They're everywhere, those Archibalds. We've no sooner finished congratulating Katie on bringing home gold from Rio than brother John pops up and grabs the Scottish "25" Mile Time Trial title. Here's what the most improved man in Scottish cycling had to say to VeloVeritas the day after his fine win where he relegated "50" and "100" champion, Jon Entwistle into silver medal spot by 25 seconds recording 50:03 to take gold.
We had a feeling we’d be chatting to this gentleman again, after the ‘100’ championship – and so it proved. Originally scheduled to be held up on the Cromarty Firth but postponed due to bad weather the Scottish ‘100’ championship was incorporated with the Furneaux Trophy in the Aberdeen District and won by their reigning ‘50’ champion, Jon Entwistle (Team JMC) – we caught up with him soon after he’d achieved his ‘double.’
Velo Club Vitesse, an Irvine based club, is proud to have been selected to run the Scottish Junior Road Race Championship for 2016. This is the first occasion for quite some time that Scotland’s junior road riders have had a separate championship race of their own. We are pleased to be reinstating this important event and bringing it to the challenging roads of North Ayrshire on Sunday 11 th of September.
A clean sprint and Evan Oliphant bags win number seven in the Scottish Road Race Championship. I suspect it wasn’t coincidence that he was assigned number 7 as his race number today, a nice touch. The result had a familiar ring to it though, if you were to look at the past ten years of championship results. Don't however, be deceived into thinking this was anything other than a very well organised race on a very demanding circuit and what was lacking in glamour was more than made up for in grit shown by the riders on a day of mixed weather on bleak moorland roads.
Yours truly didn’t make it to the Scottish Olympic or Ten Mile Time Trial Championships; unlike our editor, Martin who took excellent pictures at both races and framed reports. ‘I’ll interview both winners,’ said I, to make amends for life getting in the way of cycling. So my thanks extend to Chris Smart (GTR) for winning both events and making life easy for me.
Chris Smart (GTR) put on another exemplary performance in the Tour of the Meldons hilly time trial in the Scottish Borders to retain his national title for the 'Olympic Time Trial' for the third time in a row, his 56:08 being 75 seconds faster than his time for the same course last year and 67 seconds faster than silver medallist Kyle Gordon (Sandy Wallace Cycles). Third was Jon Entwistle (Team JMC) a further 10 seconds back.
Eight Cycling Medals for Scotland at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games; Scottish cyclists hit the jackpot with gold for the inimitable Katie Archibald in the pursuit and for Mark Stewart in the points race.
Dylan Van Baarle has improved each time he has competed at the Tour of Flanders, and in 2017 was knocking on the door of a podium with fourth place. Now 25, the Dutchman is ready to challenge for more on the cobbles, and can’t wait to slot himself into the team’s Classics group.
The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games next year is an interesting proposition for Scotland, with Katie Archibald and Callum Skinner now Olympic champions, Mark Stewart a double under 23 European Champion and Neah Evans on the top step of a World Cup podium - and don't forget 'left fielder' Jonny Wale, reigning British team pursuit champion and 1:01 kilometre man. VeloVeritas spoke to all of them about their 2017 seasons and prospects in Australia come the spring, and we start with Callum Skinner...
Paul Double raced with his Italian Colpack team, one of Italy’s strongest continental teams, and yet here he was on Dartmoor securing the silver medal in the British Hill Climb Championship. We heard the story...
Two of my Astellas teammates are Ryan Aitcheson, 25, from Kitchener, Ontario (Canada) and Olly Moors, 19, from West Sussex (England). Ryan is one of the best criterium racers in North America. He is also my longest standing teammate. Olly has only been on club teams up until this point. He’s now a professional and he and I are teammates; Ryan and I passed Olly on the way home from our ride and he told us about a racing memory, because I asked.
It was 1975 when Dave, Don, Ed the Pole and yours truly first climbed the concrete stairs to get our first sight of the legendary boards of Gent velodrome. I still remember the smells; derny exhaust, pee, frying food and beer! Having spent my formative years riding time trials and road races (badly !) in the wilds of Scotland, with sheep as the main audience, I was fascinated by the spectacle.