There have been quite a few brothers in the peloton over the years, so we picked just a few of the cycling siblings (there may be more to come) to compare the brotherly love and their palmarès.
I hope Gerben Karstens will forgive me for getting to this piece rather belatedly, as he looks down from that peloton in the sky; but then he was never a man to take himself too seriously, despite 14 Vueltas a España, six Tours de France and one Giro d’Italia stage wins, not to mention Paris-Tours and podiums in the Primavera, Tour of Lombardy, Gent-Wevelgem and Amstel Gold Race.
We spoke with Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland, who most will remember as the victim of a terrible crash in the 2011 Tour de France when he and Juan Antonio Flecha were brought down when a car overtaking their five-man escape group swerved right to avoid a tree after executing an irresponsible overtaking manoeuvre on the grass verge.
World Team Time Trial Champion, World Professional Pursuit Champion, Tour de France stage winner, ‘chronoman,’ prologue specialist par excellence and winner of nigh on 100 races, Bert Oosterbosch was straight out of the top drawer.
When a man named Merckx emails us from The Netherlands and tells us that he likes our website and that he has a collection of 2,300 plus cycling jerseys, we have to pay attention, right?
Kiwi’s in the peloton are no rarity these days; George Bennett, Shane Archbold, Paddy Bevin, Jack Bauer are all well-known figures on the World Tour but the spiritual Godfather of these men whilst as Kiwi as they come was actually born in The Netherlands; Mr. Tino Tabak is definitely old school 70’s and ‘tells it like it is.’
You're in the form of your life, you've breasted the biggest climb of the race with the 'Bigs' and there's just one mountain stage to go before you become that rarest of birds, A Grand Tour Winner. But you lose concentration for a moment on the descent, smack a snow bank and come down hard...
He had a stellar amateur career in a Golden Era for Netherlands Cycling; rode for four of the sport’s most famous teams – Ijsboerke, Capri Sonne, Raleigh and Panasonic; was a highly successful team manager and is still deeply involved with the sport he loves. VeloVeritas is delighted to be able to bring you the thoughts of Mr. Theo de Rooij.
Our recent chat with 70’s pursuit king, Hugh Porter having been well received we thought you may like to hear what another ‘man of the 70’s’ - Les West had to say to us a year or two ago. "West is best!", that's what his fans used to say and most of the time they were right; twice British amateur road race champion and twice British professional road race champion.
So it's been a fairly quiet start of the season for me, but I can say now on the Dan Patten Blog that things are underway. A blood test here in Belgium revealed lower iron levels, which most likely explains my lethargic start to the new year.
"I hit 'em hard!" was how Pete Williams (Pinarello/Candi TV/ Marshalls Pasta) explained his race winning move in Sunday's 54th Drummond Trophy, held in bright sunshine on the sinuous back roads west of Eaglesham and the M77. With a new Scottish sponsor's name on their jerseys (Marshalls) and the commanding figure of team boss Phil Griffiths there in the flesh, there was never any doubt that Pinarello were going to win.
Sometimes it’s strange how you pick up on a story; take this one. My friend, former colleague and owner of a rather nice Look, Kenny Burrell sent me a text about a gentleman he’d been chatting to – a certain Mr E.V. (Ernie) Mitchell by name. "The first man to break two hours for a 50 mile TT in Scotland, back in the 1950’s" said Ken. "I’ll check that out, Ken" I texted back. And that was the first step on my journey to E.V.’s (although he prefers Ernie, these days) front door.
Ribble Cycles launched their all-new Ribble Collective today – a group of talented individual privateer riders competing across multiple cycling disciplines, who will be ‘Riding As One’ with the support of Ribble.