If the UCI hadn’t changed the rules governing bicycle design after our own Graeme Obree shattered Francesco Moser’s world hour record on ‘Old Faithful’ it would be entirely feasible that South Africa’s Wimpie van der Merwe - with a 53 plus kilometre ride - would have succeeded Obree’s 52.713 kilometre ride, and not Miguel Indurain with his 53.040 kilometres...
At the start of the 2008 season we hadn't heard of Chris Froome, but all of a sudden his name was everywhere-including le Tour. We thought we'd better have a word with the man who has to go training at 5.00am to beat the Johannesburg traffic.
Team Sky will line up with a ‘young and exciting’ squad as the 2018 season gets under way at the Tour Down Under. Neo-pros Kristoffer Halvorsen and Chris Lawless make their first appearances as Team Sky riders alongside Egan Bernal, who will target the general classification across the six-day WorldTour event.
Canyon dhb p/b Soreen rider, 23 year-old Max Stedman won the UCI 2.1 Tour of Antalya in Turkey, fending off the likes of World Tour team Israel Start-Up Nation, Italian Pro-Conti Giro-tempered Bardiani, East European hardmen Adria Mobil as well as Belgium’s perennial Vlaanderen Pro-Conti foxes...
The CTT Classic TT around Loch Ken is unique; it’s a lovely course without too much traffic and if you catch sight of the red kites wheeling around overhead it adds to the feeling that it’s a special venue for a bike race. The fastest ride on Sunday was by Sandy Taylor of GTR-Return to Life p/b Streamline with 57:20 from team mate, Chris Smart with 57:23, with CTT Scotland Olympic Time Trial Champion Marc Anderson completing a ‘full house’ for GTR with 58:26.
The David Rayner has been helping young riders realise their continental dreams since 1995 with David Millar one of the first to benefit, and Theo Hartley from Bolton in Lancs will be one of the grant recipients in 2018. He'll be joining the Belgian Illi Bikes squad, run by long term Six Day soigneur and track aficionado, Etienne Illegems and his son Ken who was for a time a mechanic with Team Sky but could get round a tough kermis on his good days.
Glasgow’s Katie Archibald has gone from ‘good Scottish rider’ to British championship medalist to European Champion and world team pursuit record holder - and now double World Cup medalist in a matter of weeks. We thought it was high time to have a word.