July 1960, the GB Tour de France team hotel somewhere in France. Britain's white hope for Tour de France glory, the late, great Tom Simpson is discussing the events of the day with team mate, Brian Robinson. Simpson had punctured during the stage and one of his GB team domestiques had brought him back up to the bunch; "I'll tell you what, Brian - that John Kennedy is strong, he was riding like ten men today when we were coming back from that puncture."
Somehow Matt DeCanio and his 'Stolen Underground' website had passed me by. You may think that I keep abreast of all the forums and Twitter feeds which bang out the latest kitting gossip - usually behind half baked aliases - but I don't. I'd much rather talk to Michael Nicholson about how he's doing in Belgium or Doug Dewey about his new team in France.
The 2006 season was a great one for James McCallum; it's not every year you win a Commonwealth Games medal. It seemed like it would take a lot to top 2006; how does the 2007 British Criterium Championships and the most glamorous crit in Britain sound?
In a recent article about the Tour de Trossachs I became side-tracked onto the year 1978 and mentioned, amongst other things, the Scottish Milk Race - back when Scotland had a National Stage Race, and for quite a few years before and after. Here I have a look at a few editions of the Milk Race and the Scottish Health Race, where Scotland managed to have a home win with Jamie McGahan in 1983.
It was back in May 2015 when Jim Cusick told us about the professional jockey who was riding time trials. Since then Wilson Renwick has swapped equine saddles for the narrower models you find on time trial bikes, winning the Scottish 'Olympic' Time Trial Championship back in the spring of this year and has just added the classic Tour of the Trossachs to his palmares. We caught up with him the day after his epic ride on what was the toughest day most can remember for the event.
'Mission accomplished' with Ryder: Dave rattled us through dire weather up to the Garmin Hotel, just over 100 miles away.
The Liquigas guys were on their turbos when we arrived - lean, cut looking men.
Before the start, I wasn't sure Basso could win, but his policy of loss limiting has taken him to third on GC @ 1:22 on Rodriguez and 52 seconds behind Hesjedal.
Gordon Macrae messaged me the other day to say that he’d seen an interview with Scottish grass track star Charles Fletcher, and whilst it was OK for a lay person to read, perhaps Mr. Fletcher need to be asked some VeloVeritas questions...