Saturday, April 20, 2024

Tag: Scottish Time Trials 2016

John Archibald – Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Champion 2016

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.

Jon Entwistle – Scottish 100 Mile TT Champion and Record Holder

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.’

Jon Entwistle – Scottish 50 Mile TT Champion 2016; “I’m kind of new to it all”

A few Sundays ago we saw Tom Dumoulin time trialling his way to Tour de France stage glory in the thin-aired horror that is Andorra; but there was a much more important race against the watch going on in darkest North East Scotland – the Scottish ‘50’ Mile TT Championship. Back at the ‘10’ Champs, winner Chris Smart (GTR) told us that there was a ‘changing of the guard’ taking place in Scottish time trials – and so it proved, with new name, Jon Entwistle (Team JMC) taking the 50 mile honours in 1:44:45 from Chris (1:46:15) and 2015 champion, Alan Thomson (Sandy Wallace Cycles, 1:48:07).

At Random

Le Tour de France 2008 – Day 3: Rest Day

Ciao! It was gone midnight when we hit the hay, last night. There was no thought of food, just sleep, it seemed to take an age to get off the mountain at Pratto and get to our digs at Racconigi - maybe it was just because we were so tired. Breakfast was chronic, stale bread, no cheese, no ham and everything else in polythene wrappers. First mission of the day was to meet Stuey O'Grady at the CSC press conference. He's a buddy of Martin's pal, Pete Jacques.

Freddy Ovett – Racing with U23 AG2R and “learning how to win”

'Ovett?' - is he any relation to Steve Ovett? Yup, his son - but we're not here to speak to or about dad, we want to hear what Freddy has to say. From runner to riding for the Ag2r-La Mondiale development squad in just two years - that's special and we just had to have a word. Especially when we found out he's 'one of us' - a Scotsman.

Question Marks

Question Marks. Today is a long, lumpy stage with a kicker in the final 2km. It's not hard enough for the GC boys to do more than snipe a few seconds on each other here or there, but maybe too hard for the pure sprinters to be a part of the finale.

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Fifth Night

Grenoble Six Day 2011... Bed was at 02:00 am so I didn't have too much problem getting up at 07:45 to do some 'real world' stuff. The only trouble with that is I know I won't feel nearly as frisky come 02:30 am. I was meant to have an interview with Luke Roberts today, he was meant to get word about what's happening team-wise for 2012.

Le Tour de France 2017 – Stage 15: Laissac-Sévérac l’Église – Le Puy-en-Velay, 189.5km. Mollema in the mountains

Sunday, Stage 15 and VeloVeritas’s last shift on Tour - so we headed for the biggest hill we could find to remind ourselves how special and beautiful France and this race really are. Today we’re in the heartland, perhaps not deepest agricultural ‘France Profonde;’ the rural, simple, beautiful heart of the nation, not with the gorges and cols - but it’s quiet, lovely and some of the simple, striking images surprise as you drive the parcours.

Shay Elliott – Irish Legend and ‘All Time Great’; a Story of Firsts and Mystery

Dublin's Shay Elliott was a man of firsts: the first (and only) English speaker to win Het Volk in 1959; the first English speaker to win a stage in the Vuelta and to wear the amarillo jersey of race leadership in 1962; the first English speaker to win a Giro stage in 1960, and the first English speaker to hold the yellow jersey of race leadership in the Le Tour in 1963, but his pro career ended ignominiously and his premature death at just 36 years of age is still the subject of speculation in Irish cycling circles....