Chanukah sameach, merry Christmas, joyful Kwanzaa to all our readers.
Saturday 24 December 2011
Daily Cycling Facts 24.12.11
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.
Happy birthday to Emma Trott, the Dolmans-Boels cyclist born in Welwyn Gardeb City, Great Britain on this day in 1989. Trott was National Junior Road Race Champion in 2006.
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.
Friday 23 December 2011
Cycling in Britain - a niche sport?
Cycling's a niche sport in Britain, right? The combined total of the votes received by the nine runners-up came to 172,807 - just 3,655 (0.53%) more than Cav won alone.
Notably, there was not a single big-budget-never-off-the-telly footballer on the final list.
Something tells me the television channels are missing an opportunity here.
Daily Cycling Facts 23.12.11
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| Wim Vansevenant, Tour Lanterne Rouge a record three times and possibly a very naughty boy |
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 was born 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, born on this day in 1884, worked as a carpenter after completing his education but was destined for worldwide fame - which seems to be quite a popular course of action at this time of year (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: it's now the busy A44 and the cottage is gone, replaced by an unattractive commercial building dating from perhaps the 1930s, occupied by a management services company and set in the middle of a carpark behind a low hedge. Opposite, behind the ubiquitous leylandii hedge, is a mock-Tudor house far too large to be considered a cottage and thus no indication to us of what Payne's house may have looked at (it's also probably no older than the 1930s); but just beyond it are two tiny Victorian cottages built of red bricks. Both are now extended, but it's likely that the one in which Payne was born looked similar.
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| 1902 Imperial Rover Path Racer - not Payne's bike, but his would have been similar (image credit: Chris Borneo's Resto Blog) |
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| Payne photographed with his trophies in 1910 - in the middle is the enormous Challenge Cup that he won in 1904 |
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. David, from Middlesborough, was BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2006. He was born in 1989.
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| Jim Ochowicz at the 2010 Tour de France (image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0) |
Solihull cyclists were angered on this day in 2010 when a motorist who killed a female cyclist named Cath Ward and was convicted of dangerous and inconsiderate driving was banned for 12 months, received a 12 month community order and was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community service and pay £110 costs. "We as a club are appalled at this sentence," said a Solihull CC spokesperson. "It just beggars belief that anyone’s life is worth just this. The driver wasn’t even fined."
Other births: 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).
Wednesday 21 December 2011
I am NOT GUILTY
Some of our regular readers - and those who we know on Twitter - will be aware that back in June I was arrested and charged with theft from my then employer. Despite having no criminal record, the amount of money that went missing was significant and I faced a year in prison.
To cut a long story short, the case dragged on for six months and it's been hell. There was strong evidence against me and evidence that might have supported me was never requested by the police nor viewed during the company's internal investigation and, due to the elapsed time, is no longer available. My barrister advised me that, in his opinion, it was unlikely we would win. Not good.
On the 19th of December, my trial began in Crown Court and went on for two days. It gives me very great pleasure to announce that the jury reached a unanimous decision that I am not guilty. Afterwards, my barrister revealed that he's believed I'm innocent right from the start.
Thanks to all of you who have sent messages of support. Freedom is a wonderful thing.
To cut a long story short, the case dragged on for six months and it's been hell. There was strong evidence against me and evidence that might have supported me was never requested by the police nor viewed during the company's internal investigation and, due to the elapsed time, is no longer available. My barrister advised me that, in his opinion, it was unlikely we would win. Not good.
On the 19th of December, my trial began in Crown Court and went on for two days. It gives me very great pleasure to announce that the jury reached a unanimous decision that I am not guilty. Afterwards, my barrister revealed that he's believed I'm innocent right from the start.
Thanks to all of you who have sent messages of support. Freedom is a wonderful thing.
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| Image credit: Lord Noel |
Daily Cycling Facts 21.12.11
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| Iljo Keisse |
Marcel Cadolle was born in Paris on this day in 1885 and turned professional in 1905. His 2nd place finish at the 1906 Paris-Roubaix (when he was beaten by 1904 - and youngest ever - Tour de France winner Henri Cornet) and Stage 4 win at the 1907 Tour de France suggest that he would probably not be so forgotten as he now is and might even have been among the greats had his career not have been ended prematurely during Stage 7 at the 1907 Tour when he crashed and seriously injured his knee. He died on the 21st of August, 1956.
Tuesday 20 December 2011
Daily Cycling Facts 20.12.11
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| Rik van Looy, the Emeror of Herentals and the King of the Classics |
King of the Classics Rik van Looy was born on this day in 1933 in the town that bears everyone's favourite Belgian placename, Grobbendonk. Rik became the first man to win all five Monuments - Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Giro di Lombardia, a feat since repeated by only Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx.
In addition, he won nineteen stages at the Vuelta a Espana (including eight in 1965 alone, also overall Points classification in 1959 and 1965), twelve stages at the Giro d'Italia (and Mountains classification in 1960), seven stages at the Tour de France (and overall Points classification in 1963) and many other races; yet never won a Grand Tour with his best results being 3rd overall in the Vuelta for 1959 and 1965. He was also a skilled track rider, winning eleven six-day events.
Van Looy grew up with a love of cycling and took a paper-round during his youth so that he could save up for a second-hand racing bike. In his first race, he was lapped five times and left in a bad mood, vowing that he would never race again - however, at some point it occurred to him that a far better course of action would be to train hard and ensure he never again suffered such a humiliating defeat. That drive to win would manifest itself again in his professional career when he became a team leader - colleagues remember him as a hard taskmaster who expected all members to ride for him at all times and would not tolerate anything other than total, unquestioning obedience.
Known for his lightning-fast sprint, van Looy - like many sprinters - was simply to heavy on account of his muscular physique to win a Tour because he suffered in the mountains. Yet, he won the Mountains Classification at the 1960 Giro d'Italia, a feat that cannot be easily explained. All in all, he is thought to have won around 500 races during a career that spanned 17 years and came to an end only because of his anger at younger cyclists who, in his opinion, failed to show him the respect he felt he deserved.
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| Lucien Petit-Breton, 18.10.1882 - 20.12.1917 |
Lucien Petit-Breton
On this day in 1917 Lucien Georges Mazan was killed when he crashed into a car near the WW1 front at Troyes. He had emigrated to Argentina with his family when he was six years old. Some time in 1898/9, he won a bicycle in a lottery competition and began racing under the false name Louis Breton so he could keep his sport secret from his father who wanted him to get a "proper job."
Despite taking Argentine nationality, Mazan was drafted into the French Army in 1902 and returned to his native country to serve. He continued racing, winning the Bol d'Or in 1904, but had to change his name once again, adopting Petit so avoid confusion with another rider name Lucien Breton. In 1907, he won the first Milan-San Remo and then entered the Tour de France. By the end of Stage 5, he was far down the leadership and appeared to have no chance of a good result - the race was decided on points in those days and, while Petit-Breton was in second place, leader Emile Georget was way ahead. Then, in Stage 9, Georget's bike broke and he had to finish on a replacement. Since the rules of the day demanded that riders fixed broken bikes without assistance unless the bike had been declared beyond repair by judges, which it had not, he was fined 500 francs. Then, in Stage 10, organisers rather unfairly decided that their previous decision was an insufficiently harsh punishment and docked him 44 points by relegating him to last place for the stage - putting him in 3rd place overall and Petit-Breton in first, a position he held for the remainder of the race.
In 1978, six decades after his death, Petit-Breton became the hero of a rather peculiar episode of the TV drama series Les Brigades du Tigre in which he was played by Jacques Giraud. In it, two detectives are assigned to follow the 1908 Tour where a mystery man has been murdering cyclists, leading most of them to want to abandon the race for their own safety. Petit-Breton, meanwhile, is far braver than the rest and manages to persuade them to continue. The series is available on DVD but, to be fair, only really worth seeking out by obsessive Petit-Breton fans, if such people still exist.
Michael Albasini
Born in Mendrisio, Switzerland on this day in 1980, Michael Albasini is a rare climber who can also sprint; a combination that saw him win the Mountains and Points competitions at the Tour de Suisse in 2006. He had first come to note when he won the Under-19 National Road Race Championship in 1998, then became Under-23 European Champion four years later before going on to win the Points competition at the Tour de Suisse in 2005. In 2009 he won the Tour of Austria and was ninth at La Flèche Wallonne; a year later he won the Tour of Britain and in 2011 the Mountains competition at the Tour of the Basque Country.
Albasini joined the Australian GreenEDGE team for 2012 and was selected to race at the Volta a Catalunya. Although he was not one of the favourites for the race, after he won Stages 1 and 2 the team made a magnificent job of protecting him throughout the remaining five stages and, despite finishing outside the top ten on all but one of those five stages, he ultimately finished in first place overall with an advantage of 1'32" - which had not changed since the end of the second stage.
Paralympian cyclist Matthew Gray was born in Perth, Australia on this day in 1977. At the 2000 Paralympic Games he won gold medals in the LC1-3 Sprint and LC1 Time Trial, setting a new world record in the latter. He was later awarded the Order of Australia for his efforts.
Karel Kaers, a Belgian professional, died on this day in 1972. Among Kaers' 30 wins were a World Road Championship title (aged just 20, he won the first time he entered and became the youngest ever world champ), National Pursuit and Road Champion titles, the Six Days of Paris, Copenhagen, London and Brussels, a Tour of Flanders and the Circuit de Paris. He was born on the 3rd of June 1914, making him 58 when he died,
It's the anniversary of the death of Albert van Vlierberghe in 1991, the Belgian professional rider and winner of three stages in the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. Vlierberghe's sixth place result after one stage of the 1979 Deutschland Tour is controversial since notorious ex-soigneur Willy Voets claimed that he gave the rider a lift in his car so as to avoid a hilly section - whether or not this is true will probably never be known and opinions must be based entirely on personal opinions of Voet and his capacity for lying.
Other cyclists born on this day:
Monday 19 December 2011
Daily Cycling Facts 19.12.11
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| Zulfiya Zabirova (image credit: James F. Perry CC BY-SA 3.0) |
Zulfiya Zabirova, the Russian-Uzbek professional rider with the Bigla Cycling Team, was born on this day in 1973. Zulfiya won a gold medal in the Time Trial at the 1996 Olympics, the same year she became National TT Champion, and has gone on to add trophy after trophy to her impressive palmares including first place in the 2002 UCI Worlds TT, first overall at the Thüringen-Rundfahrt, first overall at Castilla y Leon, first place at the Tour of Flanders and Primavera Rosa.
Now living and training in Switzerland, she relocated from Uzbekistan to Russia two years after the fall of the USSR so as to be able to continue cycling when the Islamic fundamentalist-led government of her homeland introduced new laws aimed at preventing women taking part in sport.
Happy 44th birthday to Jens Lehmann, the German cyclist who won two gold medals and was part of the team that recorded the first sub-four minute 4000m team pursuit time, yet is best known for being the man caught by Chris Boardman aboard the revolutionary Lotus 110 in the 1992 Olympics. He was born in Stolberg on this day in 1967.
Note: Some sources state that Lucien Petit-Breton died on this day in 1917. However, most have his death as the 20th of December which is why he's not included here (he is tomorrow, though).
Other births: Nicolas Fritsch (France, 1978); Petr Matoušek (Czechoslovakia, 1949); Hung Chung Yam (Hong Kong, 1967); Nencho Staykov (Bulgaria, 1955); Michal Klasa (Czechoslovakia, 1953); Maurice Moutat (Cameroon, 1954); Feng Yong (China, 1985); Noel Taggart (Ireland, 1941); Augusto Castro (Colombia, 1986); Jürgen Schneider (Switzerland, 1949); Roland Hennig (East Germany, 1967); Dave Watson (Australia, 1946); Andrew Myers (Jamaica, 1968); Gerben Broeren (Netherlands, 1972).
Sunday 18 December 2011
Daily Cycling Facts 18.12.11
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| Lizzie Armitstead (image credit: johnthescone CC BY 2.0) |
Happy birthday to Lizzie Armitstead, the British track and road cyclist who in her three years as a professional had built up a stunning palmares and become one of the most respected female cyclists in the sport's history. Among Lizzie's many successes are the National Road Under-23 Champion title in 2010 - the year she also came second in the UCI Track World Omnium and Team Pursuit events and Commonwealth Games Road Race, won three stages at the Tour de l'Ardèche and one at the La Route de France.
In 2011 she won one stage and came second overall in the Tour of Chongming Island, won two events at the British Track Championship, one stage and the overall Points classification at the Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen and became British Road Race Champion. She was born in 1988 in Otley, Great Britain and will doubtless add many more trophies to her collection.
Janez Brajkovič
Janez Brajkovič, born in the Slovenian town Metlika on this day in 1983, became World Junior Time Trial Champion in 2004 which earned him a neo-pro contract with the Discovery Channel team despite the fact that, due to obligations to his previous team, he couldn't ride for them for the first half of his first professional year. In 2005, he won the World Time Trial Championship.
In 2007, he won both the General Classification and the Youth Category at the Tour de Georgia and one year later the World Time Trial Championship, then the National Time Trial Championship in 2009. The next year, he won the Critérium du Dauphiné and entered the Tour de France for the first time, finishing in 43rd place. He was expected to do better at the Tour in 2011 but was forced to abandon following a crash in Stage 5.
Choppy Warburton
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| Choppy with some of his cyclists. The very short one in the middle is Jimmy Michael, the others appear to be the Linton brothers (Arthur in the fleur-de-lys jersey?) |
Choppy was born on the 13th of November 1845 in Coal Hey, Lancashire and inherited his nickname from his father, a sailor who when asked how the conditions on his latest voyage had been would always reply "choppy." He came to note as a runner, turning professional at the late age of 34 (sports at that time being the pursuit of wealthy gentlemen, which Choppy - raised single-handed by his mother after his father died - was not) and went to the USA in 1880 where he won 80 races.
Anti-doping tests of those times were non-existent, so the sport relied on athletes and trainers being caught red-handed. Choppy never was and neither were any of the cyclists he trained, but there is some apparent evidence against him. A writer named Rudiger Rabenstein stated that Choppy's star rider Arthur Linton was "massively doped" during the 1896 Bordeaux-Paris race, and biography of the cyclist written after his death by an anonymous author who claimed to have known him well agreed. Also, Choppy's cyclists seem to have had a tendency to die young - very young, in some cases. Linton was only 24, his death being recorded variously as typhoid or strychnine poisoning (strychnine in small doses acts as a stimulant) and, eventually, considered the first doping-related death in any sport. Arthur's younger brother, also a cyclist, was 39 when he died, the cause once again being recorded as typhoid. Jimmy Michael, the Welsh-born 1895 World Champion, was also in Choppy's care, was 28 when he died in mysterious circumstances. No link to any form of doping, administered by the soigneur or otherwise, was ever proved (nor has been since) and at least one modern researcher has concluded that the deaths were in fact down to typhoid; but suspicions were sufficiently high for him to be banned from working in any capacity within professional cycling.
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| Vélodrome Buffalo by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec On the bike - Jimmy Michael; with hat and greatcoat - sports journalist Frantz Reichel; bending over to look in bag: the notorious Choppy Warburton. |
Canadian Michael Barry, born in Toronto on this day in 1975, won the 1997 National Under-23 Road Race Championship. He has also won stages at the Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta a Espana, Österreich-Rundfahrt (where he also won the Points classification), Tour de Romandie and Tour of Missouri.
Other births: Guglielmo Pesenti (Italy, 1933, died 2002); Brian Walton (Canada, 1965); Agustín Alcántara (Mexico, 1946, died 1979); Ruslan Ivanov (Moldova, 1973); Bechir Mardassi (Tunisia, 1929); Henri Duez (France, 1937); Benny Schnoor (Denmark, 1922); Algot Lönn (Sweden, 1887, died 1953); Narihiro Inamura (Japan, 1971); Claus Martínez (Bolivia, 1975); José Andrés Brenes (Costa Rica, 1964); Nelson Mario Pons (Ecuador, 1967); Raymond Reaux (France, 1940); Jiří Háva (Czechoslovakia, 1944); Mitsugi Sarudate (Japan, 1962); Hong Seok-Han (South Korea, 1975); Adan Juárez (Mexico, 1969); Takafumi Matsuda (Japan, 1951); Iván Álvarez (Spain, 1981).
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