Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: The Grande Fondue

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@The Grande Fondue's activity:

Saved By The Bike

Addiction is typically defined as a bad thing. Addiction to drugs, to alcohol, sex or even work is usually portrayed as a condition to be battled, to overcome. The same sources may recommend a strict regime of regular exercise and healthy living as the perfect antidote to the bad addictions that befall an overwhelming majority of the general popul...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. There are no weekend cyclists, because you can’t be fit enough to be a cyclist if you only ride the weekends, and unfit people on bikes aren’t cyclists, merely bike riders. (Ok there are probably some exceptions to that, but I’m pretty sure they are all f… »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. I say Rule #9 to anyone that complain about me (or anyone) wearing a Hi-Vis rain jacket. »

  2. @ChrisO http://www.cyclingmaven.com/bunnings-is-not-a-bike-shop/ We do have some pretty aggressive magpies here. The real solution is Rule V of course.. »

Descendeur

We close out the 6 Days of the Giro with our sixth and final installment.A body at rest, stays at rest. A body in motion, stays in motion. Things get a bit more ambiguous when it comes to a body on a bicycle tearing down a twisty mountain descent at speed, particularly in the rain. But it is here, on the boundary between clarity and ambiguity, wher...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. There’s a great line from an interview with former Australian Superbike racer & now National Road Seriese racer Shannon Johnston: Are there skills from motorbike racing and cycling that transfer? Without a doubt, I guess the most noticeable one is m… »

  2. The biggest problem with descents in races is that the bikes go too fast to get good footage. The need to start using remote control mini-helicopters. Isle of Man TT: https://vimeo.com/46856767 just because. Pure V »

Self-Chosen: Il Pirata & Il Giro

We continue our Six Days of the Giro series with a look at the troubled bond between Marco Pantani and the Giro.Some were meant to be tormented, as though it were preordained that their brilliance should be balanced with fatal flaws. These are tortured souls, whose dramatic highs are equalled only by the devastating depths of their lows. Continu...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. @frank – the link to the YouTube vid isn’t workign for me. @TBONE – I think Spinaci’s look pro. Kinda like Scott Drop-In’s (but maybe more useful?) »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. I’m hoping I’m wrong with my tips and the Skybots fail. But at least I’ll get points if I’m unhappy. VSP PICKS: 1. Wiggins 2. Hesjedal 3. Nibali 4. Scarponi 5. Gesink »

The Weight of a Moniker

Young riders rise through the ranks with such promise. We all know the story; the rider who borrows a bicycle and enters a local race and wins. He decides he might be good at going batshit fast on a bike. Mom and Dad buy him a klunker for his birthday and he takes out a license. He starts winning most races he enters locally and rises to the region...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. @Sauterelle A Schleck was supposed to be who? The next Charley Gaul? I’d say he achieved that. I don’t think anyone every said he’d be the next Merckx or anything. When he was young Contador was supposed to be the next Armstrong. Now, of course, he’s rid… »

  2. Sagan »

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 &#...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. I occasionally ride with a guy who insists on wearing full Sky kit. Rides a Pinerallo too. After waiting at the top of a hill I told him how he looked just like a Team Sky rider in the Ardennes classics. He seemed to like that – bit too subtle I guess? A… »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Gerrans 3. Valverde 4. Joaquim Rodriguez 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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Meh, had everyone in the wrong order. Except for Vos of course – never tip against The V Nice seeing Carlee Taylor in 14th. She owns Strava for all the hills that matter around Adelaide, and I feel better getting Chicked by her when she gets results like… »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Ooo.. Porte is racing. No more JRod VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. GERRANS 4. Valverde 5. PORTE Richie »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. VAN DIJK Ellen 4. LONGO BORGHINI Elisa 5. BRAND Lucinda »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Is there a start list up yet? If Sky brought Porte… VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. GERRANS 4. Valverde 5. RODRIGUEZ Joaquim »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Gerrans 4. Joaquím Rodríguez 5. Alejandro Valverde »

The Rules

We are the Keepers of the Cog. In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this list.See also The Prophet’s Prayer. Continue reading...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. I was throwing out the box a tube came in when the instructions fell out and open themselves to this. Rule #40 indeed! It was like receiving the 10 commandments »

Cogal Report – TDU Cogadelaide 2013

While the Northern Hemisphere Velominati were busy arguing about who injected what in the old races they’d been using to distract themselves during their indoor torture sessions, down South a bunch of like minded strangers from the internet decided that coffee, hills, sunshine & beer seemed like a great excuse to meet up for a ride̷...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Great write-up. I hope to make it to the next one. I still have mixed feeling about having it on the same day as RLC though. Lots of people like that ride. »

Guest Article: Finding My Level

Keepers Tour 2012 veteran @ChrisO is back to his racing ways in Cyprus. Yes, this is not Northern France; let us take a brief respite and go to warmer Mediterranean climes. This is ChrisO’s second guest article about his racing; his first was a stage race, the Tour of Sharjah, last year. Yours in Cycling, Gianni Continue reading...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. That’s a great write-up. What do people think about road tubeless clinchers, especially using a conversion kit on non-tubeless rims (Fulcurm 3′s and/or C50′s) I’ve had a couple of pinch flats lately and I’m tempted to try it. »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Chavanel & Boss Hog because they held onto the Cancelgan train longer than anyone else. Glad Kwiatkowski isn’t listed as racing because I liked his ride at Flanders so much I’d be tempted to put him. That would be dumb though, wouldn’t it? VSP PICKS:… »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Even though I had Sagan, I loved that. That’s what Flanders is about – no wheelies, no running, just power. »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Not much coverage, but on the men’s broadcast they just mentioned Vos won the women’s race. Here’s the results: 1 Marianne Vos (Ned) Rabobank     2 Ellen Van Dijk (Ned) Specialized-lululemon     3 Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica-AIS     4 Elisa Long… »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cancellara 3. Chavanel 4. Van Avermaet 5. Boonen »

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...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Kirsten Wild 3. Emma Johansson 4. Tiffany Cromwell 5. Elisa Longo Borghini »

Sur la Plaque: Rule #9

As many of you know, there’s been a lot of synergy between BIGRINGRIDING and Velominati for several years now. Though BRR and Velominati have very different flavors, we work on a similar principle: foster passion for the sport through a mix of knowledge, history, and humor tempered with a healthy dose of irreverence, all while obviously makin...

@The Grande Fondue's posts:

  1. Apparently Heinrich Haussler has ridden every race this season without gloves (including Milan-Sanremo & Gent-Wevelgem). Not sure if that is Rule #9 or just crazy. »

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