Daily Cycling Facts 08.09.12

Jean-Pierre Monseré

Jean-Pierre Monseré, born on this day in 1948 in Roeselare, Belgium and known as Jempi, turned professional with the famous Flandria team in 1969 and won the Giro di Lombardia that year. In 1970, he won the World Road Race Championship - thus becoming the second youngest rider to have done so at 22 years old (for all you fact hounds, the youngest was Karel Kaers who was 20 when he won in 1934). 1971 started well with victory at the Vuelta a Andalucia, but tragedy struck on the 15th of March in 1971:  he was killed instantly during the Grote Jaarmarktprijs when he collided with a car on the parcours between Lille and Gierle.

A monument erected at the spot where he died can be found on the N140 (51° 15' 9.54" N  4° 50' 34.71" E). He left behind his wife and one-year-old son Giovanni. In an even greater tragedy, Giovanni also died in a collision with a car in 1976 while riding a bike given to him as a first communion gift by Freddy Maertens, World Champion in 1976 and 1981.

Alexi Singh Grewal

Alexi Singh Grewal
Born in Aspen, USA on this day in 1960, Alexi Singh Grewal won the Mount Evans Hill Climb with a time of 1h57'36" in 1981 and the Cascade Classic in 1982, then became the first American rider to win the gold medal for the Men's Road Race in the Olympics in 1984. He won Mount Evans again the same year, this time recording a time of 1h47'51", and in 1990 set a new record time in the race at 1h46'29".

In 2008, VeloNews published an essay by Grewal in which he confessed to his own doping. "My prayer and heart is that if, and I still hope that that day comes, that my son desires to taste the “King of Sports” that he can do so knowing that somewhere along the line and in some fashion I came clean and was willing at least once to speak out and do something so that what I saw and experienced is not what he will," he said. Grewal is descended from Punjabi Sikh immigrants and his brothers Rishi and Ranjeet also enjoyed successful cycling careers with numerous victories in mountain bike races. In 2010, it was reported that he was in training and would make a comeback to competition at the Quiznoz Pro Challenge.

Jean Aerts
Born in Laken on this day in 1907, the Belgian sprinter Jean Aerts became World and National Amateur Road Race Champion in 1927, then turned professional in 1929 and went on to win the World Elite Road Race Championships in 1935 - the first man to have been World Champion as an amateur and a professional.

Aerts at the Tour de France, 1929

Like most sprinters Aerts performed poorly in hilly races, but he could do well in a stage race provided there were plenty of flat stages. He won Stages 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 at the Volta a Catalunya and came second overall in 1929 and won Stage 6 at the Tour de France the following year; then won Paris-Brussels in 1931, Stage 1 at the Tour in 1932, Stages 2, 3, 5 and overall at the Tour of Belgium plus Stages 4, 15, 17, 19, 20 and 21 at the Tour de France in 1933 and Stages 4, 8, 10 and 19 at the Tour in 1935. In 1936 he became National Road Race Champion for a second time, then took the National Track Stayers Championship in 1941 and 1942 before retiring from competition in 1943.

Aerts' first team was Elvish-Fontan-Wolber, with whom he remained for one season. 1930 was spent riding for Fontan-Wolber and Alcyon-Dunlop; he would stay with Alcyon until 1940 when he raced as an individual.

Pete Chisman

Pete Chisman, born on this day in 1940, won the first race - a cyclo cross event at Durham, the city in which he was born - he ever entered, despite competing on a borrowed bike he'd never ridden before. In 1958 he won six races, then in 1960 he won thirteen; a year later he was selected for the Northern England team at the Tour of Britain (then known as the Milk Race after main sponsor the Milk Marketing Board) - he won Stages 1 and 7, was second on Stage 11a and finished in fourth place overall. He won no stages in 1962 but was second twice and third once, which earned him a place on the England team in 1963. That year, he won Stages 1 and 2 and finished in first place overall after leading the race throughout.

Chisman, like many British cyclists of his day, remained an amateur for far longer than most riders on the Continent, despite gaining more good results after his Milk Race victory. In 1965 he won Stage 4 at the Tour de l'Avenir, which finally brought him offers of contracts promising good money and he turned professional for Raleigh-BMB the following year and won numerous prestigious British races. In 1967 he went to the Tour de France, riding for the Great Britain team that included Barry Hoban (who was the most successful British rider in the history of the Tour until Mark Cavendish beat his stage win total and Bradley Wiggins won) and Tom Simpson, who died during the race that same year on Ventoux. Road racing had been taking place in Britain since the Second World War (having been banned by the National Cycling Union since the late 19th Century before that), but the British races were incomparable to those across the Channel; Chisman, like so many others to make the trip over, was completely overwhelmed by the much higher level of competition and, after finishing 123rd in Stage 1a and 122nd in Stage 1b, he abandoned. He was third at the first Simpson Memorial in 1968.

The Tour de l'Avenir is designed to reveal potential Grand Tour stars of the future; it seems highly likely, therefore, that Chisman could have developed and might even have enjoyed an illustrious career in Europe, perhaps even become a household name like Hoban and Simpson did. However, he never really took to professional cycling - for him, joy came from riding his bike rather than winning races and the ever-present need to perform well in professional cycling detracted from that. He retired from competition in 1971 and worked as a civil engineer, but continued riding almost every day until he died following prostate surgery in 2003.


Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer

Born in Altadena, California on this day in 1954, Michael Shermer left university armed with a BA in psychology/biology and an MA in experimental psychology in 1978, then took up competitive cycling. His race results were not especially impressive, but he had a lasting impact on the sport - he worked with Bell in 1979, assisting them in the development of the first modern cycling helmets (it's because of him that modern helmets loosely resemble the old-fashioned leather helmets rather than motorcycle helmets, which he said cyclists would dislike for their aesthetics and lack of air vents) and in 1982 with Spenco, the company that introduced the first saddles and cycling gloves fitted with gel inserts to reduce saddle sores and carpal tunnel syndrome. He was also part of the committee that founded and organised the first Race Across America in 1982 - he took part in the race that year and in 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1989, served as an assistant director for six years and as executive director for seven years.

In 1983, while climbing the Loveland Pass in Colorado and thinking about a nutritionist with a rather dubious PhD he'd been advised by for several months, Shermer reached a conclusion that what he terms "a host of weird things" had offered him no real benefits - among them were some truly bizarre alternative therapies including pyramidology, chiropractic, negative ion treatment and rolfing (a form of massage that claims to "organise the whole body in gravity"). He decided then and there that he would stop attempting to rationalise therapies and encourage others to think about them, rather than accept them without question, which, when he'd retired from competition, inspired him to found the Skeptics' Society in 1992. The Society has continued growing ever since and now publishes a quarterly magazine, available worldwide, and has more than 55,000 members including several well-known scientists from a variety of fields. Shermer has authored and published 17 books on science and scepticism and is a regular on television, frequently appearing in debates.


Italian cyclo cross rider Daniele Pontoni, born in Udine on this day in 1966, won the Amateur World CX Championships in 1992 and turned professional two years later. He then won the Elite National Championships eleven times consecutively, the Elite World Championships in 1997 (along with the National Cross Country Mountain Bike Championships) and twelve Superprestige races.

Ángel Colla, born in Argentina on this day in 1973, became National Road Race Champion in 2004.

Walter Generati

Walter Generati, born in Solara, Italy on this day in 1913, won Stage 11 and came sixth overall at the Giro d'Italia and won Stage 3 at the Tour de France in 1937, won Stage 4b and came sixth again at the Giro in 1938 and won Stage 7 and was seventh overall at the Giro in 1940.

Other cyclists born on this day: Jan Wijnants (Belgium, 1958); Albert Blattmann (Switzerland, 1904, died 1967); Nello Ciaccheri (Italy, 1893, died 1971); Frans van den Bosch (Belgium, 1934); Roberto García (El Salvador, 1937); Éva Izsák (Hungary, 1967); Koen de Kort (Netherlands, 1982); Frederik Willems (Belgium, 1979); Jetse Bol (Netherlands, 1989); Haile Micael Kedir (Ethiopia, 1944); George Estman (South Africa, 1922, died 2006); Steffen Blochwitz (East Germany, 1967); Hans Wolf (USA, 1940); Sergio Martínez (Cuba, 1943, died 1979); Phil Bateman (Great Britain, 1962); Rubén Etchebarne (Uruguay, 1936); Luis Manrique (Colombia, 1955); Loic Gautier (France, 1954); Guglielmo Bossi (Italy, 1901); Dirkie Binneman (South Africa, 1918, died 1959).

Daily Cycling Facts 07.09.12

Briek Schotte

Briek Schotte

The term "Flandrien" is probably used more often than it ought to be in cycling.  It's reserved for the toughest of the tough, the riders who can keep on going - and attacking - apparently forever, unhampered by the fact that they've just ridden 240km in heavy snow and crashed several times, knowing that when they're hurting the most another attack will hurt their opponents even more. The exact requirements are a somewhat grey area - all professional cyclists are tough, but how tough do they need to be? Does a rider need to be from Flanders to be a Flandrien? Can a rider still become a Flandrien today? After all, many people say that Alberic "Briek" Schotte was the last Flandrien, though there have been a few riders since who seem to fit the bill - Charly Gaul from Luxembourg, Jens Voigt from Germany and a remarkably high number of female riders. Some people cut through the uncertainty and simplify matters: they say Schotte was the only Flandrien.

Entire villages, hills and woodlands had vanished from Flanders during the First World War, leaving a rubble-strewn, shattered wasteland; large parts of the region had been subjected to such heavy bombing and shelling that the landscape had changed beyond recognition, even to people who had lived their entire lives there before the war. Schotte was born into that world at Kanegem on this day in 1919, less than a year after the conflict came to an end. Such is the reverence in which he is held by fans and riders alike, more than half a century since his racing career ended, that it comes as something of a surprise that he won only 59 races during his 21 professional years, far fewer than most of the other cyclists considered to be the best of all time - but it was the races he won, the harsh and unforgiving Flemish Classics that shatter bones and careers, that earned him the nickname Iron Briek..

Monument to Schotte in Kanegem

Schotte turned professional with Mercier-Hutchinson in 1939, riding alongside Antonin Magne, Roger Lapebie, Maurice Archambaud, André Leducq and Georges Speicher, and he won four races that year. He stayed with them until 1942, also riding for the Begian Groene Leeuw team; in 1940  he came third at the Ronde van Vlaanderen - one of the hardest races on the calendar and a remarkable achievement for a 21-year-old in his second professional year, then a year later he became Champion of Flanders and a year after that he won the Ronde. In 1946, he won Paris-Brussells and Paris-Tours in addition to two stages and the General Classification at the Tour of Luxembourg; in 1947 he won Paris-Tours again; in 1948 he won another Ronde van Vlaanderen and the World Road Race Championships. Having already been a professional for ten years, he continued winning through the 1950s at an age when most riders would be beginning to think of retirement - he was World Champion again in 1950, won another Paris-Brussels in 1952 and the Dwars door Vlaanderen in 1953, became Champion of Flanders for a second time in 1954, then won Gent-Wevelgem, Scheldeprijs and a second Dwars door Vlaanderen in 1955. Even in 1959, when he was approaching his 40th birthday, Schotte could take third place in the Dwars.

While he was undoubtedly a Classics and one-day specialist, when conditions were right Schotte could perform well in longer races too: he won Stage 21 at the Tour de France in 1947 and came second overall at the 4,922km 1948 Tour when only the supremacy of Gino Bartali in the mountains could keep him from victory. Cycling hadn't finished with him when he retired at the end of 1959 and he worked as a team coach until he was 70 years old. He died aged 84 on the 4th of April in 2004, while the Ronde van Vlaanderen was in progress. At the funeral, his coffin was carried by Eddy Merckx, Rik van Looy, Roger de Vlaeminck, Seán Kelly, Freddy Maertes, Benoni Beheyt, Eric Leman and Frank Vandenbroucke. A race that takes place each year in Desselgem, which he won in 1941 and 1942, has been renamed the GP Briek Schotte in his honour.

Annie Last

Annie Last at La Bresse, 2012

Born in Bakewell, Derbyshire on this day in 1990, Annie Last began mountain biking after going to races with her father and brother but first came to note in the more accessible cyclo cross scene - in 2006, she beat Gabby Day into third place and came second behind the legendary Helen Wyman at Cheltenham and a year later she won at Bradford. In 2008 she won at the Derby Halycon against a strong field including Nikki Harris, then also at Leicestershire; and in 2009 she won at the Cheshire Classic (beating Dani King and Penny Rowson), Plymouth and Bradford.

Last was 11th at the Elite World Cyclo Cross Championship in 2010, then went to the European Mountain Bike Championships at Haifa, Israel and took fourth place in the Under-23 category; since then she has concentrated on mountain biking. 2012 has been a superb year for her with five victories to date and eighth place at the World Cup round in La Bresse, a result that secured a British presence in the Women's MTB race at the London Olympics - she was the first British woman to take part in the race since 2000 and the only British rider to take part, the fact that she ride without team support making her eighth place finish all the more remarkable. She was offered a place studying medicine at university in 2012 but has decided to turn it down for the time being in order to concentrate on her cycling career.


Jiang Yonghua, born in Jixi, China on this day in 1973, was National 500m Time Trial Champion in 2001 and 2003. On the 11th of August 2003, she set a new 500m TT world record at 34.000 seconds.

Thierry Claveyrolat
31.03.1959-07.09.1999

Antonio Gelabert, born in Santa Maria del Camí on this day in 1921, was Spanish National Road Race Champion in 1950 and 1955. He also won Stages 5 and 18 at the Vuelta a Espana in 1950 and Stage 3 in 1955, and was tenth overall at the Tour de France in 1952. Gelabert died the year after his second National Championship, aged only 35.

Thierry Claveyrolat, who was King of the Mountains at the 1990 Tour de France, cut a corner while driving down the Côte de Laffrey on the 13th of August in 1999. A Renault coming the other way had to swerve to avoid him; the driver lost control and crashed, suffering serious injuries - as did his 14-year-old son, who lost an eye. When the police arrived they discovered that Claveyrolat had been drinking; he was subsequently charged and found guilty. At 3am on this day in 1999, knowing that he was entirely responsible for the accident and the injuries caused, he went into his cellar, took a rifle and ended his life. He was 40 and left behind a wife and two young children.

Other cyclists born on this day: Jean-Michel Monin (France, 1967); Philip Deignan (Ireland, 1983); Sara Cattigan (New Zealand, 1980); Bernardo González (Spain, 1969); Squel Stein (Brazil, 1991); Ronald Rhoads (USA, 1933); Craig Connell (New Zealand, 1967); Bobby Thomas (USA, 1912, died 2008); Arne Pedersen (Denmark, 1917, died 1950).

Richard Nye wants you dead

So the editor of some shitty lifestyle magazine for herd animals who believe their worth as human beings is equal to the sum of what they consume and need to be told what to buy because they're too dull to develop personalities of their own has got himself in a spot of bother by saying that in all his opinion the only good cyclist is a dead one. (Chances are it'll vanish off the magazine's website pretty sharpish; fortunately it's been preserved for posterity.)

Richard Nye, editor of the magazine and author of what is really little more than a hate speech, went on Twitter a short while after the news went round...

The Richmond Mag ‏@TheRichmondMag I am astonished at the reaction to my blog, which had nothing to do with cyclists being killed. I would never joke…

The Richmond Mag ‏@TheRichmondMag …about such a thing. People have misunderstood my use of phrase. I will respond fully shortly.

No, sorry mate - I think it's you who misunderstands the phrase, if you truly didn't mean what we all think you mean (and you admit you weren't joking). It doesn't matter what excuses you come up with; saying that you think "the only good cyclist is a dead one" can only have one meaning - that you think "the only good cyclist is a dead one." You can look between the lines for some other meaning as much you like, but there's just blank space there. A bit like in your head if you thought writing what you wrote was a good idea. Don't try to wriggle out of it - just apologise and admit you've been a bit of an idiot, because then we'll know you didn't really mean it. If you try to justify it, people will have their doubts.

Still, what does it matter? If Mr. Nye didn't have his head shoved so far up his own arse, he'd be able to look out of the window while driving around Richmond - bikes are trendy now, so it probably wouldn't take him long to figure out that he's just told a large percentage of his rag's readership that he believes the world would be a better place if they (and - by implication - their kids, if they cycle to school) were dead. Chances are, a good few of them have the sense not to bother reading it in future.

You can let him know what you think via Twitter. Do try to send your messages to @TheRichmondMag though, because the good folks at @RichmondMag in Virginia, USA are probably getting a bit fed up with being told off by now.

Daily Cycling Facts 06.09.12

Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker
Born in Amsterdam on this day in 1984, Thomas Dekker joined Rabobank's junior team in 2002 and moved up to their GS3 development squad the following year, staying there for eight months until he was moved up to a traineeship with the top-level ProTour team. He began 2005 with a full professional contract. That same year, he won a stage and came second overall at the Critérium International, rode his first Giro d'Italia, won a stage at the Tour of Poland and won the National Time Trial Championship for the second consecutive year.

In 2006 Dekker won Tirreno-Adriatico, then two stage wins and victory in both the Points competition and General Classification at the Tour de Romandie early in 2007 influenced Rabobank to select him for the Tour de France. He let it be known before the race that he was aiming to win the Youth category; but, as so often happens when a rider makes his Tour debut, competition turned out to be far stiffer than he had expected - he was sixth among the young riders and 35th overall. 2008 proved to be an off-year, his results early in the season sufficiently poor for Rabobank to leave him out of the Tour squad. He announced in August that he would be leaving the team.

Dekker in 2006

Late in 2008, rumours emerged that he would be riding for Garmin-Chipotle in 2009 but were apparently proved unfounded when he revealed he had signed to Silence-Lotto until the end of 2010. His results were not promising again at the start of 2009, but he was selected for the Tour anyway - then, on the 1st of July, news broke that an out-of-competition sample he provided a year and a half earlier in December 2007, had tested positive for EPO. He denied the charge, but the team withdrew him from the Tour pending investigation and, when his B sample also tested positive, sacked him. Dekker then apologised and admitted that he had used the drug, but claimed to have done o only once and called it a mistake - he would later confess that he had used it at various times during 2007 and 2008. Nevertheless, he was given a back-dated two-year ban from competition in March 2010. The UCI later revealed that unusual blood values had been noted on his biological passport and that he had been highlighted for special attention for that reason; in his autobiography, Dekker claims that he had been ready to sign a contract with Garmin in 2008 but manager Jonathan Vaughters turned him down after spotting unusual blood values (Vaughters, at the time, denied that a contract had been offered). This would not be the only time he was connected to doping - he came under suspicion due to his links to Luigi Cecchini, who had studied under the notorious Francesco Conconi. He denies that Cecchini was in anyway connected to his decision to dope, and it should be remembered that Cecchini, though connected to numerous high-profile doping cases, is a respected sports doctor who has also worked with many riders not considered likely to use doping methods - among them Fabian Cancellara and post-ban David Millar.

Dekker's ban ended on the 30th of June in 2011 and he made his return to racing a week later. In August it was announced that Jonathan Vaughters - to his eternal credit - was giving him a second chance with a contract to ride for Garmin-Cervélo's Chipotle-Sugar Labs development team. In September, he and Johan Vansummeren won the Duo Normand Pairrs Time Trial, beating the record time set by Vaughters and Jens Voigt a decade earlier. With his debts paid, apologies made and rehabilitation into cycling society complete, he was given a full professional contract with Garmin-Barracuda for the 2012 season.

Bruno Risi
(image credit: Armin Kübelbeck)

Bruno Risi, born in Erstfeld, Switzerland on this day in 1968, was a professional between 1991 and 2006. During that time he was World Points Champion in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999 and 2001 and World Madison Champion (with Franco Marvulli) in 2003 and 2007. He has also held a total of 15 National Championship and two European Championship titles and won numerous road races.

Veselin Petrović, born in Vlasenica (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) on this day in 1929, was twice Road Race Champion and four times Time Trial Champion of Yugoslavia. He maintained his links to cycling after retiring from competition, becoming director of the Tours of Serbia and Yugoslavia and chairman of the National Cycling Selection Committee, the Serbian Cycling Association and Belgrade's Partizan CC as well a serving as the UCI's official representative for Yugoslavia. He died on the 8th of November in 1995.

Gianbattista Baronchelli, who was born in Italy on this day in 1953, won numerous prestigious races during his sixteen year professional career, which began with SCIC in 1974 after he was passed over by Molteni due to fears that he would clash with team leader Eddy Merckx. Among them were two Giri di Lombardia, two Giri di Toscana, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Tour de Romandie and a record six (consecutive) editions of the Giro dell'Appennino. He also won the Tour de l'Avenir in 1974 and was believed a likely Grand Tour winner of the future; however, cycling's greatest prizes eluded him - he came second twice and third once at the Giro d'Italia, won a silver medal at the 1980 World Championships and was unable to finish the Tour de France on either of his two attempts.

Other cyclists born on this day: Rudie Liebrechts (Netherlands, 1941); Andoni Lafuente (Euskadi, 1985); Radomír Šimunek, Jr (Czechoslovakia, 1983); Michael Vermeulin (France, 1934); Steve Chainel (France, 1983); Miyoko Karami (Japan, 1974); Jorge Hernández (Colombia, 1948); Clóvis Anderson (Brazil, 1963); Patrick Wackström (Finland, 1958); Herbert Honz (West Germany, 1942); Justo Galaviz (Venezuela, 1954); Garen Bloch (South Africa, 1978); Franz Neuens (Luxembourg, 1912, died 1985); Wolfgang Steinmayr (Austria, 1944).

Daily Cycling Facts 05.09.12

Pat McQuaid

Pat McQuaid

Born in Dublin on this day in 1949, Pat McQuaid was a highly successful amateur rider in his native Ireland before turning professional with Viking-Campagnolo in 1978 and 1979. He comes from a cycling dynasty: his father, his three brothers, one cousin and one uncle have all been professional cyclists.

McQuaid won the Shay Elliott Memorial in 1972, then became National Champion two years later; he won the Tour of Ireland in 1975 and 1976. His career as a rider was not without controversy: he and Sean Kelly used false names ("Jim Burns" in McQuaid's case) to break the boycott on athletes competing in apartheid-era South Africa, taking part in the Rapport Tour of 1976. This has led to accusations that he didn't take the boycott - intended to bring an end to apartheid - seriously; however, McQuaid argues that he had become interested in apartheid through his links to lecturer Kader Asmal, one of his lecturers at Trinity College, who was a vocal anti-apartheid activist and became a member of Nelson Mandela's first government. "I felt they were using sport as a means to break apartheid," McQuaid told CycleSport, explaining that he saw it as an opportunity to see the situation for himself. The circumstances in which they were caught sound as thought they belong in a farcical comedy - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were honeymooning in South Africa and a journalist from the Daily Mail, in the country to report on the actors' time there, heard by chance that a British/Irish team was competing in the race. Aware of the boycott, he guessed he might be on the trail of a sensational story and tracked down team manager Tommy Shardelow to request opportunity to take photos of the riders. Shardelow, realising that the riders would be recognised, quickly found five locals to pose as team members, but unfortunately for him the reporter knew a bit more about cycling than expected and didn't think that the men presented to him looked like cyclists; he then listened in on them talking and found that they all had South African accents. When he got a photo of the actual riders, their true identities were rapidly exposed.

After retiring from racing, McQuaid worked as a teacher before becoming director of the Irish National Team from 1983 to 1986 and then president from 1996 to 1999. In between, he served as director of a number of major races including the Tours of China and Langkawi and afterwards served as chairman of the UCI's road racing commission. He took over as president of the UCI when Hein Verbruggen retired in 2005; controversy has followed him in this role too, the latest of which has been the Armstrong affair that came to a head in 2012 and resulted in the American rider being stripped of his seven Tour de France victories. He has come under increasing attack for his attitude towards women's cycling which many athletes, managers and fans believe he doesn't take as seriously as the sport deserves; especially since the 2011 World Championships when he said that in his opinion, women's racing is insufficiently developed for athletes to deserve a guaranteed minimum wage (as their male counterparts get) nor equal prize money to that on offer in men's races. Another common charge is that he has allowed women's races to close for lack of funds, while pouring UCI resources into attempts to globalise cycling with new races around the world.

Chris Anker Sørensen

Chris Anker Sørensen, born in Hammel, Denmark on this day in 1984, has raced with a Luxembourgian licence since 2010, when the UCI began to prevent the Danish federation issuing licences to Danish-born riders residing permanently in other nations. Sørensen's first major victory was Stage 6 at the 2008 Critérium du Dauphiné; the following year he won the Japan Cup and then in 2010 he won Stage 8 at the Giro d'Italia. In 2011 he won the King of the Mountains at the Tour de Romandie and in 2012 he was declared overall Combativity winner at the Tour de France.

Peter Winnen, born in Ysselsteyn, Netherlands on this day in 1957, won Stage 17 and the overall Youth category as well as fifth place overall at the Tour de France in 1981, won Stage 18 and was fourth overall in 1982 and then won Stage 17 and was third overall in 1983. In 1987 he was eighth at the Giro d'Italia, in 1988 ninth at the Tour and eighth again at the Giro and in 1990 he became National Road Race Champion, retiring the following year. His 1981 and 1983 Tour stage wins took place on the Alpe d'Huez. Winnen, along with Steven Rooks and Maarten Ducrot, confessed to doping on the Dutch TV show Reporter in 1999.

Bruno Neves, born in Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal on this day in 1981, turned professional with ASC-Vila do Condoe in 2002 and won seventeen victories in the subsequent years. He died on the way to hospital on the 11th of May 2008 after a crash at the Classica de Amarante - initially, this was believed to be due to the extensive injuries he suffered in the crash, but a post mortem revealed that he had had a heart attack during the race, causing the crash.

Bernhard Ensink, who was born in Hilten, West Germany on this day in 1956 but holds Dutch nationality, is the secretary general of the European Cyclists' Federation and director of its Velo-city program (which aims to bring together cycling experts and advocates to form a central body advising on effective ways to promote cycling and improve cycling infrastructure). He has filled both roles since 2006,

Other cyclists born on this day: Thomas Russell "Nick" Carter (New Zealand, 1924, died 2003); Theo Blankenaauw (Netherlands, 1923); Daniel Moreno (Spain, 1981); Victor Garrido (Chile, 1971); Harold Bounsall (Canada, 1897); Thomas Siani (Cameroon, 1960); Ernest Merlin (Great Britain, 1886, died 1959); Vladislav Borisov (USSR, 1978); Olaf Nygaard (Norway, 1894, died 1978); Realdo Jessurun (Suriname, 1969); Stéphan Abrahamian (France, 1946); Christian Meidlinger (Austria, 1971); Carlos Linares (Venezuela, 1991).

Daily Cycling Facts 04.09.12

Gary Neiwand
Born on this day in 1966 in Melbourne, Australia, Gary Neiwand won Sprint gold medals as an amateur at the Commonwealth Games in 1986 and 1990, a bronze for the same event at the 1988 Olympics and another at the 1991 World Track Championships; then in 1992 he turned professional for Foster's and won a silver at the Olympics. In 1993 he became World Champion in Keirin and Sprint, in 1994 he won Olympic gold for the sprint and at the 2000 Games he won silver for the Sprint and bronze for the Keirin.

Retirement came after the 2000 Games and would not be good for Neiwand. He began to suffer depression and was unable to adjust his diet to his new lifestyle, rapidly increasing to 116kg in weight. He also began to drink heavily; before long his marriage failed. In 2006, he was convicted of harassing an ex-girlfriend and served half of an 18-month prison term before being released of probation. In 2007, he began to get his life back together, starting off by renewing contact with his children and then by joining an organisation that raises awareness of depression and the destructive effects it can have - but, as tends to be the case whenever somebody is battling mental illness and an addiction, he was not yet out of the woods: on the 5th of March 2012, he faced two charges that he had deliberately exposed his genitals to women while he was masturbating in his car. Magistrates received a medical report stating that Neiwand is responding well to treatment for psychological problems caused by heavy drinking and now has his drinking under control, but said that they believe the rider needs the threat of imprisonment hanging over him to encourage him to continue treatment. According to the Herald Sun newspaper, "In an extraordinary outburst outside court, Neiwand’s lawyer threatened to knock a TV camerman’s “head off” as the former cycling great was bundled into an awaiting car."

Morelli on Galibier, 1935

Born in Nerviano, Italy on this day in 1905, Ambrogio Morelli was noticed as an amateur rider by  Libero Ferrario, who had become World Road Race Champion in 1923 (at the time, the World Championships were open only to amateurs) and who bought him his first quality bike. He turned professional with Gloria-Hutchinson in 1929, the year he came tenth overall at the Giro d'Italia, and remained with them the following year (the year that Ferrario died of tuberculosis, aged 29), when he finished Stages 2 and 11 at the Giro in third place and came fourth overall. In 1931 he won Stage 12 and was eighth overall, then in 1936 he was second on Stage 2, third on Stages 6 and 12 and sixth overall at the Tour de France. He bettered that the following year with victory on Stages 16 and 20b and second place overall at the Tour, as well as coming tenth overall at the Giro. He rode the Giro again in 1936 and 1937, coming seventh and ninth.

Kerrie Meares, born in Blackwater, Australia on this day in 1982, became Junior World 500m Time Trial Champion in 2000 and won gold medals for the 500m TT and Sprint at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Her results over the next few years - including becoming National Sprint Champion in 2006 and 2007 and National Keirin Champion in 2006 and 2009 proved her to be a considerable talent; however, she experienced numerous crashes during the latter years of her career and began to suffer for them, eventually retiring in 2009. Kerrie is the older sister of Anna, 2012 World Keirin Champion and winner of the Sprint gold medal at the London Olympic Games.

Doris Kopsky in 1937

Frederik Veuchelen, who was born in Korbeek-Lo on this day in 1978, won the Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2006 and the King of the Mountains at Paris-Nice in 2012.

Marco Groppo, born in Gorla Minore, Italy on this day in 1960, began his professional career with Hoonved-Bottecchia in 1981 and ended it with Eurocar-Mosoca-Galli in 1989. For the majority of it, he won little; however, in 1982 he finished Stage 14 in third place, was ninth overall and won the Youth category at the Giro d'Italia.

On this day in 1937, Doris Kopsky became the USA's first ever female National Cycling Champion.

Other cyclists born on this day: Stephan Joho (Switzerland, 1963); Graciano Fonseca (Colombia, 1974); Hedda zu Putlitz (West Germany, 1965); Andrzej Sikorski (Poland, 1961); Alcides Etcheverry (Uruguay, 1961); Martin Koch (Germany, 1887); Carsten Bresser (West Germany, 1970); Jana Horáková (Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic, 1983); Donald Nelsen (USA, 1944).

Daily Cycling Facts 03.09.12

Zita Urbonaitė was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania on this day in 1973 and won the National Championships in 1999 and 2002; successes that made her a household name in her native country and encouraged many other Lithuanian women to take up the sport. She retired to start a family in 2006, but died on the 26th of May in 2008 after being hit by a train in Montebelluna, Italy. She had been suffering deep post-natal depression since giving borth to a daughter three months earlier.

Jacques Esclassan

Jacques Esclassan

Jacques Esclassan, born in Castres, France on this day in 1948, signed his first professional contract with Peugeot in 1972 and remained with them for the entirety of his eight-year career. He soon revealed himself to be a sprinter of considerable note, winning Stage 2a at Paris-Nice and 9b at the Vuelta a Espana in his second year - he didn't win anything at the Tour de France, but two second-place stage finishes and three others in the top ten marked him out as a man the other sprinters would need to watch in the coming years. He confirmed it the next year with three second-places and six top tens, enough to put him into fifth place in the Points competition at the end of the race.

In 1975, Esclassan won the Critérium International and then took his first Tour victory, winning Stage 4 though he was ultimately unable to finish. A year later, he won Stage 8 at the Tour and was third in the Points competition; then in 1977 he won Stage 5a and finished 14 stages in the top ten, sufficient to give him a 96-point advantage over second-place Giacinto Santambrogio for the green jersey. He returned to the Tour in 1978 and won Stages 2 and 12b, finishing second for Points


José Luis Laguía, born in Pedro Muñoz, Spain on this day in 1959, turned professional with Reynolds in 1980 and spent the first six years of his career riding for them. During that time, he won the King of the Mountains in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1986 - a record five times. Among his many other victories are the Tour of the Basque Country in 1981 and again in 1982, when he also won the National Road Race Championship. Unusually for a climber, Laguia could hold his own in a sprint: in 1982, the year of his second Vuelta King of the Mountains, he was second overall in the Points competition with 57 fewer points than Freddy Maertens (but 62 more than General Classification winner Bernard Hinault). He tried again in 1979 but left the race after Stage 15 and retired at the end of the year.

Other cyclists born on this day: Blel Kadri (France, 1986); Sergey Kolesnikov (USSR, 1986); Cheung King Wai (Hong Kong, 1985); Jason McCartney (USA, 1973); Christophe Mengin (France, 1968); Phil Edwards (Great Britain, 1949); Bernard Mammes (USA, 1911); René Pijnen (Netherlands, 1946); Michaël D'Almeida (France, 1987); Fred Rodriguez (Colombia, 1973); Matsuyoshi Takahashi (Japan, 1955); Henning Petersen (Denmark, 1939); Ove Jensen (Denmark, 1947); Robert Šebenik (Yugoslavia, 1965); Rebecca Bailey (New Zealand, 1974); Jaime Nielsen (New Zealand, 1985); Hilton Clarke (Australia, 1944); Matthew Hamon (USA, 1968); André Cardoso (Portugal, 1984); Ray Robinson (South Africa, 1929); Kurt Schmied (Austria, 1965); Pat Gellineau (Trinidad and Tobago, 1951).

Daily Cycling Facts 02.09.12

Rachel Dard and Bernard Bourreau

Rachel Dard

Rachel Dard and Bernard Bourreau were both born in France on this day in 1951 and both became professional riders with Peugeot, Dard signing up in 1975 and Bourreau in 1973. Both won a stage at the L'Étoile des Espoirs in 1976 and both were called to provide a sample on the day that Dard won. They were both discovered to be using a system that allowed them to fill the sample bottle via pipe connected to a condom filled with somebody else's drug-free urine hidden in their shorts.

Dard went back to his hotel room then, having thought things over and realised he was probably going to be blocked from racing, possibly for the remainder of the season, went back to find the doctor, Bruno Chaumont, and begged not to be exposed. It seems remarkable nowadays that Chaumont agreed, but he did - and burned the report sheets he'd filled in. Dard went away happy. However, to satisfy riders' concerns that the bottles into which they urinate might be tampered with prior to a test so as to give a false sample, a rider was permitted to select two at random and the label bearing the date, tracking code etc. would then be attached in his presence. This had been done according to regulations - which meant that records would show he'd been to the anti-doping control but hadn't provided a sample, which was going to raise even more questions. He went first to Bourreau to inform him that they could avoid a positive test but Bourreau - who was apparently aware that by trying to cover up a positive test he'd be creating a far more difficult situation than he was already in - didn't want anything to do with it and was willing to accept whatever fate had in store for him; Dard then went alone in search of Dr. Chaumont to get the two bottles.

Chaumont had already left the race and was on his way back to the test laboratory in Paris, presumably taking the two empty bottles with him, so Dard persuaded another team mate named Bernard Croyet to drive him (in Dard's car) to the local station - but they arrived just as the non-stop train to Paris was leaving. Now frantic, Dard persuaded Croyet to drive him all the way to Austerlitz Station in the capital, where they met Chaumont as he got off the train at 06:30. Dard begged, in floods of tears, not to be exposed; Chaumont - at first reluctant, which rather suggests that he'd either thought better of his apparent willingness to assist a cheat earlier, or had perhaps planned to expose him all along - eventually took pity and smashed the two bottles to pieces.

Precisely what happened next remains a mystery. L'Equipe ran a story on the subject of doping some months later and Chaumont revealed all while being interviewed for it; but he insisted that he was not the one that first revealed the story. Dard, meanwhile, flatly denied that any of the events in the story had ever happened at all: "Everything is false, from beginning to end. There never were any empty bottles. I never had a morning meeting at Austerlitz station. My car is a 504 diesel and I'd never have been able to drive from Dax to Paris at the speed of a train." However, he admitted - to L'Equipe - that he had in fact doped at L'Étoile des Espoirs and even provided a prescription signed by the Peugeot team doctor, François Bellocq (he of the notorious "hormonal rebalancing"), to prove it. Still Chaumont was adamant that he had not exposed the rider. "I would never have dropped him," he said. "I would have defended him. I don't want the death of a sinner. I came into cycling to try to overcome the wall that exists between the cyclist and the doctor. I'm not there to do the dirty on anyone."

The most likely explanation regarding who revealed the story is that Borreau and/or Croyet, who so far as we know were the only people other than Dard and Chaumont to know what was going on at the time, had told somebody else and the story was doing the rounds as a peloton rumour. Had it have then got back to Chaumont, he might have assumed it was common knowledge rather than subject to the Omerta and blurted it out to journalists. It was most certainly in his best interests for the story to be kept quiet - as a doctor, he would be expected to maintain a high level of professionalism at all times; while Dard might have been banned from racing for a while (probably no more than six months maximum, as tended to be the way in those times) and lost his salary for that period, Chaumont could very easily have been banned from practicing as a doctor in the future and might even have been imprisoned This does not, however, enlighten us any further as to whether or not the events after the race ever actually happened or not, and there's one thing that seems in little doubt: Dard's statement that a diesel-engined mid-1970s Peugeot 504 could not possibly have beaten a French train cross-country..

In the end, Chaumont was disciplined but not banned. Bellocq was barred from working with the National Federation but not from trade teams; he was still working with GAN - the team that grew out of Peugeot and later became Crédit Agricole - in 1993, the year that he died, aged 47, of a heart attack. Peugeot team manager Maurice de Muer was angry with Dard, but for exposing the doctor rather than for doping; he knew, however, that throwing him out of the team for that reason alone would cause an outcry. He couldn't sack the rider for being a doper either, because he himself was almost certainly heavily involved in doping: according to Dr. Jean-Pierre de Mondenard, author of Le Dossier Noir de Dopage, no fewer than 36% of de Muer's riders were involved in doping cases between 1970 and 1978 - which looks far more like an organised doping program that riders acting independently. Instead, he told Dard that he would never ride anything other than the very least-prestigious races in future. When his contract expired at the end of 1977, Dard rode for six months with Jobo-Spidel, then retired in June the following year to open a bike shop in Paris.

We'll probably never know the truth.

Keith Butler

Born in London in this day in 1938, Keith Butler - the son of Stanley Meredith Butler, who rode for Great Britain at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles - was a successful amateur during the early 1960s, winning three stages at the Milk Race (Tour of Britain) and a National Amateur Road Race Champion title between 1961 and 1963. He then went to Belgium and was amazed at the sheer size of the racing scene and its popularity: "There'd be so many races that you'd cross one going the other way," he said.

Butler turned semi-professional with the French Bertin-Porter 39-Milremo team and won the Elite National Championhips in 1964, then came third the following year before returning to Belgium and taking out a full professional licence; after spending a very short time with St-Raphaël (the team of Jacques Anquetil), he joined the German Ruberg-Caltex. Later that year, whilst riding on the British national team in support of Tom Simpson at the World Championships in Spain, he met Anquetil once again and tried to follow as he went after Simpson during the race. "It was like riding behind a bloody motorbike!" he later remembered. The great French rider, the first man to win five Tours de France, would become a part of Butler's life again two years later when he returned to Britain and rode for Trumann's Steel on bikes produced by Anquetil's company.

Butler retired in 1968, having spent his final season with another British team, Allinson. Now aged 74, he is still involved with the Surrey League, a group he formed in 1974, which puts on almost 200 races each year.

Kirkpatrick Macmillan
Born in Keir, Dumfries and Galloway on this day in 1812, Kirkpatrick Macmillan was "proved" in the 1890s to have been the inventor of the first pedal-driven-rear-wheel bicycle. Unfortunately, the researcher who proved it was James Johnstone, a relative who had set out to prove that the bicycle was invented in his home county and seems not to have bothered himself too much with unnecessary things like evidence while doing so: among other "proofs," he offered a report published in 1842 about a "gentleman from Dumfries-shire... bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" who had knocked over a pedestrian but gave no details as to the gentleman's actual identity.

Johnstone later produced a bike which, he said, had been produced to a design made by Macmillan; despite the fact that a Victorian newspaper would never have referred to a humble blacksmith like Macmillan as a "gentleman," this was apparently proof enough for most people, so nobody ever bothered to ask for more details on the original design that Johnstone said he'd found (but never published). In time, the story was sufficiently widely as to become widely accepted as fact - nobody even thought to verify it until well into the 20th Century. When the did so, no reliable documentary evidence could be found whatsoever; whereas orders placed with factories from the late 1860s seem to show that the only bikes available pedal drive to the rear wheel in that period were three- or four-wheeled machines.

Tom Steels

Tom Steels

Tom Steels, born in Sint-Gillis-Waas, Belgium on this day in 1971, had a very successful career as a novice, junior and amateur - including including gold medals for 1km, Omnium and Sprint at the 1989 Junior National Track Championships, another gold at the Junior Road Race Championships and a silver for the kilo at the World Junior Championships all in 1989 - before turning professional with Vlaanderen 2002-Eddy Merckx in 1994. He won Stage 10 at the Tour de l'Avenir that year, then came second at the National Road Race Championships the next; then in 1996, riding for Mapei, he won Gent-Wevelgem, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Stages 4 and 22 and third place in the Points competition at the Vuelta a Espana.

In 1995, having won Stages 2, 3, 5 and 8a at Paris-Nice and taken the gold at National Road Race Championships, he rode his first Tour de France and came second on Stage 1 - however, during the sprint finish of Stage 6, he became frustrated when other riders boxed him in and angrily threw his bidon at the French rider Frederic Moncassin, and was ejected from the race as a result (the stage was filled with controversy: Djamolidine Abdoujaparov was also thrown out of the race after the stage when it was revealed that a sample he provided in the wake of Stage 2 had tested positive for Clenbuterol and another drug and Erik Zabel was relegated from first to last place for dangerous tactics, the stage win being eventually awarded to Jerome Blijlevens, who is now the directeur sportif of Rabobank's women's team).

Steels won the Dwars door Vlaanderen, Stages 3 and 4 and Paris-Nice and his second Elite National Road Race Championship, then went back to the Tour and won Stages 1, 12, 18 and 21, coming third overall in the Points competition in 1998; then in 1999 he won another Gent-Wevelgem, came third at Paris-Roubaix and finished Stages 2, 3 and 17 in first place at the Tour. In 2000 he won Stage 8 at Paris-Nice and Stages 2 and 3 at the Tour - he would not finish that year nor the following two, but in 2002 he won another National Championship before switching from Mapei to Landbouwkrediet-Colnago for 2003. He remained there for two seasons, winning the National Championship for a fourth time, then moved to Davitamon-Lotto in 2005. That year he rode the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana but won no stages in either - in fact, his Stage 3 victory at the Driedaagse van De Panne early in the year would be his last professional victory.

Steels stayed with Davitamon until the end of 2007, by which time it had become Predictor-Lotto, then he went back to Landbouwkrediet (now Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner) for seven months in 2008 before announcing his retirement on the 4th of July. He is now a team director at Omega Pharma-QuickStep.


Born in Arradin, Brittany on this day in 1930, François Mahé wore the maillot jaune for the one and only time in his career for one day in the 1953 Tour de France and finished in tenth place overall. The following year he won Stage 21a, then in 1955 he was tenth overall again with no stage wins, in 1959 fifth overall, again without winning a stage, and in 1961 he won Stages 2 and 14 at the Vuelta a Espana, coming second overall. He also came second in the the 1952 GP de Ouest-France, the 1954 Ronde van Vlaanderen and the 1960 Paris-Nice.

Other cyclists born on this day: Gonzalo Garrido (Chile, 1973); Curt Söderlund (Sweden, 1945); Robert Whetters (Australia, 1939); Jürgen Colombo (West Germany, 1949); Karl Schmaderer (Austria, 1914); Kim Jin-Yeong (South Korea, 1970); Nick Ingels (Belgium, 1984); Bart Dockx (Belgium, 1981); André Auffray (France, 1884); Miguel Ubeto (Venezuela, 1976); Jupp Ripfel (Sweden, 1938); Türel Wanzenried (Switzerland, 1906, died 1993); Graham Seers (Australia, 1958); Francisco Tortellá (Spain, 1937); Paul Henrichsen (Norway, 1893, died 1962); Walter Garre (Uruguay, 1945); Sara Neil (Born Great Britain, competed for Canada, 1960).