VeloVeritas

Alex Coutts – Tour of Thailand Winner (0)

In winning the Tour of Thailand, Alex Coutts joined an elite club – British riders who have won an overseas national tour.

A couple from the memory banks are: in 1965 Vin Denson won the Tour of Luxembourg and in 1988 the hugely under-rated Cayn Theakston won an epic 19 stage Tour of Portugal – but there aren’t many more. We caught up with Alex, just after the Scottish hill climb championship.

Scottish Hill Climb Championship 2008 (0)

On a mild but blustery day on the north side of the Ochil Hills, Ben Abrahams (equipe Velo Ecosse – Montpeliers ) finally realised some of his potential and gave new team sponsors Harley Haddow engineering and Warners solicitors value for money with a surprise 17 second win in the Scottish Hill Climb Championship.

Chris Hoy-Performances and Plans (0)

We’ve been stalking him since Beijing; and at last, we’ve cracked him – Chris Hoy, Olympic gold medallist in the team sprint, keirin and individual sprint.

We’ve heard that he now retains Max Clifford, “PR guru to the stars,” as his agent, so we decided we’d better check out the financial aspect of the interview, first.

Tour de Trossachs 2008 (incorporating the Scottish Olympic Time Trial Championships) (1)

On a picture postcard perfect Autumn Sunday, hospital consultant Arthur Doyle (Dooleys Cycles) gave a lesson in how to ride a technical time trial with a two minute plus beating of the field in the classic Tour of the Trossachs.

Ever consistent Jim Cusick (Glasgow Couriers) was second with Plowman Craven professional and Scottish road race champion, Evan Oliphant taking bronze.

Doyle’s recent training regime of riding 55 miles to work each way, prepared him perfectly for the climbs, descents, corners and gnarly surfaces of the “Bristly Country” as the Trossachs translates from the Gaelic language.