Daily Cycling Facts 13.10.12

Johan Museeuw

Johan Museeuw

Born in Varsenare, Belgium on this day in 1965, Johan Museeuw is the son of Eddy Museeuw who  dreamed of a career in cycling and rode as a professional for a year and three months with the Okay Whisky-Diamant-Simons in 1968 and 1969, but achieved no results better than third place at the Omloop van de Westhoek Ichtegem (he did, however, make a return 20 years later and was second on Stage 4b at the Tour of Luxembourg, beating Roman Kreuzinger's father - also named Roman - into third place). Like many riders whose careers did not live up their ambitions, he encouraged his son to race and supported him all the way; Johan was second at the Debutants' National Cyclo Cross Champion in 1982, then became National Military Cyclo Cross Champion and won stages at the Ronde van West-Vlaanderen and amateur's Ronde van België and overall at the Omloop van de Westhoek Ichtegem in 1986.

In 1988, Museeuw made his professional debut with ADR-Mini Flat-Enerday, riding alongide Eddy Planckaert, Frank Hoste and Alfons de Wolf; he impressed right from the start with several podium places and victory at the GP Briek Schotte, and thus earned his place on the team when it became ADR-W Cup-Bottecchia-Coors Light for 1989. That year, they were joined by American star Greg Lemond, who had recovered from a shotgun accident that nearly killed him the year after his Tour de France victory in 1986. Museeuw, who had ridden the Tour in 1988 but failed to impress, supported him through the race and was an instrumental part of the American's second Tour triumph - and along the way, he found time to announce his presence with third place on Stage 3. The following year he switched to Lotto-Superclub, where he would remain for three seasons, and won the Tour's Stages 4 at Mont-St-Michel and 21 on the Champs Elysées; he was 81st overall but second in the Points competition, leaving no doubts that he was a serious new talent. In 1991 he won stages at the Tours of Britain and Ireland, then returned to the Tour de France where he was on track for another good Points competition result with seven top ten stage finishes, including five in a row between Stages 3 and 7, but abandoned before the end of the race.

In 1992, his final year with Lotto, Museeuw became National Road Race Champion and put in another consistent performance at the Tour, once again taking second place in the Points competition. However, earlier in the season it had become apparent that he was developing into a different sort of rider to the sprint specialist he had been - while still able to generate a blistering pace on the run in to the finish line, his endurance had improved dramatically. This gave him an advantage in the Classics and he had been third at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Milan-San Remo, won the E3 Harelbeke and then finished second at Scheldeprijs and the Amstel Gold Race. The next year, when he joined GB-MG Maglificio and was second in the World Championship, he won the Dwars door Vlaanderen and then the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the latter being frequently considered the second toughest (and often the second most prestigious) after Paris-Roubaix. He was second for a third time in the Points competition at the Tour, but when he won Paris-Tours late in the season he confirmed that he was a Classics specialist rather than a stage racer. He could still hold his own in a stage race sprint, though - in 1994 he won the Classics Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and the Amstel Gold Race, was second at the Ronde van Vlaanderen and third at Gent-Wevelgem; but he also won a stage at the Tour de Suisse and picked up more good results at the Tour de France.

In 2006, following retirement

Museeuw became World Road Race Champion in 1995 and won a second Ronde van Vlaanderen, then a week later took third place behind Franco Ballerini and Andrei Tchmil at Paris-Roubaix; in 1996 he successfully defended the Worlds title (and became National Champion), then won Brabantse Pijl, was eighth at Milan-San Remo and third at the Ronde van Vlaanderen and at the Amstel Gold Race, and he also won Paris-Roubaix. In 1997 he won Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne again and was second at Scheldeprijs and third at Paris-Roubaix, then in 1998 he won the Ronde van Vlaanderen a third time. This placed him in an interesting position: he now shared the record for victories at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and his continuing success suggested he could beat it with a fourth. But, with one Paris-Roubaix already under his belt and several years at the top of the sport still to go, could he become the first man in history to win both four times?

But Paris-Roubaix is not like other races. Its harsh, usually muddy granite cobbles take their toll every year and have done ever since the race was first held in 1896; every year bones and careers are broken on them and no man who sets out to achieve a record there will do so unscathed. For Museeuw it happened in 1998, only a week after his success at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, upon the notorious jagged stones of the Trouée d'Arenberg, the most dangerous section of a parcours that is dangerous for its full 260km length: a crash at 60kph smashed his left knee like a bone china teacup. He needed an operation to repair it, then it became infected and for a while, doctors were certain they would need to amputate. The Queen of the Classics demands terrible tribute from her subjects, but Museeuw proved worthy - following a long and very painful recovery, he began riding again and in 1999 he won the Dwars door Vlaanderen and - a symbol that his career was starting again if ever there was one - the GP Briek Schotte; then he came second at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and third at the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Winning Paris-Roubaix, 2000

In 2000 he went back to Paris-Roubaix and won, unclipping his foot from the pedal and listing his leg in the air to point at his knee as he crossed the finish line, then in 2001 he was second behind Servais Knaven. In 2002 he won for a third time - only Roger de Vlaeminck, the greatest Classics rider of all time in the opinion of many people - had won four. In 2003 he won the Omloop Het Nieuwesblad, but then a doping allegation arose and put paid to the rest of the season. At the beginning of the 2004 he was 38 years old, too old to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix, so he chose to go for the greater prize at Paris-Roubaix. Once again, the Queen had other ideas: he was with a 21-strong break at Arenberg, then attacked and gained a lead on Auchy-Lez-Orchies before being captured. With only 15km to go he attacked hard on the Carrefour de l'Arbre, the last section of difficult cobbles before the comparatively easy route into Roubaix, thus reducing the lead group to only himself, Fabian Cancellara, Tristan Hoffman, Magnus Bäckstedt, Roger Hammond and George Hincapie (who soon lost contact); but then with 6km he suffered a puncture and his opportunity to realise his dream of equaling de Vlaeminck's record was gone forever. He retired three days later.

Museeuw's commemorative pavé on the Chemin des Géants

Just as Eddy Museeuw encouraged a younger rider to go for the glory he'd been unable to attain, so too did Johan. In his case his protege was not son but Tom Boonen, born in the Belgian town of Mol two days after Museeuw's birthday in 1980. Like Museeuw, Boonen learned well at the foot of the master and went on to achieve things his mentor had never done, included Tour de France Points competition victory in 2007 and, in 2012, a fourth victory at Paris-Roubaix.

In 2007, Museeuw decided it was time to admit the truth about what had happened in 2003 and called a press conference at which he admitted he had resorted to using human growth hormones in order to have a good final full season, then resigned from his job as PR manager at the QuickStep team - he was handed a suspended ten-month prison sentence and a fine. He now has his own business producing a range of highly-desirable road race, cyclo cross, time trial and mountain bikes based on frames made using a combination of carbon fibre and flax. The company's logo includes a lion, Museeuw's nickname having been The Lion of Flanders.

Nelson Vails

Nelson Vails

Born in Harlem, New York on this day in 1960, Nelson Vails was a professional on road and track between 1988 and 1995. Prior to that, he won a gold medal at the PanAmerican Games in 1983, won the National Sprint Championship in 1984 and shared the National Tandem Sprint title in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

In 1984, Vails was selected for the National Team at the Olympic Games and came second in the Sprint final. This was the first time in the history of the Games that a cycling medal had been won by an African-American.

Prior to his racing career, Vails was a cycle courier in New York where he earned the nickname "Cheetah" due to the speed he rode at when delivering packages - he can be seen playing a courier in the 1986 film Quicksilver.

Mark French
Born in Melbourne on this day in 1984, had already won four Junior World Championship titles in Sprint, Team Sprint and Keirin by 2003, the year he made it through into the upper ranks of track cycling by winning the National Keirin Championship at Elite level. In 2004 he was again the subject of newspaper headlines, but this time for all the wrong reasons - cleaners found vitamins, used syringes and 13 phials of an equine growth hormone on the doorstep of his boarding room, Room 121, at the Australian Institute of Sport.

French denied that he had doped and claimed that the drugs and equipment did not belong to him, then swore under oath that they belonged to fellow riders Sean Eadie, Graeme Brown, Shane Kelly and Jobie Dajka whom, he said, had been using his room to inject themselves with drugs for some months. Nevertheless, he was found guilty of doping and trafficking the growth hormone and corticosteroids, receiving a two-year ban. No evidence to support his claims regarding the other riders could be found and none of them were prosecuted for doping or supply - however, Dajka was found to have "failed to be specific" (as opposed to outright lying) when giving evidence in an effort to mislead the investigation; he too was banned for two years. He launched an appeal and, in 2005, the Court of Arbitration found in favour, deciding that there had been no reliable evidence to prove he owned or part-owned the drugs and syringes, then lifted both his two-year ban from competition and his lifetime ban from taking part in the Olympics; he returned to his sport and went on to win one silver and one gold medal at the National Championships in 2007 and three golds in 2008 (in the latter year, he won the Team Sprint riding with Shane Kelly).

Dajka launched an appeal against his own ban, but was not successful and became increasingly depressed, dealing with his disillusionment by drinking heavily. His weight increased dramatically and he began suffering further emotional problems that led to him carrying out a physical assault on Australian Track Team coach Mike Barras, for which he was banned for another three years. After an arrest for vandalising his parent's home he was placed under a restraining order and sought treatment, spending time in hospital in Adelaide. On the 22nd of December 2006, the two-year ban came to an end and, as he had strictly complied with the conditions of the restraining order and made efforts to retrieve his life, the three-year ban was ended early. Gradually, his health improved and he began to consider a return to racing; but on the 7th of April 2009 he was found dead at his home by police. He was 27 and is believed to have died three days before he was found. Though his death is not thought to have been suspicious, a cause has never been established.

In 2008, French was awarded Aus$350,000 defamation payment after being called a "dirty, stinking, dobbing cyclist" on radio; in 2010 he was awarded another Aus$175,000 paid by the Herald and Weekly Times newspaper, which had labelled him "un-Australian" and a "drugs cheat."


Linda Brenneman, born in San Juan Capistrabo, USA on this day in 1965, won the Tour de Toona and a stage at the Women's Challenge in 1991, was third at the National Road Race Championship in 1992, won the Redlands Classic in 1993 and 1995 and was third at the National Individual Time Trial Championship and 11th in the Individual Time Trial at the Olympics in 1996.

Other cyclists born on this day: Max Götze (Germany, 1880, died 1944); John Becht (USA, 1886); Walter Richard (Switzerland, 1939); Dick Cortright (USA, 1929, died 2009); Bilal Akgül (Turkey, 1982); Axel Hornemann Hansen (Denmark, 1899, died 1933); Raoul Fahlin (Sweden, 1966); Daniel Rogelin (Brazil, 1972); Andrew Hansson (Sweden, 1882, died 1964); Milan Kadlec (Czechoslovakia, 1974); Franco Giorgetti (Italy, 1902).

Daily Cycling Facts 12.10.12

Giovanni Gerbi, winner of the first
Giro di Lombardia

On this day in 1905, the Giro di Lombardia was held for the very first time. It covered 230.5km starting and ending at Milan and was won by Giovanni Gerbi. The parcours passed the little chapel of the Madonna del Ghisallo where legend says a medieval count was saved from bandits when he saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Many years later, a local priest suggested that the Madonna be made the patron saint of cyclists; this was subsequently confirmed by the Pope and the chapel now contains a cycling museum that includes among its exhibits numerous bikes, yellow jerseys and an eternal flame in memory of riders who have died while racing.


Dave Lloyd
Dave Lloyd, born in Oswestry, Great Britain on this day in 1949, began racing in 1969 and only three years later had come second in the amateurs' version of the GP des Nations and won a GP Tell. In 1973 he turned professional with Ti-Raleigh and, with Phil Bayton, was third at the Trofeo Barrachi behind two-man teams Felice Gimondi and Martìn Emilio Rodríguez Gutiérrez and Davide Boifava and Gösta Pettersson - who, between them, listed a Tour de France, a Vuelta a Espana, four Giri d'Italia, four Vueltas a Colombia and numerous National Championships among their achievements. Yet, the following year, Lloyd preferred to remain in Britain, riding and winning British races despite having proved himself capable of competing in Europe. He did the same for most of 1975, though also picked up third place at a criterium in Buggenhout, Belgium.

In 1976 Lloyd was diagnosed with a heart condition, forcing his retirement. However, two years later he returned and was second at a race in Australia; according to legend, he won 125 of the 133 races in which he took part over the next subsequent six years both as an amateur and then, from 1984 when he joined Raleigh-Weinmann, in a new lease of life as a professional. He remained with Raleigh through 1985 before forming his own team equipped with frames he built himself, then retired for a second time in 1987. 22 years later in 2009, when he was 60 years old, he planned to make another return by entering the Derby Mercury race; he ultimately decided not to do so as he'd have been competing against a younger rider he coached.

Since 2008, Lloyd has been the organiser of the David Lloyd Megachallenge, a cyclosportive event held annually in North-East Wales and which includes some of the toughest climbs in the Llangollen area, among them the Horseshoe Pass, Bwlch y Groes and Bwlch Penbarras (Bwlch y Groes was once renowned as the most challenging climb in the Tour of Britain or Milk Race, as it was then known; both roads are as steep as 25% - steeper than Alto de l'Angliru - in places).

Baden Cooke

Baden Cooke

Born in Benalla, Australia on this day in 1978, Baden Cooke started racing at the age of 11 and turned professional with Mercury in June 2000. With an impressive turn of speed in a sprint he immediately did well in Australian and American races, winning a National Madison Championship and stages at the Cascade Classic, Herald Sun Tour and Sea Otter as well as the General Classification at the Valley of the Sun and the Wendy's Classic during that time, but initially found the level of competition in Europe to be too high and didn't do as well in cycling's historic home as he had hoped. He soon learned his trade, however, and after winning two stages at the Tour de l'Avenir in September 2001 he went on to win four European races including the prestigious Dwars door Vlaanderen early the next year. Riding for French team La Française des Jeux gave him the opportunity to take part in the Tour de France for the first time a few months later: he finished top ten seven times, with a best result of second place on Stage 20. When he rode at the Herald Sun Tour that Autumn he was given a hero's welcome - and his fans were ecstatic when he won.

In 2003, he returned to the Tour. He finished top ten seven times again, but this time he won Stage 2 and twice finished second; more importantly his results on other stages were better than in 2002 and as a result he won the Points competition, beating his fellow Australian Robbie McEwen of Lotto-Domo by just two points. He won the Jayco Bay Classic in 2004 and came third at the Tour Down Under, but was not as competitive at the Tour due to basing his season around the Olympics and came 12th in the Points competition (which McEwen won). Unfortunately, the Olympics didn't go well for him and he failed to finish the road race.

Cooke rode the Giro d'Italia for the first time in 2005, but didn't finish the race. In the Points competition at the Tour, he was ninth - one of four Australians to make it into the top ten - but he didn't win anything until September, when he beat Luca Paolini to the line in Stage 1 at the Tour of Poland; he then added two stages at the Herald Sun Tour before the year came to and end. He stated away from the Grand Tours after signing to Unibet in 2006, then again in 2007 when the team was not invited to any of the three following a row with Tour owners the Amaury Sports Organisation - though he did manage eight victories in smaller races during this period. Unibet pulled out of cycling at the end of 2007, partly as a result of the row and partly due to the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, at which point most of the riders moved on to Vacansoliel. Cooke chose to go to the British team Barloword instead; he had a reasonably successful year with stage wins at the Jayco, Clásica Internacional de Alcobendas y Villalba and Herald Sun but didn't feel at home so, in 2009, he joined his ex-Unibet comrades at Vacansoleil. His results that year were good, but it passed without victory and in 2010 he moved again to Saxobank, where he found things more to his liking and developed a close relationship with his teamates, including the Schleck brothers, legendary time trial specialist Fabian Cancellara and the universally popular Jens Voigt. He won twice in his first year with them, then stayed for 2011 and came fifth at the Dwars door Vlaanderen, tenth at Gent-Wevelgem and 22nd in the hardest, harshest and most unforgiving Classic Paris-Roubaix, where mere presence at the start line bestows hero status - not bad at all for a rider who'd once feared he didn't have what it takes to make it in European cycling.

Late in 2011, news emerged that for the time in cycling history, there was to be an Australian ProTour team in 2012. Many of Australia's greatest riders wanted to be a part of it, but only the very best were selected - Cooke was one of them.

Caruso at the Giro, 2012

Damiano Caruso
Born in Sicily on this day in 1987, Damiano Caruso began picking up good results as a junior and then in Under-23 races from 2005, including a gold medal at the U-23 Nationals in 2008 - which brought him a professional contract with the Irish LPR Brakes team (consisting entirely of Italian riders) for 2009. That year, he won Stage 2 at the Baby Giro.

LPR dissolved at the end of the year, from the ashes grew De Rosa-Stac Plastic - another Irish team with all Italian riders and management. With them, Caruso picked up sufficiently good results to attract the attentions of Liquigas-Cannondale, signing to them for 2011 and finishing a stage at the Vuelta a Espana in third place. Unfortunately, it turned out that CONI had been taking an interest in him too, and they requested a two-year ban, backdated to December the previous year, for a doping offence that had taken place in 2007. They were half-successful - Caruso was given a backdated one-year ban, and stripped of his results during that period. Admirably, Liquigas did not sack him on the spot, reasoning that as the offence had taken place four years ago and there was n evidence that he had doped while with the team he deserved to be kept on. He repaid their faith with fifth place in the Youth category and 24th in the General Classification at the Giro d'Italia and third place at the Tour of Britain in 2012.

Knut Knudsen
Knut Knudsen, born in Levanger, Norway on this day in 1950, was Junior National Champion in Pursuit in 1966 and 1967 and Road Racing in 1968. Racing at Elite level from 1969, he won the National Championship titles in the 1km time trial and Pursuit, then in the 1km TT, Pursuit, Road Racing and Individual Road Time Trial in 1972 - and to prove that this was due to his sheer talent, rather than a lack of it among other Norwegian riders of the time, he won the gold medal in the Pursuit at the Olympics too. He kept all four National titles in 1974 and added the World Pursuit Championship for good measure.

In 1975, Knudsen won Stage 1 at the Giro d'Italia and finished two stages at the Tour de France in third place; at the 1977 Giro he won Stage 9. In 1979 he won Tirreno-Adriatico and Stage 10 at the Giro, then at the 1981 Giro he won the Prologue and Stages 13 and 23

Mehdi Sohrabi

Mehdi Sohrabi, born in Zanjan, Iran on this day in 1981, was National Champion in Road Racing and Individual Time Trial in 2005, Asian Road Race Champion in 2006 and 2010, National Individual Time Trial Champion in 2009 and overall winner of the UCI Asia Tour in 2011. Having ridden for Iranian teams since 2005, he joined Belgian World Tour team Lotto-Belisol for 2012.

Erik Mohs, born in Leipzig, East Germany on this day in 1986, rode with Sebastian Forke to become Junior National Madison Champions in 2004, then with Marcel Kalz to become Under-23 European Madison Champions in 2007. That year, he also signed up the Milram Continental team after scoring good results on both track and road in 2006; he won six stages or races on the road that season, then another the following year. He rode with Nutrixxion-Sparkasse from 2009 to 2011 but didn't win anything for the first two years; he did, however, take a bronze at the World Military Road Race Championship in 2009 and a bronze for the Madison and silver for the Points race at the Nationals in 2010; then in 2011 he won a stage at the Tour of Bulgaria and in 2012, riding for Jenatec, at the Oder Rundfahrt.


Paul Depaepe, born in Deurne, Begium on this day in 1931, won the National Individual Pursuit Championship as an amateur in 1953 (along with a stage at the Under-23 Route de France), then in the Elite class in 1954 and 1955. He was also National Stayers Champion, again in the Elite class, in 1957, 1959 and 1961; European Stayers Champion in 1961 and 1962 and World Stayers Champion in 1957. In 1965 his career was brought to an end by a crash that left him with three cracked vertebrae; he continued his involvement in track cycling by becoming a Derny rider.

Luciano Borgognoni, born in Gallarate, Italy on this day in 1951, was World Military Road Race Champion in 1972 and National Pursuit Champion in 1974. In 1977 he won Stages 2b and 22 at the Giro d'Italia.

Born in Oberriet, Switzerland on this day in 1949, René Savary was Swiss National Champion in Points racing in 1971 and 1972, Omnium in 1975 and Stayers in 1976 and 1978. He also won stages at the Tour de Suisse in 1976 and 1979. Since 2009, he has served on the management committee of the BMC Racing Team.

Born in Giussano, Italy on this day in 1984, Marco Aurelio Fontana won the bronze medal in the Cross Country Mountain Bike race at the 2012 Olympics.

Other cyclists born on this day: Szilvia Szabolcsi (Hungary, 1977); Greg Fraine (New Zealand, 1962); Cristóbal Silva (Chile, 1979); Günther Kriz (Austria, 1940); Omar Haji Saad (Malaysia, 1949); Henry Cuevas (Colombia, 1954); Aleksejs Jurjevs (Latvia, 1909, died 1985); Roderick Chase (Barbados, 1967); Martin Hrbáček (Czechoslovakia, 1970); Enrique Demarco (Uruguay, 1923); Luis Serra (Uruguay, 1935).

Daily Cycling Facts 11.10.12

Uwe Ampler

Uwe Ampler

Born in Zerbst, East Germany on this day in 1964, Uwe Ampler was part of the team that won the Junior World 75km Team Time Trial Championships of 1981 and 1982 and later of the winning time trial team at the 1988 Olympics. In 1986 he won the Sachsen Tour, the Under-23 Thüringen-Rundfahrt and the Amateur World Championships; in 1987, 1988 and 1989 he won the Peace Race. He also won a second Sachsen Tour in 1989 and in 1990 finished Stage 10 at the Tour de France in second place.

Ampler won the Peace Race for a fourth time in 1998 - with Ryszard Szurkowski, he is therefore the joint second most successful Peace Race rider of all time (only Steffen Wesemann has won more, taking his fifth in 2003). In 1999 he made another attempt at the Sachsen Tour, but failed an anti-doping test at the Sachsen Tour when he provided a sample that proved to be positive for anabolic steroids. Ampler apologised, but claimed that he had accidentally ingested them in antibiotics he used to recover from 'flu and a crash at the Tour de France; the director of the laboratory that tested the samples insisted that the level of testosterone they found was too high to support this explanation and Ampler retired shortly afterwards.

Masson, left, with 1896 team mate Léon Flameng

Born in Mostaganem, France on this day in 1876, Paul Masson competed in the 2km sprint, the 10km time trial and 333m one-lap time trial at the inaugural Modern Olympics held in Athens in 1896. He won all three events.

Charles Rampelberg, born in France on this day in 1909, won the bronze medal for the 1km time trial at the 1932 Olympics.

Patxi Vila, born in Hondarribia, Euskadi on this day in 1975, won Stage 3 at the 2006 Paris-Nice by hanging onto Floyd Landis' rear wheel after they escaped on a climb, then followed him all the way to the finish before emerging from his slipstream to power past. Doing that sort of thing wins a rider no friends in the peloton and can result in nasty nicknames (Filippo Pozzato, for example, is known as "The Shadow"), but it's not against the rules. One thing that is against the rules, meanwhile, is doping; Vila got caught out when an unusually high level of testosterone was discovered in a sample he provided in 2008 and he was banned for eighteen months as a result. He returned with De Rosa-Ceramica Flaminia in 2011 and took second place in the King of the Mountains at the Tour of Poland, then switched to Irish-based Utensilnord Named in 2012.

Lee Min-Hye won a bronze medal for the Scratch race at the Junior World Championships and a gold for the Pursuit at the Asian Games in 2003, then won nothing until 2006 when she won the Asian Games Pursuit again. In 2007 she won the Rund um Visp in Switzerland, then won nothing until the Individual Time Trial at the Asian Games in 2010.

Other cyclists born on this day: Leif Yli (Norway, 1942); Marc Bassingthwaighte (Namibia, 1983); Christoph Soukup (Austria, 1980); Willy Monty (Belgium, 1939); Carlos Marryatt (New Zealand, 1968); Allen Bell (USA, 1933); José Zampicchiatti (Argentina, 1900, died 1984); Tomáš Konečný (Czechoslovakia, 1973); Guido Frisoni (San Marino, 1970); Mike Richards (New Zealand, 1958); Shinichi Ota (Japan, 1975); Maic Malchow (East Germany, 1962); Aleksandr Panfilov (USSR, 1960).

Daily Cycling Facts 10.10.12

Mariana Pajón

Pajón in London, 2012

Born in Medellín, Colombia on this day in 1991, Mariana Pajón began cycling in early childhood and won her first National Championship when she was five years old. Four years later, she added her first World Championship.

Since then, Pajón has been collecting gold medals quicker than most BMX riders collect bruises and can now claim no fewer than nine Latin American Championships, ten PanAmerican Championships and fourteen World Championships, making her among the most successful riders in the history of BMX. She dominated the competition at the 2012 Olympics in London, where she was also Colombia's flag bearer, setting the fastest times in all three semifinals before beating New Zealand's Sarah Walker by 0.427" in the final. Pajón is nicknamed "The Queen of BMX," her reign looks set to continue for many years.

Mark Scanlon
Irishman Mark Scanlon, born in Cranmore on this day in 1980, became Junior World Road Race Champion in 1998. The race also took place on this day - his 18th birthday. He was also National Junior Champion and his performance was sufficiently impressive to gain him an invite to join Rabobank's development team, which he accepted.

He won silver at the National Championships and won two stages at the Tour of Hokkaido in 1999 and 2000, but missed many opportunities to progress due to a series of injuries and illnesses during the same period; at the end of 2000 he let the team and joined amateur French club CC Etupes and rode in some of the less well-known French races - however, he began to enjoy success at home again, winning a stage at the Rás Tailteann and second place at the Nationals. This brought a new offer of a trainee contract with Linda McCartney Racing and, when it was upgraded to a full professional contract for 2001, it looked as though his career was finally about to get off the ground. Then in February, the team collapsed. He found a place at Mercury-Viatel, a US pro team then home to Floyd Landis (and Wim Vansevenant, who holds the Lanterne Rouge record having finished the Tour de France in last place three times), but his contract was not extended into 2002 and he returned once again to the amateur ranks, racing for continued racing for VC Nantes 44 and VC La Pomme Marseilles.

That year, Scanlon won a race in France, then the National Championship, another race in Galway and took third place at the GP d'Isbergues and for Stage 3 at Paris-Corrèze. This time it was AG2r Prévoyance that came calling and he joined them as a trainee in September, then became a full professional in 2003, the first of four years with the team. He won the National Championship for a second time that year, along with a stage at the Post Danmark Rundt; in 2004 he won two races in Estonia and was selected for Ag2R's Tour de France squad, completing the race in 89th place. 2005 started with a stage win the Circuit des Ardennes, later in the season he won silver at the Nationals after being beaten by 12 seconds by David O'Loughlin, who had also been a trainee at Linda McCartney back in 2000.

Scanlon rode the Giro d'Italia in 2006 but left the race following Stage 11; at the end of the year he also left AG2R, saying that the pressure of riding at ProTour level was too much for him. Continental-class Toyota-United picked him up for 2007, but he won nothing with them. By the end of the summer, it was widely rumoured that he was on the verge of announcing his retirement, but Scanlon denied that this way the case. "I am not enjoying it, and I haven't enjoyed it for some time," he told the Sunday Tribune, adding that one of the reasons he wasn't enjoying it was due to doping and the fact that even clean riders were suspected of doping whenever they won anything. Like many riders before him, the loneliness he experienced after relocating to France in search of a career had also badly affected him: "I think my major error was staying in Marseille when I turned professional. I couldn't handle living abroad by myself in a small apartment in the south of France." Finally, he revealed that he hoped to one day make a return: "I'd like to captain a third division Irish continental team and there is always the Irish track cycling team if I could get my head around that."

Pierre Rolland

Rolland at the Tour, 2011

Born in Gien on this day in 1986, Pierre Rolland joined Crédit Agricole with a trainee contract late in 2006, then got promoted to full professional status for the 2007 season - that year, he was second at La Tropicale Amissa Bongo and won Sage 2 at the Tour de Limousin. The following year, he won the King of the Mountains competition at the Critérium du Dauphiné. France, having gone without a Tour victory since Bernard Hinault's final triumph 21 years earlier, sat up and took notice.

Rolland rode his first Tour in 2009 and came 22nd; not quite comparable to Hinault's first Tour, which he won, but a very, very good debut by any standards. He slipped to 58th place in 2010, but then in 2011- having spent most of the race helping Thomas Voeckler keep the maillot jaune - he achieved a truly remarkable Stage 19 victory when he beat Euskaltel-Euskadi's Samuel Sánchez (who would win the King of the Moutains that year) and Saxobank's Alberto Contador (who was popularly considered the greatest all-rounder stage racer in the world) on the Alpe d'Huez. He finished in 11th place overall and won the Youth category; now that Voeckler was 32 cycling fans throughout France declared Rolland to be their new great hope

At the 2012 Tour, Voeckler won two stages while Rolland won one, but the younger man won his in spectacular style with a late attack on the Les Sybelles climb at the end of Stage 11. He went on to finish the race in eighth place - the best General Classification result of any French rider that year.


Jim Hendry, born in Perth, Scotland on this day in 1939, rode as a professional for Mottram Cycles and as an independent in the late 1960s. His race results were not especially impressive, but since retiring from competition he has become an important figure in British cycling - having worked as a coach while still racing, he held a number of voluntary team management and coaching positions between 1970 and 1997, when he became Chief Executive and then General Secretary of the British Cycling Federation. In 2007 he was awarded an MBE in recognition of his services to sport; he is now British Cycling's honourary archivist.

Dominique Cornu, born in the Flanders town of Beveren on this day in 1985, is a time trial specialist who first came to note when he won the Junior National Individual Time Trial Championship in 2003, then successfully defended the title and won the Under-23 Grand Prix des Nations a year later. In 2005 he won the Under-23 National ITT Championship and was second at the U-23 European Championship, then won both the following year along with the U-23 Omloop Het Volk and the Pursuit at the National Track Championship. He completed his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, in 2008 and finished a respectable 46th overall, then came third in the National ITT Championship and 14th in the World ITT Championship, both at Elite level, in 2009.

Antonio Piedra, born in Seville on this day in 1985, won Stage 15 at the Vuelta a Espana in 2012 after leaving other members of a breakaway behind on the first Hors-Categorie climb of the race.

Bart Brentjens, who was born in Haelen, Netherlands on this day in 1968, won the cross country race at the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships in 1995, then became the first man to win an Olympic gold medal for cross country mountain biking when the sport made its debut at the Games in 1996.

Leonardo Sierra, born in Mérida on this day in 1968, won Stage 17 and came tenth overall at the Giro d'Italia in 1990, then came seventh overall (without winning a stage) in 1991. He was Venezuelan Road Race Champion in 1991, 1992 and 1993. In 1993 and 1995 he rode the Tour de France, coming 34th and 50th respectively.

Other cyclists born on this day: Mykola Kolumbet (USSR, 1933); Francisco Cuque (Guatemala, 1942); Bartłomiej Saczuk (Poland, 1979); Hsu Jui-Te (Taipei, 1964); Francisco Rodríguez (Mexico, 1915, died 1998); Chris Kropman (Netherlands, 1919, died 2003); Mauro De Pellegrini (Italy, 1955); Charles Bazzano (Australia, 1923); Richard Tormen (Chile, 1951); Michael Freiberg (Hong Kong, Australian nationality, 1990).

Daily Cycling Facts 09.10.12

Chanpeng Nontasin, born in Thailand on this day in 1984, won the Individual Time Trial at the Asian Championships and the South-East Asian Games in 2011 -at the latter event, she was also second in the Road Race.

Graham Vines in 1958

Graham Vines, born in London on this day in 1930, became National Road Race Champion in 1955. He rode for Wearwell Cycles from 1954 to 1956, then spent a year as an independent before signing up to Condor n 1958 and 1959.

René Bittinger, born in Villé, France on this day in 1954, won Stage 4 at the Österreich-Rundfahrt in 1976, Stage 1 at the Tour de France in 1979, the General Classification at the Tour de Limousin a year later and Stage 2 at the Critérium International in 1983. He came second at the National Road Race Championship in 1977, was third in the Youth category at the 1978 Tour, then second at La Flèche Wallonne in 1983.

Kalevi Eskelinen, born in Sonkajärvi, Finland on this day in 1945, was National Road Race Champion in 1969, then National Madison Champion with Raimo Nieminen in 1970. He also rode with the victorious Pursuit team at the Nationals in 1970 and 1972.

Other cyclists born on this day: Juan Arango (Colombia, 1986); Musse Yohannes (Ethiopia, 1958); Eric Heulot (France, 1962); Stanislav Svoboda (Czechoslovakia, 1930); Willie Beck (USA, 1899, died 1955); Rajmund Zieliński (Poland, 1940); Roberto Menéndez (Cuba, 1949).

Daily Cycling Facts 08.10.12

Annemiek van Vleuten

Annemiek van Vleuten

Born in Vleuten, Netherlands on this day in 1982, Annemiek van Vleuten played football as a teenager and, despite having cycling ancestors on her mother's side of the family, had no interest in cycling until knee injury in 2005 when doctors advised it as an ideal sport to maintain fitness during recovery. Very rapidly, she became good at it and it wasn't long before somebody told her that she'd probably do well in a race. She gave it a go and did; so in 2007 she took our her first racing licence and began to train seriously with the WV Ede cycling club. Later that year she was invited to ride at the Holland Ladies' Tour, then won the National Students Championships.

In 2008, van Vleuten signed to the Vrienden van het Platteland team where she rode alongside Martine Bras, Liesbet de Vocht, Willy Kanis, Roxane Knetemann and Ellen van Dijk and came second in the individual time trial and third in the road race at the World Universities Championships; in 2009, when the team merged with DSB Bank to become DSB Bank-Nederland Bloeit, they were joined by 22-year-old Marianne Vos and van Vleuten won her first professional race, a criterium at Rijssen. The following year was her real breakthrough - she won Stage 2 at the Gracia Orlova and was second overall behind Vos then Stage 4 at the Emakumeen Bira, where she was again second overall, and Stage 1 plus the General Classification at the Route de France. 2011 was better - she won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, one of the most prestigious victories in cycling, and added excellent results in numerous races before winning the GP Ouest-France and the World Cup; but 2012 was equally as good with victory at the National Road Race Championship, second place at the GP Elsy Jacobs, victory at the Holland Hills and the Dorpenomloop Wijk en Aalburg and stage wins at the Emakumeen Bira and Giro della Toscana.

Sanne Cant

Born in Antwerpen, Belgium on this day in 1990, Sanne Cant is a cyclo cross rider who became Junior National Champion in 2006, successfully defended the title in 2007 and 2008; then became Elite National Champion in 2010 and successfully defended that title in 2011 and 2012. In 2012 she was also third at the World Cyclo Cross Championships, losing out to Marianne Vos and Daphny van den Brand, and came second at the National Mountain Bike Cross Country Championships.

Cant says that she wants to become World Champion; as she is still only 22 years old, it seems likely that she will realise her ambition sooner or later.

Philippe Thys
Born in Anderlecht on this day in 1889, Philippe Thys became Belgium's first ever National Cyclo Cross Champion in 1910 and then won the Independents competition (for riders with limited sponsorship - or sometimes paying their own way - but not members of teams) at the Tour de France. The following year he signed to Peugeot-Wolber to be able to ride the Tour as a professional and came sixth; in 1913 (the first time the Tour ran anti-clockwise around France and the first time an African rider took part - the Tunisian Ali Neffati) he was given a ten minute penalty after getting a bike shop to repair his broken fork but took the lead when Eugène Christophe broke his own fork and was given a penalty when judges learned he'd also received help - a seven-year-old boy named Corni had worked the bellows in the forge for him as he fixed the forks himself. Thys lost the lead again later in the race, but then Christophe's forks broke for a second time and Thys went on to win overall.

Philippe Thys

In 1914, he won again; this time, however, he dominated the race from Stage 5 - he only won the first, but finishing in the top five on every subsequent stage meant that nobody could even get close to him for the overall lead even though he received a 30-minute penalty after breaking a wheel and buying a replacement in a shop (Neffati raced again but was hit by a car during Stage 6 and abandoned). It would be the last Tour before the First World War; when the race next took place in 1919, many of the star riders from before the War had been killed.

Belgium was rapidly conquered by Germany at the start of the war and Thys, as a citizen of an occupied nation, did not fight. Some races continued; Thys won Paris-Tours and the Giro di Lombardia in 1917 then Paris-Tours again in 1918, but apparently hadn't had much opportunity to ride his bike after that and, when he showed up at the Tour in 1919, fans wondered if he'd spent the last year eating instead - he was overweight and in poor physical condition: "You have become un petit bourgeois who has lost his love for his bike and wasted a huge talent," race director Henri Desgrange told him. After getting left behind in the first stage, he gave up and went home.

Insults in the newspapers stung him into training hard throughout the 1919 winter and, in 1920, the Thys who began the Tour was perhaps even fitter than the one who had won before the war. The race that year was declared by fans to be boring with the riders taking it easy in unusually hot weather, but Thys shone - he was a part of every breakaway, won four stages and once again finished in the top five on every stage, thus becoming the first man in history to win the Tour three times (no other rider would win more until Jacques Anquetil won a fourth in 1963). "France is not unaware that, without the war, the crack rider from Anderlecht would be celebrating not his third Tour, but his fifth or sixth," Desgrange wrote.

Thys in the 1914 Tour de France

Thys may also have been the first man to wear the maillot jaune. Officially, it was first awarded to Christophe during the 1919 Tour when Desgrange came to him one morning and asked him to wear it, saying it would make it easier for fans and photographers to spot him. Christophe hated it on sight but agreed to wear it, though he had to be persuaded to put it on again for Stage 12 because some spectators had called him a canary (which ranks quite low on any list of "most hurtful insults ever hurled at the peloton"). However, many years later Thys told Champions et Vedettes magazine that he'd been offered (and had refused) a yellow jersey in 1913. His honesty and good character are in no doubt, but there is no documentary evidence to support his claim whatsoever and, since he was 67 when he said it, it's generally assumed that his mind was playing tricks on him. This leads to two obvious possibilities: the first is that the jersey didn't exist until 1919 and Thys was actually remembering an incident from 1920; the second is that in 1919 Desgrange remembered it and the effect it either did have or he perceived it to have had when he first awarded it in 1913, then reintroduced it in an attempt to increase competition - by this point in 1919, only eleven riders remained in the race and, while he once claimed that in the ideal Tour only one rider would finish, he was well aware that fewer riders meant less interest (this seems to be what happened in 1920, too, when the race progressed slowly and it wasn't awarded until Stage 9). It's possible, therefore, that Thys was right - and that the maillot jaune, the greatest prize in cycling, began as nothing but a cheap gimmick intended to create a bit of excitement when the Tour became boring.

Anne-Caroline Chausson
Born in Dijon in 1977, Anne-Caroline Chausson had already enjoyed an impressive career as a BMX rider by 1993 when she turned to mountain biking. However, it was in mountain biking that she became world famous - she has been called the most successful downhill racer of all time and her decade-long battle for supremacy with the American star Missy Giove is often said to have been the sport's golden age.

Chausson was immediately highly successful in downhill racing, winning the  Junior World Championship in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Her first major victory at Elite level came in 1996 when she won the National Championship, beating Carole Grange who had been third at the European Championships the previous year; a short while later, she beat Leigh Donovan and Giove at the World Championship in Cairns, Australia and then successfully defended the World Champion title for the next seven years, retaining it until 2004 when it passed to Vanessa Quin - Chausson won it back for a ninth and final time in 2005. In 1998, she took the World Cup from Giove, then won it again in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

From 2000, many downhill riders began to compete in dual slalom events, pitting themselves against another rider on an identical, designed course. Chausson dominated in the early years, winning the World Championship and World Cup in 2000 and a second World Championship a year later. The fast and furious nature of dual slalom gave rise to four-cross, in which four riders compete on one course with plenty of elbowing thrown in for good measure; this rapidly became even more popular than dual slalom and replaced it at the World Championships- which Chausson won in 2002 and 2003, also winning the World Cup in 2002.

Following fifteen years at the very pinnacle of downhill racing, Chausson made a return to BMX in 2007 with a view to representing France in 2008 when the sport made its debut at the Olympics. She qualified, then beat her team mate Laëtitia Le Corguillé and the American Jill Kintner into second and third place respectively; thus becoming the first person to have ever won a gold medal for BMX at the Games (later that same year, she won the silver medal at the BMX World Championships). She qualified again for the 2012 Games but lost time after the British rider Shanaze Reade touched wheels with her on the final berm; neither woman finished in the top three.

Dede Barry

Deirdre "Dede" Demet Barry, born in Milwaukee in this day in 1972, began her sporting career in skating, as have many other cyclists - originally, she was a figure skater but found the sport boring, spending most of her time on the rink challenging others to races. Her coach suggested she might therefore find speed skating more to her liking and made it onto the national team in 1987, then competed at the World Championships between 1988 and 1991.

Like so many other great cyclists, Barry began cycling solely to maintain fitness while not skating but after watching the International Cycling Classic criterium series she decided to concentrate solely on cycling and, in 1989, became Junior World Road Race Champion, National Road Race Champion and National Individual Time Trial Champion. After riding with the victorious time trial teams at the Nationals and PanAmerican Games in 1991, she took a second National ITT title in 1993, then won three stages and came third overall at the Women's Challenge in 1994. In 1995 she won the Women's Challenge and the PanAmerican Games ITT, in 1996 she was again National Road Race Champion and won the Mountains competition at the Redlands Classic, also coming second overall, and in 1997 she won the General Classification and the Points competition at the Grand Prix Féminin du Canada. The following year she was National Criterium Champion and in 1999 she won the Tour of Houston, but 2000 passed without victory and she took a year out of the sport in 2001 before returning to win the Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal in 2002 aboard a steel bike built for her by her father-in-law. She was second overall and won a stage at the Giro della Toscana in 2003, then went to the Olympics in 2004 and won silver in the time trial before taking two stages at the Tour de l'Aude later in the season, her last before retirement.

Trent Lowe
Born in Melbourne, Australia on this day in 1984, Trent Lowe was National Mountain Bike Cross Country Champion in the Under-17 class in 2000, then in the Under-19 class in 2001 and 2002 and in the Under-23 class in 2003 and 2004; he was also Junior World Cross Country Champion in 2002. From 2005 he has competed in road racing and earned a contract with Discovery for the following season; in 2005 he took second place at the Redlands Classic and won the Youth category at the Tour of Georgia. He won the Under-23 category at the Herald Sun Tour in 2006 and 2007, then a second Youth category at the Tour of Georgia in 2008, where he was also second overall. In 2008, he rode the Tour de France, finishing in 77th place.

Lowe suffered a series of injuries and illnesses through 2009 and 2010, going without victory, but looked set for a comeback after signing to the new Australian Pegasus team for 2011. However, the team did not receive the ProTour licence it had expected and he has not been able to make a return since; his efforts have, perhaps, been hampered by an incident in 2010/2011, when Lowe threatened to publish information relating to Garmin-Slipstream doctor Luis Garcia del Moral (since banned from working with athletes for life as part of USADA's investigations into doping at US Postal, which has also seen Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France victories) unless the team paid him €500,000.


Giuseppe Beghetto, born in Tombolo, Italy on this day in 1939, was Amateur National 1km Champion in 1958 and won a gold medal riding with Sergio Bianchetto in the tandem race at the 1960 Olympics. The following year he won the Sprint and the Tandem (again with Bianchetto) at the Amateur Nationals, then the 1km and Tandem in 1962, also coming second in the Sprint at the Amateur World Championships. In 1965 he became Elite World Sprint Champion, then successfully defended the title in 1966 and won it back in 1968 (when he also won the same race at the Nationals). He was National Sprint Champion again in 1969 and won two stages at the Giro di Sardegna, inspiring a move into road cycling that saw him compete in the Tour de France the following year - he finished two stages in tenth place before abandoning, then won a stage at Tirreno-Adriatico in 1971 before retiring in 1973.

Waclaw Starzynski, born on this day in 1910, was National Cyclo Cross Champion of Poland in 1936. He also took part on the notorious Berlin Olympics that year and came 16th in the road race; two years later he rode at the World Championships in Valkenburg but failed to finish.

Jørgen Pedersen, who was born in Copenhagen on this day in 1959, became Amateur National Road Race Champion in 1981 and won Stage 10 at the Tour de France in 1985, then wore the maillot jaune for five days in 1986. In 2007 he became a directeur sportif for Team CSC, but is no longer employed by the team.

Other cyclists born on this day: Lu Yu'e (China, 1960); Bruce Keech (Australia, 1966); Thomas Nyemeg (Cameroon, 1957); Wanderley Magalhães (Brazil, 1966, died 2006); Manuel De Vecchi (Italy, 1980); Jørgen Pedersen (Denmark, 1959); Ignace Mandjambi (Congo, 1940); Hiroko Nambu (Japan, 1968); Witold Plutecki (Poland, 1956); Lada Kozlíková (Czechoslovakia, 1979); José Robles (Colombia, 1964); Miguel Chacón (Venezuela, 1983 (The Netherlands).

Daily Cycling Facts 07.10.12

Cyril Horn
Throughout the history of cycling, there are numerous riders that came to the sport from speed skating; this is especially true in the Netherlands where speed skating is very popular and the best-known example of the phenomenon, Marianne Vos, was born - but there have been British speed skaters-turned-cyclists too.

East Anglia maintained cultural and commercial links with the Dutch for many years. Many of the commercial links still remain, such as the busy shipping route between Rotterdam and Felixstowe (as well as the less obvious but undoubtedly busy covert cannabis shipping routes), so too do some of the cultural links - houses built in the Dutch style can be found throughout the region, and a few phrases that don't exist elsewhere in Britain can be heard on the other side of the North Sea where they apparently first came from. The Dutch influences were brought over by drainage engineers who came to help turn the marshy Fens into productive agricultural land, and in doing so killed off the malarial mosquitoes that once infested Norwich, Ipswich and Cambridge; they also taught the locals that during the winter, when the land was not under crop, areas could be flooded so that they froze. For many years, ice skating was an enormously popular sport in Norfolk, Suffolk and especially in Cambridgeshire.

Cyril Horn was born in Upwell, a village that sits on the border between Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, on this day in 1904. After leaving school at the age of 12 he went to work in the family smithy making horseshoes, a profitable business at the time as the Army were sending vast numbers of horses to the First World War; toughened up by the hard work, Horn became a successful skater and won numerous national championships, also skating at the 1924 Olympics. He and his brother Dennis probably took up cycling to help maintain his fitness during the summer and almost immediately became as successful in velodromes, on the grass tracks and in cyclo cross (which was another Dutch import that was very popular in the region at one time) and many fans expected them to be selected for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; however, neither were - Cyril later revealed that they had preferred to stay at home anyway. (For an excellent history of the Horn brothers and their achievements in skating and cycling, see Classic Lightweights.)

John Forester
Born in Dulwich, London on this day in 1929, John Forester moved with his family to California in 1940. He later earned a place studying physics at the state university but left with a degree in English, then joined the Navy before returning to California to become an engineer and academic. He had been a keen cyclist since early childhood; when his father, the novelist and creator of Horatio Hornblower, C.S. Forester, died leaving an unexpectedly large estate (thus revealing to the family that he had lied to them about his wealth for many years and that he had been living a secret life including a secret marriage), Forester found himself with the means to devote the rest of his life to cycling advocacy and became a renowned expert on the science of cycling.

Forester is best-known today for his books Bicycle Transportation (MIT Press ISBN 0-262-56079-8) and Effective Cycling (MIT Press ISBN 0-262-56070-4). In them, he is deeply sceptical about the benefits of many aspects of cycling infrastructure, including segregated cycle lanes. Both remain standard texts for students of many cycling safety programs; they should be read by every cyclist.


Ruggero Ferrario, born in Milan on this day in 1897, won the first ever Coppa Bernocchi in 1919 and a gold medal in the Team Pursuit at the 1920 Olympics.

Dan Ellis, born in Albury, New South Wales on this day in 1988, was Junior National Sprint Champion in 2005, Junior National Keirin Champion in 2006 and Elite National Sprint Champion in 2010.

Other cyclists born on this day: Earl Theus (Belize, 1963); David Ricketts (Great Britain, 1920, died 1996); Terumi Ogura (Japan, 1963); Osvald Johansson (Sweden, 1932, died 1975); Miroslav Lipták (Czechoslovakia, 1968); Frank Testa (USA, 1903, died 2000); Ben van der Voort (Netherlands, 1914, died 2002); Harry Snell (Sweden, 1916, died 1985).