VeloVeritas

National Champion! (0)

It feels good just writing the words, National Champion.

I left you at the end of my last blog sat on the sofa watching the Superprestige race in Diegem unable to race due to a back injury.

I am so glad I did that now, taking things easy then really helped make the difference come national champs day, not a hint of injury was in my mind on the start line and I raced pain free (sort of, my legs were still screaming come the last lap).

Ian Field – British Cyclo-Cross Champion (0)

When we heard on Sunday that our blogger Ian Field had won the British Cyclo-Cross Championship on a dry and sunny day in Suffolk, we wanted to celebrate that win with a chat.

Ian hadn’t stayed in England long – heading back to his Belgian home immediately after the race, to prepare for another event the following day, but we caught up with him today and began by asking him about the weekend.

George Atkins – Time Trials, Belgium and Cooking! (0)

George Atkins was a name that suddenly appeared on the Scottish scene back in the summer.

And on Sunday the versatile man from Leicester took silver in the British U23 Time Trial Championships, but before his foray into the world of riding ‘alone and unpaced’, he spent six weeks in Flanders, so naturally we needed to have a word with him, not long before the British Champs.

Dan Fleeman – New British Hill Climb Champion (0)

Cervelo’s Dan Fleeman left it late to take his first win of the year; but it took him just 3 minutes 18 seconds to convert late season road form to victory in the most specialist and punishing of races – the British Hill Climb Championship, on the 1100 metre Pea Royd Lane climb near Sheffield, England on Sunday.

Against a field of specialist climbers, whose whole season centres around a few weekends in October, Fleeman was in a class of his own – relegating last year’s champion Matt Clinton into second spot by a yawning margin of 14 seconds.

British Elite Road Championships (1)

Kristian House of Rapha-Condor won, Chris Froome was man of the match and there was plenty of sunshine.

That’s the British Champs in a nutshell; the race story is up on Pez – it really was a great day.

But as well as our Pez hats, we had on our “Supporter Hamish Haynes” and “VeloVeritas” bonnets too.

James McCallum – A Professional Approach (0)

The 2006 season was a great one for James McCallum; it’s not every year you win a Commonwealth Games medal. It seemed like it would take a lot to top 2006; how does the 2007 British Criterium Championships and the most glamorous crit in Britain sound?

David Miller – British Road Race & Time Trial Champion (0)

Back in the UK, to win the British Cycling time trial championships, David Millar took time out of his busy schedule to speak to VeloVeritas, and discuss his ambitions and his move to a new team.

James McCallum – British Criterium National Champion (0)

“I knew that if I was second or third round the last corner then nobody would beat me.” And so it proved, as James McCallum added British Criterium Championship gold to Commonwealth Games points bronze, last night in Otley. VeloVeritas spoke to James just hours after his win.

Evan Oliphant – British Points Race Silver Medallist (0)

We caught up with Evan after he secured another medal at the British level, this time on the track in the Points Race Championship.

Read on to hear Evan’s thoughts on his achievement, and whether he’s coming back to race on the grass too…

Jason MacIntyre – British Circuit Time Trial Champion (0)

We make no apology for interviewing Jason MacIntyre again.

It’s not every day that a Scotsman pulls-on a British champion’s jersey and the Fort William man did that very thing after Sunday’s British circuit time trial championship near Farnborough.

In second place was multiple time trial champion and fourth-placed in last winter’s Commonwealth Games TT, Michael Hutchison.

British TT Championships (0)

Jason MacIntyre followed his outstanding win in the British 25 mile TT Champs with an equally fantastic result in the British Circuit TT Champs, taking some superb scalps such as Michael Hutchinson, Jonathan Dayus, and Stuart Dangerfield.

Craig MacLean – World Championship Silver Medallist (0)

It’s been another successful British track championship for the Scottish contingent with two of the blue riband events coming north of the border, the Kilometer to World Champion Chris Hoy and the Sprint to World’s Silver Medalist Craig MacLean.

In addition, Ross Edgar, Kate Cullen and Evan Oliphant all “medalled” – as the Americans would say. VeloVeritas spoke to Craig MacLean a few days after his win.

Jason MacIntyre – British 25 Mile Time Trial Champion (0)

Ten years after Graeme Obree became the first Scotsman to win the British 25 Mile Time Trial Championship, Jason MacIntyre [Velo Ecosse] has taken the holy grail of time-trialling north of the Antonine Wall again – all the way to Fort William. A common denominator over the ten years has been the presence on the podium of former world points race and team pursuit champion who won the 25 in 1999, Chris Newton [now Recycling, back then with North Wirral].

In 1996 he was third behind ‘superman’ positioned Obree [Scotoil] and Bob Hayles [Ambrosia]. This year he was second to Macintyre despite having been originally announced as the winner, but it’s best if the winner explains. It’s with great pleasure we bring you an interview with Jason as our launch article here on VeloVeritas.