Daily Cycling Facts 24.12.2013

Emma Trott

Emma Trott

Born in Welwyn Garden City, Great Britain on this day in 1989, Emma Trott is not yet as well-known among the general public as her younger sister, the Olympic gold medalist Laura Trott, but the superb palmares she has already built up at the age of 24 marks her out as a rider who will achieve great things. Already she has been National Junior Road Race Champion in 2006, European Under-23 Scratch Champion in 2011 and won a bronze in the National Individual Time Trial Championship in 2012.

While both sisters started out on the track, Emma earned her first good results on the road when she finished Stages 1 and 2 of the 2008 Cheshire Classic in third place. In 2010, riding for the Dutch team Moving Ladies, she beat Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos in a sprint to win Stage 3 at the Gracia Orlova, then joined them at the Nederland Bloeit team the following year. For 2012 she moved to Dolmans-Boels and began to concentrate on road, remaining with the team when it became Boels-Dolmans in 2013.


Christian Raymond
Born in Avrillé on this day in 1943, French cyclist Christian Raymond rode for Peugeot-BP-Michelin from 1966 to 1973 and for GAN-Mercier in 1974 and 1975. Raymond won the Ubder-23 Route de France and Stage 9 at the Tour de l'Avenir in 1964 and Stage 3 at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 1966 - the same year he finished Stage 22a at the Tour de France in tenth place. He rode the Tour again in 1967, then in 1968 when he was second on Stage 3a and fourth on Stage 17 and again in 1969. In 1970 he was third at the National Road Race Championship before returning to the Tour where he won Stage 9 - it would be the only time he won a Tour stage, but he came close with eighth on Stage 2 in 1971.

Whilst Raymond's palmares is good, he is most famous not for his racing but for being the father of the little girl who, watching her father being resoundingly beaten by Eddy Merckx in a race on television, said: "That Belgian - he doesn't even leave you the crumbs. He's a cannibal!" Merckx, who would become the greatest cyclist of all time, is still known by the nickname to this day.


Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson was born on this day in 1986 and was National Junior Road Race Champion in 2004. 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.

Peterson's professional career began with TIA-CREFF in 2006 and he moved up to the top level with Slipstream, which later became Garmin, a year later. His Grand Tour record shows promise: 27th at the Vuelta a Espana in 2010, 89th at the Giro d'Italia in 2011, 115th at the Vuelta in 2012 and 116th at the Vuelta in 2013 when he rode for Argos-Shimano.


José Aguilar Rodriguez 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.


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.

Other cyclists born on this day: Gao Hongying (China, 1970); Thomas O'Rourke (USA, 1934); Florent Jodoin (Canada, 1922, died 2008); Imre Győrffy (Hungary, 1905); Jan Smolík (Czechoslovakia, 1942); Gaston Dumont (Luxembourg, 1932, died 1978 - Dumont's birthdate is also given as the 9th of March by some sources); Daniel Pandèle (France, 1961); Kim Svendsen (Denmark, 1955).