Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: napolinige

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: Napoli, Italy

Social:

I'm a Kiwi marooned in Napoli. Living the dream... perhaps not the standard Italian dream but the riding's great, a local bike shop had a stash of NOS steel frames out the back, I bought two. All is good.

@napolinige's activity:

Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de Suisse 2013

The mighty VSP generator has been switched on once again. The mil-spec hydraulic fluid has been changed since the Giro. A new power take-off belt has also been installed. And the punch card reader has been refurbished.Broome and Berti are already riding the Critérium du Dauphiné. The top contenders prefer the Dauphiné for the decent recovery all...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. van Garderen 2. Kreuziger 3. Pozzovivo 4. Hesjedal 5. Pinot »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. Those of you picking Wiggins might want to watch this. One of the descents in Stage 10. http://youtu.be/4wkaiP9PtWk »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Santambroglio 2. Pozzovivo 3. Betancur 4. Nibali 5. Evans »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. Speaking of the marketing of the Giro, have you noticed that RAI is using English titles such as ‘Front of the race’ instead of ‘Testa della corsa’ and ‘standings’ instead of ‘classifica’ etc. there’s been a bit of grumbling online here. Obviously they’re… »

  2. The Tour seems to go to script most years while at the Giro, as it has this year, the script often gets thrown out pretty quick making for unpredictable and to my mind better racing. I like what they’ve done with the Giro this year with the time bonuses … »

Dirty Romantics

We’re into day three of the Six Days of the Giro series, and it’s time to hit the dirt.If ever a Keepers Tour goes to Italy, then we’re doing this climb. No doubt. Climbing on gravel up a real mountain, what’s not to love? Continue reading...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. @Ron un corridore is literally a runner, from the verb: correre – to run. It is used here to mean simply racer. »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Nibali 2. Wiggins 3. Ryder 4. Henao 5. Pozzovivo »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Nibali 2. Wiggins 3. Gesink 4. Henao 5. Pozzovivo »

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 &#...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Nibali 2. Rodriquez 3. Henao 4. Froome 5. Gilbert »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. not very original I know »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Moreno 2. Sagan 3. Gerrans 4. Valverde 5. Porte »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Emma Johansson 3. Van Dijk 4. van Vleuten 5. Ratto »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Moser 4. Boom 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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sylvain Chavanel 2. Cancellara 3. Pozzato 4. Edvald Boasson Hagen 5. Jack Bauer »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Cromwell 3. Bronzini 4. Emma Johansson 5. Van Leuten »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cancellara 3. Pozzato 4. Chavanel 5. Paolini »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Cromwell 3. Bronzini 4. Van Leuten 5. Teutenberg »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. Awesome! If I wasn’t a Sagan fan before I am now! Wheel stands and all! »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Rosella Ratto 3. Emma Johannson 4. Van Dijk 5. Van Vleuten »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Hushovd 3. Chavanel 4. Boonen 5. Phinney »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cancellara 3. Nibali 4. Pozzato 5. Gilbert »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. E Johansson 3. E Armistead 4. Bronzini 5. Cromwell »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. Bloody hell!! Didn’t realise I was wearing the leaders jersey! What a responsibility »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Boom 3. Van Avermaet 4. Moser 5. Evans »

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...

@napolinige's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Armistead 2. Gunnewijk 3. Emma Johansson 4. A. van Vleuten 5. Trixie Worrack »

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