Tag: Scottish Time Trials 2009

"Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike," the words of 'il Campionissimo'-'champion of champions,' Fausto Coppi when asked to give advise about training. The same advice holds still holds good for the 21st century, but it's a tad more sophisticated in these cyber days.

Our recent chat with 70’s pursuit king, Hugh Porter having been well received we thought you may like to hear what another ‘man of the 70’s’ - Les West had to say to us a year or two ago. "West is best!", that's what his fans used to say and most of the time they were right; twice British amateur road race champion and twice British professional road race champion.

If mountain biking is your thing, and you're not really into road bikes, how - and why - would you end up working as a mechanic for a ProTour team? We met Garmin Transisions mechanic Kris Withington recently on the Giro d'Italia, chewin' the fat at the start of Stage 12 in Citta Sant'Angelo, and so we thought it would be great to find out the answer to that question, and discover a little more about this Giro, as well as life on the road with a top professional team.

On a typical Scottish spring afternoon of ‘Four Seasons in One Day’ Herbalife/Leisure Lakes’ talented 18 year-old English rider, Harry Tanfield fully justified the ‘Elite’ stamp on his license to win Kennoway Road Club’s David Campbell Memorial Race over 80 tough Fife miles around the Cults Hills. With 2013 results which include, 10th Heist Op Den Berg; 2nd Evergem Belzele and 8th Tourinne-Saint-Lambert Kermises in Belgium, Tanfield’s win would have come as no surprise if we’d done our homework.

Another race, another Endura clean sweep on a glorious day for the David Bell Memorial Road Race at picturesque Straiton; Evan Oliphant winning solo from team mates Ross Creber and Gary Hand; these two crossing the line hand in hand to remind us of their team's spirit - as if we'd forget?

I used to look at those ‘Winning’ magazines in the mid-80’s and think how glamorous and cool the US scene looked, especially those super-fast criteriums with huge crowds and big bucks sponsorship and prize lists. A man who lived and raced through that golden era of US racing was Irishman, Alan McCormack who was not only a North American ‘crit King’ but rode the Olympics and Vuelta along the way.