Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: eenies

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: NE Scotland

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I have always ridden a road bike, from a 5 speed Raleigh in my early teens to today's 20 speed carbon Dream machine. Never raced, recently joined a cycling club, Ythan CC. Former competitive surfer, once finished =33rd in the European Championships. Have been a big fan of pro cycling since Channel 4 started broadcasting TdF highlights back in the Roche, Fignon, Delgado days.

@eenies's activity:

In most situations, silence is an ominous thing that signals impending doom. Having never been in any danger myself, I base this largely on my experience watching box-office movies. As a general rule, I use Hollywood as the principal source of information on all subjects as they relate to doom and politics, principally because I’m loath t...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @wiscot Lookin for the man with the hammer? Chapeau. »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. Ouch, that 20 pt penalty stings but I feel that if I do enough hill repeats it should numb the pain. VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps): 1. Evans 2. Nibbles 3. Uran Uran 4. Henao 5. Betancur »

Date/Time: 8th June 2013Meeting at the Car Park near where I live which is free at VV to nine. We’ll then roll into town for a coffee stop at Empire State Coffee which serves the best coffee in Dundee according to the VMH. Then we ride all the way up to Cairn ‘O’ Mount at which point there are several options. For those with the l...

@eenies's posts:

  1. Date/Time: 8th June 2013

    Location:  Magdalen Yard Road Car Park, Dundee, DD1 4NB
    Route Details:  170km starting in Dundee, reaching Cairn ‘O’ Mount, over the top riding a wee loop then back over and home to Dundee.

    Meeting at the Car Park near where I live which is free at VV to nine. We’ll then roll into town for a coffee stop at Empire State Coffee which serves the best coffee in Dundee according to the VMH. Then we ride all the way up to Cairn ‘O’ Mount at which point there are several options. For those with the legs it’s over the top and round a small loop before coming back over the Mount to then stop at The Clattering Brig for refreshments. Option Two is to ride up to the top, turn around and wait for those going over at TCB. The third Option is to just stop at The Clattering Brig and not take on the climb but I hope no-one chooses this option. Then the party of Velominati will travel back to the Car Park where showering facilities will be available at my place as well as some food before we walk a short distance for the recovery beverages. The long route climbing the Cairn ‘O’ Mount from both sides is about 170km. All welcome.

    VLVV

    snoov

     

    Event Details

    Loading Map....

    Date/Time
    Date - June 08, 2013
    8:40 AM - 8:30 PM

    Location
    Magdalen Yard Road Car Park

    Cogal Details
    Route Details

    Ride Classification

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @Beers I just spent a cupla weeks in Tenerife, my downhill skills really came on and I managed to overtake a few cars between the hairpins on my last day. It’s a wee bit dangerous but terrific fun. Thankfully I had to fly home before the inevitable conc… »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. No swaps, 6pts are better than 1. Anyway the 1st week is just the aperitif, the Giro begins with Tuesdays 20% kick in the balls. At least one favourite will lose a shed load of time. »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. A stage for the wee yins I think. VSP PICKS: 1. Pozzovivo 2. Betancur 3. Atapuma 4. Evans 5. Wiggins »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @wiscot 2100m of vertical. Today is a rest day, not for religious reasons but because I’m FKD. »

  2. Stayed up late to watch the highlights after a 2100m ride mostly in the pain cave. Dozed my way thru the 4 days of Dunkirk but was wide awake for the Giro, love those grand tours. Defo worth the wait to see Cav dig deep to win and hilarious to see the bar… »

  3. No mop of hair to overheat the brain, no sidies to slow him down in the TT’s, wiggo in pink… suits you sir! »

  4. VSP PICKS: 1. Sir Wiggins 2. Nibbles 3. Ryder 4. Henao 5. Betancur »

André Leducq was a complete French Badass, with a capital B. He was third, below Merckx and Hinault for Tour de France stage wins. Nicolas Frantz was an equally Badass Luxembourger. He rode to more victories than Frandy Schleck shall ever attain in a few lifetimes. He did win the Tour de France.The crowd is obviously pleased to have these thin, he...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @the Engine No, closer to Sandhaven than Stonehaven and my feet have never been very fleet. »

  2. One warm but windy day I was descending at the regulation “ludicrous” speed when my contact lenses shrivelled up from lack of blinking and fell out of my eyes. I suddenly found myself riding blind but managed to come to a safe stop. Luckily the lenses had… »

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 &#...

@eenies's posts:

  1. May as well throw darts at the start list. VSP PICKS: 1. Jelle Vanendert 2. Damiano Cunego 3. Alberto Contador Velasco 4. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte 5. Phillipe Gilbert »

My first article on Velominati was to introduce one of my favorite cyclists, Eros Poli. I refered to him as a domestique on the Mercatone-Uno team. This faux pas was properly pointed out much later by @KaffeineKeiser, a commenter who suddenly surfaced and unfortunately submerged just as quickly, like Das Boot in the Straits of Gibraltar.*I do tak...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @Dr C As well as hammering on front of the bunch Kosta is also strong enough to win mountain stages in the Giro del Trentino as he did today,  Vasily with a capital V. »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Sagan 3. Piti 4. Henao 5. Gerrans »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Vos 2. Spratt 3. Longo Borghini 4. Van Dijk 5. Armistead »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. Only a solitary point but just glad Piti did not win. »

Was Paris-Roubaix the best of the Spring Classics in 2013? Milan-Sanremo was amazingly photogenic, Ronde van Vlaanderen was inevitable but Roubaix was just about perfect. We all prefer the wet and gray “This weather is good for us” Roubaix yet this race’s drama transcended the fine spring day in the North of France. There is no be...

@eenies's posts:

  1. I must confess to owning toe condoms, they do indeed look shiddy and like Stijn, black on top of White Ladies looks worse than numb toes feels. I shall consign them to the box of forbidden things where they will join the EPMS, the clip-on peak for the hel… »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. Who can bet against the bum pincher after Brabantse Pijl (also gets my vote for the best race name) VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Albasini 3. Gilbert 4. Terpstra 5. J Vanendert »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @mrs engine Thanks Jenny, I’ve been wishing I was there on the Keepers Tour but now that I know that your other half has a stinker of a cold I’m glad I’m not. I bet that all of the Velominati will be leaving the gitte infected with Scottish man flu germs… »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. @biggles The consensus (from the Keepers thread) seems to be that it’s more mingin than blingin but I kinda like it. »

  2. @zipper Bar tape should be matched to…? The sovereign ring on your finger? The medallion around your neck? »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Kristoff 2. Ladagnous 3. Roelandts 4. Thomas 5. Cancellara »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. C’mon G VSP PICKS: 1. Geraint 2. Haussler 3. Sagan 4. Cancellara 5. Terpstra »

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...

@eenies's posts:

  1. At least I can get my picks in for the Ladies…c’mon the quines. VSP PICKS: 1. Van Dijk 2. Armistead 3. Vos 4. Wild 5. Johansson »