Interviews

Harry Tanfield – with Tour de Tietema-Unibet for 2023

It’s almost nine years since Harry Tanfield first appeared in our pages; March 2014 - he’d just finished third to Evan Oliphant in the Gordon Arms hilly time trial in the Scottish Borders. Since those simple days of amateur time tests he’s been around the block a bit, riding in the WorldTour and domestically, but for 2023 Harry has a new team - "Tour de Tietema-Unibet".

Spencer Wingrave – Gent Six Day Winner in 1990

In 1990 the name of English rider Spencer Wingrave appeared on the Gent Six Day winners list with team mate and coming-man (later Flemish Legend) Peter Van Petegem, who went on to be a two-times winner of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Champion.

Sebastien Sasseville – 3,000 Miles Across America With Diabetes

We catch up with Sebastien Sasseville who finished the Race across America (RAAM) in June. Sebastien has type 1 diabetes, but he didn’t let that stop him racing 4,800 kilometres across twelve US states.

Oscar Onley – Moving up to the WorldTour with Team DSM

We’ve been following 20 years-old Kelso man, Oscar Onley’s progress for a few years now and so when recently the news came that DSM had signed him on a five year deal it was no surprise; the Dutch squad obviously recognise a good thing when they see one. 

Chris Wreghitt – World 64-69 Masters Champion

As is our habit, perusing the results from around the globe, 'imagine our surprise' when we saw that the winner of the World 64-69 Masters 'cross - held this year in Suffolk, England - was Chris Wreghitt.

Willi Moore – “Winning Olympic bronze was the best day of my cycling career”

The legendary GB Team Pursuit quartet which won bronze in the 1972 Munich Olympics – Ron Keeble, Mick Bennett and Ian Hallam have all appeared on our pages but the missing piece was Willi Moore. However, thanks to the good offices of the aforementioned Mr. Keeble we caught up with the man who could do it all – time trials, road and, of course, the track – British, Commonwealth, World and Olympic medallist, Mr. W. Moore.

Red Walters – Grenada Champion 2022

There we were for the start of the 2022 Tour of Britain, wandering round the pits passing critique on the hardware, strips and leg tans. Over at the Ribble Weldtite team there was a rather cool silver Aero machine, one of the ‘specials’ sprayed up for lucky Ribble riders participating in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Red Walters was the fortunate son.

Andrew Feather – British Hill Climb Champion for the Third Time!

He’s back! On the even numbered years, he’s the man when it comes to anti-gravity; '18 - '20 - '22... Bath solicitor, Andrew Feather is British Hill Climb Champion for the third time.

Jack Thompson – Ultracyclist!

It’s not every rider who wants to be part of a peloton, face a timekeeper or circle the boards. Some simply want to challenge themselves. Professional Australian athlete Jack Thompson falls into that category, albeit he’s set records along the way.

Yoeri Havik – World Points Race Champion

We were delighted to see 31 years-old Yoeri Havik from Zaandam pull on that beautiful maillot arc en ciel as winner of the Points Race in what was remarkably his first Worlds individual event, albeit he’s twice ridden the Madison Worlds.

Brian Robinson

It’s with great sadness that we record the death of British Legend, Brian Robinson, a man who defines the word ‘pioneer’; Britain’s first Tour de France stage winner, for which he is perhaps best remembered – but that wasn’t the only British cycling history he made...

Dan Bigham – World Hour Record Breaker!

When we conducted this interview Dan Bigham had just broken the World Hour Record setting a stunning new worlds best of 55.548 on the Grenchen boards in Switzerland – but since then Italian giant, ‘Pippo’ Ganna has rendered Dan to ‘ex-world Hour record holder’ with his 56.792 kilometres. We caught up with Dan a week or two after the hype had subsided.

Chris Smart – “the Tour de Trossachs is everything a time trial should be”

It was that master of the ‘sporting’ time trial parcours, Chris Smart who again took the honours in Sunday’s classic Tour de Trossachs time trial, adding his name once again to a roll call that read like a ‘who’s who’ of Scottish Cycling – Billy Bilsland, Robert Millar, Graeme Obree and the late, great Jason MacIntyre.

Alan van Heerden – Africa’s First Grand Tour Stage Winner

There is no doubt that Biniam Girmay’s win on Stage 10 of the 2022 Giro d’Italia was a historic one but it was not the first stage win by an African in the race; on May 4th 1979, Stage Seven, Chieti to Pesaro over a massive 252 kilometres, Peugeot’s South African rider, Alan van Heerden became the first African to win a Grand Tour stage.

Robert Scott – Wins at the Tour de la Mirabelle and Paris-Troyes

A name that’s caught our eye this year is that of 23 years-old Robert Scott from Halifax in West Yorkshire who rides for the WiV-SunGod continental team, winning the Tour de la Mirabelle and Paris-Troyes.

Joshua Tarling – Rainbow Bands and a Pro Contract

Joshua Tarling has just taken the biggest win of his young life – the World Junior Individual Time Trial Championships in Woolongong by 19 seconds from Hamish McKenzie of Australia at 49.395 kph, and he's been snapped up by the mighty INEOS team, continuing the trend for young talents to skip u23 and go straight to the World Tour.

Lee Rosie – Scottish 100 Mile Champion and Record Breaker!

I for one imagined that Kyle Gordon’s 2018 Scottish 100 mile time trial record of 3:36:10 was going to be ‘on the shelf’ for a long while but records are there to be broken and Spokes Racing Team’s Lee Rosie did that very thing in the Scottish 100 Mile Time Trial Championship, taking two minutes from Kyle’s time with a stunning 3:34:10 ride.

Jamie Burrow – on Ribble’s New Titanium Gravel Bikes

Sasha Castling, Ribble’s Head of Public Relations put us in touch with Jamie Burrow, Ribble’s Head of Product to talk gravel, cool but affordable machines, and their new SRAM eTap AXS x Ribble Gravel Ti machine in particular.

Paul Double – Stepping up to UCI ProTeam Level

Young Englishman Paul Double is a wee bit of a ‘forgotten man’ - out there in an Italian continental team racing against some of the world’s best - but not by VeloVeritas. Paul’s results this year are all the more commendable given he was hit by a car early in the year and had to fight back to fitness.

Joe Truman – on Racing Japanese Keirin

Joe Truman is a highly successful track man with a raft of medals at National, Commonwealth and European levels across Sprint, Team Sprint, Kilometre and Keirin disciplines and he very kindly gave his memories of his days in the highly specialised and fascinating world of Japanese Keirin racing.
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