Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: Simon

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: Taranaki, New Zealand

@Simon'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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. Toughest one of the year so far to pick for… VSP PICKS: 1. Van Garderen 2. Hesjedal 3. Brajkovic 4. Kreuziger 5. Pozzovivo »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. Swapping out Evans for Hesjedal.  Leaving Wiggins there to stew.  Hope it all goes ugly in sky camp in july and war breaks out – could be good watching… VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps): 1. Nibali 2. Evans 3. Kiserlovski 4. Sanchez 5. Wiggins »

  2. @Mikael Liddy Yep, good luck… »

  3. Love to see Ryder make it two in a row but I reckon Nibbles will be too strong for him.  I’m picking Wiggo to crash and lose time, assume tour leadership and for Froome to bugger off somewhere else next year in a cloud of high dudgeon. Kind of hoping Kise… »

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 &#...

@Simon's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Hesjedal 2. Gilbert 3. Rodrigues 4. Martin 5. Betancur »

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...

@Simon's posts:

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

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Contador 2. Martin 3. Valverde 4. Sagan 5. JTL »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Van Dijk 3. Johansson 4. Borghini 5. Stevens »

Cobbles, Carbon, Silk, and Dust

I hadn’t planned to ride them every day. In fact, I had planned to only ride them once and let other people ride them. But, genius that I am, I forgot my ceramic brake pads and had to source some new ones which was a maddeningly difficult process given that Europe observes something in the neighborhood of 363 holidays per year.I was more than...

@Simon's posts:

  1. You’re probably quite right, Frank, but it still fills my heart with sadness.  Raced on my golden tickets yesterday in the most piss-awful weather, never felt anything other than secure and happy (and on the verge of vomiting of course, but that should be… »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Boassen Hagen 3. Gilbert 4. Valverde 5. Iglinsky »

The Bikes

The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.It seems in s...

@Simon's posts:

  1. @pistard Me like the look of them, very nice – will get looking.  Veloflex Arenberg’s seem to get a good press too, so I shall see what turns up at the right price   @minion – no, in NZ – so forced to repair my own. I’ve never really tried sealant.  Go… »

  2. @pistard   Thanks chap – I’ll look into them .  Do they have the same sort of one-piece construction as the other conti tubs?  I love conti clinchers but the one thing that’s put me off their tubs is the lack of repairability…never like chucking a 100… »

  3. Right gents – opinions / advice please.  I have a 3-day race coming up on some roads which are, in places, less than stellar, which is a polite way of saying shite.  I expect the weather to be awful.  I will be rolling my 32h nemesis’s as race wheels #1, … »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. I’m sure P-R’s lottery will mix things up a bit.  Could have picked five or six others for a place, at least.  Be good to see big Thor do a ride, but I’m afraid he’s going to turd… VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Boom 3. Devolder 4. Phinney 5. Chavanel »

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...

@Simon's posts:

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

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Borghini 3. Armitstead 4. De Vries 5. Bronzini »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Gunnewijk 3. Armitstead 4. Johannson 5. Van Dijk »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. we could make this a double or quits thing like the lottery by having a single yes/no answer as to whether Tyler F crashes.  Reckon it’s just about a 50/50… VSP PICKS: 1. Cav 2. Goss 3. Sagan 4. Petacchi 5. Farrar »

Defining Moments: Hood Position

If I spent half a summer riding with one hand on the tops and one on the hoods, I spent the other half riding with each hand deliberately gripping the hoods differently. As any young Cyclist growing up in the United States in the late 80s, I had a major thing for Greg LeMond.I imagined Greg to be the perfect Cyclist, as youth often does of their...

@Simon's posts:

  1. @Spun Up I’ve been concerned about this in the recent past.  I came to my own private conclusion that placing the hoods so that a spirit level reads level when placed to the highest point – the titty bit – and the flat of the bar before it begins to dro… »

  2. @unversio I’m not debating that he’s in perfect control of his danger.  Most hitmen are.  It’s the entirely hypothetical possibility of him being in control of my danger I was worried about. »

  3. Not quite sure how you define this…other than that the owner’s a dangerous loonie who should never be crossed… »

Look Pro: Éclatant de Panache

The Prophet was very clear on how best to ride an individual Time Trial; start as fast as possible and finish as fast as possible. As for the middle, his advice was to ride that as fast as possible.The same can be said of climbing; as we covered in Part I and Part II of the Sur La Plaque series, the key to climbing well is to hit the bottom as ha...

@Simon's posts:

  1. As it’s climbery, seems like the place to put it – dunno if anyone else saw this on inrng’s twitter feed.  Can’t say I’ve ever beer much of a Schleck fan but this is just sad. http://inrng.tumblr.com/post/45273531978/a-french-parliamentarian-says-he-met-… »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. Plotting on a couple of strong / wily old dogs to slip away, bunch gallop close behind… VSP PICKS: 1. Pozzato 2. Cancellara 3. Cav 4. Sagan 5. Goss »

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...

@Simon's posts:

  1. My god, decent points for the first time ever.  Although you’ve gotta feel a bit of a fraud when Vos is racing… »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Bronzini 3. Johansson 4. Armitstead 5. De Vries »

    3. Older Posts