With Spring Brings Green

Springtime yields changes and developments in many aspects of nature and life. The budding trees finally starting to show their blossoms, and the flowers poking their heads out of the earth again can just make you smile. Green is the traditional colour of spring, with nearly all plant life turning their own shade of the hue. It may be a coincidence, but spring brings green to cycling as well. With spring conditions in Northern Europe being known for the possibility of rain and mud, but also for hot temperatures with dry and dusty conditions. The cobbled classics which remain my favourite races of the season will take in these epic conditions, and many riders will do so on a special set of tyres. Those tyres are very well known amongst the PRO ranks, and have been used for nearly 30 years. Francesco Moser won on them at Paris-Roubaix in 1978 to begin his death-grip on the race for three consecutive years. With the list of Roubaix winners on these tyres, you begin to wonder if they have something up their sleeves. Moser, Duclos-Lasalle, Tchmil, Museeuww, Big Maggy, and Stuey O'Grady make up a small list of those who embrace the Green.



The Pave's are legendary in ride and grip. They have a deep file tread, supple ride, and fabulous grip in dirt and gravel. They are one of my favourite tyres and I would kill for tan sidewalls again, but for now the trademark green will have to do. I treasure the time of year when they get to come out again. They stay inside and away from the light from summer until spring finally pokes it's head around the corner. Yesterday was their first showing of the season. I threw them on Kermit, my trusty Gunnar Crosshairs, that I love dearly. We embarked on my cobbled, and mud-covered loop that I enjoy in the spring. It showcases the tyres abilities to soak up the cobbles, grip on the dirt, and keep you upright in the mud. I dream of riding real cobbled roads, and suffering in Northern Europe on the same roads and conditions that PRO's subject themselves to each and every year. Many cyclists dream of billard table smooth roads, but I seek out the dirt, the gravel, the cobbled, the neglected roads that make every meter a challenge.

I invite everyone to find a set of the Pave's, mount them for the spring, and revel in the extraordinary grip and the ability to ride every rough road they skip with their skinny tyres, and to throw themselves down that cobbled alley that they have always eyed but never attempted.

So spring brings Green, embrace it.