Tag: Great American Riders

Scott Mercier shot to a high level in record time, but he wasn’t going to go down the doping road like many of his colleagues did and turned his back on a US Postal professional career. We hear his story and wonder what could have been.

A wee while ago we chatted with Brent Emery (interview to follow), who rode one of the US team’s Raleigh ‘Super Bikes’ to ’84 Olympic silver, so it was only fair we caught up the man who rode the wildest bike which appeared at those Games; Rory O’Reilly.

Phil Gaimon had a full career before hanging up his WorldTour wheels, but since then he has hardly stopped for breath. As an ex-pro bike rider he fills his time book writing, social media and… riding his bike.

One of the nice things about this gig is that people sometimes send you cool cycling books to review, in this case, ‘No Ordinary Joe’ sub-titled ‘Cycling Legends 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, a unique collection of stories, USA & Canada.’

In Part Three of the Tim Mountford story we learned what is was like to travel around Europe as part of the Stayer circus, racing behind the big motors as high speeds. In this final, Part Four of Tim's interview, he tells us about some of the secrets to securing race contracts in the European Six Days, his favourite memories of top level track racing, some of the characters he conspired with, deciding to retire and open a chain of bike shops in Silicon Valley, and his induction into the US Cycling Hall of Fame.

In Part Two of the Tim Mountford story we heard how he received his first professional contract on the famous Kuipke boards in Gent, to landing a contract with Peter Post and his TI Raleigh squad, eventually retiring and setting up a bike shop business. Here we roll back a couple of years to find out more about his experiences behind the 'big motors'...

In Part One of the Tim Mountford story we heard how the eighteen year-old Tim was living on his own, sharing a flat with another rider, working at a local bike shop and training for the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, as well as being creating and being the chief editor of a cycling magazine titled the "Southern California Cycling Journal". Tim went on to race in two Olympic Games and competed at world level in the tandem sprint before turning to the Professional Six Day scene and working his way up through various sponsors and contracts to land the biggie; a place on the famous TI Raleigh team managed by the legendary Peter Post.

Tim Mountford was one of the pioneers of US professional cycling in the 60’s and 70’s; he recently gave freely of his time to tell VeloVeritas about his adventures in what was a golden age for European cycling.

If you know your cyclocross then you’ll know this lady; 15 times US Elite Champion and five times on a Worlds podium: Katie Compton. But her career is drawing to a conclusion and we thought we couldn’t let a book like hers close without mention.