Saturday, May 4, 2024

Tag: Team Mechanics

Craig Hardie

It was with great sadness that we learnt this week about the passing of Craig Hardie, a living legend in Scottish cycling and beyond as a successful rider, true character, and popular bike shop owner, but so much more than that too. Originally from Dalgety Bay in Fife, Craig was a long-time member and stalwart of the Dunfermline Cycling Club and enjoyed a stellar cycling career.

Steve Taylor – Hanging out the ANC team car roof at the Tour

The legend of the ANC team and participation in the 1987 Tour de France - the story continues. Our man in Shropshire, Martyn Frank said to us recently; ‘you should speak to Steve Taylor, he was a mechanic with ANC.’

Sandy Gilchrist – The Scottish Star of the 70’s and 80’s Working at the Olympics

Rio is his eighth Olympics; and there are six Commonwealth Games and ‘over 30’ World Championships in there too – and whilst we’re talking chiffres (as the French call figures) how about 60-odd Scottish Championships including 14 Scottish Hill Climb Championships and nine Tours de Trossachs? Yes, it’s that man Sandy Gilchrist, who, along with Robert Millar was Scottish Cycling in the 70’s and into the 80’s. He rode the Peace Race, Tour de L’Avenir, Milk Race and World Championships in a long and varied career which continues to this day as he just keeps on wielding those spanners at the sport’s highest levels.

Kris Withington – Garmin Transitions Mechanic

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.

Alan Buttler – Lance’s Mechanic

So, was Lance's bike nobbled in the 2003 Tour? I'm referring to the rubbing rear brake story... "Media hype, the calliper was probably bumped against a wall or another bike on the way to the start." When the man telling you this is one of Big Tex's mechanics and a no-nonsense Nottingham man to boot you cannot argue. Eh - a Nottingham man? You thought that Lance's personal mechanic was Belgian? Only for Le Tour - the rest of the season Lance's Trek is cared for by the USPS team of mechanics under the leadership of Julien de Vries.

At Random

Silas Goldsworthy – 4th and 7th in British Champs, One to Watch!

A man who’s been moving steadily up the standings this year, against the watch and on the track, is Sandy Wallace Cycles’ Silas Goldsworthy – we thought we should have a word.

The VV View: Moolah is a Must-Have?

On social media the other day I saw someone contend that perhaps the crisis that faces time trialling – i.e. the participation age range becomes older by the season, with a case in point being the Scottish ‘25’ title: three youths, one junior – is as a result of the fact that the youngsters think that to compete on equal terms they MUST have a machine which will cost upwards of five grand.

Team Astana Training in Spain

On a cold morning in the town of Javea on the East coast of Spain a bunch of cyclists look at their new bikes for the coming year. This group are a mix of Team Astana and Discovery Channel riders that next season will become the new Team Astana and the man at the helm, Johan Bruyneel, has the job of welding these two distinctly different elements into one super team and with Tour winner Alberto Contador leading the charge it should be another successful season for the man that was behind Lance.

Le Tour de France 2014 – Stage 6; Arras – Reims, 194 km. Andre Greipel is Back

It was good to see Andre Greipel, ‘Le Gorille’ back and his relief at winning was palpable. The huge disappointment in the Lotto car when the big German crashed out of Gent-Wevelgem was forgotten after a stage win which effectively means Lotto’s Tour is a success, irrespective of what Jurgan Van Den Broeck can pull out of the hat.

It’s 10 Years since we lost Laurent Fignon

As Julian Alaphilippe defended his maillot jaune in the first mountain stage of le Tour today, it’s 10 years since we lost another man who not only wore that beautiful jersey but won it outright twice in 1983 and 1984. Monsieur Laurent Fignon. Here’s what I wrote about the man back on that sad day in 2010.

Our Last Rant of 2013 – Happy New Year!

VeloVeritas thanks you for reading in 2013, hopes that you are having a good holiday season, enjoyed the company of family and friends, ate and drank too much and didn’t have too many arguments. We’ve now entered that no man’s land between Christmas and New Year and whilst we’ll do our best to keep the interviews coming from the track men who are making the boards hum, the rising talents and the men who skim through the mud as sweetly Fred Astaire coming down a staircase – the year cannot be let slip without a rant.