Truth be told, how many of us can resist a photo of ourselves Looking Fantastic on the bike? How many of us can resist the temptation of taking our eyes off the road and stealing a glimpse of ourselves in a shop window as we pass by? Not me, but then again a strong case could be made for my being a narcissist and I freely admit that I love looking at photos of myself riding, though this is mostly because they take me back to the experience I was having at the time.
This time of year has us looking back at the season past and getting nostalgic about the best rides and moments of the year. In the coming Holiday week, the Keepers will be naming The V Moment and the Anti-V Moment of the year, but we thought we’d give the community an opportunity to get a bit narcissistic and share our favorite photos from 2012.
With that, we announce the first annual Velominati Photo Contest. To enter, post your favorite photo(s) from 2012 below and The Keepers will monitor the conversation and use our judgement to name a winner on January 1st, 2013. The winner will receive a free pair of Witte V-Socks (available in the first quarter of next year) and the top three photos will be offered as VVallpapers. Just as with the VSP, The Keepers can post photos and are eligible to win, of course, but we are excluded from the prizes.
Even as I write this I know we won’t be able to resist posting photos of ourselves laying down The V; I already did it in the lead photo of this article. Nevertheless, the photos don’t have to be of yourself, they can be of anything so long as you took the photo or you have permission from the photographer to share it.
Have at it and so far so good on the world not ending.
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@principle The word 'badass' comes to mind. If rule 9 could be expressed visually, surely this picture does it.
@Tartan1749 I'm one the riders and I was riding a hybrid with straight bars (sorry man). The guy who took the picture is riding a single speed 1980s road bike and we all used studded tires to get through the snow. While we were riding we got hit by a snow storm and just round the bend to the top right a snow drift called a halt to our progress. Does one road bike in the bunch count?
@Cyclops
Great job there, I'm not sure if you actually have only one eye or not but if you do it is one fine eye that's for sure!
Vainqueur du Velominati Super Prestige 2012
San Tonio
We're a little bit behind here, but just a quick word to say we'll name the winner of the contest in the next few days...
@snoov
Those are some mad photoshop skillz there Cyclops! Chapeau! Now remember to send Frank a hi-res file so he can get it blown up poster size.
@wiscot
Only shame is that none of the crowd are actually cheering him on! This obviously would never have been the case if he was really there ;)
@Cyclops
Now there's one for the workshop wall! Great job @Cyclops!
@Tartan1749 - as Jahwobble said, it was quite a day for riding. Temperature wise it only dipped to -4c (24F), but there was quite a strong wind blowing so the real feel pulled it into the double digits below (low teens). It had snowed about 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) during the night, but the cleaning crews had come out in numbers that morning and most of the roads were ride-able. However, upon turning that corner and going round the old church, the drifts of snow had amassed into an impenetrable wall. One of the braver comments, just before we were forced to turn back, was "If we just make the next 800m, we'll be in the cover off those trees..'
They had actually closed the Stockholm's airport, before we got home, due to the amount of snow that fell that day. That doesn't happen very often...
Anyway, trying to crunch through snow up above the pedals is just plain hard. It doesn't matter if you're riding a road bike, a CX, a hybrid or even an MTB. I had the slimmest tires of day at only 32mm, but that was almost too dangerous. When you're out on snow and ice you need grip, you want to avoid slipping around and you don't want to cut too deep. So you're right - no 'real' road bikes. It just wouldn't have been a wise choice...
This shot was taken 10 minutes before we had to turn back for some steaming espresso and other essentials. (Jahwobble - our great Scotsman - is the rider to the right (seen from the photographer).
And oh - this was how light it was at 10:00 in the morning.