Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: Rigid

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: Wellington, New Zealand

A proud male New Zeelander (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland), from a country that shares a border with a strip of Belgium. I grew up hard and tough riding a Chopper with a red flag around the coastal roads of New Plymouth before being towed to Wellington by parents. 40 years old currently, I still have a lasting love affair with cycles that I'm hoping will be eternal - A-Merckx. No. 1 Bike is a TIME Proteam with Campa Shamals

@Rigid's activity:

On Rule #12: Graveur Robber

I find it interesting to observe the chasm between parties engaged in a conversation, particularly in response to questions being asked. I’m thinking, at present, of the question, “How many bikes do you have?” My feelings in response are nothing short of complex and maybe a bit confused; reservation that I feel I should have a mo...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. That bike looks super fast Frank, capable of smoothing out any gravel road surface. The trick to grave is to keep your speed high just like on the pave and then you can blast over any corrugations caused by other vehicles. The motto ride the crest definit… »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. TJ 2. Cancellara 3. Brajkovic 4. Kreuziger 5. Albasini »

Guest Article: Down with the YJA

Bicycles and automobiles- can’t we all just get along? @Kah writes about this universal (do aliens have this issue also?) problem of us co-existing with humans in cars. We all drive cars too and have cursed the occasional cyclists for some good reason. Cars are our greatest threat. We can crawl away from our own bicycle crashes, thanks very m...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. @frank And someone currently wearing mtb shoes his his road bike. I was just riding the very beautiful bays ride in Wellington and rounding the last corner I came across three roadies all in YJA’s. From the looks of it one was Dad taking his fledglings … »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. Let us not forget the Tiffosi – a race is about the people who watch it as well. Stylish, informed, hot… »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. @Benny Wigging out – nice one.. Watching him hurl a $15,000 road bike at a wall makes me think he needs to stop taking it so seriously »

  2. Boring to go for the favourites I know but I need some points desperately..  Nice to see RadioShack turning into team NZ – go Rolly roulston VSP PICKS: 1. Vinny Nibbles 2. Wiggo 3. Scarponi 4. Hesjedal 5. Cadel »

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 &#...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Moser 2. Rolland 3. Gilbert 4. kwiatkowski 5. van avermaet »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Contador 2. J rod 3. Gilbert 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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Emma Johansson 3. Borghini 4. van Dijk 5. Armitstead »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Sagan 3. Gasparotto 4. Van Avermaet 5. Gerrans »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Chavanel 2. Flecha 3. Cancellara 4. Roelandts 5. Turgot »

Keepers Tour: Eat Properly

During last year’s Keepers Tour, the motor was fine for about two or three days until it suddenly sputtered and shut down completely on Wednesday. My basic problem, it appears, lies with my ongoing struggle with body dysmorphia; based on the quantity of calories rolling into the station on the Malteni train, I was loathe to lay into the vast...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. I remember having no problem at all with going back for thirds of Genevieve’s cooking – especially the puddings. Nevertheless I still went hunger flat on the last sector before Roubaix,as you guy’s where mixing it up with the traffic and needed William to… »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

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

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. That photo makes me get all nationalistic – go you kiwi lass! What’s with all the white gloves? It’s like a mime convention on that hill VSP PICKS: 1. Collins 2. Vos 3. Bronzini 4. Armistead 5. Johansson »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Emma Johansson 2. Elizabeth Armitstead 3. Charlotte Becker 4. Marijn De Vries 5. Elisa Longo Borghini »

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...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. It’s been a long hot summer in NZ, the tan lines are crisp and now the Spring Classics are on – let The V times roll! VSP PICKS: 1. Boonen 2. Vanmarcke 3. Nukes Nuyens 4. Boss Hogg 5. Flecha »

Velominati Photo Contest: Season 2012

Truth be told, how many of us can resist a photo of ourselves Looking Fantastic on the bike? How many of us can resist the temptation of taking our eyes off the road and stealing a glimpse of ourselves in a shop window as we pass by? Not me, but then again a strong case could be made for my being a narcissist and I freely admit that I love looking...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. »

Awesome Almost Belgian Guys: Alex and William

Recently we had a photo of Yates on the stones. Two days later, it was the killer photo of Boonen getting down to business. Until then, Frank’s photo from that day was the best photo ever but @Harminator’s shot is better. Tom tosses the squeezed bidon. The glove-less Belgian is already on his own- it’s business time. I’ll be...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. Thanks to William & Alex for one awesome week! I can’t imagine how you could top that experience but I’m sure you will.  I’m still living off the memories. Often I hit a patch of rough asphalt and I know how to ride it, full power, slightly off the se… »

Guest Article: Putting the V in Rivat

I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the Lance affair. That is a long wait. And I’m burned out on the whole doping subject so it’s great @wiscot writes up a profile of Charlie Mottet. Here is a man whose sock height I can believe in. VLVV, Gianni Continue reading...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. Great article, really enjoyed reading about a rider I hadn’t known much about. His career ran parallel to Stephen Roche who seemed clean until his last year with Carrera. Seems like Roche should have bowed out with his reputation intact like Mottet It wa… »

Velominati Super Prestige: Paris Tours 2012

The final race of the 2012 Velominati Super Prestige season is upon us. It’s not the most inspiring race, supposedly a race for the sprinters. The long straight final run in to the finish line begs for a mass sprint. It should be called Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais-Tours. The route is 235.5 km of small rollers through the French countryside. The...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Lars Boom     2. John Degenkolb 3. Gerald Ciolek   4. Sylvain Chavanel 5. Juan Antonio Flecha »

Velominati Super Prestige: Giro di Lombardia 2012

Il Grillo gives it some stick in 06. Photo: actionplus sports images[/caption]Lombardia is a beautiful race. Taking in the majestic shoreline of Lake Como and climbing past the shrine to the Madonna del Ghisallo, its stunning Italian-ness bookends the Monuments along with Milan-San Remo which started them way back in March. And it’s a coming...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Contador 2. Gilbert 3. Rodriguez 4. Basso 5. Thomas de Gendt »

Guest Article: I’ve Fallen for You

What does this have to do with the Worlds? Nothing, but it makes me laugh and includes a wicked photograph so this is the guest article today. @roadslave joined the 2012 Keepers Tour for the full week of riding and ranting and he was excellent at both. He rode at the front with a Chris Horner smile and now he admits to only riding for four years. F...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. For getting up and riding home after that Roadslave, you get my vote for hard man of the year.  This is an unforgiving sport when it goes wrong  and yet we love it so much it’s possible to keep that to the back of one’s mind and go on. Chapeau mate! »

Velominati Super Prestige: Women’s Road Championship 2012

It seems like just weeks ago that Cav won his rainbow stripes, things were said, umbrage was taken. Luckily we have found more umbrage so we are good to go. This course is not like last year. It’s not exactly a sprinters finish. It’s a 128 km rumble in Valkenberg and the Dutch team is there for Marianne Vos. She has finished second in...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. Hoping for a kiwi dark horse on the podium (mixed metaphor I know) VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Arndt 3. Vilmussen 4. Johanssen 5. Pooley »

Velominati Super Prestige: Mens World Championship Road Race 2012

I’m quite upset about it, actually, all this racing that’s been going on in perfectly good weather. Vlaanderen, dry. Roubaix, dry. We were nearly guaranteed shit weather with the Olympics in London, but even then, only the women got to get all Rule #9 on our asses – and only for one race. Damnit, I want Epic, and if we keep insis...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. Belgiums for the win! VSP PICKS: 1. Tom Boonen     2. Philippe Gilbert     3. Sylvain Chavanel 4. Ballan 5. Voeckler »

Climbing Weight

When it comes to weight and body dysmorphia, we cyclists can go toe-to-toe with any thirteen year old tween who has done their time flipping through the pages of Vogue and Sixteen. However fit and thin we might be, at some point it dawns on us that we’re not as light as we could be. The obvious solution is to buy lighter parts for our bikes,...

@Rigid's posts:

  1. Well now everyone knows he doped and it’s the dishonesty and cover-ups which I hate the most, but this quote from the man himself has a ring of truth for me (apologies for the font size) USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport a… »

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