Velominati Super Prestige:
Giro D'Italia 2013
Velominati Community Profile Archive

Velominatus: harminator

Order: Gray Order Velominatus

"We used to live in a rolled up newspaper in a septic tank." Found the bike relatively late in life after a mis-spent youth. Now cured, living northern Sydney, soaking up the serenity and agony of the local gorges... Married, 2 kids, school teacher (design & tech) renovating the house and running the school MTB program.

@harminator's activity:

The Importance of Environment

While all evidence points to the contrary, the 20th century’s greatest twatwaffle LE Gunderson may have got something at least half right after all. Of course it’s about the bike, otherwise we’d be runners. But there are other factors that contribute to what makes us Cyclists which can often be overlooked completely. Not the cloth...

@harminator's posts:

  1. I was just contemplating this on my Tuesday night ride this week. Everything prior to roll out is extra effort – lights, kit, raising the energy to simply start. But the rewards are magnified too. As we strung out on a long desent, swapping off and spinni… »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. Replacing both Ryder from 3 and Beaker from 1. Still not right but I’ll gamble on Cuddles getting better and Nibbles blowing up on stage 19… VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps): 1. Cuddles 2. Nibbles 3. Uran 4. Santa mbrogio 5. Scared Pony »

The Lexicon

The Velominati have our own set of nicknames and terms which have developed over time through posts and correspondence. Some of these are names of landmarks or terms in cycling; others are nicknames for some of the riders in the pro peloton. While not intended to be offensive or derogatory, the nicknames in the list represent the riders’ pe...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @VanBrudenrijden +1. Very good. No angel greater than a mongrel. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @strathlubnaig Love it. Just waiting for the “my rivals must have hacked my wireless shifting” excuse from someone now. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. This just in. A man in a brown jumper stole a power bar and electrolyte drink from the feed station during today’s Critical Mass event. Witnesses say he attempted a cunning disguise by pulling his trousers up to the knee and pointing his knees outwards. … »

  2. @brett Yellow Back Pack Cover Atrocities? …because there’s nothing worse than your YJA being obscured by something not Y. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @PeakInTwoYears Thanks. When Rossi is moved to say Fuck its the end of the affair. »

  2. »

  3. You only need to counter-steer your motorbike to adjust for drift. Apparently its harder at 300kph. These guys survive on V. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. pozzovivo 2. santambrogio 3. scarponi 4. nibbles 5. Good Cadel »

Sur La Plaque: Rule #33

We’re heaping coals on the Giro frenzy that’s burning in all corners of the Cycling world by issuing the second installment of the monthly BigRingRiding Sur la Plaque series while at the same time kicking off the Six Days of the Giro series where we’ll post six articles on the subject of this, the best Grand Tour of the year. Y...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @Asyax Don’t listen to @mcsqueak or @piwakawaka. The standard is “You’re shaving your legs. Stop where your legs stop”. Shave more if it floats your boat but such endeavours have nothing to do with #33. Do not stop just above the tan line. This results… »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. Too much TTT and ITT for Nibs… VSP PICKS: 1. Jolly Naughty Wiggins 2. Nibbles 3. Hey Jadal 4. Santa mbrogio 5. Scared Pony »

Anatomy of a Photo: Rule #47

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @DocBrian - Maybe…(yes, they’re transparent!) »

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 &#...

@harminator's posts:

  1. Yup VSP PICKS: 1. Giblets 2. Valverde 3. Gerro 4. Nibbles 5. Kwiatkowski »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Albasini 3. Fingerbang 4. Valverde 5. Jelle »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. I wanted to upload some pics but I’m on an iPad…meh. VSP PICKS: 1. Cromwell 2. Vos 3. Armistead 4. Kitchen 5. Van Dijk »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. I have some first hand experience on the mur de Huy from my ‘weepers tour’ this time last year. It makes the Cauberg look like a false flat. Low down its manageable but somewhere in the lower third you get kicked up the cluster and then out of the saddle…. »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @ChrisO I don’t know where xyxax lives but asyax lives in Perth…easily confused! »

  2. That extra K at the top of the Cauberg will sort the grimps from the chimps. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Boss Hogg 3. Giblets 4. Terpstra 5. Gerrans »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @asyax Also apologies from me asyax – I’ve confused you with xyxax from the beginning – silly me! (If you two had a lovechild it’d be worth heaps in scrabble!) »

  2. Wow. Fluked that DM albums thing! Vivid memories of a hard, hot day. Thanks everyone! »

  3. Slideshow: Fullscreen: Download: Powered by DM Albums™ »

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...

@harminator's posts:

  1. @asyax Ooh, nothing (except 2000 odd calories of beer)! Tops edition. Fabs deserved his win – strong & smart. Nextt year we need  Boonen V Fabs showdown.  Please book the beds William! »

  2. So who can suck Fab’s wheel best? Langeveld looks the goods. »

  3. Fabs has the yips and will repeat his cornering form from London…Once he’s gapped, the rest of the field will ride like nutbags trying to seize the day… VSP PICKS: 1. Hayman 2. Chav 3. Turgot 4. Roelandts 5. Durbo »

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