10 Wishes: Kiss My Panache

December 28, 2012 panache 1 Comment

Kiss My Panache came on board as a member of VeloVoices in the summer and has brought a real visual flair to the blog. His day job is as a creative director, he lives on the American East Coast and has two mini-Panaches with his lovely wife, Mrs Panache. If a rider doesn’t have style, Panache doesn’t wanna know … here are his wishes for 2013 (in no particular order, although he says that number ten is the most important). All images are by the man himself.

Wish 1: Ryder Hesjedal pops the top off another jeroboam of Grand Tour champagne

1. Ryder Hesjedal wins another Grand Tour.

2. UCI leadership is completely transformed by replacing Pat McQuaid and sending Hein Verbruggen to the island of Elba.

3. Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans have competitive form for the 100th edition of the Tour de France and they have an epic battle with Alberto Contador on the slopes of L’Alpe d’Huez.

Wish 4: Sylvain Chavanel follows Spartacus’ wheel in the Tour of Flanders

4. Fabian Cancellara wins Roubaix in a nail-biter with Tom Boonen. Sylvain Chavanel wins the Tour of Flanders by following Cancellara and leaving him at the end. [That’s so cruel, Panache – Kitty.]

5. Peter Sagan dominates the Ardennes Classics or becomes road race World Champion. Either would be fine with me.

6. Argos Shimano and Europcar obtain WorldTour licences. [Well, he got one of his wishes already – Ed.]

Wish 7: Taylor Phinney gets his revenge …

7. Taylor Phinney podiums at Roubaix and wins the World Championships time trial in Florence.

8. More women’s races are broadcast.

Wish 9: PhilGil's heart softens and he hits 'unblock'

Wish 9: “@Phil_Gilbert1 has sent you a direct message on Twitter”

9. Daniele Benatti and Philippe Gilbert unblock me from Twitter and we start direct messaging each other.

10. I find a dream job of being the creative director of a luxury cycling apparel company, which enables me to move my family to Europe and travel the world. I eat French pastries at a quaint cafe with the entire VeloVoices team at once. [Sounds good to me – Ed.]

10 wishes for 2013

Kitty Fondue

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10 wishes: Kitty Fondue

December 28, 2012 kittyfondue 1 Comment

Cycling has taken quite a bashing this year so I thought it would be fun to get the VeloVoices crew as well as some of the people we’ve met and followed to give us their top ten wishes for the 2013 season. We’ll start with … me!

I am Kitty Fondue and I am a founding member of VeloVoices. My favourite races are the spring Classics, I love Fabian Cancellara to distraction, I have the regular Tuesday column of Tweets of the Week and I’m always on the lookout for photographers to profile for our Friday Features. I also do a lot of the live-tweeting of races on the weekends, where I try to commentate with humour and only a little bias but I tend to show my true colours at the end of races when I’m cheering someone onto the finish. Here are my wishes:

Wish 1: That Cancellara goes back to his winning ways

1. That the Classics season is one knock-down, drag-out fight after another between Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara. And that they each win (and lose) with style and grace.

2. That the final nocturnal stage of the Tour de France in Paris is as fantastic as I imagine it to be and that VeloVoices has its own corner with tons of Twitter friends cheering the peloton on!

Wish 3: That SuperSagan provides the fireworks on the Champs (image courtesy of Roxanne King)

3. That Peter Sagan does his Incredible Hulk impersonation as he takes the Champs-Elysees sprint with bike lengths to spare!

4. That things are changed within the sport so we can be confident of clean, honest wins.

5. That people can express a like and dislike for whatever riders they want without being flamed on Twitter. And that people finally realise that using the c-word is not the way to win an argument or influence people. It’s not big and it’s not clever – it just makes you look stupid. And you know what? It’s just a bike race – there’s no need to eviscerate people for a difference of opinion.

6. That Bradley Wiggins says something and actually sticks to it, as opposed to saying the opposite the next day, crying “misquote!” or changing his mind three or four times in the course of a week. All this back and forth is just bullshit.

I'd love to see Marco Pinotti win the rainbow jersey for TT (image courtesy of Davide Calibresi)

Wish 7: Marco Pinotti exchanges his BMC jersey for a rainbow jersey (image courtesy of Davide Calabresi)

7. That Marco Pinotti wins the World Championships time trial in Florence. And that Fabian Cancellara wins the road race.

8. That I keep finding great photographers, like those I’ve used on this page – Danielle Haex, Roxanne King and Davide Calabresi – to interview for the blog.

9. That I get my picture taken with Greg Henderson and Adam Hansen – two of my faves!

10. That Panache gets a job in London so I can have lunch with him whenever the mood strikes and we can have regular VeloVoices meetings with all members in attendance!