Saturday, July 27, 2024

Tag: Bikes

Merckx Machines, Present and (Recent) Past

As we said the other week, it's always nice to get feedback from readers - even when we get slapped wrists. One of our Scandinavian readers wasn't happy that in our 'Six Day Hardware' piece we missed out the frames of a certain Baron Merckx. We hope the following rectifies things as we look at Merckx machines present and recent past.

The Bikes of Het Nieuwsblad and KBK 2014

Het Hieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne are the first opportunities for northern European fans to check out the new hardware. Our trawl always starts on the Friday evening at the Holiday Inn, Ghent where F des J, Cofidis and Rabobank (now Belkin) set up shop for the first ‘real’ races of the year.

At Random

Back to Essex

For the first time in two months I'm back in the UK. Back to Essex. I'm back for this Sundays East Midlands Cicle Classic/Rutland Melton and with the form I've built over the last couple of months in Belgium I am going into the race with great optimism.

CTT Classic TT Series, Round 4: Loch Ken

The CTT Classic TT around Loch Ken is unique; it’s a lovely course without too much traffic and if you catch sight of the red kites wheeling around overhead it adds to the feeling that it’s a special venue for a bike race. The fastest ride on Sunday was by Sandy Taylor of GTR-Return to Life p/b Streamline with 57:20 from team mate, Chris Smart with 57:23, with CTT Scotland Olympic Time Trial Champion Marc Anderson completing a ‘full house’ for GTR with 58:26.

Paul Martens – Tour of Luxemburg 2013 Winner

Who’s Paul Martens? He’s a solid professional, comes from Rostock in Germany and rides for Belkin. And back in June he joined that exclusive club of national tour winners, taking the Tour of Luxembourg – a result rather lost in the pre-Tour hysteria.

Grant Ferguson – New Scottish Hill Climb and British Cyclo-Cross Champion

Our first question to Grant Ferguson, perhaps better known for his mountain bike and cyclo-cross (he’s reigning British Elite Cyclo-Cross champion, don’t forget) adventures, following his win in this year's Scottish Hill Climb championships was "did you have a back brake this time, Grant?"

Rab Wardell – A Trip Into The Unknown

Whilst Endura have been getting all the attention recently, other Scottish riders have been looking to raise their game too. Rab Wardell is taking his talent south - to Southport's Kinesis team. We caught up with him to talk about the move - eventually. (Rab is a fan of having his mobile on 'silent' after five pm - but of course, this means he doesn't hear it when it rings!)

Dan Bigham – World Hour Record Breaker!

When we conducted this interview Dan Bigham had just broken the World Hour Record setting a stunning new worlds best of 55.548 on the Grenchen boards in Switzerland – but since then Italian giant, ‘Pippo’ Ganna has rendered Dan to ‘ex-world Hour record holder’ with his 56.792 kilometres. We caught up with Dan a week or two after the hype had subsided.