John Herety has won a Peace Race stage, French amateur classics, the British pro road champs and was robbed of the GP Pino Cerami — the judges gave it to local hero Rony van Holen — but photos later showed that the Englishman’s wheel was first across the line.
John is still enjoying himself.
Now he’s passing all that experience on to a new generation through his role as team manager of London squad Rapha-Condor Recycling, who are north of the border to recce the hills, gravel, rain, wind farms and sheep that are — Girvan.
The guys are riding the Musselburgh 3-Up, John?
“It’s a good skill to have, roadmen used to ride a lot of them back in the ‘good old days,’ there was nothing on in England and we were coming up to do our Girvan recce, so we just thought we’d ride.”
Team morale must be good after the Bikeline win?
“Yes, very good but there will be no complacency, we’re expected to be the best team, we were on the training camp then started racing early, so we have a little advantage, but the other teams will catch us up, so we’re taking nothing for granted.”
Dean is going well, isn’t he?
“Interestingly, despite all the years he’s raced and been a big name on the UK scene, that’s the first time he’s ever had a team at his disposal like that.
“He was very nervous about the responsibility and he learned a lot about handling pressure.”
John rode for Coop – Mercier with Joop Zoetemelk.
Girvan, it must be a big deal, here you are a week before the start.
“I did this last year, we came up a week early to get to know the roads, there’s obviously the training aspect, but if you know that the top is ‘just round the next corner’ then you can dig a bit deeper and hang on.
“The squad is predominantly the same as last year, but it does no harm to remind the guys of what to expect. It’s going to be a hard race to win; we’re the team to beat at the moment, so I expect we’ll get other teams collaborating against us — that’s bike racing, though! “Girvan is a different race from the Bikeline, there’s no opening time trial, but there are time bonuses — the race is won and lost on the bonuses.
“We can’t leave it to those bonuses because there are some quick guys — like Evan (Oliphant of PCA) and Wilko (’07 Girvan winner, Andy Wilkinson of Science in Sport — Trek) who are liable to grab them. Wilko is probably the favourite; but I know that Evan is also very motivated to win, he’s a big threat.”
What about the Rapha v. PCA rivalry?
“We’re both trying to encourage it! It gets us more column inches, but we want to keep it friendly, the British cycling scene is too small to have grudge matches going on, but provided it’s light hearted I don’t think it’s a problem. I think some of the internet forums have been getting a bit heated about which is the best team, though!”
It’s 26 years since John turned pro!
It’s 26 years since you turned pro — how do you remain so enthusiastic?
“I love it; it’s a lot better than working for a living! My career as a pro was cut short by illness, so it wasn’t like I’d ‘had enough of it’ when I stopped racing.
“I wouldn’t want to manage at any higher level than this, but it would be nice to have a little more money in the budget. I’m quite happy that we’re a ‘feeder team’ for riders to move on to greater things from.”
Rapha/PCA/Pinarello/SIS/Halfords — the UK scene is getting better isn’t it; could it be like the 80’s again, with city centre races?
“The last three or four years have certainly seen the racing improve, it’s mainly the same guys winning, but in better organised teams. That’s one of the pleasures of the job, teaching young riders how to race properly, you see riders who have never won a Premier Calendar race going up the road from the gun — I don’t know what they are trying to achieve.
“The racing here is getting more like continental racing with the race-winning move generally being made late in the race. As for the future, it’s getting more difficult with the police (witness the demise of the Archer Grand Prix) and I think that place to place racing will be very hard to organise.
“City centre racing will be harder to organise these days too with the increasing move towards pedestrian precincts; although the Smithfield nocturne is proving to be a big success. I think the future is liable to be along Belgian lines, with kermesse type racing and rapport built with local communities.”
Why is ‘Rapha’ the dominant sponsor?
“If you look on the back of the jersey, you’ll see a little logo that says ‘recyclinglives’ — this is a new initiative that Recycling are involved in: there are going to be 10 or 12 centres around the country where people can go and get their lives back on track — people who have maybe left the forces, but with nowhere to live or a plan for the future.
Click to jump to Recyclinglives.
“They can live at one of these centres and work there too — recycling televisions, computers and the like. This is a big project and it’s moving very quickly because a politician was impressed by the scheme and has embraced it. With all this on the go, Recycling have eased back on their involvement, but they hope to be back in a bigger way, next year.”
How’s Chris Newton after his crash?
“He had a titanium plate fitted to the collar bone at Sheffield Hallam University on Tuesday and he’s hoping to be back on the turbo in five or six days, maybe racing in four weeks.”
ASO v. UCI?
“Having lived in France, I’d like to see the UCI win! The Tour has become so big and ASO so strong, but you can’t have a race organiser dictating to the sport’s governing body. It’s no surprise to see French politicians involved on the side of ASO, the revenue that the Tour brings into France is phenomenal and they won’t want to see that jeopardised.
“The thing is though, that the Tour is the best race in the world, really only the Americans can challenge that dominance, if you look at the way the Tours of California and Georgia have grown it’s very impressive. The teams stay in these wonderful hotels and the word goes round that it’s a good race, so the riders forget their usual reluctance to travel across time zones.
“I’m not saying that the UCI will come out on top, but I hope they do.”
VeloVeritas would like to thank John for his time and wish him and the squad all the best for Girvan.
[And anyway, Rony van Holen’s haircuts were always the worst, John!]
Musselburgh 3-up Team Time Trial Result
As mentioned in John’s interview, he fielded 4 teams in yesterday’s Musselburgh RCC 3-Up 28.4-mile time trial in East Lothian, which had a start sheet boasting 30 teams.
3 of the Rapha teams finished in the top 4, with first going to Dale Appleby, Kristian House and Rob Partridge, who won the event with 1-03-52.
However, they were nearly upset by the PedalPower team of Gary Hand, Gordon Murdoch and Scott McRae, who were only 25 seconds away from taking the top spot.
Dean Downing led his 2 team-mates Rhys Lloyd and Ryan Bonser to third place, while fourth place was taken by Tom Diggle, Simon Holt and Graham Briggs.
John’s teams used their road bikes for the 3-up, as there isn’t a time trial at the Girvan next weekend, whilst most of the local teams taking part were competing on their TT bikes, and today John takes his teams over to the West coast to recce the first stage of the Girvan.
Rapha Condor/Recycling.co.uk
Rob Partridge, Kristian House, Dale Appleby
Pedal Power RT
Gordon Murdoch, Gary Hand, Scott MaCrae
Rapha Condor/Recycling.co.uk
Dean Downing, Rhys Lloyd, Ryan Bonser
Rapha Condor/Recycling.co.uk
Tom Diggle, Graham Briggs, Simon Holt
Ed's been involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he's been a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He's also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months was often working in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed remains a massive fan of the sport and couples his extensive contacts with an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the minutiae and the history of our sport.
In February 2023 however, our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed suffered a devastating stroke and faces an uncertain future; Ed has lost his ability to speak, to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He's working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation, but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time. Ed ran his own business installing windows, and will probably not be able to work again. Please consider joining us to make a contribution to Ed's GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure his future.
These last few winters we’ve tracked down some of those colourful British cyclo-cross stars of the 70’s and 80’s – Keith Mernickle, Eric Stone and Chris Wreghitt have all told their stories to VeloVeritas. But perhaps the most colourful of them all was the man with the ‘George Best Look’ and the lightest of bikes – Barry Davies.
Junior racing isn't exactly flourishing in Scotland, so it's good to see one of the youngsters getting a bit of the limelight - 17 year old Finlay Young took the honours in the Jack Murray road race at Dunfermline over the weekend.
Here at VeloVeritas we still get excited about competition records so it’s only proper then that we should ‘have a word’ with 33 year-old Adam Duggleby (Vive le Velo), who recently in the Farnborough & Camberley CC National 12 Hour Championship in Hampshire recorded 322 miles (the official distance not yet available), adding around four miles to Andy Wilkinson’s (Port Sunlight Wheelers) 2012 record of 317.97.
For the first time in many a year VeloVeritas didn’t make it down to Grenoble for the Four Days on the battle scarred boards of the winter track where Post, Merckx, Sercu, Clark, Moser and Thevent have all lifted the laurels. How I miss Bar Clemenceau, Pizza Natalie and the wee bakers where the baker always give me extra croissants ‘for luck.’ ‘New Wave’ French strong men and World Madison Champions Morgan Kneisky and Vivien Brisse took the honours from tough Spaniards Muntaner & Torres with Iljo Keisse limbering up for Gent in third spot with countryman De Buyst.
"Given my record of bad luck in 50's, when I heard that the course had been changed, I expected to end up in the Cromarty Firth at the turn, checking out the dolphins!" But Mark Atkinson successfully avoided that fate to take his third Scottish 50 Mile Time Trial Championship title; leading Sandy Wallace team mates, second placed Jonathan Copp and fifth placed Ian Black, to take a double championship win on a bright but cool and windy Sunday morning on the A9 near Invergordon.
Russell Downing rode his first race when he was seven years-old; he’s now 33 and the British pro racing just wouldn’t be the same without him. Some times when you interview a rider you have to work hard to find decent palmarés for the introduction – but not with Downing. The problem is deciding what to leave out; pages could be dedicated to his wins and placings.
La Vuelta a España in Holland! So, La Vuelta a España started on Saturday in the Dutch town of Assen, joining in with the other Grand Tour by starting outside its borders. The Spanish Tour has done this once before, but it was still on the Iberian Peninsula; Lisbon in Portugal.
It’s always cold at the Bremen Six Day, the Baltic is just up the road so you get cold or cold and wet; today it’s the latter but the cabin has a window so we can at least see the sky – not like the usual breeze block with no windows.
We humbly ask for your help to support our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed Hood. Ed suffered a devastating stroke in February last year and faces an uncertain future.
As a result of the stroke, Ed has lost his ability to speak, and to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He’s working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time.
Ed ran his own business installing windows but will not be able to work again and his financial future is uncertain, so please consider joining us to make a contribution to the GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure Ed's future. Thank you.
