Thanks for the memories.

Further off topic, this video reminded me of your national road race days, though a bit before your time.

http://youtu.be/6puGAwjdhoM

On my way to our feed we went to a part of the Catskills mountains I had never been and we were driving on an unbelievably beautiful road, curvey, short sharp rollers and a surface like glass, plus the day was crystal clear, warm and there was a stuning setting sun. I was just thinking to myself that I wished I could be on the bike instead of driving to the pig trough… and what do you know coming the other direction a guy in immaculate Pro kit looking like he was having the best time. It was like a knife in the back and I had to keep my mouth shut, didn’t even point him out!

And since I am completely off topic I will leave with a quote I just ran across –

All I need to do to restore my passion for being on a bike & turning the cranks is watch a few minutes of PROs riding so smoothly and awesomely. “GOD! I want to be back on a bike! I want to be back in top form so I can ride my best!” It’s incredible how easily that passion and those feelings return!

Work on your Italian!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdhQurmhvZU&feature=relmfu

@Ron

@Duende

Perhaps that is what it is to ride Gangnam style.

I have no idea what this means & I couldn’t be happier about it! I know it’s some ‘net crazy but I’m overjoyed at my ignorance. I like being out of touch with what’s in, when we aren’t talkin’ ’bout bikes.

Allow me to enlighten. Er actually I think that is the wrong word. Explain for you. Gangnam is an area/district of Seoul. It is south of the Han river and is one of the most exclusive areas of the city full of party places and bars. In Korea there is a culture for the uber rich and professionals to “pay for company”, not necessarily sexual but a bit like paying for a best buddy by the hour in some of the bars and meeting places. Gangnam style is an extension/marketing trick to get people to buy a crap record from a person (I cannot bring myself to use the word artist) who cannot sing, has no talent and hails from another country where people think differently about friendship and socialising (it is just and extension of business).

The whole thing will pass within a few weeks and never be heard of again if we are lucky. Actually my dad said that when I put my Prince Purple Rain poster on my bedroom wall in 1984…I think his words were “He is small and wears high heels and sings like a muppet…he will be gone by Christmas!”…..go figure….

Alright, so I skipped that first paragraph but in the second one…ya got me listenin’! I love Prince, I love the color purple, I have a purple bicycle named Purple Rain, as it was my rain bike, and Prince and I share the same birth date, June 7th. He’s incredible. I always tell people that he packs more style, talent, & sexual energy into a 165 cm body than anyone who has ever walked the Earth.

Unrelated, but I came across an interview with Brad McGee about Jens:

“I remember in the Tour of Germany one year, we were coming up to a cat-one or HC climb. He was leading on GC but there were eight or nine climbing specialists who were snapping around looking for his leader’s jersey. He was riding along just talking to himself, just saying, “Yes Jensie! You are strong enough Jensie! You can do this Jensie! You can do this!‘ He’s talking to himself in the third-person and was absolutely freaking the hell out of the whole group that was around him but he didn’t give a shit. He was doing whatever he had to do to get himself ready to get up this hill and keep the lead. And he did. He held on. He did enough to win the race. He’s an extraordinary bike rider.”

http://www.ridemedia.com.au/?p=7621

Personally I think Jens is probably descended from this dude!

@Duende

Perhaps that is what it is to ride Gangnam style.

I have no idea what this means & I couldn’t be happier about it! I know it’s some ‘net crazy but I’m overjoyed at my ignorance. I like being out of touch with what’s in, when we aren’t talkin’ ’bout bikes.

Allow me to enlighten.  Er actually I think that is the wrong word.  Explain for you.  Gangnam is an area/district of Seoul. It is south of the Han river and is one of the most exclusive areas of the city full of party places and bars.  In Korea there is a culture for the uber rich and professionals to “pay for company”, not necessarily sexual but a bit like paying for a best buddy by the hour in some of the bars and meeting places.  Gangnam style is an extension/marketing trick to get people to buy a crap record from a person (I cannot bring myself to use the word artist) who cannot sing, has no talent and hails from another country where people think differently about friendship and socialising (it is just and extension of business).

The whole thing will pass within a few weeks and never be heard of again if we are lucky.  Actually my dad said that when I put my Prince Purple Rain poster on my bedroom wall in 1984…I think his words were “He is small and wears high heels and sings like a muppet…he will be gone by Christmas!”…..go figure….

That is the quintessence of Rule #6.

“I remember in the Tour of Germany one year, we were coming up to a cat-one or HC climb. He was leading on GC but there were eight or nine climbing specialists who were snapping around looking for his leader’s jersey. He was riding along just talking to himself, just saying, “Yes Jensie! You are strong enough Jensie! You can do this Jensie! You can do this!‘ He’s talking to himself in the third-person and was absolutely freaking the hell out of the whole group that was around him but he didn’t give a shit. He was doing whatever he had to do to get himself ready to get up this hill and keep the lead. And he did. He held on. He did enough to win the race. He’s an extraordinary bike rider.”

http://www.ridemedia.com.au/?p=7621

Frank giggles?

@frank Off topic, mate, but I’m kind of getting bored of the blatant commercialism of you folk at Velominati… every time I open bike porn, there you are, ahem, knocking me off my stride: first, the column and then ‘agony aunt Q&A’ in Cyclist #1 and #3; and then the advert for the Keepers Tour 2013 in Rouleur #36 (which, by the way, has a photo that has me in it… if you look really, really, carefully… under bright lights… with a scanning electron microscope… SO exciting… always told my friends – both of them – that one day I’d look pro enough to be in Rouleur).

Chapeau, old friend…. but don’t go jumping the shark, or nuking the fridge, or whatever it is called these days… soon, you’ll be having to change your address from ‘Velominati Centre for World Domination’ to ‘Velominati, Global Seat of Power’.

You are finally in Rouler! Congratulations. That should impress the wife. You can blame that ad on the Pavé boys. We didn’t have the imagination for that sort of heads up business acumen. We are still busy floundering in the red. World domination is still a ways off. Maybe Frank is going to do this on his own, he would be wise to cut us off.  Soon he will appear on Oprah, jumping up and down on the couch, giggling about the Rules.

Perhaps that is what it is to ride Gangnam style.

I have no idea what this means & I couldn’t be happier about it! I know it’s some ‘net crazy but I’m overjoyed at my ignorance. I like being out of touch with what’s in, when we aren’t talkin’ ’bout bikes.

@strathlubnaig

@minion

@strathlubnaig Deutsche Fahrad auch allein farhren ohne Reiter. Das ist ein Focus, na? Schone auf yeden Fall.

Ja, es ist ein Focus. Good enough bike for me. No rider, as shitey phone camera has no timer.

Although it does have an anti-gravity setting which is really cool

That would be handy on the hills, no?

Chapeau, old friend…. but don’t go jumping the shark, or nuking the fridge, or whatever it is called these days… soon, you’ll be having to change your address from ‘Velominati Centre for World Domination’ to ‘Velominati, Global Seat of Power’.

@minion

@strathlubnaig Deutsche Fahrad auch allein farhren ohne Reiter. Das ist ein Focus, na? Schone auf yeden Fall.

Ja, es ist ein Focus. Good enough bike for me. No rider, as shitey phone camera has no timer.

Although it does have an anti-gravity setting which is really cool

@strathlubnaig Deutsche Fahrad auch allein farhren ohne Reiter. Das ist ein Focus, na? Schone auf yeden Fall.

Ja, es ist ein Focus. Good enough bike for me. No rider, as shitey phone camera has no timer.

WTF gloves are those homeboy is wearing in the background? They look like some sort of Kinco/welding mit.

I think they’re just arm warmers pushed down.

Fantastic photograph. Somehow he still looks in control – though the next few seconds wouldn’t have been pretty.

Perhaps that is what it is to ride Gangnam style.

Nailed it. No further comment required!

Perhaps another  example of Casually Deliberate?

Le Man looks as if, “what the hell? Get up bike, you ain’t hurt….yet.”

@the Engine

@strathlubnaig

@Beers

@strathlubnaig Wo, is that bike hovering there, all by itself???

My 2yo loves eleven-teen and thirty-twelve! He also has the uncanny ability to trip up, and recover from unseemingly recoverable body angles of attack relative to the floor. Perhaps these two elements are related, as Le-Man is displaying…

Like I say, the German bikes follow orders, unquestioningly and without complaint, it will stand in stoic silence unless told otherwise, jawohl !

Whereas my Flandrian bike just shrugs its shoulders and gets on with it in the rain

So, we shall see you out on the roads tomorrow then huh ?

Saturday 09.30 – Duke’s Pass ant-clockwise…tomorrow I shall be mostly a taxi service for a teenager

@strathlubnaig

@Beers

@strathlubnaig Wo, is that bike hovering there, all by itself???

My 2yo loves eleven-teen and thirty-twelve! He also has the uncanny ability to trip up, and recover from unseemingly recoverable body angles of attack relative to the floor. Perhaps these two elements are related, as Le-Man is displaying…

Like I say, the German bikes follow orders, unquestioningly and without complaint, it will stand in stoic silence unless told otherwise, jawohl !

Whereas my Flandrian bike just shrugs its shoulders and gets on with it in the rain

So, we shall see you out on the roads tomorrow then huh ?

@Beers

@strathlubnaig Wo, is that bike hovering there, all by itself???

My 2yo loves eleven-teen and thirty-twelve! He also has the uncanny ability to trip up, and recover from unseemingly recoverable body angles of attack relative to the floor. Perhaps these two elements are related, as Le-Man is displaying…

Like I say, the German bikes follow orders, unquestioningly and without complaint, it will stand in stoic silence unless told otherwise, jawohl !

Whereas my Flandrian bike just shrugs its shoulders and gets on with it in the rain

@strathlubnaig Wo, is that bike hovering there, all by itself???

My 2yo loves eleven-teen and thirty-twelve! He also has the uncanny ability to trip up, and recover from unseemingly recoverable body angles of attack relative to the floor. Perhaps these two elements are related, as Le-Man is displaying…

Like I say, the German bikes follow orders, unquestioningly and without complaint, it will stand in stoic silence unless told otherwise, jawohl !

My 2yo loves eleven-teen and thirty-twelve! He also has the uncanny ability to trip up, and recover from unseemingly recoverable body angles of attack relative to the floor. Perhaps these two elements are related, as Le-Man is displaying…

As a general rule I confine my bike to simple arithmetic and only allow it to meditate on the conservation of mass if it promises not to consider General Relativity.

This being agreed before the start of any ride me and Charlene get along just fine (usually).

Love the optical illusion that Vandenbroucke’s wheels are banana shaped.