It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Velominati Boardroom as we’ve been scrambling to finalize a few partnerships and get all the products for the Keepers Tour customers designed and produced. Suffice to say, fists and beers were slammed in tandem as we feverishly worked out the final designs.
Producing V-Pints, V-Shirts, and V-Musettes seems a simple enough task; and we also needed a flag and banner to fly at the roadside of the various races we are due to watch from the roadside, including de Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. There was also a the small matter of getting our hands on musette bags, which aren’t commonly found on the market, as far as we could tell. Fair heart, never worry; Gianni and his VMH took matters into their own hands and made them up from scratch. If their other business ventures fail, musette-sewing may be a good fallback, they Look Fantastic.
The most significant effort due was for the Keepers Tour Cobbled Classics 2012 design; enter our graphic-design mastermind, KRX-10. We tossed a few emails across the net and settled quickly on the notion of using a variation of the Lion of Flanders. “Now we need a public-domain vector graphic. Race you to it”, was the last word from KRX10 on the matter before the design was finalized. Then it was on to deciding on a tag line, with the result being perhaps the best example of what happens when the Keepers argue long enough on such matters.
With that, we proudly present the official artwork for Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2012:
The last two weeks I’ve felt like a kid waiting for Christmas as orders were placed and we entered into the torturous period of time while we waited to lay our hands on the final products and see the fruits of our labor. And I have to say, this round may have produced our finest products yet; the V-Lion and tagline turned out magnificently, as did all the other items. The flag and banner are actually breathtaking – waving in the wind. We hope you like it as much as we do.
A few items of note: Attendees of Keepers Tour will receive a musette packed with their V-Shirt and V-Pint along with a few lovies from our sponsors, and will also have the honor of commenting for the next year with the V-Lion badge. Also of note is the matter that these products are not available for sale and will never be; the only way to get Keepers Tour products is to attend a Keepers Tour, so bear that in mind next time around. Finally, if you’re looking for a real photo of the V-Pint, you’ll have to wait until we arrive in Belgium, as they were shipped ahead while I was away on business and as such they have not yet been seen by anyone, even me.
Please also get yourself acquainted with our Twitter and Tumblr sites if you’ve not done so already – we’ll be reserving the site for major updates, and will be posting minor updates in those to locations throughout our trip, with Twitter being used for small updates, and Tumblr for the ones that are too much for a tweet and too little for the V.
VLVV.
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@mcsqueak
Mt Scott area. Places I've never ridden before. Couldn't tell you the names of the roads. SE is like a foreign country to me.
@Cyclops
I'm not personally a man of faith but +1 badge nomination, Cyclops.
@scaler911
Mmm. Looks miserable!
@Cyclops
+1
Well I've just got back from my extended weekend at the Keepers' Tour and just the first 2.5 days were truly awesome - wish I could have stayed the whole week.
Riding the cobbles was quite unlike anything I expected. I anticipated a sore arse, but it was the hands and arms that take the punishment.
You can see why some pros hate Roubaix - so much of it is down to luck. There were times when I was trying to get past someone riding on the crown and dived down but found myself running into even more lumpy bits and having to check the speed and go back up. Get behind the wrong wheel in race and lose a few metres and it is a massive effort to get back up.
As I think Roadslave said, the effort of riding them makes it like a series of sprints.
Getting to Roubaix velodrome was just a sense of relief and chapeaux to any rider who does that course - it would be so demoralising to be dropped and have to go through that pain with nothing to fight for.
It was great to meet a whole load of Velominati, and the Keepers themselves, and the Pave guys William and Alex were fantastic. Also merci beaucoup to Genevieve, Williams's mother-in-law for her brilliance in looking after everyone.
Other things I learned about the Keepers...
Frank is just as brilliant in person as you would expect but even more sweary - his energy and enthusiasm is truly infectious.
Marko is a Dude - if the Velominati story becomes a film only the Coen brothers could do him justice.
Brett is as dry as sandpaper - he could let down tyres with a single comment but is a pretty awesome cyclist (apart from his sense of direction).
Gianni is like everything I imagine about Hawaii - laid-back and sunny, he needs an aloha cycling jersey.
More later, but it was a great few days and I'm so happy I got to do it.
A few shots, sorry my photo(shop) skilss aren't as good as other's...
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@ChrisO
Please tell me you were rocking the V kit?
@RedRanger
Oh yes, much V kit was on show. I had white kit - plus white socks with Belgian tricolore on top.
In Jesse's group photo in Roubaix velodrome I'm the one sitting in the middle on the ground with legs crossed - by that time I had my softshell back on and was still shivering uncontrollably.
I would have been more distinguishable in the photos if I had worn my cap as planned but the Pave guys made me wear a helmet... under protest.
As it turned out there were no pave incidents, which was quite amazing but at one point the Velominati nearly lost their glorious leader.
Frank and I were riding along on the front (Frank on the right and me on the left) and just picking up the pace a little as we came to a corner where we were going straight ahead.
There are some really weird traffic rules in that part of France and for some reason the people coming around the blind corner had right of way, which clearly the lady driving around the corner was counting on, much to our surprise.
Frank went to the right, which was the direction the car was coming from, and he just grazed the side of the car. I decided (in so far as one actually makes a decision) it was best to go hard left and into the curb. Just as well because if Frank just grazed it I would have gone straight into it. Better to come off on the footpath than across the bonnet, so I did a roll and escaped relatively unscathed apart from bumps, bruises and a sore hip (and I didn't hit my head).
The stupid old bag was more worried about her car than that anything might have happened to us. Stick your pas de priorite up your arse madame.
@RedRanger
29er = anethama
Oops, I mean "Anathema"