VeloVeritas

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.

Lothian Flyers Road Race (0)

Gavin Shirley (Nevis Cycles RT) made the trip to the Scottish Borders today, and went away with the win in the Edinburgh Road Club promotion, the Lothian Flyer Road Race, narrowly edging out two fast Vets, Chris Brown (Stirling BC) and Steve Nutley (Fife Cycling 2000).

Peter Murphy – “Go To Belgium” (0)

Scottish bike racing; let’s face it, no matter how well you do in the Super Sixes, or how quick you can go around West Ferry, you’re going nowhere if you stay in Auld Scotia.

Please don’t quote Graeme Obree – he’s a one off, crazy, marvellous, gifted, but impossible to emulate. John Kennedy, Billy Bilsland, Robert Millar, David Millar – they all crossed the channel. The track? Then you best get down to Manchester and see if you can get on ‘the Plan,’ that’s what Chris Hoy and Craig MacLean did.

It’s a scary thought, but if you want to “make it big” it isn’t happening among the hillies and glens.

Dean Downing – Still Living His Dream (0)

This is the first in a series of articles in which we explore racing in Belgium, and chat to a few guys that “have done it the hard way”, outside of “The Plan”, and on their own. To kick us off, we caught up with Rapha Condor star Dean Downing between Tour Series criteriums.

‘Deano’ may be well known for his high-profile wins in Premier Calendar races and riding madisons on the track with brother Russ, but he actually learnt his trade racing on the Belgian cobbles, way back in 2000.

The Scottish National 25 Mile Time Trial Championship 2009 (1)

It took Arthur Doyle (Dooleys) just 51:33 to join the likes of Billy Bilsland, Graeme Obree and Jason MacIntyre on the roll of honour for the Scottish 25 mile championship on a warm but windy Sunday morning on the fast dual carriageway of the A90 Laurencekirk by-pass.

Doyle was run to 23 seconds by former 100 mile champion, Jonathan Copp (Sandy Wallace), who blasted back from the turn with 51:56 to keep perennial Jim Cusick ((Glasgow Couriers) back in third on 52:19.

Dooley’s RT at the Tour Nivernais Morvan – Day 4 (0)

On the home straight now! 80 something miles and 3 category three climbs today! Not too hard we hoped, especially after the last few days. But boy were we in for a surprise!

We thought they’d take it, easy last day and all that, plus the GC was a done deal by now.

No way. 46km in the first hour, 45km in the second hour, jings – it’s gonna be a quick stage. Who needs the TGV?

The 44th David Bell Memorial Road Race (0)

Ross Creber delivered the win for the dominating Endura Race Team in the 44th edition of the David Bell Memorial Race. Creber was the victor from a surviving group of six after a war of attrition across 70 miles of South Ayrshire’s finest hill roads.

Team mate and reigning Scottish Road Champion, Evan Oliphant took 2nd, narrowly edging out visiting James Sampson of the Candi TV-Marshall’s Pasta team.

Dooley’s RT at the Tour Nivernais Morvan – Day 3 (0)

The fourth stage was the queen mountain stage, a very tough 161kms of narrow winding roads. With three major climbs each around 10km long and many short 1-3km climbs not classified a hard day was on the cards.

With 15km to go before the second major climb the French champion Nicolas Bourdillat drilled solo all the way to the bottom of the climb and up the 8km ascent. He basically ripped the field apart, and of our team only Alsatair and Michael got over the top in the what was left of the main bunch.

Dooley’s RT at the Tour Nivernais Morvan – Day 2 (0)

After yesterday’s baptism of fire in 35 degress heat, the Scots boys were more at home today: the temperature had fallen to 15 degrees and it was pouring with rain.

Again it was very hilly today, with the finish the third time up a 2 km climb of 13% gradient. This was a much better day, with the weather having cooled down, in fact it was raining at the start.

“A day for the Scottish” one of the French riders commented.

Preview – The Scottish National 25 Mile Time Trial Championships (0)

Organiser Isobel Smith is certainly hoping the recent run of fine weather continues for her race on Sunday morning, the Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championships.

Promoted by Aberdeen & District CA, and held on the fast AB25/8 course, with Arthur Doyle (Dooleys RT) and Peter Ettles (Forres CC), first and second at the recent 10 Mile Time Trial Champs competing, chased by fourth-placed Mark Atkinson (Sandy Wallace Cycles) it looks like it’ll be a good contest.

Inverclyde Velo CC 10 Mile Time Trial (0)

Iain Sim (Glasgow Couriers) took a good win today ahead of some very fast riders who are building form for the forthcoming National 25 Champs.

A relatively small field this evening at the Bishopton Community Hall, with quite a few riders deciding not to start – most likely due to the unsavoury weather conditions and a major delay on the M8 westbound.

Dooley’s RT at the Tour Nivernais Morvan – Day 1 (0)

A Dooley’s RT team is currently racing in France, taking up an invitation to the Tour Nivernais Morvan in central France, an important event for elite riders, and a very hard 5 stages in 4 days.

The race is categorised as 2.12.1 (which means it’s “Elite nationale par étapes”) and it’s centred on the town of Nevers, which is about 200kms south of Paris. This is an important event on the calendar for elite riders, and the race is always over-subscribed; 35 teams entered this year, but only 16 places are available.

Dan Craven – Ten Year Plan (0)

It’s not everyday that we have the African champion racing on Scottish roads so when we met Dan Craven of Rapha/Condor after his fine third place at the recent Drummond Trophy, we thought we’d better make the most of it.

Dan was recently the subject of the ‘big interview’ in Cycling Weekly, so we steered clear of subjects already raised by our chums at ‘The Comic.’

Super 6 – Round 4, Lang Whang, West Calder (0)

“Lang Whang” is Auld Scots, it means ‘long way’ – it’s fair to say that Endura’s Gary Hand was in the break for a lang whang and he won the finishing sprint by a similar margin from wanderer returned, Alex Coutts (I looked at his jersey but the team name looked like Greek to me).

Hand’s big sprinting team mate, James McCallum took third after a cold and windy 80-odd miles on the pot-holed moor roads around Carnwrath in Sunday’s Lang Whang Super Six.

Evan Oliphant – From Pink to White (1)

What’s happening at Plowman Craven, but I guess we should say ‘Madison’, now?

With Scots professionals Evan Oliphant and Ross Creber on their books, we thought we’d best find out what’s going on.

Evan spoke to us on today, and told us what he could.