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

Velominatus: freddy

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: Canada and Nederland

@freddy's activity:

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. Santambrogio will be back…I can feel it…. »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. @wiscot It starts on the dining room table, then, like new sneakers when you were a kid, you take them to bed. Finally you get them dirty and they become part of your every day life. »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. Twigs out, Cuddles in for 2nd place. VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps): 1. Ryder 2. Cuddles 3. Nibs 4. Gesink 5. Santambrogio »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Pozzovivo 2. Santambrogio 3. Pellizotti 4. Pirazzi 5. Atapuma »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. Pink. The Giro has a fragility and rawness that appeals to me. »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Ryder 2. Twigs 3. Nibs 4. Gesink 5. Santambrogio »

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 &#...

@freddy's posts:

  1. You got to love this race. Where else can you get the suspense, the drama, the craziness of the Cote de Saint Roch, the V, the Canadian content, a panda and an awesome win by a well deserving competitor. I love this sport. »

  2. Just to boost everyone’s confidence, Rodriguez was quoted in Cyclingnews today: “…this is Liege-Bastogne-Liege, it’s a very hard race and anything can happen. There are a lot of people out there who like to make predictions about bike races, but most of… »

Riding Ugly: Damien Gaudin

The simple art of riding a bicycle can be undertaken in many ways. Watching the stylish commuters of Amsterdam going about their business in the most Casually Deliberate way makes you wonder if indeed anyone is actually going about any business at all. I don’t know how anything ever gets done in that city; everyone seems to be on their way to...

@freddy's posts:

  1. @Gianni and elbows… »

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 &#...

@freddy's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Valverde 3. Martin 4. Nibali 5. Rodriguez »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. @freddy »

  2. Did Paris to Ancaster on the Fango this weekend. »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Valverde 3. Sagan 4. Henao 5. Contador »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. van Dijk 4. Visser 5. Longo Borghini »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. van Dijk 4. Bronzini 5. Longo Borghini »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. Got my Frisian and Canuck picks in. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Gerrans 4. Terpstra 5. Hesjedal »

Paris-Roubaix 2013-Ride the Crown

Was Paris-Roubaix the best of the Spring Classics in 2013? Milan-Sanremo was amazingly photogenic, Ronde van Vlaanderen was inevitable but Roubaix was just about perfect. We all prefer the wet and gray “This weather is good for us” Roubaix yet this race’s drama transcended the fine spring day in the North of France. There is no be...

@freddy's posts:

  1. @Gianni and @Chris, P-R was beautiful this year and great read (including mildly spicy commentary). I was feeling bad for Stybar after his gutter encounter, but you’re right: “…the elastic had snapped. Zednek needed a good draft to stay with those men a… »

Guest Article: Finding My Level

Keepers Tour 2012 veteran @ChrisO is back to his racing ways in Cyprus. Yes, this is not Northern France; let us take a brief respite and go to warmer Mediterranean climes. This is ChrisO’s second guest article about his racing; his first was a stage race, the Tour of Sharjah, last year. Yours in Cycling, Gianni Continue reading...

@freddy's posts:

  1. @ChrisO Thanks for sharing “…what do I know now that I didn’t before…” »

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. @Ron A gravelly whisper maybe. Don’t know his cycling background. He uses quirky sayings and can get excited…esp about Boonen. http://youtu.be/p5byJ-ibZgc »

  2. @Ron Luckily Dutch was my first language so I check out sporza with Michel Wuyts ”ooh la la la la…dat doet pijn!!”..in a good way. Can’t wait ’till Sunday. »

  3. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Roelandts 3. Kristoff 4. Chavanel 5. Boom »

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...

@freddy's posts:

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

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Longo Borghini 4. Wild 5. van Dijk »

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...

@freddy's posts:

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

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...

@freddy's posts:

  1. I switched from Sag to Cav and Greip at the last minute due to the shortened parcours. I shouldn’t have doubted. That lad’s going to sell lots of Cannondales this year. »

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