Monthly Archives: June, 2008

"Given my record of bad luck in 50's, when I heard that the course had been changed, I expected to end up in the Cromarty Firth at the turn, checking out the dolphins!" But Mark Atkinson successfully avoided that fate to take his third Scottish 50 Mile Time Trial Championship title; leading Sandy Wallace team mates, second placed Jonathan Copp and fifth placed Ian Black, to take a double championship win on a bright but cool and windy Sunday morning on the A9 near Invergordon.

Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championship. Recording exactly the same time - 52:15 - as the last occasion he won the 25 title, in 2005, Fort William's Mark Atkinson (Sandy Wallace Cycles) regained his crown on a cool and windswept Laurencekirk by-pass on Sunday morning. VeloVeritas correctly tipped the top three, but got the order wrong. We had Mark down to win ahead of Dooley's duo, Arthur Doyle and Gary Robson, but a personal best 52:46 by Robson gave him the silver by nine seconds from Doyle.

On a dismal Wednesday night for the Eastern Promise Road Race, made even more unpleasant by Pro Tour level midges, it was those Pedal Power boys carrying on where they left off in the Sam Robinson, with Gordon Murdoch and Gary Hand scooping the dosh in the Eastern Promise road race across the moors around Gladhouse Reservoir. I haven't trained as an SC commissaire, but presumably there's a rule which says; "Pre race briefings must always be conducted outside in the torrential rain, rather than in the comfort and dry of the strip."

The only thing that is certain about Sunday's Scottish National 25 Mile Time Trial Championship, is that there will be a new champion. Reigning champion, Jason Macintyre was snatched from us before we saw the very best of him; we miss you, Jason. Sunday morning's championship is organised by Isobel Smith on the rolling dual carriageways of the A90 near Strathcathro Services between Dundee and Aberdeen. The start is near Fordoun, just a mile or two from Arbuthnott - Lewis Grassick Gibbon country.

Scottish rider, Alex Coutts, who is a regular interviewee on VeloVeritas, has been riding in Asia this season for the Giant Asia Race Team; it's now been five months since his season started in the Tour of Langkawi. As "The Burntisland Buzzard" is training again in Spain for a hard six week period of racing in China, Japan and Korea, we thought it was about time we got an up-date on life competing in the UCI Asia Tour circuit.

Sam Robinson Memorial Road Race; A top class field raced this 78 mile event, attracting the majority of Scotland's road race talent and a number of riders from North East England, including the regional champion.The 78 mile race tackled the climbs of the Dukes Pass and 'Top of the World', based around the Trossachs and two tough finishing circuits through Balfron Town.

"That was horrid", said the winner Evan Oliphant, as I asked him moments after he crossed the line at the Scottish Cycling Super 6, how he enjoyed it. "It was just like being back at the Rás, what with the rain - and those roads!". Oh! I I thought he was talking about his teammate James McCallum congratulating him with a sloppy kiss on the cheek!

Today's Gazzetta in Cesano Maderno has Emanuele Sella's little face smiling out at us with a headline that makes a play on his name: "S(T)ELLA" = star. Life is so much easier when Germans don't win stages! Inside, a headline says; "Bruseghin da podio. Di Luca si arrende." I ask our hotelier what 'arrende' means; he slumps his shoulders, drops his arms to his side, puts his head to one side and let's his tongue hang out - yes, we can understand the translation.