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

Velominatus: pakrat

Order: Level 2 Velominatus

Location: Lake Tahoe, CA

@pakrat's activity:

Pink or Yellow?

We’re into day four of the Six Days of the Giro series, let’s talk trash. Yes the Tour de France started a few years before the Giro and has always been credited as The Tour to win. You win the Giro, you are a stud. Win the Tour and you are a stud for life. Why is that? Is the Tour longer, tougher, more murderous, more beautiful? In the 20...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. One thing is for certain, the Giro certainly makes the TDF more interesting.  Especially this year with what looks like a resurgent Cadel and a Wiggins with what most certainly looks like something to prove. Btw, a little off topic but Grimplette didn’t … »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS (1st Rest Day Swaps): 1. Nibali 2. Evans 3. Scarponi 4. Gesink 5. Sanchez »

Pink or Yellow?

We’re into day four of the Six Days of the Giro series, let’s talk trash. Yes the Tour de France started a few years before the Giro and has always been credited as The Tour to win. You win the Giro, you are a stud. Win the Tour and you are a stud for life. Why is that? Is the Tour longer, tougher, more murderous, more beautiful? In the 20...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. Time bonuses!  That is all for now. »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. @Sauterelle I hear you.  Personally, I’m not opposed to blowing through the odd backroad stop sign or the lesser trafficked areas of the burbs.   But I make a point of stopping when in high traffic areas.  I see no sense in creating another pissed off mo… »

  2. »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. @PeakInTwoYears Absolutely.  The photo made me giggle in response to the Belly Breathing comments earlier, but I have so much respect for anyone who gets themselves out there and puts in the effort.  After I put that up I felt a tad ashamed.  Kudos to hi… »

  2. Better example of Belly Breathing. »

Dirty Romantics

We’re into day three of the Six Days of the Giro series, and it’s time to hit the dirt.If ever a Keepers Tour goes to Italy, then we’re doing this climb. No doubt. Climbing on gravel up a real mountain, what’s not to love? Continue reading...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. Just reread SABOTAGING THE SABOTEUR for first time in a long time.  While the story was funny enough on its own, well the introduction of @Adrian put it over the top. »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. Sigh, oh well, you get the idea. »

  2. Botnet… F’n autocorrect. »

  3. Google chrome is blocking velominati.com for malware.  Fortunately safari  doesn’t give a damn.  What nefarious plans do the Keepers have for this Bontet? »

  4. @Pedale.Forchetta Me thinks Frank was consulted at the bike fit. »

  5. VSP PICKS: 1. Wiggo 2. Ryder 3. Nibali 4. Gesink 5. 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 &#...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Valverde 3. Nibali 4. J Rod 5. Henao »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. @Erik Brilliant toss though.  Couldn’t park it better if I tried. »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Valverde 3. Gerrans 4. Uran 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...

@pakrat's posts:

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

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Van Avermaet 4. Uran 5. Gerrans »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Van Avermaet 4. Hagen 5. Gerrans »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Faboo 2. Chava 3. Roelandts 4. Paolini 5. Phinney »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Faboo 2. Sagan 3. Chava 4. Haussler 5. Tornado Tom »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

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

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. @Jhortua anytime now »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Faboo 2. thor 3. chav 4. gilbert 5. sagan »

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...

@pakrat's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Faboo 2. Sagan 3. Valverde 4. Van Avermaet 5. Paolini »

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