Friday, May 3, 2024

Tag: Belgian Races

Interviews

James Spragg – Right in the Mix

Viktor calls; 'there's an English boy - James Spragg - riding the Three days of West Flanders - he rode the Samyn too - you should find out about him.' For sure, Vik!
Diaries

Het Nieuwsblad 2010 goes to Flecha

It was a difficult phone call to make, he picked up on the tone of my voice at once; 'no, don't tell me, please!' But it was best he heard it from me; 'Flecha, he won Het Nieuwsblad well, Viktor, sorry!' 'That's it, I'm finished with Pro Cycling, for good!'
Stories

Getting Ready for a Kermis Race – the 30 Essential Steps

We interviewed Joe Parkin recently as part of our "Racing in Belgium" series. Joe has written a great book about his experiences entitled "A Dog in a Hat", and is busy writing his second.
Nuggets

Guy Smet; Big Scores in Belgium

The score may have been Dunfermline 1 Queen of the South 2 at East End Park, the other night, but in Flanders just now it's Guy 24, Mario 22.
Interviews

Joe Parkin – Still Racing, But Just For Fun!

"A Dog in a Hat," has to be one of the best books about pro cycling ever written. Author Joe Parkin took some time to talk to VeloVeritas about life, bike racing, his next book-yes, and Lance!
Interviews

Mario Willems – Most Successful Kermis Rider This Season

"Ed! All this Tour de France nonsense - you should be talking to Mario Willems, he's the top man in the Flanders kermis' right now!"
Stories

Giving It A Go In Belgium

Giving It A Go In Belgium; In part four of our (irregular) series on racing as an amateur in Belgium, VeloVeritas own web manager and editor, Martin, talks about when he had some time in the mid-80’s between completing a college course and starting a new job, and decided to head off to Flanders for the season...
Interviews

Tom Murray – Unfinished Business

Continuing our series about racing in Belgium, we had a chat with Tom Murray last week, who is back racing on the continent after the Plowman Craven Madison team ceased operations.
Interviews

Peter Murphy – “Go To Belgium”

Scottish bike racing; let's face it, no matter how well you do in the Super Sixes, or how quick you can go around West Ferry, you're going nowhere if you stay in Auld Scotia.
Interviews

Dean Downing – Still Living His Dream

This is the first in a series of articles in which we explore racing in Belgium, and chat to a few guys that "have done it the hard way", outside of "The Plan", and on their own. To kick us off, we caught up with Rapha Condor star Dean Downing between Tour Series criteriums.
Interviews

James Cambridge – One of Cycling’s Unsung Heroes

"Do you remember the James Cambridge boy we were talking to at that kermesse in Sersekamp, four or five years ago?" says Viktor. "Red Specialized, great tan, pro's legs and a cool Craft under vest?" I reply.
Diaries

Hamish Haynes – Letters from Belgium #2

Hamish Haynes: Hi folks, I'm very happy with the progress I have been making here, I'm confident of now delivering the required results. I've been having a lot of fun racing and training getting some really good sessions done, with a very positive feeling on the bike. It's not all gone my way though...
Diaries

Hamish Haynes – Letters from Belgium #1

Hi folks, Hamish Haynes here. Let's bring you up to speed with my season so far: In mid-February, just before returning from winter training in Spain I picked up a hamstring strain; at that moment it wasn't clear what had exactly happened. I assumed it was a minor niggle that would quickly recede, within a few days I realized a scan was necessary, fortunately it revealed only a minor muscle elongation.
Diaries

The Tour of Flanders 2008 – Day 2

The Tour of Flanders 2008, What does the 'oh' stand for in oh, four, forty five ? "Oh my God it's early!" That's an old Robin Williams joke, from Good Morning Vietnam, but I like it. I managed a shave without removing any skin, packed my case and stumbled out of the room, all the while making a mental note that when I met Big Bert, I'd get some free samples of his sponsor's 'Silence' anti-snoring preparation for Greg.
Diaries

The Tour of Flanders 2008 – Day 1

The Tour of Flanders 2008. When I was young (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) I read and re-read Tom Simpson's autobiography, 'Cycling is my Life.' The races that he won seemed so tough and so glamorous; I idolised him - still do. But it wasn't until I actually saw The Worlds, Milan - San Remo and the Tour of Lombardy in the flesh, that I realised how good the man actually was. I'm reminded again today, when I look at the parcours of 'The Ronde' what a bike rider he really was.
Editorial

Gary Wiggins – “Nobody messed with The Doc”

The tall, rawboned rider ambled across to the barrier; Gary Wiggins was broad and square across the shoulders, big-thighed and walked with a loose-limbed gait. His long legs made easy work of straddling the steel fence which separated the riders' enclosure from the paying public at the Gent six, back in the early 80's.
Stories

Under-23 Het Volk 2007

Continental TV may be dire, but there's a good choice of radio stations; Percy Sledge is telling us about "When a man loves a woman", as we jump back into the VW after paying homage at the Karl Buyse monument in sleepy Wontergem, heading for the Under-23 Het Volk 2007. Buyse was a son of the Flanders sod who won the Tour de France in 1926. A long time ago maybe, but not forgotten here in the heartland.
Stories

Grote Prijs Gemeente Beveren 2007

It's long been a puzzle to me - who actually works in Flanders? It's 11.30am at Beveren Waas on a Monday, two hours until the start and the Grote Prijs Gemeente Beveren race HQ is already heaving. Officials from the federation and all the participating clubs, mechanics, masseurs, mums, dads, girlfriends, sponsors and of course, riders; 196 of them. People have their priorities right here, and work isn't one of them - it comes somewhere after bike racing, family and doing what you enjoy.
Stories

Belgian National Championships 2007

The Belgian championships are special: as with the Worlds, there's just such a sense of occasion and expectation. There are a lot of ladies present, all immaculately presented. This is on the principle of, 'go to the race, or sit in the hoose!' The organisers are expecting 30-40,000 fans today...the bar-owners are rubbing their hands. There's only one man going to win the right to wear that red, yellow and black jersey for the next twelve months.
Stories

Lendelede Kermis 2007

Lendelede, early afternoon, and we've missed the start - but the sun is shining and our hero, Guy Smet is riding. This is a kermesse. A criterium, like Friday night's, is usually on a circuit of one to two kilometres which is generally urban in nature, and the event will last one to two hours. A kermesse course, on the other hand, will be on a circuit of six to eight kilometres, and whilst it will start and finish in the village main street, it will be largely rural, race duration will be two to three hours.
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At Random

Garmin Physio Toby Watson

Frank Schleck, One For The History Books

If you were lucky enough to watch Stage 18 last night, you saw one of the best days of bike racing in years. Andy and Frank Schleck finally attacked and got it right, using their double-threat to maximum advantage, and as a result achieved another stage win, jumped in the GC to now be in a dominant position, and Andy has ridden a stage that will be talked about for years.
Interviews

John Archibald – New RTTC 10 Mile TT Champion

In the car on the way down to Irvine on Sunday morning it never occurred to VeloVeritas editor Martin and I that we’d soon be witnessing anything other than Marcin Bialoblocki (NOPINZ) making it a clean sweep of RTTC titles from 10 to 100 miles. Not for the first time, we got it wrong. Commonwealth Games pursuit silver medallist, John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling) relegated the big Polish power house to second place by three seconds with a sparking 18:18 – Big Marcin looked a tad stunned when the news broke that we had a Scottish winner of a British title on Scottish roads.
Editorial

RIP Peter Post. Outstanding Road and Trackman, Six Day Star, Manager Par-Excellence

With the news on Friday that Peter Post had died in Amsterdam at the age of 77 the sport lost one of it's Colossi. Born in Amsterdam in November 1933, the son of a butcher, he had a hard childhood growing up in Nazi occupied Holland. He turned professional in 1956 for Legendary Amsterdam bicycle makers RIH Sport; he would remain in the peloton until 1972 having ridden for some of the most famous teams in the history of cycle sport-Flandria, Faema, Solo-Superia and Willem 11.
Interviews

David Harmon – “The Rotterdam Six has rekindled my enthusiasm for the sport”

The phone rings – it’s Viktor, VeloVeritas’ resident sage, critic and general cycling Nostradamus. I steel myself; ‘Happy New Year’ I say. ‘Aye, Happy New Year to you, too – here, have you been watching the live stream from Rotterdam, it’s brilliant!’ and that’s how I came to be speaking to Mr. David Harmon...
Interviews

Matthew Bottrill – Back to Winning Ways

He’s been CTT 10, 25, 50 and 100 mile champion, he’s been British 25 and 50 mile record holder; he’s been away but now he’s back. When we saw he’d recently won the Eddy Soens Memorial Race some 20 years after he’d first won it, we thought to ourselves; ‘maybe need to have a word with old Mister Matthew Bottrill, aka ‘The Flying Postman, it’s been a year or two since last we chatted’
Book Reviews

“The Autobiography” by Chris Hoy

As the first Briton to win 3 Olympic golds at the same Games since 1908, Scotland's Chris Hoy has become a beacon for British sporting achievement. This autobiography charts his life from 7-year-old BMX fanatic, supported by a devoted dad and local cycling club, through paralysing self-doubt and a major career overhaul, to the sport's holy grail.

Here at VeloVeritas we aim to provide our readers with truthful, accurate, unique and informative articles about the sport we love.

Contact us: editor@veloveritas.co.uk

At Random

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