As a ‘road captain’ in the 80's and 90's Mario Chiesa helped guide riders like Marco Pantani, Urs Zimmermann and Claudio Chiappucci to some big victories. More recently he’s been behind the steering wheel of nine top teams. Thanks to Lucio Belli, we caught up with Mario to get his story.
Vittorio Adorni was one of the classiest riders to sit on a bike, at a time when there were many top riders; Jacques Anquetil, Jan Janssen, Felice Gimondi and sometime teammate, Eddy Merckx. Vittorio Adorni died on 24th December at the age of 85.
Despite an Olympic Road Race, two World Hour Records, a World Amateur Pursuit Championship, two World Professional Pursuit Championship medals, a World Professional Road Race Championship, a Giro d'Italia, a GP des Nations and four Trofeo Baracchi many believe that the best of Ercole Baldini – who died on December 1st at the age of 89 – was never seen.
A year or two ago, I had to pleasure to interview Davide Rebellin, in light of the recent tragedy which saw the 51 years-old Italian lose his life after he was struck by a truck, whilst out on a ride we thought we re-run the piece as a tribute to a man who lived and breathed bike racing.
We thought it would good to talk with the previous ‘Woman of the Hour,’ Ms. Bussi about her record of 48.007 kilometres set on September 13th 2018 at high altitude on the boards of the Aguascalientes velodrome in Mexico.
A few weeks ago I posted on social media a picture of Davide Rebellin in his new Sovac-Natura4ever team strip for 2018; his 27th season as a professional. I commented that he was a ‘remarkable man.’ Immediately I was informed that I was, ‘glorifying a doper.’ When I responded by asking how he was any different to the pundits, TV commentators, self-styled fashion gurus and authors who have all fallen foul of the testers but are now accepted by the cycling community - no one could tell me. Former ‘cross star Barry Davies suggested that I organise an interview with the Italian; ‘good idea,’ I thought to myself.
Englishman Dan Bigham is the man behind the highly successful HUUB-Wattbike track team; HUUB manufacture specialist clothing for cycling and triathlons whilst Wattbike manufacture ‘smart’ bikes and indoor trainers. We caught up with Dan just after the HUUB team’s 2020 season launch.
It's 15 years today - 15:01:08 - since we lost Jason MacIntyre. We thought it would be a nice tribute to re-run the interview we did with him after one of his biggest triumphs, the 2006 British 25 mile Championship, which was also our 'launch' article. Rest in Peace, Jason - you were 'special.
Gary Hand (Pedal Power), race winner at Gifford in Round 1 carries his Scottish Cycling Super 6 Series lead into Round 2 at Scotland's highest village of Wanlockhead on Saturday. The village sits at 467 metres (1531 feet) and used to be known as 'God's Treasure House', due to the local mineral wealth.
In a sunny but very windy Lincolnshire Endura Racing's Russell Downing rode a strong race of attrition today to take his fourth Lincoln GP in a sprint ahead of breakaway companion Marcin Bialoblocki (NODE4 Giordana Racing) and over a minute an a quarter ahead of previous winner Kristian House (Rapha Condor Sharp).
If you're heading to Mallorca on holiday or for a training camp it makes a lot of sense to hire a bike over there rather than take your own machine to the island. I recently spent a couple of weeks in Pollença in the north east of Mallorca, on a family holiday - and for simplicity I decided to do just that. Here's how it went...
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'...