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

Velominatus: il ciclista medio

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: Sydney, Australia

Social: Website

lack of cycling omniscience compared to Oli Married, 3 kids approx 14 months, 5 & 17. Clearly a long time between drinks for the first & the last. Riding as much as one can but work & family impact on available time. Translation - weekdays are spent on the trainer & weekends spent on the road

@il ciclista medio's activity:

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. @piwakawaka Yes! He always went hard and pitythe poor bastard that got in his way VSP PICKS: 1. Uran 2. Pozzovivovivo…o 3. Good Cadel 4. Sam San 5. Wiggo »

  2. and a word from Djamolidin Abdujapaorov, on this year’s Giro (though nothing to do with Stage 10) “Would I like to be having a go in the sprints? Well, I wouldn’t be afraid to have a go.” “Sprinting is always about how ferocious you are, they’re wild mo… »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. Pink and that De Rosa is beautiful »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Nibbles 2. Wiggo 3. Scared Pony 4. Sam San 5. Ryder on the storm »

The Weight of a Moniker

Young riders rise through the ranks with such promise. We all know the story; the rider who borrows a bicycle and enters a local race and wins. He decides he might be good at going batshit fast on a bike. Mom and Dad buy him a klunker for his birthday and he takes out a license. He starts winning most races he enters locally and rises to the region...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. Excellent photo  frank. While certainly not a Coppi expert, he does look like him from behind. Long, skinny and a little awkward looking. It doesn’t seem to matter which sport, there is always someone or something (thinking of horses here) being touted a… »

Guest Article: Bernard Hinault’s 1980 Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Unfortunately the weather for 2013 L-B-L looks a lot nicer than the 1980 episode.  Then again, if the weather looked that bad, they might have cancelled the race or put them on buses before Bastogne and driven them back towards Liege. Who would be the Badger of the peloton of this year’s race in those conditions? Discuss. As always, we have...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. Great stuff @wiscot »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gunnawin 2. Stevens 3. Vos 4. Armistead 5. Johansson »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. PhilGil 2. J Rod 3. Dean Martin 4. Uran Uran 5. Vulvarde »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gerro 2. PhilGil 3. Saggin” 4. Boss Hogg 5. Greg Hasamate »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. Very cool Chris and I’m slightly envious as well. Well done »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Turgot 2. Kristoff 3. Faboo 4. Greg Hasamate 5. Langeveld »

Awesome Italian Guys: Pedale.Forchetta

The Velominati site has drawn out many interesting, talented people these last few years, from frame builders to custom V-bar plug makers. We all know @pedale.forchetta as a Moots riding, bidon cage disdaining Italian cyclist. What’s not to love already… and generous too? From the beginning he has been sharing his photos with us all:...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. Nice piece Gianni and Pedale…..thank you »

Sur la Plaque: Rule #9

As many of you know, there’s been a lot of synergy between BIGRINGRIDING and Velominati for several years now. Though BRR and Velominati have very different flavors, we work on a similar principle: foster passion for the sport through a mix of knowledge, history, and humor tempered with a healthy dose of irreverence, all while obviously makin...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. @starclimber It’s not the socks that need forgiving, it’s your me scrolling sown to see your arse that begs forgiveness! »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Collins 2. Vos 3. Cromwell 4. Gunnewijk 5. De Vries »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Langeveld 2. Cav 3. Thor 4. Sagan 5. Cousin »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. PhilGil 2. Gossy 3. Thor 4. Faboo 5. Chavanel »

Passista

My first article on Velominati was to introduce one of my favorite cyclists, Eros Poli. I refered to him as a domestique on the Mercatone-Uno team. This faux pas was properly pointed out much later by @KaffeineKeiser, a commenter who suddenly surfaced and unfortunately submerged just as quickly, like Das Boot in the Straits of Gibraltar.*I do tak...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. Perhaps not quite a passista, but sorry to hear that JaJa had an accident. Hope all is well and on the mend. »

  2. @Barracuda +1 »

Velominati Super Prestige: Ronde Van Drenthe 2013

Ok, so you guys and gals don’t miss a trick, but sometimes we do. In fact, we kind of specialize in it. @Bianchi Denti just texted me to point out, as others have done on site, that we have almost missed the next stop on the VVomen’s VSP calendar, the Ronde Van Drenthe. On International Women’s Day, of all things.All I can tell yo...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Johansson 2. Vos 3. Cromwell 4. Van Der Breggen 5. Wild »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Faboo 2. Good Cadel 3. Greg Hasamate 4. Saggin’ 5. Paolini »

Velominati Super Prestige: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Women 2013

Finally, some cold nasty Belgian one day racing. Oman, Qatar, does anyone brag about winning those stage races? Yes, they might but really, it’s a tune up for the real season which finally begins this Saturday. Will racing in China or Oman grow the sport? Will there be a new wave of inspired young racers from these countries. Does professiona...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gunnewi(n)jk 2. Johansson 3. E. Arys 4. Jolien Dhoore 5. Garner »

Guest Article: Focus

@scaler911 likes beer and pizza, as we all do. I bet Jensie does too. He races more, we drink more, he has to finish each stage at the Tour, us, not so much. There must be a balance to all our cycling lives. Since we don’t have to earn a living racing we can relax a bit but this word “relax” maybe where the trouble lies.Yours in C...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. good one @scaler911. Being able to remain focused on cycling/training/racing while working, Breeding and Blimping and all of the other day-to-day obstacles; these are the things I strive to stay on top of while staying focused on the bike stuff….without… »

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...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Boom 2. Thor 3. Pozzato 4. Chavanel 5. Phinney »

Guest Article: Urs Freuler- The Ultimate Cyclo-tash

Somehow Movember and Vajanuary have slipped out of our grasp without too much fanfare. It’s never too late to pay homage to a ‘stash and a rider such as Urs Freuler. Our trusty cycling historian @wiscot has once again stepped up and delivered, many thanks. Yours in Cycling, Gianni…...

@il ciclista medio's posts:

  1. As someone who has Urs as their avatar, this is a nice homage to an idol of mine wiscot, thank you! Urs in that Atala kit which was/is one of the best ever IMO as well….be still my beating heart…. »

  2. @G’rilla So when did Wolverine get on a bike? »

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