via motorsport/F1. It's as if the traditional casquette isn't glamorous enough and the sponsors want cycling podiums to look more like F1.

cesco

A lot of the Belkin and Giant-Shimano riders choose to wear cycling caps too.

Secteur

I read in an interview somewhere last year that the Sky riders simply dont like to wear casquettes, and chose to wear baseball caps.

Old_Timer

Sorry that we sent you that scourge over from the states :evil: . I cannot stand the "truckers hat" as they have come to be called. Baseball hats were bad enough on the bubbas, then the thug life crowd started the flat bill crap and wearing them pulled over their ears.

Even the police and military wear them for uniform items, looks sloppy to this old Marine (USMC doesn't authorize them) A nice cycling hat is proper for the podium and looks much more like we should, my choice is a nice black Cinelli old school cycling hat.

I wish I had saved my old 72 Schwinn Paramount hat and the 78 Ti Raleigh and Carlton hats I had and proudly wore.

Anonymous

I find myself thinking a nice shaped baseball cap is not such a bad thing to be honest.
One thats not at all deep (because they always look silly). Flat peaks are a no no too. They have to be curved.
Deep caps with big flat rims are for rappers, spotty youths and Hillbillies.

You have podium shoes, so why not podium caps.
A kind of cycling/baseball cap hybrid.

I think once you have put your bike, shoes and helmet away for the day the traditional casquette should go too.

rolf_f

Carbonator wrote:

I think once you have put your bike, shoes and helmet away for the day the traditional casquette should go too.

Whilst I understand your logic that you should only wear a cycling cap whilst on the bike, I don't follow your logic that once you get off the bike it's ok to put a baseball cap on!

I do though quite like my yellow LCL baseball cap that I got in Harrogate. It's my watching the tour hat now. But obviously a proper cycling cap (not casquette - I'm neither French nor Rapha wearing!) would have been better (and cheaper to give out as the yellow caps are pretty decent quality and much more complicated than a cycling cap).

neeb

Old_Timer wrote:

Even the police and military wear them for uniform items, looks sloppy to this old Marine (USMC doesn't authorize them) A nice cycling hat is proper for the podium and looks much more like we should,

I'm with you there - even in the UK some police units have started wearing baseball caps, although some have backtracked because of criticism.

neeb

Carbonator wrote:

You have podium shoes, so why not podium caps.
A kind of cycling/baseball cap hybrid.

I think once you have put your bike, shoes and helmet away for the day the traditional casquette should go too.

I have to respectfully disagree. Given that everyone wears helmets these days the casquette should naturally take on the role of pre/post ride attire. I know a lot of people wear them under their helmets, but it's not really the same thing (and personally I don't find it comfortable and find it interferes with the fit of the helmet). Why use a different style of cap from another sport/culture when cycling has its own caps?

Anonymous

But as you said, it has its own caps for a use they are no longer used for.
Not sure pre/post ride use is at all a natural progression for their continued use.
Sentimental yes, but not natural.

I don't find any of the cycling caps I have that comfortable. No where near as comfortable as my baseball caps.
The bigger peak is much better too.

I don't really get the link with baseball or F1 really anyway. Its just a cap of probably a better design for wearing off the bike after a ride.
Are Golf caps not baseball caps?

I do quite like the podium nod to pre helmet days but things have to move on and its better that the hat evolves into its new use than we all just live in the past too much.

neeb

It's not as if casquettes were /not/ used on the podium before the introduction of helmets - as far as I'm concerned, if there is a specific style of cycling cap then that's the style that should be used if use of a cap is deemed appropriate in a pre/post cycling situation. If it's not being used on the bike any more, that's all the more reason to use it more off the bike.

The new style of cap comes straight from baseball historically - it's only because it is now used so much in other situations that you could make an argument for it being in any way generic. But it's still a baseball cap. Golf caps and F1 caps are also baseball caps. And I'm pretty sure that it is the link that cycling has with F1 through the podium presentation that has encouraged sponsors to push the F1 style baseball cap in cycling.

Carbonator wrote:

I don't find any of the cycling caps I have that comfortable. No where near as comfortable as my baseball caps.
The bigger peak is much better too.
.

Whereas I find baseball caps cumbersome and ugly and cycling caps very comfortable and good looking... I suspect personal taste may be a big factor here.. ;-)

Carbonator wrote:

I do quite like the podium nod to pre helmet days but things have to move on and its better that the hat evolves into its new use than we all just live in the past too much.

Why on earth does something like that have to "move on"? This is just the standard excuse used for cultural vandalism for commercial interests (not that I'm accusing you of having such motives).

Anonymous

Baseball caps is just a name. There are various versions of it (which a cycling cap is one of actually) and its use now has nothing to do with baseball (unless you are playing baseball).

You accept that golf caps are baseball caps, but golf has nothing to do with baseball.
They wear that kind of cap because it works well. If a better type could be made, it would be/have been.

Nothing wrong with sponsors wanting a better image if thats whats paying for it IMO.

What hat do you wear out on hols, beech etc. then? Hope its not a cycle cap.
What would you wear if you were a pro golfer?

If I were standing on a podium with a hot sun above my head and no glasses, I would want a baseball cap on.

neeb

No, it's not just a name, its a recognisable style that comes from baseball and has spread elsewhere because of fashion. And a cycling cap (of the traditional type) is certainly NOT a version of this sort of cap! (Any more than a military peaked cap or a policeman's cap is).

I don't generally wear caps on holiday or anywhere else, but yes, if i did choose to do so I would certainly wear a cycling cap rather than a baseball cap. They are actually quite trendy in some places now as it happens.

rolf_f

Carbonator wrote:

If I were standing on a podium with a hot sun above my head and no glasses, I would want a baseball cap on.

You're right. The number of times I've stood on a podium for 30 seconds wearing a cycling cap only to find my head and eyeballs instantly being burned to a crisp you wouldn't believe.

Old_Timer

The strange thing is that originally, baseball caps were shaped very similar to our cycling caps with a rounded profile to the upper and a shorter rounded bill. The extreme shape with the tall and stiff for the upper and the broad squared bill is more a recent thing. My youth baseball caps weren't as pronounced as the modern, One-Size Fits All, that is the style now. "The times they are a changin' ", as our friend Bob Dylan said.

Anonymous

Rolf F wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

If I were standing on a podium with a hot sun above my head and no glasses, I would want a baseball cap on.

You're right. The number of times I've stood on a podium for 30 seconds wearing a cycling cap only to find my head and eyeballs instantly being burned to a crisp you wouldn't believe.

I am sure they are out in the sun for more than 30 seconds, not that that has anything to do with which is the best thing to wear out of the two without sunglasses.

Anonymous

Rolf F wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

I think once you have put your bike, shoes and helmet away for the day the traditional casquette should go too.

Whilst I understand your logic that you should only wear a cycling cap whilst on the bike, I don't follow your logic that once you get off the bike it's ok to put a baseball cap on!

Do you think there should be some sort of time period before its ok then?
If its baseball cap or helmet hair, I go baseball cap.

If its hot and sunny on a club ride at a cafe stop I would love to have a baseball cap with me if it meant I could sit there without cycling glasses on.

It seems difficult to argue that a longer peak is not better than a very short peaked hat, if you are wearing a hat that needs a peak in the first place.
To me a baseball cap is better in the heat and more comfortable.

neeb

A short peaked cap is fine for shielding your eyes from the sun too, you just need to pull it down further or angle it correctly. More of a precision instrument..

Anonymous

That could be an odd stance on the podium though lol

Anonymous

neeb wrote:

No, it's not just a name, its a recognisable style that comes from baseball and has spread elsewhere because of fashion. And a cycling cap (of the traditional type) is certainly NOT a version of this sort of cap! (Any more than a military peaked cap or a policeman's cap is).

I don't generally wear caps on holiday or anywhere else, but yes, if i did choose to do so I would certainly wear a cycling cap rather than a baseball cap. They are actually quite trendy in some places now as it happens.

neeb wrote:

No, it's not just a name, its a recognisable style that comes from baseball and has spread elsewhere because of fashion. And a cycling cap (of the traditional type) is certainly NOT a version of this sort of cap! (Any more than a military peaked cap or a policeman's cap is).

I don't generally wear caps on holiday or anywhere else, but yes, if i did choose to do so I would certainly wear a cycling cap rather than a baseball cap. They are actually quite trendy in some places now as it happens.

Of course its just a name.
If they were not called baseball caps then how many youths do you think would know what sport they originated from?
What is it about the design that you think is so baseball specific and golf fashion statement?

Do not see that other sports wear them pre/during/post sport because of fashion. What else would they wear?

Your first paragraph seems to be dissing fashion, but the second one supporting it. Which is it?

Would you wear cycling glasses (ones that pros use) when out and about too?

vimfuego

Frankly, who gives a monkeys.

neeb

I have limited time to spend debating such a relatively trivial subject (yes, I know I started it.. ), but:

- The particular style of cap we are talking about is identifiable by a number of definitive features, and this style originated in baseball, which is why it ended up being called a baseball cap. It doesn't matter if it is now used far more widely, that is still the name that best identifies this style of cap to most people. This is true even if this particular style wasn't always used in baseball, and perhaps isn't any more (not sure about what the teams wear, but ironically it looks like many of the current caps actually being sold by baseball teams are now of the style known as "trucker caps"). It also wouldn't matter if people started calling it something else - it would still be recognisable as the same thing.

If a gave a whole load of different caps to someone who had never seen a cap before and asked them to sort them into groups by similarity, I'd bet that all of those "golf caps", "F1 caps" etc would go with the traditional style baseball caps (because they have been designed to have that recognisable style). Similarly the policeman's peaked caps would go with the military peaked caps despite their slight differences. Traditional cycling casquettes are sufficiently different to go in a different category (maybe they would be grouped with 1950s style schoolboy caps, who knows!).

This works because there is not continuous variation amongst caps sold and worn. There are lots of caps that look like baseball caps, military peaked caps, and cycling caps (because people have designed them to look that way), but rather few that are somewhere in between.

neeb

vimfuego wrote:

Frankly, who gives a monkeys.

This is a perfectly reasonable point of view on this subject, I'll warrant...

Still, I care just a little bit.

rolf_f

Carbonator wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

I think once you have put your bike, shoes and helmet away for the day the traditional casquette should go too.

Whilst I understand your logic that you should only wear a cycling cap whilst on the bike, I don't follow your logic that once you get off the bike it's ok to put a baseball cap on!

Do you think there should be some sort of time period before its ok then?
If its baseball cap or helmet hair, I go baseball cap.

If its hot and sunny on a club ride at a cafe stop I would love to have a baseball cap with me if it meant I could sit there without cycling glasses on.

I'm surprised the difference bothers you that much in any practical sense. I'm not fussed much about wearing caps anyway but as I see it, a baseball cap is a smallish cap with a medium sized brim whilst a cycling cap is a lighter cap with a slighly smaller brim. Both serve the same purposes similarly effectively. But the cycling cap is a nice thing that has relevant history and distinguishes us as cycling heros whereas a baseball cap is an ugly thing that makes you look like a chav!

Anonymous

I am not that bothered, neeb is.
I just said that I thought a nice shaped baseball cap was quite a good thing to wear on the podium and it went from there.

Trucker caps. Now they really are bad :evil:
A good baseball cap needs to be quite shallow IMO although most are more like trucker caps.

Having done a quick search, baseball caps I like are more like cycling caps than most baseball caps that are around these days lol.

neeb

Carbonator wrote:

I am not that bothered, neeb is.

8)

DeVlaeminck

Agree a cycling cap is infinitely better - not only does it look far more stylish (see link) and be a nice nod to cycling history it is also better for advertising the sponsor either on the body of the cap or under an upturned peak and doesn't obscure the riders face like a baseball cap can.

This http://www.mellowjohnnys.com/uploads/Ro ... eminck.jpg

MountainMonster

I think you need to reevaluate what is happening in your life if baseball caps are enough to be 'hated with a vengeance'. Either that, or your life sucks.