Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Yearly Archives: 2007

James McCallum – British Criterium National Champion

"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.

Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championship 2007

Jason Macintyre (Edge RT) made it a 'double-double' on Sunday morning as he successfully defended his Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championship 2007 with 51:58 on a sunny but airy Irvine by-pass, the win coming just two weeks after he retained his British 25 mile title.

Scottish Road Race Championships 2007

The result may have been predictable, but Evan Oliphant (DFL) only took home the gold medal in a sodden Scottish Road Race Championships 2007 after an incident-packed four hours. Taking a well-deserved silver medal and 'moral victor' of the championship was pre-race favourite Raymond Wilson (Dunfermline CC).

Team Barloworld accepted as a wildcard entry in Le Tour de France

South African-sponsored professional cycling outfit, Team Barloworld, today received and accepted their wildcard invitation to ride the most prestigious cycle race in the world, the Tour de France, in July 2007. Entry into the Tour de France is extended by invitation only to the best of the world's professional cycling teams. Team Barloworld have had a phenomenal start to the 2007 cycling season, and are leading the 66 team UCI Professional Continental rankings.

Duncan MacGregor Memorial Road Race

Raymond Wilson (Dunfermline CC) at last had Lady Luck on his side as he scored a well-deserved win in Sunday's Duncan MacGregor Memorial Road Race over 75 hilly and airy miles around the 'rigging' of Fife.

Scottish 10 Mile Time Trial Championship 2007

Jason McIntyre (The Edge RT/Dooleys) successfully defended his Scottish 10 Mile Time Trial Championship 2007 on the A77 near Glasgow on Saturday morning; that's the 'who', 'what', 'where' and 'when'. In time-trialling though, the real information come from the watches, with no superlatives or flowery prose.

Deeside Thistle Hilly 10.5 Mile Time Trial

Ali Watt (Granite City RT) broke his own Course Record on the 2 lap 19.5ml Deeside Thistle Hilly 10.5 Mile Time Trial on Thurs 24th May, only to be thwarted by a flying Ray Wilson (Dunfermline CC) who was over a half minute faster. A cool, dull evening with intermittent showers meant that Course Records weren't really on most folks' cards beforehand.

Giro d’Italia – Day 7: Stage 6, Tivoli – Spoleto

It's our last stage today, it's Friday morning and we're in Tivoli, headed for Spoleto. Yesterday was an up and down sort of day, although by the sixth grappa last night it seemed fine. We left our hotel (as featured in George A Romero's movie - Zombies, Dawn of the Dead) and headed for the stage start at Teano, we would never have found it if we hadn't tagged-on to the Mavic neutral service cars.

Danilo Di Luca Scores Again at Montevergine and Reclaims Pink

The Giro's pink and Liquigas' green - that's the gaudy colour combination that characterises this first week of the Giro d'Italia. "The Killer", Danilo Di Luca's strong sprint took him to Giro success again in yesterday's Stage 4, finishing at Montevergine di Mercogliano.

Giro d’Italia – Day 6: Stage 5, Teano – Frascati

Thursday 08.30, Caserta, Frascati. We're in Italy's answer to that hotel where Jack Nicholson lost the plot in 'The Shining'. Huge, empty corridors, plumbing and electrics that have a mind of their own, plus the world's most disinterested and rude staff - maybe they are zombies? Still, we were glad to lay our heads down here late last night: it was a long day.

Tri Changing Gear Summer Series, Event 2

This 16 Mile Time Trial at Garlogie saw a cold, breezy, but dry night. Ray Wilson did a good ride for the night. Colin Duncan of organising club Tri Changing Gear was an excellent second, pushing Ali Watt of Granite City RT into 3rd place by 4 seconds. Colin always rides well on hard/hilly TT courses.

Giro d’Italia – Day 5: Stage 4, Salerno – Montevergine Di Mercogliano

"Rest day", that's a misnomer right away. The ferry was late into Civitavecchia; we had to do a death march with our bags across town to get our Hertz car; then there was a 300 K drive south; the Permanence in Montevergine Di Mercogliano wasn't set-up (there were mountains of rubbish in the streets, so maybe it wasn't surprising) and to finish-off we had to pad the streets of Salerno until we found an internet cafe.

The AIGCP complain to the Giro organisers

The AIGCP (Association Internationnale des Groupes Cyclistes Professionnels), headed by Patrick Lefevere, formally complained to the Giro organisers today, regarding the hassle that pretty much everyone had in getting away from Sardinia, as Ed aluded to in his diary.

Liquigas in pink: First Gasparotto, then Di Luca, then Gasparotto again

The "Green Machine" took first place in last Saturday's team time trial that opened the 90th edition of the pink race. The first to cross the finish line in La Maddalena was the ex-Italian National Champion Enrico Gasparotto who took an unexpected pink jersey.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 4: Rest Day

Giro d'Italia 2007, It's 05.00 hours, Tuesday, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, somewhere west of Civitavecchia - that's the sea port for Rome. "An ugly and forgettable port that's best avoided" according to the 'Rough Guide to Italy', so we won't be lingering here!

Deeside Thistle / Bikelife 25 Mile Time Trial

A dull and not very warm (6 to 7C) day, with little breeze for the Bikelife 25 today. But there was some really outstanding stuff, especially from winner Jon Copp, and more especially from 70yr old Derek "Dastardly Dick" Stewart who had an all-time Personal Best, first time under the hour!, with a fine 59.52 (+22.38 up on his age std).

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 3: Stage 2, Tempio Pausania – Bosa

It's 06.30 on Monday morning and we're in Macomer, Tempio Pausania, Sardinia. It's going to be another beautiful day; there's not a cloud in the sky and the sun has begun its climb. Yesterday was one of those days that makes you realise, you only think you know about pro bike racing.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 2: Stage 1, Caprera – La Maddalena (Team TT)

It's now 19.45 on Saturday evening, and we're sat in the car en route La Maddalena listening to The Pioneers, 'Let your yeah be yeah' - crucial, John. The ferry port at Maddalena is grid-locked, but we've got our reggae and a cold Dreher beer, so waiting for the ferry isn't so bad. We shared the ferry out with CSC and Saunier, but they are long-gone on the first ferry out. It's been a cracking day, weather and gig-wise.

Giro d’Italia 2007 – Day 1: Getting there

Giro d'Italia 2007. Sardinia is hot, damn hot, real hot, but our Peugeot 107 has air-con and a CD which plays John Hardie's 70's compilations just fine. It's 09.10 and we're north-bound to catch the ferry from Palau out to the island of Maddalena, where tomorrow's TTT takes place.

Tri Changing Gear 10ml Time Trial

A cold wind tonight for the Tri Changing Gear 10 mile TT wasn't conducive to fast times and in the circumstances all the guys under 24 mins deserved a wee accollade. Ray Wilson took the win in an excellent 22.40 ahead of Norman Skene and Ali Watt. Freddie Toms (Elgin CC), on a short holiday in Montrose easily won the Vets (on Std) award.

Evan Oliphant – The season so far

It's been a while since we spoke to our friendly Scottish Pro Evan Oliphant, so we figured this was a good time to get a progress report for the season so far, how life is treating him in Belgium and the setup in the new DFL team.

Deeside Thistle 40 Mile APR

Deeside Thistle APR and 43 riders in 5 groups set off with the scratch group 15 mins behind the front-runners. The weather was warm and sunny but the riders faced a strong westerly wind gusting up to 30 mph. Ray Wilson of Dunfermline CC and Alistair Watt of Granite City RT broke away on their own and caught all the groups with about 7 miles to go, then Ray won the sprint to the line.

The Killer Danilo Di Luca Takes Liege

Danilo Di Luca rewarded his hard-working teammates in the best way yesterday (Sunday) by racing a tactically perfect Liege-Bastogne-Liege and taking the win in front a first-class field. "I've been dreaming of winning this race for nine years. This is the most beautiful and most difficult race that I have won" exclaimed Di Luca post-race.

David Campbell Memorial RR 2007

Paul Coats (Squadra Via Mazzini Racetool) showed that he had the legs to match his cool suntan with a fine win in Sunday's David Campbell memorial race over 80 cold and hilly miles around Fife's Cults Hills.

Dunfermline Road Race

Mountainbiker Euan Pope took the top spot in the Dunfermline Road Race, with a fine solo win. Second was Lewis Oliphant and third Richard Allan.

Cannondale Synapse makes a successful debut at the Classics

Cannondale Synapse was the frame of choice for many of the riders of Team Liquigas at last weekend's Tour of Flanders, including Filippo Pozzato and eventual podium-finisher, Luca Paolini. The frame offers a number of features which make it well suited for the cobbled classics, the most physically demanding races of the calendar, both for the riders and their equipment.

GS Corsa Spring Bunny 25 mile Time Trial

The GS Corsa Spring Bunny 25 race start was delayed as there had been an accident on the course, however once underway it ran smoothly. The course was the AB25/4 - Garlogie Torphins.

The Cycling Scotland Ingliston Criterium Series 2007: Preview

The 2007 Ingliston Criterium Series sponsored by Cycling Scotland kicked off last Thursday, the 12th April, at the Royal Highland Showground just west of Edinburgh. Now in its 9th season and this year expanded to 6 events, the series is expected to attract many of Scotland's top elite, women and junior riders.

Nico Mattan – A Drink with VeloVeritas

It was too good an opportunity to miss - Viktor with his pils; me with my Diet Coke; Ghent-Wevelgem and De Panne winner, Nico Mattan with his Carlsberg. I was interviewing Nico thanks to his DFL team mate, Evan Oliphant, who set the meeting up.

Paris – Roubaix 2007 – Day 4, Race Day

We're at Paris - Roubaix 2007 and it's more like July in San Trop than spring in Northern France. We're in Wallers to take-in cobble sectors 19 and 17, both of which are on the outskirts of the village but at different ends, we had thought about watching at sector 18, Arenberg, but half of France has the same idea, it's heaving, and we have to get up to the finish "soon-as" after we've cobble-watched.

The Drummond Trophy 2007

A beautiful day greeted the 53 riders who took the start of the 56th sponsored The Drummond Trophy Road Race. In glorious sunshine the race rolled out of the small town of Strathaven, situated in the heart of the Avon Valley, Scotland. The rugged course incorporated a large loop of about 45 miles in length, and three smaller loops covering close to 15 miles.

Paris – Roubaix 2007 – Day 3, Bike Skek & Teams Presentation

The Saturday gig for Paris - Roubaix 2007 was to do a piece on the velos, so it was down to the start at Compiegne, and collect our creds. ASO didn't let us down; "I have credentials for you, but not your driver!". I won't bore you, but it was several hours and more of that patience-stuff later before we got the vital bits of string and plastic.