On a picture postcard perfect Autumn Sunday, hospital consultant Arthur Doyle (Dooleys Cycles) gave a lesson in how to ride a technical time trial with a two minute plus beating of the field in the classic Tour of the Trossachs. Ever consistent Jim Cusick (Glasgow Couriers) was second with Plowman Craven professional and Scottish road race champion, Evan Oliphant taking bronze.
I'm standing on the chair so as I can see over the cabin, Leif Lampater and Roger Kluge are the only pair left to ride in the 1,000 metres time trial here at the Berlin Six Day.
‘Lockdown’ does have benefits. The big advantage for me is that I have time to catch up with riders who it’s long overdue I should speak to. One such rider is Australia’s Micheal Wilson, a winner of Grand Tour stages and Italian races of quality. Micheal was at home in Tasmania with a glass of his own Pinot Grigio to hand – Micheal is still involved in wine production – when I called and asked him to stroll down memory lane with me...
‘Back in the day’ when he was World Team Sprint Champion and a silver medallist in the World Individual Sprint Championship we used to speak to Scottish fast man Craig Maclean on a regular basis. Since then he’s gone on to be a successful tandem pilot on the paralympic scene and, he’s gone into coaching – as well as ‘playing in the band.’ High times VeloVeritas ‘had a word.’
Each year we publish memories and tributes to those involved in cycling that have passed, out of respect and to try and honour their memory. Usually, of course, the majority of the obituaries remember ex-riders who have enjoyed 'a good innings' but this year we seem to have run more of these than normal. There have also been complete shocks, tragic events which hit everyone in the sport hard such as the terrible hit and run which killed Davide Rebellin, and we have lost personal friends to these horrible, unforeseen tragedies too; Steve Beech, Rab Wardell and Richard Moore. We miss them a great deal and to mark their passing we've chosen Richard's article as our pick for 2022.
We didn’t make it over to the Scottish Road Race Championships – which this year included the Sam Robinson Memorial Race - but thought it only fair that we catch up with the man who was crowned champion, Matti Dobbins of the Wheelbase CabTech Castelli team.
It’s a new hotel chain today, Premiere Classe – we had a bit of a battle to get in.
To keep the costs down, they only man these places in the morning and early evening – during the day you have to punch codes in to gain access.
We started with credit card information, then the reservation number – no dice. Eventually we stuck Martin’s name in – et voila!