Velominati Super Prestige:
Giro D'Italia 2013
Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: Blah

Order: Gray Order Velominatus

Location: Singapore

From Melbourne, Australia. Lived in Qatar for four years and now Singapore since August 2011. Been riding bikes since BMX days racing as a 4 or 5 year old. From 20 inch to 24 inch then mountain bikes from teen years until I saw the light maybe ten years ago and got on the road. Haven't looked back. 2011 Scott Addict as bike #1 in Singapore and a De Rosa Team in Melbourne as bike #2 for when I'm there. Singapore apartment space makes N+1 a difficult thing with a family.

@Blah's activity:

The Rules

We are the Keepers of the Cog.  In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this list.See also The Prophet’s Prayer. Continue reading...

@Blah's posts:

  1. @Spun Up That’s exactly as it should be. Following The Rules means you look fantastic, so never, ever have to worry about what people think. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2013, Stage 10

Day 5 of the Six Days of the Giro continues with an impromptu VSP event.Lets have a look at where we are in the 2013 Giro. Wiggins must have spent time training in Luxembourg because he’s been descending like a Schleck when things get dodgy before disappearing into the team van to have a cry about it. Hesjedal has put in some good moves and...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Nibali 2. Evans 3. Henao 4. Betancur 5. Gesink »

Velominati Super Prestige: Giro D’Italia 2013

Twiggo is dreaming of a Giro-Tour double. He has sent out mixed messages about his Tour ambitions. Will he use the Giro as the ultimate Tour preparation or will be burn all his matches in May and hope he can find another pack for July? He has abandoned his successful 2012 Tour run-up strategy of winning every stage race he entered the previous spri...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sir Wiggo 2. Nibbles 3. Hesjedal 4. Sammy Sanchez 5. Cadel »

The Bikes

The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.It seems in s...

@Blah's posts:

  1. @bianchi777 Sweet looking bike, and welcome. You’re going to cop some stick for the photography technique (rule 26), but don’t let it phase you. Good to have you on board. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Luik-Bastenaken-Luik 2013

There is something to love about a race that makes a deviation to its route for the simple joy of sending a fleet of professional riders up a fiendishly steep and narrow ramp. The Cote du Stockeu offers zero benefit to the route from a logistical standpoint – in fact, all it does is complicate things. On the way down from the Cote de Wanne &#...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. valverde 2. phil gil 3. nibali 4. j rod 5. gerrans »

Velominati Super Prestige: La Flèche Wallone 2013

We came tantalizingly close to adding a foray up the Mur de Huy during our excursion to Liege-Bastogne-Liege during this year’s Keepers Tour. But good sense and The Anti-V prevailed, as they are wont to do, and only two of us were left wanting a dig at the most notorious finishing climb in the Classics season.I write this, then, woefully igno...

@Blah's posts:

  1. A Schleck. Phhhrrrrraaaaaaaaap. »

  2. @paolo How good has the coverage situation got compared to ten years ago (speaking as an Aussie) that we can complain about who is commentating? »

  3. VSP PICKS: 1. phil gil 2. j rodriguez 3. henao 4. valverde 5. sagan »

  4. VSP PICKS: 1. phil gil 2. valverde 3. sagan 4. gerrans 5. henao »

Velominati Super Prestige: La Flèche Wallone Féminine 2013

Last year we saw Evelyn Stevens out-last Marianne Vos at the top of the Mur de Huy. The take home message is don’t start one’s charge too early. Vos should know this finish, having won it four times already. It’s hard to know who is on form in the professional women field as the races are too far apart to infer much from the last...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. voss 2. johansson 3. stevens 4. borghini 5. van dijk »

Velominati Super Prestige: Amstel Gold 2013

Yes it is a race named after a barely drinkable Dutch beer. I have enjoyed Amstel beer, brought to our table by a nice waitress, sitting outside in the Dutch spring. Atmosphere is everything. Do the Dutch brew awesome beer? I drank some good stuff in Amsterdam last spring but I’m pretty sure it was Belgian.Now we begin the Ardennes three race...

@Blah's posts:

  1. Sweet. »

  2. @starclimber ?yes? »

The Rules

We are the Keepers of the Cog.  In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this list.See also The Prophet’s Prayer. Continue reading...

@Blah's posts:

  1. @ChrisO What he said. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Amstel Gold 2013

Yes it is a race named after a barely drinkable Dutch beer. I have enjoyed Amstel beer, brought to our table by a nice waitress, sitting outside in the Dutch spring. Atmosphere is everything. Do the Dutch brew awesome beer? I drank some good stuff in Amsterdam last spring but I’m pretty sure it was Belgian.Now we begin the Ardennes three race...

@Blah's posts:

  1. @Mikael Liddy No ride Monday morning this week? »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. sagan 2. gilbert 3. gerrans 4. valverde 5. j rod »

Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Roubaix 2013

It looks so easy on the television. Well, no, actually it looks pretty bloody hard. We think we have some understanding of how they suffer, how their bodies can take the continual beating. But we don’t really know. Not even by riding these abominations they call roads twice in the space of a few days can we understand the scale of the thing...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Fabian 2. Phinney 3. Thor 4. Stannard 5. Thomas »

Velominati Super Prestige: Ronde van Vlaanderen 2013

Imagine a world without the little things we take for granted; a house without a roof, a pub with no beer, a Keepers Tour without any clothes. The last one is a reality for me at the moment, five days in and still no trace of where the hell between Wellington and Paris my bag (filled with V-Kit, shoes, helmet, everything) is. The other thing that h...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. sagan 2. fabien 3. syl chavenal 4. boonen 5. thomas »

Velominati Super Prestige: Ronde van Vlaanderen Féminine 2013

Marianne Vos has never won this? She who wins everything all the time has never won this? Is it not hilly and tough enough? This seems like a tear in the time-space continuum. Someone is going to be wanting to add this to her palmarés. Weather sounds like a cold but dry day for racing. This is a big one, maybe worth two bumper stickers, so ponder...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. vos 2. bronzini 3. borghini 4. johansson 5. armistead »

Velominati Super Prestige: Gent-Wevelgem 2013

Gent (Deinze)-Wevelgem, it starts with 130 km of cruising around Belgium and Northern France followed by a flurry of bergs and then a final 38 km of  flatter riding to the inevitable sprint finish. How hard can the climbing be if Super Mario got over them? Ask the riders from KT 2012, (the ones not in the following car) and they will tell you...

@Blah's posts:

  1. Back on the bike for some reason. He can’t possibly get back on. »

  2. Boonen down. Looks bad. »

  3. VSP PICKS: 1. cav 2. sagan 3. greipel 4. goss 5. thor »

Velominati Super Prestige: Trofeo Alfredo Binda 2013

This is the second round of the Women’s World Cup, the first being the Ronde van Drenthe. Laveno Mombello to Cittiglio, 120 km of racing in Italy. It is a very worthy course and we know who will be wearing the number 1 on her jersey. Enough already, I like Ms Vos as much as the next person but someone has to work her over on the climbs and ri...

@Blah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. vos 2. armistead 3. johansson 4. bronzini 5. cromwell »

The Bikes

The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.It seems in s...

@Blah's posts:

  1. @frank My experience with failing Alu. My first roadie, an aluminium-framed Avanti with carbon seat stays, had a bit of chainsuck. Then later developed a creak. The creak stayed with me for maybe three weeks, getting worse if I stood on the pedals to cl… »

Velominati Super Prestige: Milan-Sanremo 2013

Finally, we have Milan-Sanremo. I hope pedale.forcetta is ready to shoot some pictures, especially black and white because it will be cold and possibly wet. Throw in a little wind and a race of this distance will weed out the less hardy. Recently, but not too recently, this race would be won out of a decent size field sprint. And yet, besides Fabs...

@Blah's posts:

  1. Phil Gil goes large from 20km. Gogogogo Phil! »

  2. @Buck Rogers … »

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