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

Velominatus: Jay

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I am a 55 year old hospital pharmacist living in Mohrsville, PA. I have been a cycling enthusiast since 1973 with some periods of relative inactivity that coincided with a career and raising a family. I have increased my cycling activities over the last year or so, and have really taken off this year becoming more fit than I have been in the last 20 years. It was time for me to harden up. I also have a fascination with all things related to cycling, especially pro road racing. Fabian Cancellara is the rider I find most intriguing, but all of those guys are good. I am no where near as fast as I was when I was in my 20's, but I am happy with where I am right now. I plan on getting faster...

@Jay's activity:

Reverence: Speedplay Pedals

I’m old as dirt. My first two race bikes employed toe clips and toe straps and that set-up was bad. For many reasons it was bad and any retro-hipster who thinks otherwise is wrong. When Lemond and Hinault started racing on the white Look clipless pedals, everyone but Sean Kelly quickly switched. Talk about a quantum improvement, it was long o...

@Jay's posts:

  1. This is nine months after the fact, but I started using Speedplay pedals primarily on the strength of this essay and the embedded video.  I actually purchased the pedals last August, but decided that I wasn’t going to change my setup that late in the seas… »

Pink or Yellow?

We’re into day four of the Six Days of the Giro series, let’s talk trash. Yes the Tour de France started a few years before the Giro and has always been credited as The Tour to win. You win the Giro, you are a stud. Win the Tour and you are a stud for life. Why is that? Is the Tour longer, tougher, more murderous, more beautiful? In the 20...

@Jay's posts:

  1. @LA Dave Yeah, that Russian bride thing is annoying… »

  2. All of the Grand Tours are interesting races to watch.  US television really only pays attention to the TDF.  Due to the lack of exposure here I know far less about either the Vuelta or the Giro, but it is apparent that both of these races have taken grea… »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. I don’t think Wiggins will pull off the win because the Giro isn’t 3 weeks against his power meter. VSP PICKS: 1. Hesjedal 2. Nibali 3. Wiggins 4. Scarponi 5. Sanchez »

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 &#...

@Jay's posts:

  1. Making these picks is not unlike herding cats… VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Valverde 3. Sagan 4. Joaquim Rodriguez 5. Daniel Martin »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Sagan 3. Boasson Hagen 4. Terpstra 5. Van Avermaet »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Boasson Hagen 3. Phinney 4. Van Avermaet 5. Chavanel »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Stevens 2. Vos 3. Johansson 4. Borghini 5. Teutenberg »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Van Avermaet 3. Sagan 4. Luekemans 5. Boonen »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cavendish 2. Sagan 3. Boonen 4. Boasson Hagen 5. Gilbert »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Armitstead 4. Bronzini 5. Van Vleuten »

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...

@Jay's posts:

  1. I’m just throwing names out there… »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cancellara 3. Boonen 4. Cavendish 5. Gilbert »

Velominati Super Prestige: L’Eroica/Strade Bianche 2013

Until the 70′s it was common to race on gravel roads, but the Paving of the Planet has led to nearly every road being graced by smooth, black tarmac. As is the case with most things, once we are shown the easy path, it is difficult to return to more arduous ways. So it is with gravel roads; we take measures to avoid unpaved roads and in doi...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Gilbert 3. Sagan 4. Van Avermaet 5. Phinney »

Velominati Super Prestige: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2013

Outside my window, its pouring rain. My bike is leaning agains the wall in my office, covered in grim and grit from the ride in, which was characterized by equal parts cold, wind, and rain. The spot in the locker room where I changed before my shower was marked by sand and mud, and when I walked to the shower, I left a trail of dirty footprints.It...

@Jay's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Boasson Hagen 2. Van Avermaet 3. Boonen 4. Flecha 5. Pozzato »

Anatomy of a Photo: Campagnolo Candy Van

Every night I pray to Merckx that in the morning when I wake up I’ll have a Campagnolo Free Candy Van with a Super Dome.And every morning, its a fresh disappointment that it didn’t come true. Continue reading...

@Jay's posts:

  1. Campagnolo: It was the standard to which all others were compared.  Shimano was barely gaining a foothold at that time. I remember my first serious bike, a Raleigh International with all Campy Nuovo Record components (except for brakes), Reynolds 531 lug… »

To Carbone or Not To Carbone?

That is the question. Are carbon wheels a viable option for everyday riding? Should carbon wheels be your go-to wheels rather than your just-for-racing wheels? I don’t really race and I don’t own any carbon wheels and I wonder. Granted, every professional is and has been on carbon wheels for many years so it’s easy to think we sho...

@Jay's posts:

  1. Carbon wheels hold no allure for me at this time.  I will stay with aluminum box rims for the time being.  Heck, I sometimes miss the old down tube friction shifters ala Campagnolo, but that’s just me.  I am currently looking into acquiring a high quality… »

Voices and Echoes

Doubt. It speaks in whispered tones but echoes in our actions and lingers heavy on the mind. It is a thing that weaves itself into the seeds of our dreams and erodes vision into whim. Doubt leads to uncertainty; uncertainty to fear; fear prevents us from reaching as high as we might.Doubt is a clingy thing. Like a snowball dropped down a mountainsi...

@Jay's posts:

  1. I found this quote a while ago and I liked it; plus, it somehow seems appropriate: “To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain….at cycling’s core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn’t matter if you’re sprinting for an O… »

Insight on Rule #34

Rule #34-Mountain bike shoes have their place-on a mountain bike.During our very recent Cogal I gained some on-the-road insight on Rule #34. We were on a part of the route I have never ridden on a bike and had no memory of. The pavement was pavé, Maui-style. Somewhere deep down below the surface of the road was primordial road, patched with onl...

@Jay's posts:

  1. Great photo!  Chasing the rainbow… »

La Vie Velominatus: Perched Eyewear

There is something supremely Fantastic about a precisely manicured set of sunglasses, particularly when they’re not being used for their intended purpose. Certainly, there are times when circumstance offer no alternative but to actually look through them, but for the most part, it’s a bit pedestrian to use sunglasses for seeing through...

@Jay's posts:

  1. Alas I wear prescription eyewear so it is never perched on helmet or cap for me… unless I am resting my eyes at the end of a ride.  I will also admit that Rule #37 doesn’t really work for prescriptio eyewear, but I am guessing that the over the helmet s… »

Frank vs. The Volcano, Part Trois

At some point, I reckon the idea may dawn on me that I’m not a climber. Eighty kilos and standing something just shy of two meters, I’m not clear on why climbing is what speaks to me most about Cycling; I’m certainly not built like a grimpeur. But there is no question about it; I love riding in the mountains. I only have to catch...

@Jay's posts:

  1. Well done, Frank.  There is much to be said for simply doing it… »

2012 V-Moment of the Year: Boonen Goes Long

Yes, I know, I have a major thing for Boonen. But come on, wouldn’t you? Look at those guns. Look at that position on the bike. He even makes that ugly Specialized helmet look good. He even makes that ugly Specialized Roubaix look good, come to think of it. And those White Ladies? Kill me now.Picking The V-Moment of the year is always a tough...

@Jay's posts:

  1. @brett @brett Touche’ »

  2. @brett I too ride a Roubaix and find it to be an exceptional bike.  Don’t disparage another’s ride unless you have ridden in their shoes, so to speak.  If we all thought the same way, there would only be one choice of bike (or at the very least a much m… »

Merckxy Christmas, and a Coppi New Year

It has been a crazy year, this, with our first annual Keepers Tour sorted, partnerships with the industry’s leading icons including Johan Museeuw, Pavé Cycling Classics, DeFeet, fi'zi:k, and Lezyne – and a book deal to boot (deadline looming large on January 1st). We couldn’t have asked for a better year, and would like to remind...

@Jay's posts:

  1. @Deakus This isn’t a Christmas song, but the sentiment sort of sums up the holiday season, and how things should always be.  Thanks for reminding me just how brilliant the The Traveling Willbury’s were.  Merry Christmas to all! »

Peer Pressure

Eight point V bar. From the moment I bought my first set of high quality road clinchers, I’ve ridden at that pressure. I started with that number because that’s the pressure the sidewall told me to pump them up to; I didn’t yet understand much about balancing the benefits of high and low pressures to optimize comfort and friction;...

@Jay's posts:

  1. I have been riding 25mm tires mostly for the past couple of years.  Prior to that it was 23mm tires.  To be more precise, I am riding 23/25mm tires.  I have been riding Specialized Roubaix Pro tires and I will attest that they make for a smooth ride, but … »

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