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I’m trying to remember that last time I followed a rider in a Time Trial – Bradley Wiggins through the grubby back streets of Milano in the Giro’s closing time trial, with Martin at the Tour watching Michael Mørkøv blast those 52km to Chartres or that time we followed Charly Wegelius through the glorious vineyards of Champagne? No matter, what a nice way to spend a Thursday afternoon, chasing Zeb Kyffin around the beautiful, sun-drenched parcours beside the Solway Firth at the British Time Trial Championships, won by Ethan Hayter.

Last Thursday, on the roads around Dumfries and along the beautiful Solway Firth Callum Thornley endorsed his potential, taking silver in the British u23 Time Trial Championship, beaten only by 2022 Baby Giro winner, Leo Hayter but leaving riders like Groupama FDJ big hitters Sam Watson and Lewis Askey in his wake.  

Following on from our interviews with Scotland’s 2022 Commonwealth Games selections we caught up with a man who’s enjoyed a great start to 2022 and who’ll be riding the road race in Birmingham, Ribble Weldtite’s Finn Crockett.

Continuing with our series of articles about Scotland’s cycling selections for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games – albeit the track cycling takes place on the Lee Valley Olympic ‘Pringle’ velodrome in London – we caught up with John Archibald who was a silver medallist in the pursuit at the last Games.

With the release of the list of Scottish squad selections for the Commonwealth Games cycling events we thought it would be good to catch up with a few of the riders; some ‘old friends’ and some new names to us. Lauren Bell burst on to the GB track scene by winning the 500 metre Time Trial and Keirin at the 2020 British track championships, as well as taking Sprint bronze.

Remember Ernesto Colnago said he’d never have anything to do with that Japanese mountain bike, A-head nonsense? And remember our VeloVeritas Mentor and Prophet, Vik said he’d have never have anything to do with those ‘industry driven,’ dangerous disc brakes? Well...

The good news is that Scotland is eligible to field a team in the UCI Track Nations Cup events and encouragingly, we have around a dozen riders vying for a ride. One of those on the squad is 19 year-old Matti Dobbins from Bridge of Weir, who as a junior was a Scottish track champion across multi-disciplines and has been trialling with the GB squad at Manchester, focusing on making the GB and Scottish Team Pursuit squads.

What was it Oasis sang? ‘Don’t look back in anger.’ We look back on 2020 not with anger but with sadness - if you or your friends, colleagues or family have had the misfortune to encounter Covid then you have our commiserations. Here's our hindsight view of the VeloVeritas year.

Joe Nally is a resilient lad. He's gone out and got himself a ride with French Division Two équipe, Team Elite Restauration 89 based in Toucy for season 2021. Not a bad move in our opinion; the French scene may not be as strong as it once was but it’ll certainly provide more and better racing than Joe would have access to in the UK.

Cameron Richardson ‘crossed over’ from duathlon to cycle racing a couple of season ago, recently won the Tour of the Campsies and recorded a '49' for his first 25 Mile TT. It seems fair to say that this chap has potential…

There’s a third Scot on the 25 Mile Time Trial Championship roll of honour; John Archibald, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling, added the title to his 2018 CTT 10 mile title with a 44:50 ride which also saw him lead Dan Bigham and Simon Wilson to the team title.

Kyle Gordon doesn’t seem to have been phased by the disappointment of the HUUB team’s Bolivian record attempts falling victim to the Covid crisis. The versatile man from Alness has recently been knocking out some super-fast 10 mile times as part of his build-up to the CTT ‘25’ and ‘50’ Championships later in the year.

A DS on the British race scene in the 80’s and 90’s? Easy life – cool team padded jacket, smart team car to drive, the soigneur prepares your packed lunch every day whilst the sponsors are throwing money at you... Well, maybe that last bit needs clarifying; Keith Lambert seemed like a good man to ask.

Trinity Racing Team’s young Scot from Linlithgow, Cameron Mason recently finished eighth in the UCI u23 World Cup in Nommay, Eastern France. Cameron spoke to VeloVeritas from his base near Brussels in Belgium the other day to talk mud, tyre pressures and wash days in The Flatlands...

It’s almost time for the VV Review of 2019, to file the season under ‘Nostalgia’ and look to season 2020, which will make it half a century I’ve been a fan of cycle sport. I can still remember watching Hugh Porter win the 1970 world professional pursuit championship under the spotlights at Leicester, on our tiny black and white tele. Where did those years go?

Scottish professional bike riders are a bit thin on the ground so when we heard that 20 year-old Fifer, Joe Nally - who’s the youngest man ever to win the British Elite Points Race Championship - had signed with Vitus Pro Cycling for 2020 we thought we best ‘have a word.’ We caught up with Joe recently at his training base in Tenerife where he was on a two week block of base rides.

Craig Grieve is the man at the helm of Spokes Cycles, with branches in St. Andrews and Dundee, and manager of the successful junior Spokes Racing Team through which so much talent has passed. Craig raced ‘back in the day’, paying his dues in Belgium and The Netherlands in those 240 rider, warp-speed criteriums.

Adding his name to the u23 Gent Six Day roll of honour is Scotland’s Alfie George; the young Scot ran out winner just a few weeks after his fine seventh place in the Junior Worlds Road race in Harrogate and a season which saw him fifth in the junior Paris-Roubaix.

Recently we ran a piece about Dave Viner’s efforts to get an indoor velodrome built for Birmingham. ‘Unknowns to us’ at the time, there’s a similar project trying to get off the ground much closer to home – the City on the Ness to be specific. We spoke to Mike Greaves, one of the men behind the project...

Nearly 2019, how did that happen? It seems just like last week were sitting in the Vivaldi bar in Gent having watched Dane Michael Valgreen win Het Nieuwsblad - or Gent-Gent as us auld yins would have it - but another year has indeed almost gone.