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

Velominatus: torrefie

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@torrefie's activity:

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS (2nd Rest Day Swaps): 1. Nibali 2. Evans 3. Scarponi 4. Hesjedahl 5. Uran »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. nibali 2. uran 3. wiggins 4. scarponi 5. henao »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Wiggins 2. Nibali 3. Scarponi 4. Hesjedahl 5. Uran »

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 &#...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Gilbert 2. Froome 3. Rodriguez 4. Henao 5. Valverde »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Rodriguez 3. Valverde 4. Gilbert 5. Moser »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. VOS 2. JOHANSSON 3. VAN DIJK 4. LONGO BORGHINI 5. VAN VLEUTEN »

  2. VSP PICKS: 1. VOS 2. JOHANSSON 3. VAN DIJK 4. LONGO BORGHINI 5. STEVENS »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Sagan 2. Gilbert 3. Van Avermaet 4. Moser 5. Voeckler »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Flecha 3. stannard 4. Thomas 5. chavanel »

Cultural Immersion

I’ve been lucky enough to do quite a bit of travelling in my life. As a family, we travelled all over Europe when I was just a lad, and recently I’ve had the opportunity to visit more exotic places like India and Hawaii. What I’ve learned from my travels is that the key to a great experience is to leave your predispositions on t...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. Looks ok to me »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cancellara 2. Sagan 3. chavanel 4. Stannard 5. Thomas »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. VOS 2. JOHANSSON 3. VAN DIJK 4. ARMITSTEAD 5. LONGO BORGHINI »

Cultural Immersion

I’ve been lucky enough to do quite a bit of travelling in my life. As a family, we travelled all over Europe when I was just a lad, and recently I’ve had the opportunity to visit more exotic places like India and Hawaii. What I’ve learned from my travels is that the key to a great experience is to leave your predispositions on t...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. wow – Velominati @ 1.00 »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. @Sauterelle I’m not sure a wheelie counts as panache. Here… This is panache… »

  2. @Sauterelle  I’m with frank on this one… I might have forgiven him if it had been a successful wheelie but, honestly, it was slightly crap… Still, I suppose he had just won Gent-Wevelgem. (That doesn’t stop him from being a massive Knob Jockey though)… »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. VOS Marianne 2. JOHANSSON Emma 3. ARMITSTEAD Elisabeth 4. VAN DIJK Ellen 5. LONGO BORGHINI Elisa »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. peter Sagen 2. tom boonen 3. Fabian Cancellara 4. Geraint Thomas 5. Ian Stannard »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Mark Cavendish 2. Geraint Thomas 3. Fabian Cancellara 4. Peter Sagan 5. tom boonen »

Anatomy Of A Photo: The Gents Of Wevelgem

If you ever doubted for a minute that the hardmen of yore drafted the blueprint for The Rules, you need only look at these fine examples to be reminded that no matter how limited the resources they had to work with, they still managed to do a better job of Looking Fantastic than we ever could.It matters not to them that having pockets in the front...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. Clearly there is some element of pre elastane, sock deficiency at play here, but I have to say that these guys seems to have a Casually Deliberate air about the ankles that the likes of Wiggins and some of the other Rule #27 testers should take note of. »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Fabian Cancellara 2. Lars Boom 3. Grega Bole 4. Peter Sagan 5. Enrico Gasparotto »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. @Sauterelle I just signed up to cyclingtv to find that out – bugger. They need HTFU, What’s wrong with a bit of snow? »

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...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Niki Terpstra 2. Juan Antonio Flecha 3. Tom Boonen 4. Geraint Thomas 5. Thor Hushovd »

Velominati Super Prestige: Men’s Olympic Road Race 2012

You can all wave “goodbye” to your Post GT Depression Syndrome, because the Men’s Olympic Road Race is only three days yonder. I don’t typically give two shits about this particular event; while contested by national teams, unlike the Worlds it appears as just another one-day race on a calendar filled with events that carry...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. VSP PICKS: 1. Cavendish 2. Greipel 3. sagan 4. Goss 5. Boassen hagen »

Anatomy of a Photo: You Can Leave Your Hat On

Sometimes, when there’s a job to be done, you just don’t care what you look like. As with gardening, changing the oil or building that new pergola, the best gear for the job is usually the most practical, not the most stylish. In this Cor Vos image from the 1985 Liége-Bastogne-Liége, keeping warm is clearly the main objective of this...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. wooly hats and sleeves? – don’t be so childish! »

Transcending the Rules: Group Ride with T-Bone

The question has been raised a number of times and the answer has always been vague: do the pros set The Rules, do they Obey them, or are they beyond them? As with everything philosophical, the answer is open to interpretation and difficult to identify. The Rules are about history, culture, etiquette, class, and style. That necessarily means that...

@torrefie's posts:

  1. I also saw the fella twice this year.. once, snapped by my Velomihottie, on the Bola del mundo looking a little tired behind the douch man.. and 24 hours giving the very same man a good beating with the pain stick in the final stage of the Vuelta… go… »