Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: ramenvelo

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

teacher, cyclist, and cross country coach.

@ramenvelo'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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Dan Martin 2. Rui Costa 3. Tejay Van Garderen 4. Janez Brajkovic 5. Andy Schleck »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. Gesink is a perpetual disappointment. If the man isn’t falling off his his bike he’s cracking on some climb or time trialling poorly. »

  2. What was I thinking putting Sanchez in there? He even said a stage was his priority! Cadel can hang in the bad weather and has his mountain bike skills to rely on, unlike Twiggo. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for an epic attack from Hesjedal, does he h… »

  3. VSP PICKS: 1. Wiggins 2. Nibali 3. Hesjedal 4. Sanchez 5. Gesink »

  4. VSP PICKS: 1. Wiggins 2. Nibali 3. Hesjedal 4. Gesink 5. Scarponi »

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 &#...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. @Mirko That would be a no, at least during the live broadcast. »

  2. @scaler911 This is as close to church as I get. »

  3. Garmin! »

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

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. How the fuck is Vos only 25 YEARS OLD? VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Van Dijk 4. Borghini 5. Annemiek Van Vleuten »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. I’m really hoping Dan Martin’s form has held since Catalunya, would love to see him take the top step. VSP PICKS: 1. Dan Martin 2. Valverde 3. Gilbert 4. Contador 5. Henao »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Dan Martin 4. Gerrans 5. Ryder »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. Slim pickin’s here. What happened to all the favorites? VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Chavanel 3. Turgot 4. Phinney 5. Roelandts »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. I think Sagan will win the sprint out of a three man group and have another controversial victory salute. It kills me not to put Tommeke in here but I think he’s saving up for Roubaix so he can finally get Roger De Vlaeminck to shut up. VSP PICKS: 1. Sa… »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. Vos is due for a win. What’s it been, three weeks? VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Wild 3. Johansson 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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. Wheeliegate, I’m for it. »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cavendish 3. Greipel 4. Boasson Hagen 5. Cancellara »

  3. The hardest thing about calling this one is if the winner is gonna come out of a small group or a bunch gallop. Also, Sagan has to be sick of second place, it’s time to step up. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cavendish 3. Greipel 4. Oss 5. Cancellara »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. the usual suspects VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Van Dijk 4. De Vries 5. Bronzini »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

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

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Chavanel 3. Cancellara 4. Gilbert 5. Gerrans »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

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

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Valverde 3. Van Avermaet 4. Cancellara 5. Vanmarcke »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Armistead 2. Johansson 3. Teutenberg 4. van Vleuten 5. De Vries »

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...

@ramenvelo's posts:

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

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