We recently ran or tribute to the late, great ‘Big Bert’ Oosterbosch. It was so well received by our readers that we thought we should re-run a piece from a few years ago which pays tribute to another Dutch chrono and pursuit king – the late, great Roy Schuiten.
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This article first ran on 25th March, 2016
With the London Track Worlds fading into the distance as the classics season gets underway, we thought we’d run a few pieces which harp back to the ‘golden days’ of pursuiting – when all the participants didn’t ‘look the same’ and 5,000 metres was the blue riband distance for the professional greats.
Cycle Sport magazine run an article a few months ago, ‘The 25 Most Stylish Riders of all Time’ – Giovanni Battaglin, Roger De Vlaeminck, Francesco Moser, all fair enough.
But Tafi? Lizzie Armitstead? Cancellara?
And there were some glaring omissions, Tom Simpson, Ferdi Bracke, Ole Ritter and – Roy Schuiten.
In 1971 the big blond Dutchman took silver in The Netherlands amateur pursuit championships, a year later it was gold and there was a third place in the amateur Grand Prix des Nations.
He retained his Netherlands amateur title in 1973 and took bronze at The Worlds in the same discipline.