Our chum, Graham Robson suggested we catch up with Neil Mapplebeck who raced in the tough school that was 70’s and 80’s Dutch ‘Total Cycling’ with ‘all-time greats,’ Kuiper, Raas, Knetemann, Schuiten and Zoetemelk just some of the names from that era.
We recently ran or tribute to the late, great 'Big Bert' Oosterbosch. It was so well received by our readers that we thought we should re-run a piece from a few years ago which pays tribute to another Dutch chrono and pursuit king - the late, great Roy Schuiten.
I was a sceptic; one of the, “it’s only the blinkin’ flu, for goodness sake!” Brigade. It all seemed like an overreaction, these things happen in places like China with so many folks living on top of each other. Strange days indeed.
During our recent interview with Fred Wright he mentioned that we should speak to Matt Walls next; as a reigning Olympic Champion he was 'due a good chat', and so we duly obliged.
He's been one of the outstanding track riders of the last decade, world champion four times across three disciplines - scratch (twice), madison with Michael Mørkøv and team pursuit. There's been a raft of national, European and World Cup titles and podiums not to mention an Olympic team pursuit silver. On the Six Day scene he's won in Berlin, Bremen, Copenhagen, Ghent and Grenoble. And that's before we mention his road palmarés - two stages in the Dunkirk Four Day, the GP Herning, Philadelphia... But Alex Rasmussen has called 'time' on all of that and will race this season on a low key domestic programme.