Daily Cycling Facts 29.12.2012

Peter Bissell, 1986-2007

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Peter Bissell in 2007. Bissell was 2004 British Hill Climb Champion and, in 2006, became Under-23 Road Race Champion. He was born on the 11th of March 1986 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire and died after suffering a fit, aged 21.

Evelyn García, born in Santa Ana, El Salvador on this day in 1982, won the Vuelta Ciclista Femenina a El Salvador in 2004, then turned professional and won it again in 2007 - a feat no other rider has yet matched. In 2006 she became National Road Race Champion, then in 2007 World Elite B Pursuit Champion; in 2009 she won the Vuelta a Costa Rica, Vuelta a Guatemala and the National Road Race and Individual Time Trial Championships, successfully defending both National titles the following year. Having finished the Vuelta a El Salvador in third place overall in 2012, she competed at the Olympic Games and took 26th place in the Road Race.

Jeroen Johannes Hendrikus Blijlevens, born in Rijen, Netherlands on this day in 1971, rose to prominence as one of the most devastatingly effective sprinters of the 1990s, a skill that saw him win a total of four stages at the Tour de France (Stage 5, 1995; Stage 5, 1996; Stage 6, 1997; Stage 4, 1998), five at the Vuelta a Espana(Stage 10, 1995; Stage 5, 1996; Stages 2 and 5, 1998; Stage 21, 1999) and two at the Giro d'Italia (Stages 3 and 7, 1999). Today, he is best known as directeur sportif of the Rabobank women's team where he has worked with the world's top-rated rider Marianne Vos.

Happy birthday to German track rider Thomas Huschke, born in 1947, winner of silver and bronze at the 1972 and 1976 Games. Huschke comes from a cycling dynasty: he's the grandson of Adolf, German Road Champion in 1921 and son of Gerhard, 4th in the 1934 World Road Championships.

Christophe Rinero at the Tour de Romandie in 2007
(image credit: Ludovic Péron CC BY-SA 3.0)

French rider Christophe Rinero was born in Moissac on this day in 1973. Rinero didn't win many races over his 13 year career, but what he did was impressive: the overall General Classification and Stages 7 and 9 at the 1998 Tour de l'Avenir; 1st place King of the Mountains, 2nd place Youth and 4th place General Classification at the 1998 Tour de France; Stage 2 and the Mountains Classification at the 2002 Tour du Limousin.

Other cyclists born on this day: Marielle Guichard (France, 1963); Georgios Khimonetos (Greece, 1972); Joseph Kono (Cameroon, 1950); Juan Merhab (Puerto Rico, 1970); Edwin Torres (Puerto Rico, 1946); Besnik Musaj (Albania, 1973); Kyrylo Pospieiev (USSR, 1975); Walter Reiser (Switzerland, 1925); Philip Sawyer (Australia, 1951); Clayton Stevenson (Australia, 1967); Guillaume Van Tongerloo (Belgium, 1933); Roger Whitfield (Great Britain, 1943); Dennis McCoy (USA, 1966).

Carrera Virtuoso 2012/2013 review

Back in June 2011, I wrote a review of what seemed to me to be the cheapest "proper" road bike money could buy. That bike was the Carrera Virtuoso, retailing in your local Halford's for the princely sum of £379.99 - and I was pleasantly surprised, because it proved to be a considerably better machine than I'd believed it could possibly be. In fact, apart from a few cheapo components here and there, the only bad thing I could really say about it was that it was ugly; which I still stand by because it was.

The other day, when I locked my old shopper bike up outside the local purveyor of ferret food, rather a nice-looking white and ice-blue aluminium bike happened to catch my eye. "Wossat?" I thought, before moving in for a closer look. Lo and behold, it turned out to be a 2012 Virtuoso - and it really is a far prettier beast than the 2011 model. In its older guise with black and blue paintwork the Virtuoso looked rather old-fashioned, reminding me of a budget racer from the early 1990s, which wasn't a real issue, of course, and may even have been a selling point for some people. After all, some people have no taste: I saw someone wearing those hideous denim-effect cycling shorts last week. The 2012 model, however, looks as up-to-date as next year's summer fashions - the glossy white and blue gives the impression of a considerably pricier bike, but it's still only £379.99 You can tell a lot about the quality of the paintwork by close examination of the lower end of the down tube, where stones flicked up by the front wheel tend to make contact with the frame - as I knelt down to have a look, I became aware of a hulking presence leaning over me.

The bike's owner. Who, one glance told me, was a lot harder than me (as are five-year-olds, and the majority of sparrows). Fortunately, he only looked like a thug and was equipped with a fully-functioning brain; as such he had realised that I was looking at his bike rather than nicking it and thus with-held from killing me pending an explanation. When I told him I'd reviewed an earlier model he seemed quite impressed, possibly because I failed to mention the review was for a blog rather than for a magazine, and once I'd handed over anything of worth as a deposit (wallet and contents, value not much; half a packet of Polos, value about twice that of my wallet and its contents) he agreed I could have a go round the car park on it.

The 2011 Virtuoso's frame was made of 7005 aluminium alloy, which they advertised as light-weight - the real reason it was chosen is more likely to be the relative ease with which it can be welded in Carrera-manufacturer Merida's Taiwanese factories, thus keeping production costs low. The 2012 frame has been upgraded: your money now gets you 6061, which has a lower density and is lighter as a result - yet the claimed weight of the 2012 bike is 700g greater than that of the 2011 bike at 11.2kg, which I suspect is due to the replacement of the older machine's Kalloy components with unbranded versions. However, nobody's going to enter an official race on a Virtuoso and 700g isn't really a problem; what matters more is that the new model is stiffer, meaning that it can hold its own in an unofficial traffic light drag race against the 125cc scooters - probably the only sort of race the bike will see. This has been achieved partly by the addition of an internal headet (the 2011 bike had an external headset) and largely by a much better fork - the curved 2011 version has been replaced with a more up-to-date straight-bladed effort. It's cromoly (you didn't think it'd be carbon at this price, surely?), but again the weight compared to carbon won't be an issue for most riders. The frame geometry has received some little tweaks here and there, too: Halfords called the 2011 Virtuoso semi-compact, this one is compact. All in all, it works - this bike is a genuine pleasure to ride, mimicking more costly machines in its responsiveness and ability to track through a tight corner, and not as sluggishly as you'd expect.

Some of the components have been upgraded, too. Gone is the old Pro Wheel Gloria Compact chainset, in its place is a square taper FSA Tempo with 50/34 rings, just like you get on a Giant Defy 4 and several other bikes that cost £200 more than this one does. Last year, Halfords were keeping quiet about the mechs; this year you've got a Shimano FD-2300 up at a front while a Sora handles the chain at the back. The brake and gear levers are STI 2300 - many riders find these make it difficult to change gear when riding on the drops, but it's something most people can learn to live with. On a bike as new as the test subject - a month, the owner told me - everything was working crisply, but as tends to be the way with budget groupsets the mechs and shifters are going to need looking after. Halfords offer a free service after six weeks; if you're new to cycling ask the shop mechanic if he or she will show you how to adjust the cable tension and derailleurs, then you should be able to keep everything working smoothly without any problems. The brakes are workable Tektro jobs and do what they're supposed to do; the 8-speed cassette is 12-26 and should be capable of getting you up any hill you put in front of the bike for a year or so, which is perfectly acceptable for a budget component.

As with the older models, the cheap plastic pedals and toe clips are a let-down. However, most Virtuosos are likely to be purchased by people new to road cycling and the one thing you'll hear again and again from people in that category is that they were surprised they needed to fork out for a pair of pedals when first buying a bike. Also, many new-comers are put off by clipless pedals; Halfords have therefore stuck these ones on in the full knowledge that serious riders will probably upgrade them to clipless before too long. The saddle - Carrera-branded - is cheap and a little too flexible but comfortable enough - some riders will swap for a fatter seat, mistakenly believing it will offer greater comfort, while those with a bit of nous will swap for their preferred racing/touring model. With that in mind the fact that it's cheap becomes an advantage -  it won't break your heart if you decide to get rid of it. Since many quality wheelsets cost more than this bike the wheels are unbranded and heavy as you'd expect, but they feel as though they'll do their job unless you hit a pothole at high speed. Cheap replacements would be my second upgrade and doing so might well make the bike lighter than the 2011 model. First upgrade for me after the pedals would have to be the tyres: Kenda make some top-quality rubber, but these are far from their finest offering - they look to be the same as those on the 2011 bike, which some riders complained rolled off the rims.

Summing up: the 2012 Carrera Virtuoso will never hold its own when pitted against exotica and it would be unfair to expect it to do so - after all, the complete bike costs less than some derailleurs - but for £380 it's a very good buy indeed. Many people dislike Halfords, but if they can build a bike like this at this price then they're doing something right. Upgrade the components when necessary and, so long as you can out up with stupid people telling you your bike's rubbish, the Virtuoso isn't a bad bike at all. Taking the price into consideration, I'll give it eight out of ten.

Buy this bike if: you watched Wiggo win the Tour and fancy giving this cycling lark a go but aren't certain you'll stick with it for long (hey, if you decide it's for you you can always buy a more expensive bike later); you want a cheap, fast, light commuter that'll get you to work with far less effort than a cheap MTB and be up for some leisurely jaunts if the sun's out on the way home; you want a cheap and cheerful winter bike - there's plenty of room between the fork blades and stays for a 25mm tyre, but be prepared to carry out regular services on the brakes and gears in bad weather.

2013 Hope District rear light review

Super expensive, but worth every penny

It's been a good few years since LEDs revolutionised bike lights. Rear lights were first to get the LED treatment, instantly transforming from chunky plastic boxes fitted with heavy D cells (which usually leaked sooner or later) and dim conventional bulbs (which stopped working as soon as you crashed) to smart, light weight, AA-powered devices that worked for ages. Front lights were initially held back due to the cost of white LEDs; then cheaper versions became available and every bike accessory manufacturer under the sun got carried away with making ever-more advanced versions. As a result, rear LED lights were forgotten until 2010 when Hope introduced their District model, a light that featured the same level of technology as the best front lights on the market and immediately found fans despite the high price. Now, the District has been updated for 2013.

Straight out of the box, the District is a tasty piece of kit: its 248g (with battery) weight - heavy, but not too heavy - combines with compact proportions and intriguing shape to give it a pleasing heft. It's also very good looking in an industrial, purposeful way with its robust CNC-milled aluminium housing and allen bolt-fastened clips which will ensure it stays fixed securely to your bike. I spent five minutes just admiring the thing before even plugging it into the battery (speaking of which, Hope have seen to it that you get a choice in the battery department. You can either use a wire splitter to power it from the battery unit of various Hope front lights or from an independent battery pack compact enough to be hidden away under the saddle, meaning the light can still be used if you're running a front light made by someone else or want to use this one as a safety light during daylight. Which is nice.)

Then I plugged it in. Whilst looking directly into it. A week later, my retinas are returning to normal function - this thing is bright. So much so that I swear it works as a photon drive with so much light being chucked out of the back of the bike it actually makes me a bit faster, and if anyone claims not to have seen you with a District on yer bike there isn't a court in the land that'd take their side. There are only three LEDs in there, but they're not your common-or-garden type as found in the various rear lights with ten or more LEDs: Hope have chosen Osram Oslon LEDs as used in modern car rear lights and - Google tells me - deep mine illumination, with their surprisingly low power requirements the battery lasted for ten or so hours on high setting and more than a hundred in flash mode (and if the supplied 2600mAh battery isn't enough for you the District is compatible with 5200mAh packs too). They also have a superb lifespan of around 50,000 hours, or nearly six years of constant use - bearing in mind that many other quality rear lights cost about a sixth as much as a District but tend to last only a year or so, the District's price doesn't look quite so off-putting after all. With that superb casing, you can be certain that the rest of the light will last too.

A few reviewers have stated that they found it fiddly to fasten the District to the seatpost (three shims are provided, allowing it to be fitted to any round-profile post. It won't fit aero-profile posts, though it ought to be a reasonably easy job to fashion a clamp to fit it elsewhere on the bike), but I disagree with that and had it bolted in place within two minutes; finding it no harder than fitting any other light. Once the clamp's in place it won't be going anywhere in a hurry and so it's fortunate that the light housing can be quickly and easily removed from the clamp by way of a reliable quick release bayonet fitting, preventing passing scumbags from nicking it.

Summing up: £144 (cheapest offer for the District plus battery pack and charger; light plus battery is around £20 cheaper while the light with splitter is £86. Not that I care - I got mine for Christmas) is a lot of money for a light, but you get a lot of light - in fact, this is almost certainly the best light currently available. Extra points for the large rubber on/off switch, easy to find and operate on the fly even with gloved hands.

Daily Cycling Facts 28.12.2012

Dave Marsh

Dave Marsh, born on this day in 1894, competed in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics and won the World Amateur Road Race in 1922 when the event was held in Liverpool - British riders also took the silver and bronze medals, thus making it perhaps Britain's most successful day in the history of the competition with the possible exception of 1967 when Graham Webb won the men's competition on the same day that the legendary Beryl Burton won the women's.

Around 1929, the famous Ariel bike manufacturer (inventors of the wire-spoked wheel in 1870, the company was established by William Hillman and James Starley - whose nephew John Kemp Starley invented the Rover Safety Bicycle, a bike with two equal-sized wheels and chain drive that is the ancestor of almost all modern bikes) decided it needed to move into the competition market and approached Marsh for help. Under his direction, the Marsh Model was produced in time for the annual Cycle and Motor Cycle Show with the company using Marsh's fame to advertise the new bike - using one of the bikes, Marsh had beaten the Birmingham-Bristol-Birmingham record by a full 30 minutes and 38 seconds. The bike's spec - 20" frame, lightened fork crown, Bluemel mudguards, lightened lugs, brazed-on fittings, Pelissier brakes, butted tubes, "D to round" forks, grease-gun nipples, Endrick chromium-plated rims, Marsh handlebars on adjustable stem - still sounds impressive to modern ears. The price? £8 and 8 shillings, now £8.40 (€10.03/US$13.40).


Retired Belgian cyclist and 1974 National Road Race Champion Roger Swerts was born in Heusden-Zolder on this day in 1942. In 1972 alone, Swerts won Gent–Wevelgem, Grand Prix de Forli, Grand Prix des Nations, the Trofeo Baracchi and the Tour of Belgium (which he won again in 1974). He also won stages in the Tour de l'Avenir (Stage 10, 1964), Giro d'Italia (Stage 14, 1972) and Vuelta a Espana (Stage 6a, 1973; Prologue, Stages 8 and 12, 1974; Prologue, 1975).

Tomasz Stankiewicz (1st left),
born 1902, murdered by the
Nazis 1940

Tomasz Stankiewicz was born on this day in 1902 in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, and won a silver medal in the 1924 Olympics Team Pursuit. He was murdered by the Nazis on June the 21st, 1940 in Palmiry - part of the notorious "AB Action" that saw the mass execution of Jews and Polish intellectuals, athletes and politicians in the village and surrounding forest between 1939 and 1943. 2,115 victims have been exhumed and reburied correctly, but it is considered likely that many more skeletons lie undiscovered.

Willy Kemp, 1949 Luxembourg Road Race Champion and winner of Stage 4 in the 1955 Tour de France (60th overall), was born in Kopstal on this day in 1925.

Trevor Bull, British pursuit and sprint rider and a bronze medalist in the 1966 Commonwealth Games, was born on this day in 1944. After retiring, he teamed up with Mick Bennett, a fellow Olympian who won bronze in the 1972 and 1976 Games, to run a successful bike company. Bull died on the 4th of April 2009.

Welsh rider Craig Cooke, who came 2nd in the 2004 Welsh National Cyclo Cross Championships and is the younger brother of multiple World and National Champion Nicole, was born on this day in 1984.

Hernán Llerena, often called the greatest ever Peruvian cyclist, was born today in 1928. He was National Champion three times, won four gold medals in the 1947 Bolivarian Games and came third in the 1951 Pan American Games. He died on the 14th of March 2010, aged 81.

Arthur Eddington, astrophysicist and scientific philosopher, was born on this day in 1882. Whilst not known as a cyclist himself, Eddington invented the Eddington Number which provides a means of quantifying a cyclist's long distance ride achievement usually expressed as a figure for E. As an example, a cyclist whose E Number is 85 will have ridden more than 85 miles on 85 occasions. Raising the value of E becomes increasingly more difficult the higher the value climbs, because whereas a cyclist for whom E=25 will need to only ride more than 25 miles to increase it, a rider for whom E=85 will need to ride more than 85 miles to increase her E Number. He also has a crater on the moon and an asteroid named after him - there aren't many people who can claim that.

Other cyclists born on this day: Stefano Baudino (Italy, 1963), Hans Ledermann (Switzerland, 1957), Inocente Lizano (Cuba, 1940), Dieudonné Ntep (Cameroon, 1959), Jean Patou (Belgium, 1878), Virginio Pizzali (Italy, 1934).

Daily Cycling Facts 27.12.2012

Maurice Dewaele

Born in Lovendegem, Belgium on this day in 1896, Maurice Dewaele (also spelled de Waele) won the 1929 Tour de France despite being so ill before Stage 15 that he fainted and the start had to be delayed for an hour. Though he recovered enough to start, he wasn't well at all and his team had to literally surround him throughout the stage, holding him upright. Remarkably, this allowed him to lose only 2'49" and he stayed in the overall lead; however, he would probably have later lost that lead had Jef Demuysere not have been penalised 25' for taking a drink outside of the permitted areas, a penalty that saw him drop from second to third place.

Tour director Henri Desgrange, who had seen how ill the rider was, was furious that Dewaele had won - "My Tour has been won by a corpse!" he proclaimed, insisting that the outcome had been decided by trickery rather than by skill. As a result, the following year trade teams were banned from the Tour in favour of national teams, which Desgrange believed would prevent the team tactics he had always hated so much. (For a more complete description of the events that led to Dewaele's Tour victory, click here.)

Happy birthday to José Pérez Francés, third place winner in the 1963 Tour de France behind Jacques Anquetil and Federico Bahamontes. He was twice Spanish Road Champion (1960 and 1963), won three stages in the Vuelta a Espana and came 2nd overall in 1968, came 5th overall in the 1968 Giro d'Italia and 2nd in the 1963 Dauphiné Libéré where he won Stage 3.  Francés was born in Peñacastillo, Spain on this day in 1936.

Happy birthday to Pascal Simon who won the maillot jaune following Stage 10 of the 1983 Tour de France. The next day, he crashed and broke his shoulder - yet remained in the race for another six days. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Well, except Jens Voigt perhaps. Simon also won the Tour de l'Avenir in 1981.

Sabine Spitz
(image credit: Graham Dean CC BY 2.0)

Sabine Spitz, the German mountain biker who became World Cross Country Champion in 2003 and won a gold medal in the cross country event at the 2008 Olympics (and a bronze in the same event in 2004), was born on this day 1971 in Herrischried.

Other cyclists born on this day: Klaas Balk (Netherlands, 63), Dennis Brooks (Cayman Isles, 37), William Clay (Japan, raced for the USA, 38), Dashjamtsyn Mönkhbat (Mongolia, 50), Péter Kusztor (Hungary, 27), Václav Machek (Czechoslovakia, 1925), Englebert Opdebeeck (Netherlands, 65), Dimo Angelov Tonchev (Bulgaria, 59), John Vande Velde (USA, 63), Marian Turowski (Poland, 47), Charles Westerholm (Finland, raced for the USA, 1897, died 1977).

Daily Cycling Facts 26.12.2012

Lesley Tomlinson, the Derbyshire-born mountain biker who moved to Canada when she was ten  and represented her adopted country in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, was born on this day in 1959. Before going to university, Tomlinson preferred to ride horses; unable to keep one while studying she began long distance running and then took up cycling. Having earned her degree in Business and Economics, she worked in business for several years and rose to a senior marketing position before deciding to have a go at becoming a professional cyclist when she recorded good times in the cycling sections of triathlons in 1988 (her times in the swimming sections, by her own admission, were not so good - "I am an anchor," she says) and, in 1995, she signed her first contract with the Evian Pro MTB team.

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
(image credit: Rapha-Condor CC)

Happy birthday to Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, born in 1982, the ex-mountain biker who won the King of the Mountains classification and finished 5th overall in the 2011 Tour of Britain when riding for Rapha-Condor-Sharp. 2012, when he rode for Endura, was to be his breakthrough year with two stage wins, the Points competition overall victory at the Tour Méditerranéen, one stage, the Points competition and overall victory at the Tour du Haut-Var, two stages and overall victory at the Tour Alsace and overall victory at the Tour of Britain; at the end of the season he impressed further by keeping up with the world's top riders until the final climb of the Cauberg during his World Championships debut. In October, it was announced that he had accepted the offer of a two-year contract with Sky.

British Olympian Ted Piercy was born on his day in Southwark, London in 1882. He competed in the 2km Tandem Sprint during the 1908 Games in London. Ted died on the 3rd of January 1968 aged 85.

Josef Rieder, a competitor in the Individual and Team Road Races in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was born on this day in 1893 in Munich.

Tom Leezer, the Dutch Rabobank rider who was Under-19 National Road Champion in 2003 and led the Mountains classification for two stages at the 2009 Vuelta a Espana, was born on this day in 1985.

Happy birthday Riccardo Magrini, born in Montecatini Terme, Italy in 1954. He won a stage in the 1983 Giro d'Italia and another in the Tour de France in the same year.

Jerry M. Certain's parcel carrier for
bicycles, Pat. No. 639798

On this day in 1899, African-American inventor Jerry M. Certain patented a new design for a "parcel carrier for bicycles" featuring a rigid mesh body fitted to a metal frame. Similar designs are still in production today.

Antonio Miguel, who rode for Spain in the 4km Team Time Trial at the 2008 Games in Beijing, was born today in 1982.

Rudolf Karsch, winner of a bronze medal at the infamous 1936 Olympics in Berlin for the 1km Time Trial, was born on this day in 1913. He died on December the 11th, 1950 aged 36 under mysterious circumstances in an apartment filled with gas.

Uruguayan Walter Moyano was born on this day in 1933. He rode in the Team and Individual Road Races at the 1956 Olympics but finished neither event. However, his palmares includes some respectable results in other events, including silver and gold medals in the Pan American Games.

Karel Nesl of Czechoslovakia failed to finish the same races in the 1952 Games in Helsinki. He was born on this day in 1930.

Emil Rusu, a Romanian rider who appeared in the Olympics in 1964 and 1968, was born on this day in 1946.

Yavé Cahard, French silver medalist in the 1980 Moscow Olympics for the Men's Sprint event, was born today in 1957. He shares his birthday with fellow Olympian Anthony Cuff, who represented New Zealand in the Individual and Team 4km Pursuit events at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Henning Schmitz of Kraftwerk

Italian Luca Columbo, silver medalist in the 100km Team Time Trial at the 1992 Bercelona Olympics, was born on this day in 1969.

Hector Martin, a Belgian rider who was professional between 1925 and 1935, was born on this day in 1898. Hector won three stages in the 1925 Tour de France and two, wearing the maillot jaune for four days, in 1927. Among other successes, he won an amateur Tour of Flanders and Bordeaux-Paris. He died on the 9th of August in 1972.

And finally, a very happy birthday to Henning Schmitz, a member of the cycling-obsessed, revolutionary German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk.

Other cyclists born on this day: Giacomo Fornoni (Italy, 1939); Anthony Cuff (New Zealand, 1957).

Daily Cycling Facts 25.12.2012

Erik Harry Stenqvist, born on this day in 1893, was a Swedish cyclist who represented his country at the 1920 Olympics and won a gold medal in the Individual Road Race and a silver in the Team Road Race. He died on the 9th of December in 1968.

Daniëlle Bekkering, born in Groningen on this day in 1976, is a Dutch speed and marathon skater who has been highly successful in both sports - as well as, since 2003, in cycling. Although she specialises in time trials, she has also won numerous mass-start road races including three editions of the Noordhoorn criterium. After spending 2003 and the first five months of 2004 with the @Home team she moved to Bik-Gios, then to DSB Bank where she remained until the end of 2008 prior to a switch to Hitec Products for 2009 and Dolmans Landscaping for 2010 and 2011. For the majority of that time, her sister Eyelien rode for the same teams.

Todd Wells
(image credit: Church of the High Pines)

Frank Bizzoni, an Italian national who was listed as an American cyclist (and thus allows Italy to just hang on to its claim to have competed in every modern Olympics, as he was the only Italian in the Games that year) died on this day in 1926. He was 51.

Todd Wells, born on this day in 1975, is one of the USA's most successful cycle crossers and has won the National Championship three times, in 2001. 2005 and 2010. In common with many cyclo cross riders, he has also enjoyed a successful mountain biking career, winning the Collegiate MTB National Championship in 1995 and 1996, the National Short Track Championship in 2002 and 2010 and the National Cross Country Championship in 2010. In 2004, he was selected for the US Olympic team.

Sandra Schumacher was born on this day in 1966 in Cologne, Germany. Now retired, she won a bronze medal in the Women's Road Race at the 1984 Olympics.

Guido Reybrouck was born in Bruges on this day in 1941, the cousin of three-time Belgian champion Gustave Danneels. His first successes came in 1964 with wins at Paris–Tours and Züri-Metzgete, sufficient to persuade him to earn a place at the Tour de France the next year where he won Stages 6 and 10. A year later, he was National Champion and had won a second Paris-Tours and Stage 2 at the Tour, then in 1967 he won Stages 1 and 3 at Paris-Nice, Stages 4 and 9 at the Tour and Stage 1 at the Vuelta a Espana. A third Paris-Tours came in 1968 when he also entered the Giro d'Italia, winning Stages 3, 11 and 22. He won Stage 13 at the Tour in 1969 and the Amstel Gold Race, then had his best year in 1970 when he won Stages 3, 7, 8b, the Points competition and the Combination Classification at the Vuelta a Espana. He retired at the end of the 1973 season.

Noël Mamère, born in Liborne on this day in 1948, is the embodiment of France's passion for le velo and had been a cyclist and follower of cycling his entire life. He is a man with many strings to his bow, also achieving fame as a singer and as a television presenter, in addition to his very successful political career - he was vice-president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux from 1989 to 2001, has served five terms as the Mayor of Bègles (being halfway through the fifth at the time of writing), was Regional Councillor for Aquitaine from 1992 until resignation in 1994 and then again after reelection in 1998, became Representative for Gironde at the French National Council in 1997 and was reelected in 2002 and 2007, and sat as a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 until his resignation in 1997. He sat as president of the Ecology Generation political party from 1992 until expulsion two years later, at which point he founded the Ecology-Solidarity Convergences with similar "green" policies, then left the group in 1998 to join France's most prominent green party Les Verts. In 2004, he stirred up controversy when in his capacity as Mayor of Bègles he conducted a marriage ceremony for a male homosexual couple. Ten out of ten!

Noël Mamère - Les Enfants de par là

Other births: Lloyd Hildebrand (Great Britain, 1870, died 1924); Jacques Bellenger (France, 1927); Keith Reynolds (Great Britain, 1963); Manuel Bacigalupo (Peru, 1916, died 1965); Christ Noël Yarafa (Central African Republic, 1966); Shinri Suzuki (Japan, 1974); Luis Biera (Argentina, 1958); Max Rainsford (Australia, 1962); Leigh Barczewski (USA, 19550; Louis Bès (France, 1891, died 1961); Tarek Abou Al Dahab (Lebanon, 1939).

Daily Cycling Facts 24.12.2012

Happy birthday to American Garmin-Cervélo rider Thomas Peterson. Peterson, who was born on this day in 1986 and was National Junior Road Race Champion in 2004, then went on to win stages in several races. His best results to date have been winning the King of the Mountains in the 2009 Herald Sun Tour and 4th overall in the 2011 Tour of Turkey.

José Aguilar was born on this day in 1980. The Venezuelan rider has achieved numerous stage wins during his eight years as a professional.

On this day in 1854, Thomas Stevens was born in Birkhamstead, Hertfordshire. Aged 29, he set out from his family's adopted home in San Francisco on a penny-farthing fitted with cutting-edge nickel-plated wheels - a ride that, a year and a half later, would earn him the title of the first man to circumnavigate the globe on a bicycle. He died on the 24th of January 1935 and is buried in London's St. Marylebone Cemetery.

Emma Trott

Happy birthday to Emma Trott, born in Welwyn Gardeb City, Great Britain on this day in 1989. Trott was National Junior Road Race Champion in 2006, European Under-23 Scratch Champion in 2011 and came third in the National Individual Time Trial Championship in 2012. She is the older sister of Laura Trott, the World Championship and Olympic gold medalist.

Andreas Matzbacher, who was born on the 7th of December 1982, died on this day in 2007 when he lost control of his car and collided with a signpost in Austria. The rider began his professional career with Saeco in 2004.

Daily Cycling Facts 23.12.2012

Wim Vansevenant, Tour Lanterne
Rouge a record three times and
possibly a very naughty boy

Wim Vansevenant, the Belgian ex-professional and three-time Tour de France Lanterne Rouge (a record) turned soigneur who was arrested in June 2011 after allegedly trying to smuggle doping products (which he later claimed were for him and had been, to the best of his knowledge, legal amino acids) into Belgium, was born in Diksmuide on this day in 1971.

"Lanterne Rouge is not a position you go for. It comes for you." - Wim Vansevenant

A very happy birthday to Thomas Rohregger, the Austrian rider who came 4th overall in the Tour of Austria for Leopard-Trek in 2011. He rode for RadioShack-Nissan in 2012 following the RadioShack/Leopard-Trek merger and came 31st overall at the Giro d'Italia. Rohregger was born in Innsbruck on this day in 1982.

Noël Foré was born in Adegem, Belgium, on this day in 1932. He won Paris-Roubaix in 1959, a year his victory in the Tour of Belgium and two years after he won the Dwars door Vlaanderen. Four years later, he added Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne and the Ronde van Vlaanderen to  palmares that totalled 53 professional wins.

Robert Bartko, the track and road cyclist who was born in the former East Germany and winner of two gold medals in the 2000 Olympics, was born on this day in 1975 in Potsdam.

Ernest Payne
Ernest Payne, born on this day in 1884, worked as a carpenter after completing his education but was destined for worldwide fame as a cyclist - and was there ever a man with a name more suited to professional cycling?

We know a surprisingly large amount about Payne's early life - just a century ago, records were not kept at stringently as they are today and it's common for mystery to surround the births and deaths of cyclists during the earlier years of the sport. Some were not sure even of their own birth dates and many vanished from the public eye in retirement and were never heard from again, so that we don't know what became of them, when and where they died (some are feasibly still alive, though would be extremely elderly now). For example, we know that Payne was born in a cottage located at 221 London Road, Worcester: the house, Cyclopunk is informed by Graham Taylor (who lives nearby), is still there near to an unattractive commercial building, as is 224 London Road to which he later moved - the bay windows of both properties were made by Payne at his joinery business (thanks, Graham!).

1902 Imperial Rover Path Racer - not Payne's bike, but his
would have been similar
(image credit: Chris Borneo's Resto Blog)

We also know that Payne's boss when he was a carpenter must either have been interested in cycling or simply in encouraging his employees to enjoy their lives outside work because he allowed him to take time off to train with his brother Walter - Payne would repay the man's kindness with a gold watch once his winnings gave him the means to purchase such an object. His first official race took place on the 14th of July in 1902 at Stourbridge, when he competed with the St. John's CC. He crashed hard enough to destroy his bike, but then won the half-mile handicap race on a bike he borrowed from another club member. Specialising in one-and-a-half-mile races, he won thirteen of the fourteen races he entered and within a year was known as "The Worcester Wonder" in the cycling press. Graham Taylor says that Payne is all but forgotten in Worcester, and all cyclists will agree with him that this is a very great shame.

Payne photographed with his trophies in 1910 - in the
middle is the enormous Challenge Cup that he won in 1904

Payne used a locally-made bike during his first year, details of which are lost. In 1903 he switched from Dunlop Road Race to Dunlop Sprint tyres and began racing on an Imperial Rover - the bike upon which he won the Challenge Cup at the Bath Whitsun meet in 1904. Standing over 122cm tall and containing some 14kg of silver, the Cup was reputed to be the largest trophy ever awarded in any athletic competition in Britain.

Payne was himself 169cm tall - lifting the Cup must have been almost as much an achievement as winning it, as can be seen in a 1910 photograph depicting him with his bike standing next to a three-tiered display of his prizes. The photograph may have been taken to mark the end of his cycling career - during which he won 150 races and an Olympic gold medal in 1908 - for that same year he gave it up in favour of football, which he had been playing for two years. In 1909, he made his debut in a match against Nottingham Forest, playing for a team named Newton Heath - and which is still with us, but now known as Manchester United. Payne died at the age of 76 on the 10th of September, 1961.


Happy birthday to David Daniell, the British track sprint rider who won three silver medals at the 2011 British Track Championships and a bronze for the Kilo at the Championships a year later. David, from Middlesborough, was BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2006. He was born in 1989.

Jim Ochowicz at the 2010 Tour de France
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0)

Many people have made a living from cycling, fewer make it their life to such an extent that their entire being is weaved into the sport. One of them is Jim Ochowicz, who was born on this day in 1951. He would represent the USA in the Olympics of 1972 and 1976, then was inducted into the USA Cycling Hall of Fame in 1977 in recognition of his services to the sport. In 1981, he set up the 7-11 Cycling Team which began as an amateur organisation before transforming itself into a team that competed at the very highest levels, including the Tour de France. In 1990, it found a new big-name sponsor and was renamed Motorola, becoming the first team to use race radios. Motorola eventually folded in 1996 after sixteen seasons. In 2002, Ochowicz was back, serving a four-year tenure a president of the USA Cycling Board of Directors, then in 2006 he set up the BMC Racing Team who are still racing the Grand Tours and ProTour circuit under his direction to this day.

Other cyclists born on this day: Adam Wadecki (Poland, 1977); Bjarne Sørensen (Denmark, 1954); Karl-Heinz Oberfranz (East Germany, 1951); Noel Luces (Trinidad and Tobago, 1948); John Walker (Great Britain, 1888); Warren Johnston (New Zealand, 1935); Domingo Villanueva (Philippines, 1964); Yoichi Machishima (Japan, 1954); Andreas Kappes (Germany, 1965); Armand Blanchonnet (France, 1903, died 1968).