Cyclists 'looking at each other' during a race is generally taken by commentators to be a portent of disaster. But why? Bike-racers, after all, are mostly young and easy on the eye. This epic recycling of the Orpheus myth unearths the dark legend behind the mystery of mutual admiration and shows why it is that, since the very ancient of days, riders have been encouraged, on pain of defeat (or worse), to keep their eyes modestly lowered and forwardly directed. And it does it in rhyming couplets.