Velominati Photo Contest: Season 2012
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.
@farzani
Damn you Eddy! You always get the hot women.
More from Keepers Tour… so many great memories, can’t wait to be back in 2013!
The Lion jumps…
Scheldeprijs
Eddy Merckx Velodrome
Ronde ride.
Actually my vote goes to a photo that appeared on the site from somewhere else, I am not sure who posted it first but this one captures just about everything I love about cycling, in one very pleasant package!
@Deakus Makes me think of cold shower, hence;
Poo, wrong button…
This, I mean:
@farzani
@Deakus
Really awesome pics Frank & Pedale.Forchetta!!!
My humble submission of my son & I before a brevet – started him early.
This is definitely the winner!
@Cyclops Absolutely! Perfecto!
@Cyclops
You just earned yourself free V-somethings from Frank for a year! Beauty.
From the first cross race of the year. Not me, but my photo.
Jeff
Father / son tandem CX in the Redding, CA freezing rain.
As a father, a bike ride doesn’t get any better than this.
Ray
This one might be a little better.
@Cyclops
Well done!
@Dan_R
No race number?
@eightzero
showing them how it’s done in the big ring. Race number = # 53 baby….
@eightzero
Big ring? No sweat. Arm and knee warmers still on…
Some cracking shots here – how about a 2013 calendar with 12 of the best???
Awesome & inspiring to see some of the beautiful places people have ridden in 2012, to see the hills & races they’ve suffered through, & to see a new batch of Followers getting out on bikes!
I really dig Cyclops’s shot of him firing up the engine in the crit & the shot of Harminator with the Lime Green Lads. First one is a cool action shot that captures the speed & V of that race, second one just looks like he’s hangin’ with friends. I still want to know how you convinced them to pose in such a manner & what you said to them. Maybe PRO cyclists are just cooler than other pro athletes?
OK, since we got some nit-pickers here (me being #1) I added the race number and I figured out how to get the shadow on the ground a lot better looking…
@Cyclops
Good Lord, do you work for the CIA? That’s pretty scary how good it is.
@Cyclops impressive!! Frank looks a little overdressed in the warmers and full finger gloves though…
@Cyclops
the Keepers Tour was mistaken for a pro team during the P-R recce day by the media, so why the hell not, eh
“Mistaken,” may be an incorrect word. Self-sponsored is probably a better word.
@Bianchi Denti
Thanks, this was taken in the last 2km of the race.
^ me on alp d’huez a few days before christmas
@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.
@payaso
Mrs Engine votes this one above all – “its all about the future”
Bit late maybe and not road cycling but to quote @Mrs Engine “its all about the future”…
He want’s a road bike now.
@Chris
Fuck he looks like he’s doing about Mach 3!!
@Deakus He was going quite quickly but it’s a bit of a shame that the panning has taken away the sense of gradient, he’s on a very short flat section coming out of a berm before dropping into another on a 4X* track near us.
*4X as in Four Cross rather than @Marcus’ favourite lager.
@Cyclops
That’s awesome. Looks like @frank’s head is about to explode.
@Chris
*4X as in Four Cross rather than @Marcus’ favourite lager.
Ouch…light the blue touch paper and walk away…
@Deakus I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
Who won the photo competition?
@Jahwobble
Funny you should ask. Just wrapping up our internal voting and we’ll announce them (probably) today.
Announcing the Velominati Photo Of the Year 2012 Winners:
Many thanks to everyone for posting such great photos. It was actually really hard to decide on the winner, and obviously I was leaning towards those that painted me into scenes on the Kapelmuur, but since they were faked, we had to pass on them.
All three winning photos will be offered as free VVallpapers later on when I get a chance to put them together and run them past the owners for approval. Without further ado, we present our winners:
Maglia Photo and winner of the V-Socks: @Pedale.Forchetta:
http://www.velominati.com/unforgettable-rides/velominati-photo-contest-season-2012/#comment-153964
Second Place: @MannyAcosta
http://www.velominati.com/unforgettable-rides/velominati-photo-contest-season-2012/#comment-153874
Third Place: @principle
http://www.velominati.com/unforgettable-rides/velominati-photo-contest-season-2012/#comment-153817