VeloVeritas

Welcome to the all-new VeloVeritas!(1)

We’re pleased to be able to present our relaunched site – VeloVeritas. We’ll be aiming to provide you with truthful, accurate, unique and informative articles about the sport we love.

We cover all aspects of cycling by being there, in the mix: from the local “10″ mile time trial to the world-famous professional “monuments” – classics like Milan-SanRemo and the Tour of Lombardy, to the World Championships, the winter Six-Days and the Grand Tours – the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. We attend many local races as well as work on the European professional circuit.

Wouter Weylandt R.I.P.(0)

Wouter Weylandt tragically lost his life today, in a crash on the twisty, steep dangerous descent of the Passo del Bocco climb, about 12.4-miles from the finish of stage three of the Giro.

The briefest of pictures of the scene were shown on live TV before the broadcasting director wisely stopped showing any more, but that was enough to be able to tell that the situation was grave.

The Leopard-Trek rider quickly received emergency treatment at the scene of the accident from the race doctor, race emergency services and team doctors, where adrenaline and atropine injections were administered and cardiac massage carried out for more than half an hour but it wasn’t enough to save the 26-year-old.

Fedor Den Hertog – Amateur Colossus, Rest In Peace(0)

Less than a month after the death of Peter Post, Dutch cycling has lost another of its ‘Greats’ with the news that Fedor Den Hertog succumbed on Saturday 12th February, after a long battle with illness.

For anyone involved in cycle sport in the late 60’s and early 70’s, amateur Den Hertog’s name was as well known as any of the top professionals.

Introducing Our New Blogger – Omega-Pharma Lotto’s Adam Hansen(0)

T-Mobile, Slipstream and HTC stalwart Adam Hansen; a key cog in the ‘Cavendish sprint machine,’ surprised many when he decided to leave the US team and follow HTC’s ‘other sprinter,’ Andre Greipel to Lotto. But that’s not all!

We’re delighted to announce that Adam will be blogging right here on VeloVeritas throughout the season, from the early dust-off scraps in Australia and the South of France, through the historic spring monuments and onto the Tour de France! You’ll be able to follow Adam’s progress as he takes Andre to the front of the bunch and duels with his old team’s Cavendish sprint train, and read what it’s really like, from someone on the inside of the ProTour peloton.

As Adam entered the final phase of his preparation for the Australian National championships – he’s been on the road race podium and the top step for the time trial in the past – we spoke with the ex-mountain biker, self confessed ‘computer nut’ and fan of HTC mobile telephones, to conduct this off-beat introductory interview. Enjoy!

RIP Peter Post. Outstanding Road and Trackman, Six Day Star, Manager Par-Excellence(1)

With the news on Friday that Peter Post had died in Amsterdam at the age of 77 the sport lost one if it’s Colossi. Born in Amsterdam in November 1933, the son of a butcher, he had a hard childhood growing up in Nazi occupied Holland.

He turned professional in 1956 for Legendary Amsterdam bicycle makers RIH Sport; he would remain in the peloton until 1972 having ridden for some of the most famous teams in the history of cycle sport – Flandria, Faema, Solo-Superia and Willem 11.

There are three distinct aspects to Peter Post’s career, all of which are characterised by amazing versatility.

Laurent Fignon RIP.(0)

‘Unluckiest man of the race was Laurent Fignon (Renault) who escaped alone on the climb of the Cote de la Madelaine, only to crash when leading by 37 seconds with only 18 kilometres to go.’

That was how Britain’s Cycling Weekly magazine recorded my first ever memory of the man; cycling on British TV was rare back then but those producers know a good image when they see one and I must have seen that footage of the Frenchman’s bottom bracket axle breaking and catapulting him over the ‘bars to end up sitting on the tarmac a hundred times.

New to VV: Tobe’s Blog(0)

We’re very pleased to announce that Garmin Transitions physiotherapist Toby Watson will be contributing articles to his new VeloVeritas blog.

Right now Toby is with the team on the Tour de France, and you can read about what it’s like to be working with a top team on the biggest race in the world, and the sense of drama and fun that are essential parts of the experience, on Toby’s regular updates.

Scandals and gossip – it must be Tour time!(2)

Before we go any further, apologies for the lack of words and pics on the National road race – the VeloVeritas team were all too busy with that ‘life stuff’ this week, sorry.

However, we’ll run them post Tour; to help ease that PTSF – ‘Post Tour Stress Disorder.’

Congratulations to Ross Creber (Endura) on his U23 medal – he earned it.

Can someone explain this to us, please?(1)

VeloVeritas is heading down to the British National Elite Road Race Championship on the 27th of this month.

We thought we’d check in with ‘our’ boys, Hamish Haynes, Dan Fleeman, Dan Patten and Tom Copeland to tell them we’d be around to pester them, and to lend a hand with bike prep, feeding and anything else they might need.

Here’s what Tom Copeland had to say to us, in reply…

Richard Russell, 1930 – 2010(0)

The death of Richard Russell leaves a large gap in the Lothians CTC.

Richard was an important figure on the Scottish cycling scene, following his father into the Cyclists’ Touring Club, the Edinburgh Road Club and the Scottish Road Records Association.

One of his earliest memories was of sitting in a small wicker seat on the back of his parents’ tandem on trips around East Lothian, an area he always loved.

Are Cycling Kit Designers on Strike or What?(6)

It’s that time of year; the teams all have their riders signed and gathered at camp (or, “rosters filled” as our North American chums would say), and presentations to the press abound, giving us the chance to see the stars in their new kit for the first time.

We’ve brought together some of the more controversial, recently announced team kits, which are dividing opinion up and down the land, and asking the question – what are they thinking?

Dimitri De Fauw(1)

It’s easy to write an obituary when one of your heroes dies – probably more so if you don’t know them well.

There’s just the legend, palmares, anecdotes and the sadness.

But I knew Dimitri De Fauw, not well, but I worked at maybe half-a-dozen six day races where he was riding.

RIP, VDB(4)

“RIP VDB” said the text from John Stollery, waiting for me, when I woke up; there were others too, from Dave and Stevie all expressing sadness – for all his faults, he was a hard man to dislike.

He was just 34, cause of death is cited as a ‘blood clot.’

Tom Copeland – An Introduction(1)

Here at VeloVeritas, we encourage you to submit your race results and stories to us, and young Tom Copeland recently did just that.

20 year old Tom is a second-year espoir, originally from Eastbourne in East Sussex (he calls it the Sunshine Coast!) and is now living and racing in France.

Tom loves to write in his spare time, and will be keeping us up-to-date as his season progresses, so to kick things off, we thought we’d introduce him to you now…