Originally Posted by
non-fixie
Before the gruppo mafia took over, mixing and matching parts was quite common in the pro peloton, not in the least with brake systems. Below is a pic of the 1964 Wiel's Groene Leeuw Tour de France team. From a distance it looks quite homogeneous, but if you zoom in on the brakes and levers you'll see a lot of personal preferences.
Sorry for the diversion, but I can't resist. On the far left is Benoni Beheyt in the World Champion's jersey he won in 1963. He beat a certain Rik van Looy in the sprint, depriving van Looy of his third consecutive rainbow jersey. Small problem: they were both on the Belgian team, of which van Looy was supposed to the leader/top dog. van Looy expected Beheyt to do a lead-out and then step aside and let him win, and so did practically everyone else. When Beheyt won, van Looy (not exactly known for being warm, cuddly or diplomatic - Merckx couldn't stand him for good reason) said all the correct things to the press about Beheyt being faster that day and of course he had the right to win. But forever after, the Emperor made it a point to screw over Beheyt every chance he could. Beheyt was a good rider with good palmares, but they would have been better without a vindictive van Looy making sure his breaks were always chased down and his every weakness was exploited, regardless of the situation.
This kind of brouhaha at the Worlds, where riders from different trade teams are thrown together on a national race for a single event, are not uncommon. Witness the Merckx/Maertens imbroglio at the 1973 Worlds, where Maertens chased down a Merckx breakaway (it took them something like 30 years to kiss and make up), or in the 1980s when Greg Lemond chased down Jock Boyer at the Worlds (as far as I know, they still haven't kissed and made up). The same sort of thing was also not uncommon at the Tour de France in the days when it was contested by national teams. The tradition of the winner giving all his prize money to his teammates came about as a way for one rider to buy the loyalty of the rest of the team, some, perhaps most, of whom were from other trade teams and might have their own ambitions. Louison Bobet likely was not the first to do this, but he was probably the most noteworthy example when he publicly pledged during one of the years he won in the mid-1950s that all his winnings would go to the team. (Odds are he more than made up for it in the post-Tour criteriums, where his yellow jersey no doubt commanded premium appearance fees.)
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.