David Duggan, I know that name, wasn’t he the guy that Dave and I watched win that Dunfermline ‘mud fest’ cyclo-cross the other year?
That’s him – and now he’s gone and won the Scottish Road Race Championship on that tough old course up in the North East which included five ascents of Suie Hill on one of those rare days in Scotland where the sun beats down on the riders, making hydration even more important than usual.
The day certainly belonged to Wheelbase CabTech Castelli with Davie Lines spirited riding making him VeloVeritas ‘man of the match’ and aforementioned Mr. Duggan taking the win atop Suie Hill.
After the race Duggan spoke to his sponsors website;
“I’m pretty delighted to be honest.
“It’s been a goal of mine for a long time, but I knew it would be very difficult to achieve, and I was never that sure I was going to achieve it.
“It was draining from every aspect, the heat and trying to get enough fluids on board, and eat enough food so I was always on the back foot trying to stay fuelled with it being such a long race.”
We thought we better find out a little more about this ‘DD’ fellow…
Tell us about yourself, sir.
“I’m 37 years-old, from Inverurie and an engineer in the oil industry.
“I’ve been racing bikes for a lot of years, I got into mountain bikes back in the 90’s when they were still pretty primitive affairs.
“In my late teens I went away from the bike but came back when I could afford nice machines and got into downhill mountain biking in the late 2000’s.
“I was Scottish downhill champion in 2011 and rode Enduro MTB for six or seven years too, I got to a decent level and rode World Cups.
“I picked up an injury which made it impossible to race the more technical MTB events and a friend suggested I ride cross country MTB, I got my eyes opened with the level of competition there, I also had friends who competed in road races and started to dabble in that too.
“I rode 2/3/4 category road races but it was when I joined Wheelbase CabTech Castelli that I did more and more on the road, up to now where I ride at National Circuit and Tour Series level.”
And you’re a ‘cross man’ too?
“I started in 2018 and have been hooked ever since, riding them every winter.”
[VeloVeritas saw DD post an emphatic win in round five of the Scottish cyclo-cross series at Dunfermline in the winter of 2019.]
Tell us about your successful ride in the Scottish Road Race Championships, please.
“Everyone knew that it would be five tough laps on a hot day and with Suie Hill in there it was going to be an arduous race.
“There was an early, strong break with my team mate, Davie Lines in the mix but for the first couple of laps the bunch didn’t really split; on the third lap though the key players started to worry and tried to get away.
“I found myself off the front on the descent to Auchleven with Andy Bruce and that allowed us to ride Suie in a less frantic manner, at our own pace.
“We were caught but at the top of Suie but then I found myself off the front with Gavin Dempster; Davie Lines was up the road but we had him in sight, caught him and built a pretty solid lead with a lap to go. [Davie Lines was distanced on the second to last ascent of Suie Hill, ed.]
“I was running low on feeding bottles but thought we could hold on, we had two minutes, a comfortable lead – but then I was told it had dropped to 1:15 and was coming down I thought to myself; ‘we better get our skates on here!’
“I felt that if we got to Suie with a minute lead then we could hold on… fortunately I managed to pace myself well on the final climb to the line but Gavin cramped up, I believe he even had to unclip?
“Alex Gibb passed him near the finish line to take the silver but Gavin got the bronze medal for his efforts.”
Is there a coach behind your success?
“Yes, I’m coached by Mark Young at MYCylingcoach, I’ve been with him since 2015.
“He was Talent Development Coach at British Cycling and has worked with Scottish Cycling too.”
What’s next on your agenda?
“The race calendar is pretty sparse but Spokes and Scottish Cycling have done well to run the championships.
“And there are the criteriums at Lochgelly mid-week which are good to see back up and running then I have a few Premier Calendar races coming up down south.”
Congratulations again to Messrs. Lines and Duggan and thanks to David for taking the time to speak to us.
