It was back at the start of last year we last spoke to Englishman, Toby Perry and when we saw he’d ridden the inaugural Gravel Worlds – an aspect of the sport which has piqued our interest – we thought we’d best have another word with the man.
Since we spoke to Toby Perry in April things have moved on apace for him and by happy coincidence we caught up with his coach, former British champion on road and track, Dean Downing at the Hawick start of the Tour of Britain stage. ‘Deano’ advised us that it might be a good idea to ring Toby in Spain - he had some good news to share.
Tom Pidcock’s stunning performance to win the ‘Baby’ Giro - with three stage wins along the way - over-shadowed a very promising ride by his Trinity Racing team mate, Thomas Gloag, the young man from London getting stronger as the race progressed.
The first Super Six of the year was held at Gifford on Saturday, to our shame, VeloVeritas were not in attendance. But we've tried to make amends by interviewing third placed Rab Wardell.
Dean Woods won Olympic Gold while still junior (U18) rider and went on to become one of the world's premier individual and team pursuits. In Part One of our interview published past week Dean spoke about how he got into cycling and who inspired him as a youngster, what it was like racing at the LA Olympics in 1984 and the sound-breaking carbon bikes he road which were actually made in a team official's garage. In Part Two we hear how Dean trained with the Australian Institute of Sport, rode the Commonwealth Games and Olympics a few more times and turned pro for Deutsche Telekom's first incarnation, Team Stuttgart.
It’s hard to believe but it’s now 13 years since VeloVeritas’ Belgium and East Europe archivist, Ivan and I drove through to Strathaven to meet Mr. Norrie Drummond, former racing cyclist of note in Auld Scotia and Belgium and patron of the Drummond Trophy Road Race, one of few remaining ‘landmark’ races in Scotland. We chatted to Norrie recently to hear some more stories about the old times...
La Vuelta a España in Burgos. Friday: Alarm at 03:15, bolt at 04:00, 90 minutes to Prestwick, flight at 06:00, Stansted, flight at 14:00 - and here we are, Santander. Santander is the main town of Cantabria; but we're headed south to Burgos which is in Castilla y Leon, the same region as Madrid.