Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: harminator

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"We used to live in a rolled up newspaper in a septic tank." Found the bike relatively late in life after a mis-spent youth. Now cured, living northern Sydney, soaking up the serenity and agony of the local gorges... Married, 2 kids, school teacher (design & tech) renovating the house and running the school MTB program.

@harminator's activity:

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. Replacing both Ryder from 3 and Beaker from 1. Still not right but I’ll gamble on Cuddles getting better and Nibbles blowing up on stage 19… VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps): 1. Cuddles 2. Nibbles 3. Uran 4. Santa mbrogio 5. Scared Pony »

The Velominati have our own set of nicknames and terms which have developed over time through posts and correspondence. Some of these are names of landmarks or terms in cycling; others are nicknames for some of the riders in the pro peloton. While not intended to be offensive or derogatory, the nicknames in the list represent the riders’ pe...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @VanBrudenrijden +1. Very good. No angel greater than a mongrel. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @strathlubnaig Love it. Just waiting for the “my rivals must have hacked my wireless shifting” excuse from someone now. »

Bicycles and automobiles- can’t we all just get along? @Kah writes about this universal (do aliens have this issue also?) problem of us co-existing with humans in cars. We all drive cars too and have cursed the occasional cyclists for some good reason. Cars are our greatest threat. We can crawl away from our own bicycle crashes, thanks very m...

@harminator's posts:

  1. This just in. A man in a brown jumper stole a power bar and electrolyte drink from the feed station during today’s Critical Mass event. Witnesses say he attempted a cunning disguise by pulling his trousers up to the knee and pointing his knees outwards. … »

  2. @brett Yellow Back Pack Cover Atrocities? …because there’s nothing worse than your YJA being obscured by something not Y. »

We close out the 6 Days of the Giro with our sixth and final installment.A body at rest, stays at rest. A body in motion, stays in motion. Things get a bit more ambiguous when it comes to a body on a bicycle tearing down a twisty mountain descent at speed, particularly in the rain. But it is here, on the boundary between clarity and ambiguity, wher...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @PeakInTwoYears Thanks. When Rossi is moved to say Fuck its the end of the affair. »

  2. »

  3. You only need to counter-steer your motorbike to adjust for drift. Apparently its harder at 300kph. These guys survive on V. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. pozzovivo 2. santambrogio 3. scarponi 4. nibbles 5. Good Cadel »

We’re heaping coals on the Giro frenzy that’s burning in all corners of the Cycling world by issuing the second installment of the monthly BigRingRiding Sur la Plaque series while at the same time kicking off the Six Days of the Giro series where we’ll post six articles on the subject of this, the best Grand Tour of the year. Y...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @Asyax Don’t listen to @mcsqueak or @piwakawaka. The standard is “You’re shaving your legs. Stop where your legs stop”. Shave more if it floats your boat but such endeavours have nothing to do with #33. Do not stop just above the tan line. This results… »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. Too much TTT and ITT for Nibs… VSP PICKS: 1. Jolly Naughty Wiggins 2. Nibbles 3. Hey Jadal 4. Santa mbrogio 5. Scared Pony »

André Leducq was a complete French Badass, with a capital B. He was third, below Merckx and Hinault for Tour de France stage wins. Nicolas Frantz was an equally Badass Luxembourger. He rode to more victories than Frandy Schleck shall ever attain in a few lifetimes. He did win the Tour de France.The crowd is obviously pleased to have these thin, he...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @DocBrian - Maybe…(yes, they’re transparent!) »

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 &#...

@harminator's posts:

  1. Yup VSP PICKS: 1. Giblets 2. Valverde 3. Gerro 4. Nibbles 5. Kwiatkowski »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Albasini 3. Fingerbang 4. Valverde 5. Jelle »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. I wanted to upload some pics but I’m on an iPad…meh. VSP PICKS: 1. Cromwell 2. Vos 3. Armistead 4. Kitchen 5. Van Dijk »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. I have some first hand experience on the mur de Huy from my ‘weepers tour’ this time last year. It makes the Cauberg look like a false flat. Low down its manageable but somewhere in the lower third you get kicked up the cluster and then out of the saddle…. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @ChrisO I don’t know where xyxax lives but asyax lives in Perth…easily confused! »

  2. That extra K at the top of the Cauberg will sort the grimps from the chimps. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Boss Hogg 3. Giblets 4. Terpstra 5. Gerrans »

While the Northern Hemisphere Velominati were busy arguing about who injected what in the old races they’d been using to distract themselves during their indoor torture sessions, down South a bunch of like minded strangers from the internet decided that coffee, hills, sunshine & beer seemed like a great excuse to meet up for a ride̷...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @asyax Also apologies from me asyax – I’ve confused you with xyxax from the beginning – silly me! (If you two had a lovechild it’d be worth heaps in scrabble!) »

  2. Wow. Fluked that DM albums thing! Vivid memories of a hard, hot day. Thanks everyone! »

  3. Slideshow: Fullscreen: Download: Powered by DM Albums™ »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @asyax Ooh, nothing (except 2000 odd calories of beer)! Tops edition. Fabs deserved his win – strong & smart. Nextt year we need  Boonen V Fabs showdown.  Please book the beds William! »

  2. So who can suck Fab’s wheel best? Langeveld looks the goods. »

  3. Fabs has the yips and will repeat his cornering form from London…Once he’s gapped, the rest of the field will ride like nutbags trying to seize the day… VSP PICKS: 1. Hayman 2. Chav 3. Turgot 4. Roelandts 5. Durbo »

March 29, 2013 – April 8, 2013 // Lille, France // Event Details // Book Now Continue reading...

@harminator's posts:

  1. March 29, 2013 – April 8, 2013 // Lille, France // Event Details // Book Now

    The Hardmen. They inspire us; we aspire to be one among them. They are the solitary voice among the thousands in our heads that tell us to keep pushing when all the others tell us to stop. Their long shadows look on in approval as we pull on our cold and wet weather gear and head out into the elements to ride.

    Every serious Cyclist is a hard man or woman; it comes with the territory. But to be given the title of Hardman, one must be more than just tough. The Hardmen stand out among the rest as the ones who ride over the savage, jagged cobblestones of Northern Europe with a souplesse that is possessed only by those riders who thrive in the most torturous of road cycling’s domains: The Cobbled Classics of Northern Europe.

    Velominati has partnered up with Pavé Cycling Classics, based in Northern France, to offer the chance to walk where Giants tread and pedal through the trench of Arenberg and up the devastating cobbled steeps of the Koppenberg and Kapelmuur. To pedal with the Pros during their reconnaissance of the Paris-Roubaix route.

    As if that isn’t good enough, we offer the opportunity to do all this with Johan Museeuw, the last Lion of Flanders.

    Velominati’s Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2013 will be hosted and guided by the Velominati Keepers in partnership with Pavé Cycling Classics over nine days in April during the most sacred time of the season, the week when de Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris Roubaix are held. The trip is all-inclusive and covers lodging, meals, energy drink, energy bars, and sag support. Bikes are available and included in the price should you wish not to bring your own.

    The friendships forged over the 2012 edition of Keepers Tour with 9 days of riding the cobbles of Flanders and Northern France, drinking the best of Belgian beer, and eating the finest French cuisine leave an indelible mark on not only the Keepers, but all those who attend. Cycling has that ability to bring people together, and we count ourselves very blessed to have met such a great bunch of souls who we are proud to call our mates.

    For 2013, we have trimmed the fat and added a bunch of amazing treats for you. Not only will we be riding the Pavé du Nord, the steeps of Liége and the Kasseien of Flanders, we will be doing it with a very special guest; The Lion of Flanders himself, Johan Museeuw. Last year we had the pleasure of an afternoon with Johan, riding some of the Gent-Wevelgem route and enjoying a few beers after. This time, you can witness firsthand how to float across the stones of Arenberg and charge up the Kapelmuur from the master… how many cyclists are able to say that?

    Take this unique opportunity to be part of an experience that everyone attending will never forget, or regret.

    Provisional Itinerary

    • Friday : Pick up midday, travel to gite and get bikes setup
    • Saturday : Paris-Roubaix with Johan Museeuw (last 150km)
    • Sunday : Watch de Ronde van Vlaanderen at the Oude Kwaremont
    • Monday: Visit the Roeselare National Bicycle Museum & go for an easy ride around Kemmel
    • Tuesday:  Liège-Bastogne- Liège with Johan Museeuw
    • Wednesday: Track riding at the Eddy Merckx Velodrome in Gent then watch the GP Escault (Scheldeprijs) pro race
    • Thursday: Paris Roubaix reconaissance ride with the Pros
    • Friday: Brunehaut brewery visit and meet with Pro Team (Omega-Pharma Quickstep or AG2R)
    • Saturday: Ronde Van Vlaanderen with Johan Museeuw (150km)
    • Sunday: Watch Paris Roubaix at three secteurs (Valenciennes, Arenberg, l’Arbre); optional stay at gite on Sunday night

    Price: 3990€, All inclusive price includes rides with Johan Museeuw, accommodation for 9 nights, breakfast, lunch, dinner, beer, wine, insurance coverage, sag support, Pavé’s custom Cyfac rental bikes (upon request), exclusive V-Lion V-Shirts, exclusive Keepers Tour V-Pint, exclusive V-Mussette, and Pavé Cycling Classics jersey. Plus swag from our sponsors.

    At this time we are accepting reservations for the full Keepers Tour, and now we also include weekend and daily packages. Once the reservation is confirmed, we will collect a 20% deposit with the balance due upon arrival in Lille.

    Attendees should be comfortable riding in groups and be able to ride 150km several times in a week at a 28-30kph pace; some groups may elect to go faster but these are non-competitive rides. There will be lots of cobbles, and lots of short, steep climbs – sometimes both at the same time, so prepare yourself accordingly. We will usually have sag support, and riders who are unable to keep up may be asked to climb in the car. Or to Survive on V.

    Booking

    There is a problem with our booking form; please email tours@velominati.com to register.

    Bookings

    Bookings are closed for this event.

    Event Details

    Loading Map....

    Date/Time
    Date - March 29, 2013 - April 07, 2013
    12:00 AM - 12:00 AM

    Location
    Gare de Lille Flandres

    Cogal Details
    Route Details