Cobbles, Bergs, Beer, and Legends. Putting the V Back in Vlaanderen.

We'll be flying the Velominati Keepers Tour Banner at the RVV and P-R Roadside.

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.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Keepers Tour CC2012/”/]

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Chris says:

Mar 26 2012 at 8:45 am

@Gianni

If I can figure out how Tumblr works I'll put up some Amsterdam photos when I get in. Cheers all!

Mind you tag those as NSFW, there's some weird shit out there masquerading as the Rules!
Dr C says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:01 am

@Gianni

the Belgian ale unzips my skull my brain flops out on the floor like a freshly landed Orange Roughie!

I think if we had studied such poetry as you have just uttered, during English Literature at school, instead of the low quality tat we did do, I'd have been a fan of the subject - beautiful words Gianni, I'd try not to slip on your neurones on the way to the loo
motor city says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:14 am

Brilliant. I may have to sign up to twitter just to get the updates on this.
For those packing cases...your shoes are probably the worst thing you could forget to take.
Dr C says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:19 am

@Chris

@Dr CSpeaking of smashed up bones and punctured organs, has your glittering medical career included a stint in A&E? You may have to wear a special medic's gillet over your v-kit (although from some of the earlier posts your skills will most likely be required by @Brett round the clock)

Most people say to me a short time after meeting me, "are you sure you are a Doctor???" - probably safest y'all apply the same scepticism

Better to post a message to Buck Rogers; he sounds like he knows how to deal with trauma, I'm more into suffering from it
Skip says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:25 am

@Frank & Keepers
This looks fantastic and I can't express how stoked I am to be a small part of this.

@All
Re: Weather - I posted this earlier in the other update thread. On Friday the forecast called for warm, dry weather. Then when I looked at it this morning, it had changed to rain Friday and Saturday. Now it looks dry again. May not matter as it sounds like @Marko and @Dr C will be in charge of precipitation.

@JC Belgium
What do the local forecasters say? (I'm not that confident in "The Weather Channel")

@ King Clydesdale
Aren't you a meteorologist? How about an official V forecast?

Does anybody else care if we're slipping and sliding or choking on dust come Saturday?
mcsqueak says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:26 am

@motor city

You don't even need to sign up! If you just visit the Velominati twitter feed you can see all the updates. I don't use twitter but I followed Frank's adventure up Haleakala last year that way.
motor city says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:28 am

@mcsqueak
cheers for that...will do
Chris says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:30 am

@Dr C
As a first aider to one of my boy's rugby teams, I firmly follow the view that if they are moving, making noise and not leaking too badly then they are OK. In the begining when I was new to the role we went through a lot of ice packs and the little darlings spent a lot of time recovering beside the pitch. I can't remember the last time I used an ice pack and now that I know all of the other parents pretty well I've no problem telling their kids to "stop whining and toughen up".

By the time I've finished my bacon roll or mug of tea, they'll be back on the pitch running around.
Bill says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:30 am

@G'rilla

...discovered that my rear derailleur was bent.

You too? Geeze. I knew mine was misaligned, so swapped out the hanger with a beefier Wheels MFG. Still grinds, so I ordered a derailleur. Hopefully it gets here before Thursday.

@Dr C

Beware anyone who tries to sit on my wheel on Saturday, it might be a slippy with all the nasal toothpaste I am currently exuding

Doc, you'll fit in just fine down here. The entire region is blooming and the trails are slick with snot. I'm actually hoping for a hard rain Friday/Saturday to wash some of this pollen out of the air.

Ah well, neither is something that some good Belgian beer can't fix.
motor city says:

Mar 26 2012 at 9:33 am

@Skip Does anybody else care if we're slipping and sliding or choking on dust come Saturday?

The photos will look more epic if its wet enough for you to get a flanders spray tan.