Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: dancollins

Order: Leader of the Velominati Super Prestige Competition

Location: Wisconsin

Social: Website

@dancollins's activity:

V to the Vth Degree

La Vie Velominatus isn’t a part-time gig. La Vie means the life, and The V is my life. Otherwise, I’d be Some V Velominatus, some of the time.Even when I’m not riding my bike, like the last two weeks (for reasons which don’t really matter, and offering them only renders them excuses), I live La Vie through other avenues. Eve...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. For an interesting alternative, you might want to read “The Paleo Diet for Athletes” by Loren Cordain and Joel Friel. I’ve been doing it for 3 or 4 months. I’ve never felt better. We eat only free range meat. »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. TeeJay Van Garderen 2. Bauke Mollema 3. Rui Costa 4. Roman Kreuziger 5. Dan Martin »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. I now see on Podium Café that the race may be cancelled as of tonight. »

  2. I take it we aren’t picking the women’s Tour Languedoc Roussillon which starts tomorrow?? »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Santambrogio 2. Scarponi 3. Nibali 4. Henao 5. S. Sanchez »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Nibali 2. Wiggins 3. Scarponi 4. Hesjedal 5. Samuel Sanchez »

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 &#...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Valverde 2. Gerrans 3. Nibali 4. Kwiatkowski 5. Mollema »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Henao 2. Quintana 3. P. Gilbert 4. Albasini 5. Dan Martin »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johanssen 3. Van Dijk 4. Borghini 5. Moolman »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Peter Sagan 2. Simon Gerrans 3. A. Valverde 4. P. Gilbert 5. J. Rodriguez »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Fabian Cancellara 2. Jurgen Roelandts 3. Alexander Kristoff 4. Sylvain Chavenel 5. Sebastian Turgot »

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

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Van Vleuten 3. Johannson 4. Wild 5. Van Dijk »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cancellara 3. Chavenel 4. G. Thomas 5. Paolini »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Worrack 4. Guderzo 5. Cantele »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Cancellara 3. Bozic 4. Boasson Hagen 5. Roelandts »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Nibali 3. Cancellara 4. G. Thomas 5. Chavenel »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Johansson 3. Wild 4. Gunnewijk 5. Bronzini »

Velominati Super Prestige: L’Eroica/Strade Bianche 2013

Until the 70′s it was common to race on gravel roads, but the Paving of the Planet has led to nearly every road being graced by smooth, black tarmac. As is the case with most things, once we are shown the easy path, it is difficult to return to more arduous ways. So it is with gravel roads; we take measures to avoid unpaved roads and in doi...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Sagan 3. Valverde 4. Van Avermaet 5. Pozzato »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Emma Johansson 2. Trixi Worrack 3. Borghini 4. Armistead 5. Bras »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Terpstra 2. Sep Vanmarke 3. Avermaat 4. Roelandts 5. Boasson Hagen »

Portrait of a Hardwoman: Nicole Cooke

Cycling is hard; I’m not leaking any trade secrets with that statement, but it feels good to say it anyway. No Cyclist avoids suffering, but of those who venture into our world, there are some who seek to limit it while others choose to embrace it. Then we have a handful of characters who consider playing Whack-a-Mole with the Man with the Ha...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. Frank: I don’t think I have commented on your great writing. I absolutely loved the playing Whack-A-Mole (never knew what that was) with the Man with the Hammer. From now on that will be my theme thought every time I climb. Nicole was a great rider and th… »

Book Reviews: Racing Through the Dark, The Secret Race

I must admit to not having read most of the cycling memoirs in the Works. I may eventually but the local public library doesn’t carry any of them and never will so I’ll have to buy them or ask Frank to tote everything he has to Hawaii. I did get off my wallet and buy these two and it was money well spent. David Millar and Tyler Hamilton...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. I think this is a great day for the future of professional cycling. I also applaud the prosecutors who had the balls to take on the entire sport to help clean it up for future riders. I have a daughter who has some interest and ability in cycling and Iron… »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Bouhanni 2. Degenkolb 3. Blythe 4. Boom 5. Van Avermaet »

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...

@dancollins's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Contador 2. Gilbert 3. J. Rodriguez 4. Uran 5. Nibali »

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