VeloVeritas

Revolution Season Finale the “Stepping Stone” for Sir Chris Hoy(0)

The National Cycling Centre in Manchester was completely sold out as Olympic hero Sir Chris Hoy ramped up his preparation for the UCI Track World Cup at the new London Olympic velodrome.

Hoy qualified fastest in the morning session, but lost out on the initial face off against Jason Kenny and was unable to get the better of some of his sprinting rivals. With the test event just two weeks away and the Olympics only six months down the line, the Revolution provided a perfect backdrop for some serious sprinting competition.

Brad wins the British Road Championships 2011(2)

On a balmy Sunday afternoon in quaint Stamfordham, Sky did ‘what England expected’ and grabbed the first four places in the British elite road race championship over 197 hard Northumbrian kilometres; and the skeletal Bradley Wiggins will start the Tour in the white British champion’s jersey after jumping his team mates on the run in; defending champion Geraint Thomas took silver, Peter Kennaugh was third and Ian Stannard fourth.

We were on the scene early – in time to catch the end of the ladies’ championship…

The Peebles Criterium 2011(2)

Enjoying the evening sunshine and large crowds around the town centre circuit, young Pedal Power\Endura rider Robbie Hassan rode an intelligent and strong race to win the inaugural Peebles Criterium, part of the Tweedlove Festival, fending off a strong challenge from Director’s Choice’s Allan Clark and Endura Racing professional Callum Wilkinson.

These three, together with Scott McRae from Team Leslie Bikes had managed to detach themselves from the much-reduced bunch with seven laps of the tight and fast left-turning circuit remaining, and after 45 minutes of hard racing the four held off the remaining chasers by a handful of seconds.

The Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championships(2)

On a benign morning amid the lush greenery of the Kingdom of Fife, Endura pro Evan Oliphant proved too fit for the specialist testers, taking the Scottish 25 mile time trial championship by 1:17 from far travelled Carlos Riise (Shetland) with defending champion Arthur Doyle (Dooleys RT) a further 19 seconds back in the bronze medal position.

Fife was looking at its best when we arrived at the start line as the first of the ladies rolled down the “gift” first mile of Station Brae (aka Freuchie Brae)…

James McCallum – Winner of the David Bell Memorial 2011(2)

Rapha Condor Sharp’s James McCallum has been at it again; winning, that is – the 46th edition of the Davie Bell Memorial, this time.

VeloVeritas unfortunately couldn’t make it down to one of our favourite races, but we were on the phone to ‘Jamesy’ and organiser Chris Johnson, soon after the dust had settled.

Scottish 10 Mile TT Championships(1)

On a cold Sunday morning of stinging squalls, along the dual carriageway south of Laurencekirk, Dooley’s Arthur Doyle successfully defended his Scottish ten mile time trial championship crown in 20:41 from Endura’s Evan Oliphant with 20:59 and Velo Ecosse surprise, Rob Wilkins in 21:02.

Once I discovered Tay FM’s ‘Classics Sunday morning’ the trip up became less of a pain; The Proclaimers, Kraftwerk – can’t be bad…

Scottish Road Race Championships, Evan Takes His Fifth!(3)

On a day of sunshine, wind and squals over 12 laps of a rolling circuit around Balfron, Evan Oliphant (Endura Racing) defended his Scottish road race championship in fine style; riding away from the day long break with two laps to go and opening a big gap over Gary Hand (Endura/Pedal Power) and Ross Creber (Cycle Premier/Metaltek) who also slipped the bunch to sprint it out for silver and bronze respectively.

Tour DoonHame 2011 Finalé(0)

“Ate that bunny on main climb of day! Went down a treat!!!” It’s texts like that which make it all worthwhile – mission accomplished; Dan Fleeman’s Easter bunnies delivered.

Vik, Dave and Ivan all ‘passed’ on the Doon Hame gig; that left it down to Jimmy Leslie and I. The Saturday night crit around Victory Park used to be the traditional pilgrimage – now it’s Easter Monday.

It was chilly at 08:00 when we jumped in the Audi to head south; but nice and mild by the time we were ‘Doon Haem.’

Reflections on the 2011 Track World Champs – Part III, Endurance Races(0)

We conclude our review of the 2011 World Track Champs from Apeldoorn with a look at the endurance events; only one of which will be in the Olympic programme – the team pursuit.

The individual pursuit, madison, scratch and points have all been axed from London.

Reflections on the 2011 Track World Champs – Part II, Shane Archbold(0)

The bad news – there’s no individual pursuit, points or Madison at the Olympics.

The good news is that the team pursuit stays and we get the omnium – I had my doubts about this event but there’s no doubt that it produced some savage racing at Apeldoorn; let’s see what silver medallist, Shane Archbold had to say.

Reflections on the 2011 Track World Champs – Part I, the American Sprinters(0)

The Track Worlds came and went, and whilst criticising the UCI is the fashion their decision to slot the Worlds into the Cobbled Classics season has to be questioned.

The original thought process was that it was to accommodate the six day riders coming off the end of their season – and road men before their season got underway.

In reality, by the time the sixes finish, most of the protagonists just want a holiday and as for roadmen riding – March and April are the two busiest months of the year for them.

14th International Critérium de Levallois(0)

It was a typical cold grey Scottish autumn day for the 14th International Critérium de Levallois – even though we were in Paris.

The race was very animated right from the start, with two riders clear on the second of the 60 laps.

These two were Loic Desriac and Thomas Rostollan, and between them they scooped up all the early primes.

Tour of Lombardy – Gilbert Again!(0)

Gilbert was excellent, Scarponi was very good and Nibali showed grinta; especially given that he rode and won at San Luis, Argentina way back in January.

Our pal Viktor reckons that the lead group were glad to let Lastras go to get third spot; it saved them the trouble of worrying about the sprint – maybe he’s right? 195 starters and 34 finishers says it all – cold, wet, mist, low cloud and a lot of guys keen to end their season.

We flew out on the Friday and spent the night in Bergamo – the ‘new’ town…

Scottish Hill Climb Championships – ‘Une Erreur de Jeunesse’(1)

The French have an expression for it; ‘une erreur de jeunesse’ – a mistake of youth.

When VeloVeritas saw Grant Ferguson’s bike at the top of the climb, we winced and advised that it disappear into the back of the family camper van, pronto – the back brake had been removed as an aid to weight saving. Whilst in real terms it created no safety issues since the youngster warmed up on rollers at the bottom of the climb, and jumped into the family camper van at the top, we knew that there would be those present that if they spotted the bike ‘sans frein’ would delight in pointing out the infringement.

And so it proved, the young man from Peebles was DQ-ed. A shame, but ‘rules are rules’ we suppose.