Tag: AIGCP

Such a big fuss is made about the Volta that people forget there are other good and important races on the calendar. As ever, we put all our eggs in the one basket. I never really understood this.

Sky Procycling just missed the win yesterday with Flecha finishing second in Het Nieuwsblad, but the team stepped it up a notch today, setting up Chris Sutton perfectly for a superb win in the bunch sprint at Kuurne - Brussels - Kuurne.

Rio is his eighth Olympics; and there are six Commonwealth Games and ‘over 30’ World Championships in there too – and whilst we’re talking chiffres (as the French call figures) how about 60-odd Scottish Championships including 14 Scottish Hill Climb Championships and nine Tours de Trossachs? Yes, it’s that man Sandy Gilchrist, who, along with Robert Millar was Scottish Cycling in the 70’s and into the 80’s. He rode the Peace Race, Tour de L’Avenir, Milk Race and World Championships in a long and varied career which continues to this day as he just keeps on wielding those spanners at the sport’s highest levels.

Obituaries, part of the deal if you write about cycling; check their palmarès, think about when you saw them race when you were a boy then put a piece together. But when it's someone you knew, liked, laughed with, there's more to it than that - the randomness of life; one minute a friend is there and happy with a whole life to look forward to, the next, he's gone. A car crash involving a lorry and Ben Abrahams, and here I am writing this.

A familiar name cropped up to win the recent David Campbell Memorial Race in Fife, run on a tough course over the Cults Hills – that of George Atkins. Atkins spent time living and racing in Scotland a year or two ago and this year he’s stepped up from the 100% ME amateur squad to ride as a pro with the Raleigh.

Continuing our series of interviews with Scotland’s selections for the 2022 Commonwealth Games we speak to a man who continues to improve, year upon year – Kyle Gordon from Alness, who has taken 26 seconds off his Individual Pursuit time over the last five years, not to mention dominating the Scottish short/middle distance time trial scene.