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

Velominatus: Erik

Order: Level 1 Velominatus

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Social: Website /

Attorney, creator (with my lovely Velominata) of The Completely Unauthorized Ohio University Coloring Book, Cat-6.

@Erik'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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. I’d be more excited about Cadel if he wasn’t wearing the ugly helmet. Not that I can get a picture of it here. You can see it at cyclingnews. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/photos/giro-ditalia-evans-in-contention-as-alps-loom/265727 »

  2. @frank Hear, hear.  Thanks for what you do. We appreciate it. »

  3. Oh dear. A rest day swap? It may be the only way to salvage my VSP. Two of my picks DNF. And I chose the wrong SKY Columbian. I went with Henao instead of Uran. Bugger. Good Cadel must win! A swap would be too costly, methinks. Go Good Cadel. Ride faste… »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. I must presume that if Henao is there, Wiggins will be there. I guess.  Evans gets a time bonus. VSP PICKS: 1. Sanchez 2. Henao 3. Evans 4. Nibali 5. Wiggins »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. I’m going to stand on my picks. I’m a little worried about Wiggo and Hesjedal. But I’m sticking with Good Cadel. Don’t step on his dog. »

  2. Of course if Bad Cadel shows up, I’m screwed. VSP PICKS: 1. Good Cadel 2. Wiggo 3. Nibali 4. Hesjedal 5. Henao »

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 &#...

@Erik's posts:

  1. @Tobin I did not see that coming. Good pick! »

  2. If Ryder pulls this off, my VSP will stink, but it will be awesome. »

  3. Oh, and Andy abandons. Which is a bummer. »

  4. I also want to nominate Jelle Vanendert as a potential surprise. And John Gadret, because I just don’t want to give up on that ugly mofo. Likewise, I’m leaving out Purito and a stacked Garmin lineup. Nibali seems to have killer form, although he just won… »

Velominati Super Prestige

Jump to: Scoring Guidelines • Schedule • ResultsThe Velominati Super Prestige is a season-long competition wherein readers will be submitting their predictions for the top five finishers of each qualifying race.  In order to qualify, the reader must enter their submission as a comment to the post pertaining to the race in question by 5am on th...

@Erik's posts:

  1. If you haven’t seen Wiggo’s bike toss at Trentino today… you should take a moment… http://video.eurosport.se/cykel/bradley-wiggins-had-problems_vid274038/video.shtml »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. I. Have. No. Idea. VSP PICKS: 1. Valverde 2. Gerrans 3. Gilbert 4. Sagan 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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. Here’s to my worst VSP so far! May it improve now. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Borghini 4. Armistead 5. Lucinda Brand »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. Dear commisaires: I will take a Delgado, but my picks didn’t stick. What happemed? See above com ment where I describe my whole plan. Shit. This is what I get for choosing family over bike yesterday. If I am right… I will be pissed! »

  2. @CanuckChuck Although it seems stupid to bet against Sagan, your selection is safe now that I have chosen someone else. I will continue to bet against Sagan, if only for the bragging rights when (if) he finally drops one and I pick the right guy.  Moser… »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. Goose. Egg. Great race, though. Stybar – who knew? »

  2. Favorites? Shmavorites. VSP PICKS: 1. Taylor Winny Phinney 2. Chavanel 3. Devolder 4. Johan Vansummeren 5. Stuart O’Grady »

The Double

Winning one Monument in a career is more than most Pros will ever achieve. Winning two in a season, nearly impossible. Winning two a week apart, it has been done more than a few times, by only the toughest of men. The Ronde and Roubaix both have cobbles but that is about all they have in common. Roubaix might be the harder one to win. The evil Lady...

@Erik's posts:

  1. @Buck Rogers It isn’t like Phinney doesn’t know the cobbles and velodrome. He placed well last year. He one twice for the juniors. His build up has been good. I’ve pretty much given up on Thor. Cancellara can’t seem to keep the rubber side down. Sooooo… »

  2. I’m putting my money on Phinney. Mainly because I think it is the only thing that would be cooler than the double. »

Cultural Immersion

I’ve been lucky enough to do quite a bit of travelling in my life. As a family, we travelled all over Europe when I was just a lad, and recently I’ve had the opportunity to visit more exotic places like India and Hawaii. What I’ve learned from my travels is that the key to a great experience is to leave your predispositions on t...

@Erik's posts:

  1. Great article. When I went to see PR a few years ago my French was non-existent beyond a few phrases, but my broken Spanish can get me through situations. So between failed French, a French-English dictionary, a well marked map of the region to “chase the… »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. Awesome.  From Sari Saarelainen’s website. “Welcome to follow my life as a cyclist and a singer. Here you can find all the news from races to gigs, from trainings to the latest releases. Stay tuned! I have had a great opportunity to learn from the world`… »

  2. Let’s Go Finland team actually has a Finnish rider this time — GO! Sari Saarelainen! VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Sari Saarelainen 3. Emma Johansson 4. Rochelle Gilmore 5. Teutenberg »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. Haussler deserves some fun, after all. »

  2. I shall bet against the favorites for the big win! This will not work. But then, neither do most of Jens’s attacks… except when they do. Daring? Perhaps. Crazy? Perhaps, but why not? This is supposed to be fun, afterall. And I learned at my daughter’s … »

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...

@Erik's posts:

  1. @erik Now I am all confused.  I swear I saw a bunch of S.T. results. Now I see that out was a solo break. Must. Learn.  Everything.  About all these races. »

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