In the 1990s, celebrity chef Nick Nairn was a member of VC Olympia, based in Stirling. The club was part of a merger in 2000 with Stirling Mountain Bike Club, to form Stirling Bike Club.
Nick Nairn will be known by people of a certain age for his regular appearances on Ready Steady Cook among other TV shows.
I did my first race (and maybe last for a while) after a winter of training as efficiently as I could with limited time. Last year I bombed, even after a hard winter of riding with the fast boys, so this time I was relatively happy to hang almost until the end, getting dropped and cramping on the last climb. It was won by Ross Green, a junior rider from Stewartry Wheelers.
image courtesy of Derek Reid, Edinburgh RC
Although there were the inevitable crashes in the B race, I managed to stay near the front and avoid them. Despite these, which tend to happen when nervous, twitchy and sometimes inexperienced bunch, I found the race to be safe and really well marshalled – thanks and well done to organisers Edinburgh Road Club.
The Tak Ma Doon road, with its quintessentially Scottish name, is accessible from Glasgow, central Scotland and even Edinburgh, for a longer ride. I assume it was originally a drover’s road – it climbs from Carron Bridge in the North, located in rural Southern Stirlingshire, over the Campsie Hills and down to Kilsyth. The Kilsyth side is a much more challenging climb on a bike however, as you start with less height and the changes of gradient are more testing, so I’ll cover that here.
It’s a classic Central Scotland climb but isn’t used in any races or sportives, due to the ford on the other side that crosses the road near to Carron Bridge.
It provides access from near Glasgow to a host of other riding in the Carron Valley and towards Stirlingshire, and is ideal when ridden in a loop with the Crow Road.
A sign in Kilsyth points the way.
-from Matt Ward, Cyclevox
The Braveheart Cycling Fund has named the twelve riders and two clubs it will support in 2011, with Commonwealth Games silver medalists Jenny Davis and Charline Joiner among those to be funded.
The Braveheart Fund was established in 2003 to support young Scottish cyclists with racing and training costs. In 2011 it is supporting 12 cyclists with funding totaling £25,000, and since it was set up the Fund has raised more than £200,000 and has supported around 70 cyclists. It was set up by former British professional champion Brian Smith and is managed by a committee of volunteers. The Patrons of the Braveheart Fund are Scotland’s Olympic and World Champion Sir Chris Hoy and Commonwealth Champion David Millar.
Ever since I heard Rowan Mackie from the upcoming inaugural Scottish Bike Show interviewed on the Velo Club Don Logan podcast I have been meaning to post more about it.
The already solid list of exhibitors, including local retailers, events organisers, companies on the tourism side, and some international brands, will grow in the run up to the show. I’ve been involved in an exhibition before and know that it is a big job to sell a debut show. The punters need to show interest and turn out in order for this to flourish – I for one am looking forward to meeting people and checking out an overview of the industry in Scotland.
As the pic above suggests, the show will cover all aspects of cycling. I’ll distill a few different angles and do some more posts in the next few weeks.
Links
website
twitter
facebook
Scottish Bike Show announced
I got right into Scottish Champions’ kits a few weeks back and wanted to follow up on this. As pointed out by naegears, Endura Racing’s 2010 team kit honoured their Scottish road race champions with a band of saltires around the middle. Below you can just make this out on Ross Creber’s kit, underneath the outer gilet. (pic by Endura racing)
The new Pedal Power / Endura development team are training in Lanzarote. I saw this pic on Davie Lines’ twitter this week – he is one of the rider/coaches on the team along with Gary Hand, who are metoring the four younger riders. After my mixed thoughts about seeing something of an exodus of Scots from the main Endura Racing squad, it’s great to see a platform for younger local riders to develop and do well.
Davie Lines, Gary Hand, Jordan Stokes (I think!) and Robbie Hassan.
The other two riders not pictured are Dougie Young and Scott McCrossan.
It’ll be interesting to see how these guys do this year, riding as a team with a coherent strategy. They are some strong riders, and are all Scottish based, so in local races we might be seeing all six of them together.
Related post: new Pedal Power / Endura development team
original pic from Enduralings twitter
A quote from David Millar at the 2010 Commonwealth Games piqued my interest: I’ve known our mechanic, Sandy Gilchrist, since the 1995 world championships.
Sandy is well-known around Scottish Cycling and I’d heard his name before but didn’t quite realise his profile so decided to dig out a few links and facts.
He has had a cycle shop in Edinburgh for over 30 years – starting at Restalrig and then moving to Easter Road as Sandy Wallace Cycles- and is an accomplished mechanic, having worked for the Specialized XC MTB factory team and the British and Scottish national teams as mentioned by David Millar at the top of this post.
Previously he raced at a high level:
As a mechanic, I have attended 6 Olympic Games and numerous World Championships for mountain bike, track road, cyclo-cross, and Paralympics sports.
My first World Championships was in Germany in the 70s when I was riding. I was in the team pursuit with Robert Millar. We came fourth. In the Commonwealth Games, I rode for Scotland for a number of years. I came seventh in the road race and fourth in the team pursuit at Christchurch in 1974 which were my best results.
He rode the Peace Race in 1972 and 1973 for a British team, and from the brilliant ‘Ivan’ on the Braveheart forum comes this story:
In 1972 when Sandy rode his first PR, on the 3rd stage from Berlin to Magdeburg, Sandy and Ian Greenhalgh of the GB team came down about 8 km from the stadium in Magdeburg. Sandy’s bike was badly damaged, and with no team car in sight, a 14-year-old East German boy called Holgar Trenck handed Sandy his heavy touring bike and pointed in the direction of the finish, only 8km distant.
IG and SG made their way to the finish, IG pushing SG for much of the way. The crowd in the stadium had been informed of the unfolding drama by the stadium speaker, and both riders received a splendid ovation from the 40,000-strong crowd in the Ernst Gruebe Stadion.
Holger Trenck, meanwhile, had been picked up by a race organisation car, and was at the finish to get his bike back from Sandy. As a reward he was invited to the GB team table for the evening meal. This story made the national press in the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik. This type of story, the Peace Race riders being helped by spectators, has a long tradition in the race, being part and parcel of the propaganda of the race – i.e. that riders and spectators united in their common desire for peace and solidarity between nations.
– edited from Braveheart forum
1976 was a good year, contesting the Scottish Milk Race with top European amateurs and winning the Scottish RR championship. Read more about the Milk Race on Veloresults.
–images: Al Hamilton, Veloveritas correspondent
And as recently as 1990-1994 he was the UK vets mountain bike champion. There’s clearly lots more to learn about this legend of Scottish cycling, so if you have any other stories or links, please share.
Sandy’s blog on i-am-specialized
Guardian interview World track champs 2001
1994 world pursuit champs- Obree saddle incident
1981 National Hill Climb
The 2011 Endura Racing team was unveiled on Friday to the UK press, media and special guests assembled at the Design Museum in central London – delivering a message of intent for success on the international stage.
Endura Launch 2011 from Cyclevox on Vimeo.
Now in their second season, the UK-based squad launch follows a winter of product and team development, and the acquisition of new international rider talent to bolster the Endura Racing set-up. The 16-man team will embark on a programme that mixes the UK calendar with high-ranking international races, against some of the very best pro tour teams and riders.
Photo by Joolze Dymond
This year will once again see the team using LOOK bikes, equipped with Sram components, Zipp wheels, Continental tyres, Fizik saddles and Tacx ergo trainers. Other team partners are Science in Sport (nutrition), BONT (shoes), Pedros (bike maintenance) and Qoleum (rider care products).
The 2011 build-up also brought news of a broadened support and investment from Endura into the MTB and track disciplines. Recent news releases highlighted new signings Oli Beckingsale and Chris Pritchard, two riders on very different programmes, but with the same intention of racing success and exposure for Endura.
After my recent interest in a Scottish champion’s jersey, I was looking out for Evan Oliphant’s kit but there wasn’t a band of saltires around his middle, like with Ross Creber last year. However, with the tribute to the Scottish RR championship being a non-UCI accredited ‘ceremonial’ detail, we wouldn’t see this for continental races anyway. We might still see it for domestic races such as the Premier Calendar series.
My other thought about the lauched was a mixed feeling: I’m glad to see a team with such overtly Scottish backing and it gives road race fans in Scotland a pro team to really get behind. But there are far fewer Scottish riders on the squad this year. However Endura is well aware of its identity and Scots riders Evan Oliphant and Callum Wilkinson were first up for Q&As at the launch.
The squad has stepped up a level for the second year in a row and the continental contingent is strong: 2010 season signings Alex Blain, Jack Bauer, Iker Camano were joined by new signings Paul Voss, Rene Mandri, Maarten de Jonge, Alexander Wetterhall and Jack Anderson. These 8 riders boast a wealth of Grand Tour finishes and National champions jerseys. From four-time Tour de France finisher Camano and Vuelta rider Voss to NZ National RR champ Bauer and Swedish TT champ Wetterhall.
My prime interest is the Scottish angle, so what of former Endura Racing riders? James McCallum has joined Rapha, Ross Creber CyclePremier-Metaltek and Davie Lines and Gary Hand are rider-coaches with the Pedal Power-Endura development squad.
More to come on Endura Racing in the next few days.
Few British cyclists should need to be told what the Etape Caledonia is. Many more will be familiar with Hands on Events rides that include the Bealach Beag and Mor, Skye Sportive and Cairngorm 100.
An event that might be less well known, but would be worth considering for your 2011 calendar is the Ken Laidlaw, run out of Hawick. The Sportive Kinross in Perthshire, another new event, is already sold out.
The Ken Laidlaw, named after the first Scot to ride the Tour, is a 100 mile ride that takes in several stiff climbs. It has been run by Hawick Cycling Club for the past three years and will take place on the 21st August in 2011.
Sportive Kinross, now in its second year, was run as an informal unsupported event in 2010 but has stepped up to include three routes of varying difficulty, event photographs, a charity partner, timing and event sponsorship. A twitter account is a nice touch.
Sportive Kinross
The Ken Laidlaw (cyclosport.org)
Etape Caledonia
Hands on Events
