Teams & Riders Coolest Names in the Peloton*

[RedheadDane]

I have developed a fondness for the Greek "Mr. Multi-Time."

(Polychronis, probably not a correct translation. My Greek is not very good...)

 

[Kokoso]

Re:

All of the Lithuanian riders get my vote. Ramunas Navardauskas is a clear winner though.

I can see why - most of them end with -as which sounds pretty kick-ass for most non-Lithuanians. I am almost sure you have it same with Latvians, right?

 

[Kokoso]

For me his royal majesty emperor Leopold König has same charm almost as good as one name I can't recall now...

 

[tobydawq]

May I ask why Oliviero Troia is funny?

And I would also like to mention Jan-Willem van Schip. Especially nice if you do the proper pronunciation of Schip, putting your throat at risk, instead of just calling him ship.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

May I ask why Oliviero Troia is funny?

And I would also like to mention Jan-Willem van Schip. Especially nice if you do the proper pronunciation of Schip, putting your throat at risk, instead of just calling him ship.

Troia means whore in Italian, it's a rather vulgar expression.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

May I ask why Oliviero Troia is funny?

And I would also like to mention Jan-Willem van Schip. Especially nice if you do the proper pronunciation of Schip, putting your throat at risk, instead of just calling him ship.

Troia means whore in Italian, it's a rather vulgar expression.

Thanks. Pretty strange name then.

A couple of days ago I was reading a bit about the history of pole vaulting after the incredible Euros final and found out (which I probably knew earlier in my life as well) that one of the best vaulters in history is an Australian who goes by the name of Stephen Hooker. Also quite incomprehensible how you could get such a name.

 

[tobydawq]

I also think the Hungarian János Pelikán deserves a mention in this thread.

I fail to understand why a sprint team hasn't picked him up to do the early work as he sounds like a rider that can swallow some wind.

 

[RedheadDane]

Can't remember if I mentioned him already - he'd fit right in with my love for insanely long names - but I'll give you:

Bonaventure Uwizeyimana

 

[SHAD0W93]

Re:

Can't remember if I mentioned him already - he'd fit right in with my love for insanely long names - but I'll give you:

Bonaventure Uwizeyimana

Oh my. I have zero clue how to pronounce that last name.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Re: Re:

Can't remember if I mentioned him already - he'd fit right in with my love for insanely long names - but I'll give you:

Bonaventure Uwizeyimana

Oh my. I have zero clue how to pronounce that last name.

Open syllables. Easiest to just take it one syllable at a time: U-wi-ze-yi-ma-na --> Ooh-wih-zeh-yi-mah-nah

 

[hrotha]

Re:

For me his royal majesty emperor Leopold König has same charm almost as good as one name I can't recall now...

Cunego > König

 

[tristecsinamigos]

"Albeiro Rabón" is a nice combo. "Rabón" is a funny word, Colombian Spanish slang for someone grumpy, ill mannered or someone who is angry.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Can't remember if I mentioned him already - he'd fit right in with my love for insanely long names - but I'll give you:

Bonaventure Uwizeyimana

Oh my. I have zero clue how to pronounce that last name.

And that is exactly why I love these long names.
Not because you don't know how to pronounce (some of) them, but because I love hearing the commentators trip over them.
Though, Vandborg was pronouncing "Gebreigzabhier" like a pro during Burgos.

 

[el chava]

As a dane Norwegian names are generally pretty hilarious:

Iver Johan Knotten
Haakon Lunder Aalrust
Haavard Jordbrekk Blikra

also Odd Christian Eiking, obviously

Nothing beats the Estonians, though. Here are a couple of the more obscure ones:

Ekke-Kaur Vosman
Silver Mäoma
Rister Raid
Peter Pruus
Kalle Kriit
Sten Sarv

I could on and on

 

[Der Effe]

Re: Re:

All of the Lithuanian riders get my vote. Ramunas Navardauskas is a clear winner though.

I can see why - most of them end with -as which sounds pretty kick-ass for most non-Lithuanians. I am almost sure you have it same with Latvians, right?

Nothing against Latvia and Latvian names, some of them are beautiful, but they’re not on par with Lithuanian names. Even the names not ending with -as sound like reading a poem out loud.

Just imagine two guys on a holiday introducing themselves to each other:
“Nice to meet you, my name is Joe Smith”
“Oh well, nice to meet you as well. My name is Ignatas Konovalovas”

I’d be stunned for hours, thrown back into the existential crisis that was most of my adolescence and give Ignatas free drinks for the entire holiday. Such freakin’ cool names.

 

[RedheadDane]

As a dane Norwegian names are generally pretty hilarious:

Iver Johan Knotten
Haakon Lunder Aalrust
Haavard Jordbrekk Blikra

also Odd Christian Eiking, obviously

What about Ole Forfang?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

A couple of days ago I was reading a bit about the history of pole vaulting after the incredible Euros final and found out (which I probably knew earlier in my life as well) that one of the best vaulters in history is an Australian who goes by the name of Stephen Hooker. Also quite incomprehensible how you could get such a name.

Not a particularly uncommon surname: John Lee of that ilk probably the best known person to bear it.

As to "quite incomprehensible how you could get such a name", occupations and geographical features are very often sources of surnames, so entirely comprehensible that the name could arise within a fishing community, or to identify those with origins around a bend ("hook") in a river.

 

[hrotha]

I can't get over how stupid "Antwan Tolhoek" is. "Antwan", for god's sake.

 

[Der Effe]

Re:

I can't get over how stupid "Antwan Tolhoek" is. "Antwan", for god's sake.

It’s Antoine, but then in Dutch. Same with Toine/Twan. I mean, it’s not even the Dutch version of the name, which is Anton, but Antwan is Antoine phonetically spelled.

It’s pretty stupid I guess, even though not that uncommon, but had his parents decided to spell it Antoine no one would’ve noticed.

 

[GuyIncognito]

It's extremely Ghetto

It's even worse than Taco. Taco is dumb but at least original. Antwan is like a white girl with an asian character tattoo: tasteless and extremely unoriginal

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

I can't get over how stupid "Antwan Tolhoek" is. "Antwan", for god's sake.

It’s Antoine, but then in Dutch. Same with Toine/Twan. I mean, it’s not even the Dutch version of the name, which is Anton, but Antwan is Antoine phonetically spelled.

It’s pretty stupid I guess, even though not that uncommom, but had his parents decided to spell it Antoine no one would’ve noticed.

I know what it is, that's what makes it so blergh.

 

[Der Effe]

Re:

It's extremely Ghetto

Seriously, everytime I see that name I have to think of J-Kwon and my mind starts singing “E’rrrrbody in the club gettin’ tipsy”

As if J-Kwon and Akon made a baby.

Oh those were the days.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

It's extremely Ghetto

Seriously, everytime I see that name I have to think of J-Kwon and my mind starts singing “E’rrrrbody in the club gettin’ tipsy”

As if J-Kwon and Akon made a baby.

Oh those were the days.

It's the american ghetto, american white trash and brazillian ghetto cultures leaking: name your kid literally anything as long as it's different. So you end up with common names intentionally misspelled because it's "kewl".

"This is mah daughter Maghkyaylaegh. I named her after Michaela Watkins"

 

[Der Effe]

Ya, but I think Twan is a pretty common name here, not fitting those stereotypes. It only happens to foreign names as well. It’s the same with Michael/Maikel, Kylian/Kilian and Yuri/Joeri for example, where both versions are common.

This happens in Spanish as well and, as ugly as some of the results may be, is different to misspelling names that ‘belong’ to your native language.

 

[TomasC]

Davide Malacarne is not bad either.