The Keepers
Cycling is a mighty sport with a rich and complex history. Every company, racer, piece of kit, and component has a legend, a story behind it; in many cases it also has a personal and nostalgic connection to our lives. While this particular sport is steeped in tradition, it is also fiercely modern, a fact that serves only to deepen its complexity.
All these factors combine to provide an unique atmosphere and breeds devoted and loyal disciples of our great sport. We are of a peculiar nature; we seek out the highest mountains and the roughest roads on which to worship at the altar of the Man with the Hammer. Our legs are what propel us; our minds are what drive us. We refer to our shaved legs in the third person – the legs – and speak of distance in kilometres and measure sizes in centimetres regardless of what country we are in. We adhere strictly to the Canon of Cycling’s Etiquette: The Rules.
A Velominatus is a disciple of the highest order. We spend our days poring over the very essence of what makes ours such a special sport and how that essence fits into Cycling’s colorful fabric. This is the Velominati’s raison d’être. This is where the Velominati can be ourselves. This is our agony – our badge of honor – our sin.
I have a unique way of looking at bicycles. A good bicycle and it’s components are beautiful things to me. I’m not just talking about appearance, but also how the frame and components show the dreams of those who made them.
– Gianni Bugno, Hardman and Italian cycling legend
Perhaps we are too wrapped up in the past, but the Velominati don’t believe that to be the case. After all, the greatest lessons can be learned from the past and those lessons can then be applied to the present and may then allow us to more fully experience the future.
The Keepers:
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The Community:
Velominati.com is less about the articles and more about the conversation. Those of you who read more and poster more, become an integral part of the discussion and help carry the momentum forward. There are several levels of Velominatus*:
Level 4 Velominatus: The casual observer and occasional poster.
Level 3 Velominatus: The regular reader and casual poster.
Level 2 Velominatus: The devoted reader and regular poster.
Level 1 Velominatus: The most committed of reader and poster.
Gray, Black, and Orange Order Velominatus: Once having passed Level 1, the inducted among the Order wear three color badges, based on their rank.
Conduct:
We strive to foster an open, fun, critical, and censure-free environment. Any criticism of our writing, spelling, grammar, or intelligence is welcome and nothing said will ever get you suspended from the site. That said, the code of conduct is governed by Rule #43 and the Piti Principle. Members consistently exhibiting behavior that falls outside these parameters will be warned to check themselves; should warnings go unheeded, we may elect to issue a suspension. The first offense will result in a one-week suspension, the second in a two week suspension, and the third in a three week suspension. A fourth offense will result in a lifetime ban.
Velominati reserves the right to edit posts with the express interest to preserve the spirit of the conversation and the community. Regarding posts that address a grammatical or typographical error, Velominati may elect to take their input, correct the error in the articles where appropriate, and editing posts that point them out. This editorial action is not to serve as a censure entity, but to preserve the spirit of the conversation. That said, we endeavor to only edit those posts that point out a minor issue and only in the event that we make the edit before the post has yielded further discussion. Furthermore, when possible, we will strive to acknowledge said poster for their correction.
Want to contribute a story to the Velominati? Tell us why.
*Levels are calculated based on the previous year’s activity.
Hear hear… Merckx Bless Us, Every One !
And especially The Keepers.
@all
A-merckx to that. The work that goes into this site is fully appreciated round here.
To Frank and all the Keepers, thanks for your passion – its contagious and genuinely inspiring.
Every visit here is and education – historical, technical, mechanical and best of all…comical.
May your jersey pockets sprout Frites and Chimay…
@harminator
…and may your chamois stay supple, your bar tape stay clean, and the shiny side stay up! Merry Christmas to you all!
@harminator
What he said…cheers to everyone that makes this site possible! And all you reprobates that come to read and post!
Indeed, there is definitely a special sort of community on this site. Merxcky Xmas to all, and to all a good nipple lube.
Merckxy as well. Spelling rocks!
@mcsqueak
Yup. You guys Rock! Happy holidays!
Merrry Crimbo to y’all
Thanks to everyone for giving me a second third and fourth layer to my new love cycling experience
Can’t wait for next year to kick off – sooo much to look forward to
xx
Have a great day today everyone. Thanks to all the keepers, posters and lurkers for enhancing my first year on the road!
Oh my Merckx, I’ve gone all Orange
Was excited to go through the ranks, but fronkly, Orange is a bit embarrassing, given the quality of so many of the Grey and Black Urchin bearers
Clearly this is a celebration of quantity over quality…..
Humbled
@Dr C
The Keepers were going to let guys pick their own badges but that didn’t work out too good. Mr. Purple is another guy on another job. And Mr. Brown sounded a little like Mr. Shit.
@Dr C
Nipple Lube! Think you need to change your moniker to Des O’Connor old chap!
Answer to your previous question, yes, I’m booked into the same place you are – unless you’ve changed again. Christmas is playing havoc with the training although I did manage to get ride up to my parents place, 70 miles at 20.7mph. Flat as a pancake fenland though. My longest solo ride and highest average speed on a ride over 20 miles excluding group rides. Will hop on the rollers after this sherry!
@Chris
Excellent – can’t remember where I booked, by don’t remember booking anywhere different after flicking the Monastery booking
70 miles…..good effort – I can only assume your parents live somewhere North East of your house….it’s been a windy winter so far
I’m delighted you are going in March, as I suspect, all due respect, that unless Wheelsucking comes to be regarded as a celebratable skill, we may be keeping each other company on the Roubaix run… HNY til ye
Happy New Year indeed!
My parents are almost exactly due north, I’m just outside Huntingdon and they’re in Horncastle. Wind was over my shoulder for most of the ride. certainly helped with the speed but I had to work harder on keeping out from under the lorries. Declined to ride back yesterday, felt like a bit of a cop out until I was driving, the disco was being knocked about all over the place and I couldn’t see through the water that was being blown sideways off the bonnet (hood for our North American brethren). Not so much a failure to man up and get some Rule #9 in but a realisation that I haven’t got the kit to stay warm in that sort of weather and my lights would not penetrate that sort of soup.
The B & B is called the Avondrust or something like that. We should do an email address exchange through fronk as we’re likely to have some transfers that’ll be unsupported by the tour organisers.
Wheelsucking? Rule #5, mate, we’ve three months to peak and I’ve got to get into a 30″ kilt by Burns night! Lots of miles, lots of hills, lots of reps, no booze, no food, stack of weight loss pills, bit of EPO and some cortisone and we’ll be sorted! Starting on Sunday or Monday of course!
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012 from Aotearoa…
Happy New Years to every one! Most of you have it behind you, and we’re just getting to it here in the States. Thanks for everyone’s help with making Velominati special. Here’s to 2012!
Interesting read, by the way, on a proposed calendar and clock that would have us all celebrating at the same time!
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/rational-calendar/
Everyone – have a Campy New Year! And for 2012: la vie Velominatus!
Happy new years. I hope every one wakes up early for the first ride of the year tomorrow. I know I will.
@RedRanger
I officially start training for Haleakala, Keepers Tour, and racing as of tomorrow. No more of these sissy 200km rides in the cold and rain.
Also, Haleakala is much better enjoyed in smaller portions, so going faster just makes sense. I feel like I’ve gained a Schelcklette in the last week, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.
@Oli
Aotearoa! Ever since visiting Hawaii, I’m even more excited about making my way to Kiwiland!
@frank
Yeah, I hear you. I think that I have gained three kilos in the last two weeks. Although I started training today as opposed to tomorrow to send this year out with a bang. Did a solo 165 k in the wind with over 1300 meters of climbing. I realize that’s not a lot, esp as I am training for the 200 on 100 ride, but hey, it’s something!
Happy New Years everyone!!!
@frank
So you’re doing longer than 200km or shorter and faster?
Last week I discovered that I go faster if I keep it in the big ring. Took 3 minutes off my record of 33 around Mercer Island.
Well I started the year in Velominatus style… a metric double-century to inaugurate the sacred garments.
Doing it solo makes me realise how easy riding in a pack really is.
I wanted to do 205km so it could be CCV but as I got home the thought of heading back down the road for an extra 3km was more than I could face. I figured I had applied enough Rule #5 by then.
I should add FYI in case anyone thinks I should HTFU that I had already extended the ride by about 10km to get over the 200 mark.
Having been telling my legs to shut up since about 180km they decided to join the Arab Spring by entering into an unholy alliance with my arse, supported by my feet (typical).
I might have dealt with that but then my hands decided to maintain a neutral stance by going numb and my body showed no stomach for a fight by threatening to bonk.
Although still heavily armed I decided to head off further trouble.
@ChrisO
Love the repost. Mate, you’re hard enough. Was this in the sand pit or are you home for holidays? Abu Dhabi is flat enough that your arse ought to be pretty sore by 200km. Nothing breaks up the monotony and it’s like training on rollers.
I spoke with Stuart O’Grady briefly after a stage of the ToQ in Doha a couple of years ago. He was shattered after being in the break and made some comments that made it clear that even hard pros find flat, sandy, windy hell hard going.
Oh, if you’re home, Rule #5.
@Blah
In the sandpit… yeah it’s bloody painful. You’re right, it is like rollers, I hadn’t thought of it like that. I went 80km in one direction (into the wind), turned right for 20km and then came back. It’s one of the reasons I am also a violator of the iPod Rule. Any incline where you can get out of the saddle is like an oasis. I think I had about 400m ascent for the whole ride.
Some guys here are planning to do the Raid Pyrennean in July but they’ve been told by one of the people from the organising company that “You can’t really train for the climbs, just do the distances”. Half of them are Too Fat To Climb anyway so they have taken this advice to heart.
Maybe arguable if you’re in a place where any 100km ride is going to have 1000-1500m of climbing but I don’t think he quite accounted for the sort of profiles we have here.
@ChrisO
F’king AWESOME!!! I had orginally thought about doing a double metric yesterday but whimped out after 165 k. A double is in my near future. But man, the wind is just such a morale killer. We need a write up on the effects of the wind. More than anything: temp/sun/rain I hate the wind. It is what I pay most attention to on the forecast.
Great ride, though, ChrisO!
@Blah
Now THAT’S cool! Would have loved to been there and heard Stewie first hand. That guy is a man after my own heart! I do not see too much of a filter on him in many interviews, esp after hard stages.
@Buck Rogers
I am not going to lower myself by publicly spewing forth my training schedual for the 200 on the 100 lets just say I am taking the zen approach to the miles… but dam I am going to be sucking your wheel the whole way if I can!
@frank
Wish I could make it to the big Hill with you and Gianni – I tried to convince him he should do it with you (or at least near you) as training for the Keepers Belgium jaunt but he demured whining something about knees and height. Really, I think it’s about “bald” pates and 30,000 m, like you know, it might explode or something??
@ChrisO
That description is rich. Long ago in a different galaxy I saw the edge of the Rub’al Khali and the terrain around Riyadh so there is a slight familiarity with what you are not looking at whilst on your Rule #5 rides – Good on you!
@G’rilla
It was a joke, but I’ll be doing some of both – I’m a firm believer in long, low intensity rides – training to do rides longer than the rides you are training for. But that only works one aspect and nothing replaces speed or intensity, so you have to mix it up.
Nice! Don’t forget that the same principle applies to climbing.
@ChrisO
Gold! You’ll get no such accusations from me. Full-on bonk at about the same distance from home and wasn’t sure how I was going to get up the hill to the house, let alone thinking about adding the few k’s I needed to close out the double c-note.
@Buck Rogers
Boy, do I ever agree with that!
@Buck Rogers
Now I sound like a name-dropper, because of that name I dropped.
A great thing about cycling (aren’t there so many?) is how close you can get to the riders. At ToQ you could have a chat with just about anyone before they got changed and rode back to the hotel. You can do this at the TDU and Bay Crits in Oz, too.
Between those three races over a few years the VMH has a ridiculous collection of autographs, most coming after a bit of a chat. A large number of world champs from Merckx to Boonen and a heap of Aussies from Cadel to Brad McGee. She also has Liggett and Sherwen, a couple of really, really nice guys who don’t mind talking (huge surprise there) and are very self-deprecating.
To some extent you can get close at big races like TdF but it’s a lot more controlled and the guys are looking to recover and get to the next night’s accommodation ASAP. As we saw on here at Tour time (thanks Alpin), you can get close to the bikes, too. That is cool. Nothing beats nine pro bikes in a row. Gleaming but not pristine; clearly used but mechanically perfect.
Geeze I love this sport. So glad the season’s starting (for Aussies; I know no one else cares until Het-Whatever-We’re-Calling-it-Now).
Start as you mean to go on. 40km into my 50km spin this morning, I head a POW. Looked down to see the rear wheel wobbling violently. Blew a spoke. Rule #9 fully in effect: absolute downpour on the ride. Terrific while riding; not so much while standing still. Got cold (was already wet).
Goals: three Cogals in four months (Wisconsin, Ontario, 200 on 100). Training begins next week.
Just did my first session on the rollers. I was transported back 45+ years ago when Dad took my training wheels off and I wobbled forward a few feet at a time.
Finally got it together, but now I want to have a cookie and watch cartoons.
@Steampunk
I think today is a day of problems – I went on my club’s annual new years day ride, and somehow fucked my FD while shifting, sending the chain out OVER the big ring, and now shifting is all jacked up. It’s the second FD I’ve had issues with, and I’m starting to think that my Shimano 105 FD doesn’t like my FSA crankset. Going to take it to the LBS tomorrow…
Passed another guy with a mechanical on the way home and stopped to see if he needed help. He had actually cracked the chainstay from where it meets the seatstay at the back of the triangle by the RD. Not much I could do for him other than wish him luck on his walk home.
@mcsqueak
Bummer. I’m sorry. Fortunately, I had managed to get in 40/50km and the last 10km was pretty much downhill, so the ride was more or less done (and thoroughly enjoyed up to that point). Of course, when I “head” a POW, that’s Canadian for “heard.” Best of luck with the FD. Mine was a relatively easy break and subsequent fix. Seems as though you have a deeper issue there, which could be frustrating.
@xyxax
Good on you! It gets wayyyyyy easier each time. Before long you will be pulling out bisons with either hand and riding out of the saddle on the rollers. Enjoy those cookies and cartoons, you earned them! :)
@Rob
Ha, that’ll be the day! I will be glued to your wheel for the draft and to glean as much knowledge from you that I can!
@Blah
If that’s name dropping, then drop away! I love to live vicariously through you guys that have actually met the pros and been to the “real” races. I have never met a big pro or been to a big race. Love to hear the stories about my cycling “heroes”, even Phil and Paul. Soooooo cool to hear that they are real cool and modest folks. Makes me like them even more!
@Buck Rogers
They were great. The VMH said she was enjoying seeing the race live rather than on TV and Sherwen said something along the lines of it must be a nice break from listening to them talk shit for four hours. Funny guys.
@Buck Rogers
You’re setting the pace, Doc.
And when I get to the bison-pulling level, I just might keep up!
@xyxax
What the fk??? Frick’en auto-spell correction feature sure makes for some interesting posts, eh? But then again, I have been in Texas for four months now, must be going native!
@Steampunk
Man, yesterday I had a super scary experience on my ride. I was descending a decent 2 to 3 km hill and when I hit mid 60’s kph all of a sudden my bike developed a fierce wobble that started to increase and get worse and spread throughout the whole bike in a harmonic fashion. Scared the shit out of me and it was so bad that I was holding on for all I could to keep it from crashing out from under me. Started to look for a place to ditch it as I could not get it under control and it kept getting worse. Finally was able to get it slowed down but the wobble did not stop until I brought it under 30 kph. Turns out my rear wheel had a slow leak and was going soft and also the road was grooved chip seal. Just about f’king killed me. Have not been that scared on a bike for many years. Changed out the tube and it was fine on a later decent, although I kept it under 60 kph just because I was a bit gun shy. Scary stuff, there, mate!
@Buck Rogers
That shitte’s scary! Telling you-the first company that makes a BT/ANT+ or similar pressure gauge that can be inbedded in a tube or places on the valve stem, and couples with a warning head unit will sell millions. Or even make it so it sits on the rim under the tape.
@Steampunk
Ha, thanks for the commiserations. I’ll get it figured out eventually… hopefully. Yeah, a broken spoke isn’t to bad close to home… open the brake calipers to allow for a bit of wheel wobble and work your way home.
@Buck Rogers
Speed wobble! Yeah that can be scary. Sounds like yours was caused by a tire going flat, but I guess some frame geometries are more prone to that at high speeds than others.
Bit late but Happy New Year all!
@ChrisO
That’s an awesome start to the year. Impressive pain management too. I’ve never been any good at heading away from home to add a few more kms on to the end of a long ride. Easier to add a bit into the middle of the ride so that there is little choice but to carry on when rational sane thought is saying “enough mate”. (I also seem to be quite good at adding the extra bits on by accident, get the route sorted in my head before heading out but then miss a turn or turn early when deprived of oxygen)
I managed a 16km trundle round the local reservoir on my mountain bike with the kids and some friends. Heart rate was all over the place, probably a result of my body still trying to process the duck fat boulangerie potatoes that went with the duck the night before. Worse still, having mentioned that I rarely fall off in @mblume‘s article, I managed to do so at pace in front of several friends and their kids.
Reading of the various New Years Day exploits, stage racing skin loss and other tales of pain does make me sometimes feel like I’ve only been playing at this and wonder what I’ve signed up for with the Keepers Tour.
This year needs to be one of intense commitment on and off the bike.
@Buck Rogers
While bombing a descent is way fun, keep in mind you don’t win races on the downhill, but you sure can loose one crashing out.
Ride often, ride fast, and keep the rubber side down. Happy New Year everyone!
Speaking of descents, this was my club ride yesterday:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/62594546
Good descending skills were a must.
Temps were 5 degrees at rollout and 25 at the end.
Good times…anybody interested in a CA Cogal?
@sgt
Nice job on the Casually Deliberate stance. Nice kit, too!
@Eightzero
Once while descending my bike started shaking violently, wasn’t going too fast yet, so I slowed it down. Only then did I realize I was riding rumble strips that were pretty much invisible from my angle. I felt dumb.
@DerHoggz
Ha! We have some that cross most of the way across the road on one of my favorite descents. I can get past them on the outside and then cut to the middle of the road on a left turn to avoid some more. Once, though, I wasn’t sharp enough on the turn, and I caught them. Glad I was alone, as I must have looked like a total spaz: knew they were, hit them anyway, was surprised to hit them, and the whole bike wobbled everywhere as I tried to adjust and then avoid the next batch…