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

Velominatus: Louutah

Order: Level 4 Velominatus

@Louutah's activity:

Merckxy Christmas, and a Coppi New Year

It has been a crazy year, this, with our first annual Keepers Tour sorted, partnerships with the industry’s leading icons including Johan Museeuw, Pavé Cycling Classics, DeFeet, fi'zi:k, and Lezyne – and a book deal to boot (deadline looming large on January 1st). We couldn’t have asked for a better year, and would like to remind...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Olympic Road Race 2012

You can all wave “goodbye” to your Post GT Depression Syndrome, because the Men’s Olympic Road Race is only three days yonder. I don’t typically give two shits about this particular event; while contested by national teams, unlike the Worlds it appears as just another one-day race on a calendar filled with events that carry...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Boonen 2. Cavendish 3. Sagen 4. Goss 5. Farrar »

Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de Suisse 2012

This is an exciting time of year. The Giro is in the books, the Tour is firmly in everyone’s sights, and those of us with the vaguest idea of how the big race will unfold are prognosticating the loudest as we use races that are proven to reveal fuck-all about what will happen at the Tour to predict what will happen at the Tour.With the Dauphi...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Horner 3. Cunego 4. Leipheimer 5. Fofonov »

The Rule #5 Talk

Have a look around to see who you find occupying your immediate vicinity. Presently, I am surrounded by a pleasant-seeming bunch. Some are even going so far as to appear happy or at least not displeased; all of them are pale and none of them fit. My attention is drawn, however, to a a portly mustached gentleman who strode into the hotel lobby with...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. Spot on! As a good friend is fond of saying (a dog trainer) “The majority of dogs as well as kids these days do not have enough jobs to do”….a dog with some jobs and excercise, is calm and mindful, same with kids. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Giro d’Italia 2012

After a winter of long training rides that offered more in the way of numb extremities than it did in acute enjoyment, I have to say that the warming of the air and brightening of the skies have served to remind me that while I love riding in bad weather, I certainly don’t have anything against riding when its nice out.But dont think for...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Basso 2. Ballan 3. Pinotti 4. Cunego 5. Visconti »

Velominati Super Prestige: Flèche Wallonne Femmes 2012

During the Ronde von Vlaanderen, we of the 2012 Keeper’s Spring Classic Tour were right on the Oude Kwaremont climb as the women big-ringed it up the cobbles. Kristin Armstrong (US Women’s Team) was burying herself to get on Judith Arndt’s (Greenedge) wheel. It looked like the winning break was going right in front of our eyes. Se...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Armstrong 2. Pooley 3. Cooke 4. Vos 5. Berlato »

Velominati Super Prestige: La Fleche Wallonne 2012

I just had to use this pic of Tom Simpson in 1965 wearing the Peugeot kit as the title pic for this year’s VSP for La Fleche Wallonne. Rigid hooked himself up on the Keepers Tour with the same kit he purchased at the Flanders Cycling Museum and it’s Grade A nipple lube. Although victory eluded Simpson in this Classic he still looked dam...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Van Avermaet 3. Fedrigo 4. Nibali 5. Appollonio »

Keepers Tour 2012 Update, Part I: Roubaix & RVV

With Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2012 stitched up and in the history books, the challenge of documenting the trip became immediately obvious; how do you take the myriad impressions, experiences, and perspectives and put them down in a meaningful way – let alone in a way that can somehow be digested. Surely, to document even just the Keeper...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. Dream trip! thanks for sharing, and I look forward to the next installments of the recap. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Amstel Gold Race 2012

When people think of the The Netherlands, they generally think of flat lands, windmills, and a topography where people claim to “live at elevation” when their home on the third floor of a building. Never the less, this is not entirely true as The Motherland does, in its most southern reaches, boast quite hilly terrain; the province of...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Evans 2. Chavanel 3. VanAvermaet 4. Devolder 5. Cunego »

Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Roubaix 2012

We rode the Pavé of Roubaix in the dry, and any comforting feelings we might have been carrying about with us that suggested we had somehow prepared for them were summarily vaporized as we hit the first secteur. Riding together in a group, unable to reach for the brakes or the shifters, we all were hit with the same realization: these aren’...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Boonen 2. Ballan 3. Gilbert 4. Ballan 5. Pazzato »

In Flanders Fields

You don’t have to be in Flanders very long before you start to breathe in the history of the area. Horrible things have happened in the fields across Northern France and Belgium, like the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of the Bulge. These are the kinds of things that hang in the air for centuries; they seep into your blood.There is a famou...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. @Dan_R Not at all what I was expecting from “MotorHead” Lemmy. Really touching song. that part of the world has been bled over for centuries, it has to been an honor to ride there and suffer. »

Cobbles, Bergs, Beer, and Legends. Putting the V Back in Vlaanderen.

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Velominati Boardroom as we’ve been scrambling to finalize a few partnerships and get all the products for the Keepers Tour customers designed and produced. Suffice to say, fists and beers were slammed in tandem as we feverishly worked out the final designs.Producing V-Pints, V-Shirts, and V-Musettes...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. Broken seat post on the Paris-Roubaix route…epic. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen 2012

The Velominati Super-Prestige continues with our second Women’s event of 2012, the Women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen. This one is made even more exciting for me by the fact that I now have some small connection to the Women’s Tibco Racing Team, as I watched with envy as they each pulled their bikes off the oversized baggage carrousel...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Henrion 2. Aubry 3. Armstrong 4. Hughes 5. DeVocht »

Velominati Super Prestige: Ronde van Vlaanderen 2012

The Keepers and Rigid rolled into a region in France called Flandres which, without doing any further research into the matter, we assume is the coloquial French term for this region of the world. If its anything like the other regions in Europe, these places have roots that extend way past any modern country’s border and situate themselves i...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Van Avermaet 2. Thor 3. Bonnen 4. Cancellara 5. Gilbert »

Waiting for My Bike

Points of complication are usually both surprising and completely predictable. Take, for instance, international travel. We don’t really have trouble cramming a few hundred people who don’t know each other in a small, confined space and chucking in the air at 9,000 meteres to a destination several thousand kilometers away. That bit, a...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. @harminator Nice!! »

In Memoriam: The Tricolore

It was a simple time. Team kit was understated, with black shorts and a few colored panels on the jersey. Race Leader and National Championship jerseys were plain, and often even lacking in the name of the sponsor. National Championship jerseys in particular were a matter of national pride more than sponsorship; it was an honor to fly the colors o...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. I think you can throw Garmin’elo into that mix as well. I do however, like the huge ‘e on the back of the kit. »

Cobbles, Bergs, Beer, and Legends. Putting the V Back in Vlaanderen.

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Velominati Boardroom as we’ve been scrambling to finalize a few partnerships and get all the products for the Keepers Tour customers designed and produced. Suffice to say, fists and beers were slammed in tandem as we feverishly worked out the final designs.Producing V-Pints, V-Shirts, and V-Musettes...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. Nice!! add some of that gear to the store and you will be that much closer to retirement with the cash that will be thrown your way……. »

Guest Article: My Journey from Milano to Sanremo

While the rest of us where bickering over the style in which the finale of one of the most exciting editions of Milano-Sanremo played out, @Pedale.Forchetta was busy behind the finish line, living and breathing the reality of the race. He spent the day following the race to photograph the riders and tifosi and generously shares his story and photos...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. Thanks for sharing, great pic’s!! »

Velominati Super Prestige: Gent-Wevelgem 2012

Gent conjures up images of the quintessential Flemish city. Age-old medieval architecture rising from the river’s edge is classically Belgian. Gent is also firmly tied to Belgium’s greatest gift to the world, cycling tradition. Many a pro-expat cyclist has relocated to Gent with the hope of testing their mettle in the seat of cycling...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Boonen 2. Hushovd 3. Martens 4. Millar 5. Ballan »

Velominati Super Prestige: Milano San-Remo 2012

The Poggio. It’s probably one of the most famous easy climbs in the world; going through old cycling photographs, I rarely come across one where the leaders haven’t moved Sur La Plaque. It has a reputation, however, for being a real leg breaker, mostly because any climb is a big climb once you cross its summit after a paltry 291 kilomet...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cav 2. Boonen 3. Hushovd 4. Cancellara 5. Sagan »

Keepers Tour Update: Contact Point Supplier: fi’zi:k

It’s crazy to me how fast two months from peaking goes by. At Christmas time I remember thinking how distant the Keepers Tour 2012 felt and that I’d have plenty of time to train. Now that time is measured in weeks instead of months and my feelings tend more toward doubt about my form. Cycling in Northeastern Minnesota in January, Februa...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. Cogal in Belgium sounds very cool. I am sure there will be an extensive recap here that I am looking forward to! That and the pictorial recap of the drunken red light district adventures….F-i-z-i-k. »

Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Nice 2012

It’s right around this time of year when the little voice in my head that spurs me on in cold, wet, Rule #9 conditions starts getting overpowered by all my other personalities who at this stage are gathering stones and crowbars and getting ready to enforce their will on him regarding their preference for riding in nice, warm, sunny conditi...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Taylor Phinney 2. Frank Schleck 3. Tomas Voeckler 4. Heinrich Haussler 5. Bradley Wiggins »

Velominati Super Prestige: Strade Bianche 2012

The Monte Paschi Strade Bianchi is happening this Saturday and it is such an interesting race we are putting it into the VSP.  The route is a mix of pavement and white marble sectors that roam through the hilly Tuscan country and finishes in the middle of beautiful Sienna. It seems early to me but that is because the Giro had an epic stage on the...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Philippe Gilbert 2. Marco Pinotti 3. Fabian Cancellara 4. Ryder Hesjedal 5. Vincenzo Nibali »

Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

We kick off the first races of the 2012 VSP with a double-header as we open the picks for the VVomen’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Aside from an early hiccup, the new software has been running as expected, though I should have known better than to declare something as “tested”; as the first few picks went in sideways, there was more co...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Amanda Spratt 2. Sofie DeVuyst 3. Katt Hannes 4. Anne Arnouts 5. Thea Thorsen »

Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

The 2012 Velominati Super Prestige kicks off in proper form this season with the debut of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as part of the series. I’m tempted to stubbornly refer to this race as Het Volk, but I’ll toe the line and refer to the race by its bewildering new(ish) name.This is a tricky race to predict because the big races in April ar...

@Louutah's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Stijn Devolder 2. Philippe Gilbert 3. Tom Boonen 4. Thor Hushovd 5. Lars Boom »