Graeme Obree tuck position

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Inspired by Graeme Obree’s tweets and the emergence of a long-overdue website, I’m in the mood to blog a few more things about him.

Up to now I hadn’t found a decent picture of his revolutionary tuck position. He used it when he won the world individual pursuit championship and broke the hour record in 1993. I saw the image on Phil Jones’ blog and wanted to add it to my own collection of Obree pictures.

I’d blogged Graham Watson’s pic of the Superman position, which he developed after the position below was banned by the UCI. He won the individual pursuit and broke the hour record a second time riding Superman style in 1995. That too was banned by the officious UCI.

Read all about it, and his other struggles, in The Flying Scotsman: The Graeme Obree Story.

It’s the spirit of innovation and invention that I love about this. That’s a particularly Scottish trait, because as many people know, we invented just about everything.

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  • http://twitter.com/sofaboy John Galloway

    I’ve seen a couple of folk besides Graeme using this position on Scottish roads. One of them (Dougie Nicolson maybe?) really looked the part. The other guy (who I think rode a Hotta) used to constantly look on the verge of falling off. ;oDFWIW the first time I personally saw this in the flesh was watching Graeme tackle the UK hour record at Meadowbank Velodrome. At that time he was using up-turned drops to get the tuck.J

  • Anonymous

    Imitators, the lot of em! Didn’t moser copy the tuck position shortly after? There was a pic going about a couple of months ago of an old SC yearbook with Obree’s upturned bars… will blog if I can find it.