Daily Cycling Facts 08.03.2014

The Drentse 8 Van Dwingeloo took place on this day in 2012, and was the first round of that year's Women's World Cup. The winner came as something as a surprise: 21-year-old Chloe Hosking, then with Specialized-Lululemon, outsprinted Giorgia Bronzini, Marianne Vos, Monia Baccaille and Emma Johansson to the line and thus marked herself out as a serious new talent.

Paris-Nice began on this day in 1966, 1967, 1970, 1987, 1992, 1998 and 2009. The 1966 edition saw Jacques Anquetil set a new record of five wins - his third and fourth wins had also been multiple victory records. It came at the height of Anquetil/Poulidor fan rivalry in France which, at times, threatened to boil over into the sort of violence asociated with Mods/Rockers rivalry on the other side of the English Channel - according to legend, a Poulidor-supporting farmer made his wife sit on a hot stove because she preferred Anquetil. True? We hope not - but either way, the following year the woman had decided that she did in fact prefer Poulidor after all. Unfortunately, her husband had now become obsessed by Felice Gimondi.

1967 was the only edition to have been won by a British cyclist - and it was none other than Tom Simpson, whose fame remains greater than that of Mark Cavendish, David Millar and Bradley Wiggins even half a century after his tragic, stupid death four months later as he climbed Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France.

1970 brought a second win for Eddy Merckx, who would become the first rider to achieve three consecutive victories. However, his record was well and truly shattered when the Irishman Sean Kelly scored his sixth consecutive win in 1987. Jean-François Bernard won in 1992, the first Frenchman to have done so for twelve years, then Frank Vandenbroucke became the first Belgian for twenty-one years in 1996. Luis León Sánchez became the third Spanish winner in 2009; the year that the race became a part of the UCI World Calendar and each rider's results began to contribute towards their World Ranking.

Peta Mullens

Peta Mullens

Born in Sale, Australia on this day in 1988, Peta Mullens is a track endurance, road cyclist and mountain biker. She was Australian Junior Women's Road Cyclist of the Year in 2006 and in 2007 won three stages and the General Classification at the Tour of the Southern Grampians, followed by another stage win at the Canberra Tour, third place in the Road Race at the Oceania Games and excellent performances at Chongming Island and the Tour de Bretagne.

Mullens won the Tour of the Southern Grampians again in 2008 and became National Under-23 Road Race Champion a year later, then had a few quieter years before winning the National Mountain Bike Cross Country Championship at Elite level in 2013. In 2014, Mullens joined the British-registered Wiggle-Honda team and was second in the National Criterium Championship.

Joost Posthuma
(image credit: Heidas CC BY-SA 3.0)

Joost Posthuma, born in the Dutch city Hengelo on this day in 1981, was among the riders who were announced with much fanfare as a part of the Leopard Trek team for 2011. In 2012, he joined Leopard team mates Andy and Frank Schleck as a part of the new Radioshack Nissan Trek Pro Cycling Team, thus dispelling rumours that he would go to the Australian GreenEDGE. The new team was, however, doomed: a series of spats and unhappiness with management styles created rifts, then the team was destroyed when manager Johan Bruyneel was implicated in the doping investigation that also led to the downfall of Lance Armstrong.

Posthuma's best results to date were overall wins at the 2008 Tour of Luxembourg and the 2009 Vuelta a Andalucia and came 8th overall at the 2011 Tour of Britain. After being unable to secure a contract for 2013, he announced his retirement.


John Herety, born in Cheadle on this day in 1958, began cycling in his childhood. In 1980, he took part in the Olympics, won the Manx Trophy, Stage 9 at the Peace Race and came 3rd among the Amateur class at the British National Championships; then - as so many other riders born outside France have done - joined the Athletic Club Boulogne-Billancourt where he raced alongside Sean Yates and won Paris-Rouen. He became National Champion the following year and 2nd overall at the 1983 Tour of Britain, the year he also married Margaret Swinnerton - the sister of Paul, Catherine and Bernadette, all of whom were professional cyclists. Herety is now the manager of Rapha-Condor-Sharp.

Peter Schep, born in Lopik in the Netherlands on this day in 1977 has been National Champion in the scratch race (2003) and points race (2004), then World Champion for the points race in 2006 and European Madison Champion in 2007.

Other cyclists born on this day: Maxime Vantomme (Belgium, 1986); Jiří Daler (Czechoslovakia, 1940); Fred Taylor (USA, 1890, died 1968); Owe Adamson (Sweden, 1935); Miho Oki (Japan, 1974); Werner Potzernheim (Germany, 1927); Luvsangiin Buudai (Mongolia, 1940); Federico Moreira (Uruguay, 1961); Hervé Boussard (France, 1966); Raúl Labbate (Argentina, 1952); Belem Guerrero (Mexico, 1974); Miguel Margalef (Uruguay, 1956); Yevgeny Klevtsov (USSR, 1929. died 2003); Laurent Bezault (France, 1966).

Daily Cycling Facts 07.03.2014

Paris-Nice began on this day in 1934, 1968, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2010. 1934 was the second edition of the race, which had first been run the previous year, and it was won by Gaston Rebry who would also win  the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix within four weeks - which wasn't a bad start to the season, all in all.

In 1968 the race was won for the first time by a German rider, Rolf Wolfshohl, who was fortunate to be there because he'd provided a sample that subsequently proved positive at the World Cyclo Cross Championhips that year and, as the cycling world had finally woken up to the fact that it could no longer turn a blind eye to doping following the tragic, heroic and ultimately stupid death of Tom Simpson on Mont Ventoux the previous summer, he had been banned from competition. However, the actual process of banning riders was at the time no more advanced than the process of catching them out in the first place; as a result of which neither the UCI nor the German Federation had remembered to provide him with official notification of his ban and, due to their oversight, he was able to continue racing.

1976 was won by Michel Laurent, a Frenchman who risked the wrath of his countrymen by racing with a Belgian team in the days when the rest of the cycling world was still smarting from Eddy Merckx and his near-total domination of the sport. 1979 was won by Joop Zoetemelk, a Dutchman who rode for the same team that year and would both enter and finish the Tour de France a record sixteen times during his career.

In 1984, the Irishman Sean Kelly equaled Eddy Merckx's record of three consecutive wins - but he would go on to win for the next four years, too, thus shattering all the multiple wins previously set including Jacques Anquetil's five non-consecutive victories. For the second year in a row, the race started at Issy-les-Moulineaux. The King of the Mountains jersey changed to yellow and blue, the corporate colours of new sponsor Le Crédit Lyonnais, and the Points Competition disappeared from the race altogether, not to return until 1996. Alex Zülle became the second Swiss rider to win in 1993, then the Dutchman Michael Boogerd won in 1999 - since retiring from cycling in 2007, Boogerd has become a successful figure skater.

2004 winner Jörg Jaksche was paid 100,000 euros by German newspaper Der Spiegel in 2007 when he made a warts-and-all confession detailing his doping habits complete with various revelations concerning the sport. He finished the confession by saying that he was going to work with race organisers and authorities to stamp out the problem - but the German Cycling Federation gave him a one-year ban and, afterwards, none of the teams wanted him; so he retired and very little has been seen or heard of him since. 2010 brought a second win for Alberto Contador, who had become only the second Spaniard to have won this race three years earlier.

Tirreno-Adriatico started on this day in 2012. Vincenzo Nibali won, 1,063km later.


Thorvald Ellegaard

Thorvald Ellegaard was born on this day in 1877 in Fangel, Denmark and named Thorvald Kristian Kristensen - he and his brother changed their names for reasons unknown, choosing the name of the farm upon which they were born and grew up. He first raced on the 22nd of May 1895 in Slagelse, where Hans Christian Anderson attended grammar school, then completed his apprenticeship as a mason in 1896.

Two years later, he turned professional and immediately began winning important races, taking three National Championship titles in his first year. Leaving the Danish cycling community in no doubt that they had a world beater, he was packed off to France in 1901 where he won the GP de Paris and the World Sprint Championship - a title he retained for the next two years (and would win again in 1906, 1908 and 1911, winning silver medals in most of the intervening years) and adding the European Champion title in 1902 and 1903 (and again in 1908 and 1910).

Finally, after dominating the races for a decade, he moved his family to Paris and took up permanent residence - however, this was not so that he could race more but because he was earning enough money to enroll his daughter, whom he had named France, into one of the world's most prestigious music schools so she could complete her training as a pianist. France later gained a place at the Paris Conservatory - the world's most prestigious of all - and became one of the most respected musicians of the 20th Century, her renditions of Chopin being considered among the finest of all time.

Ellegaard continued racing, not retiring until the 26th of September in 1926; a little slower than he had been, but still fast enough to have achieved podium finishes at the Copenhagen Sprint for the last four years (having won it the year before that). His professional career spanned an extraordinary 29 years, during which he is believed to have won 925 races and was made a Knight of Danneborg, and he died on the 27th of April, 1954. His surprisingly understated grave can be found in Søllerød Cemetery, Copenhagen.

Maximiliano Richeze
Maximiliano Richeze is often considered to be the most successful Argentinian professional cyclist, Juan-Antonio Flecha (who was born in Buenos Aires) having always competed for Spain when racing in non-trade team events (some will also try to claim Lucien Petit-Breton who was born in France, took Argentinian nationality but then raced for France).

Maximiliano Richeze
(image credit: Tazeworld)

He became National Champion for the 1km time trial in 2003 before concentrating more on road racing, a discipline in which he enjoyed considerable success including a gold medal in the Under-23 class at the 2005 Pan-American Games. In 2007 he won stages at several European races, with the highlight of his year being first place for Stages 18 and 21 at the Giro d'Italia, resulting in a contract with the Pro Continental CSF Group-Navigare team which received an invite for the 2008 Giro. However, a short while before the race began Richeze failed an anti-doping test for stanazolol, an anabolic steroid also known as Stanazol or Winstrol. He was cleared by his national federation, but the UCI appealed to the Court for Arbitration in Sport who then handed him a two-year ban, but he competed in the Vuelta e San Juan in 2009. When his ban expired, he returned to full-time racing and had a successful 2011 with one stage win at the Japanese Kumano race and three at the Tour of Slovakia.

In 2012 he won three stages at the Vuelta a Mendoza, the Road Race at the PanAmerican Games, two stages at the Tour of Japan, three stages at the Kroz Srbiju, four stages at the Vuelta a Venezuela and two stages and overall at the Tour of Hokkaido. 2013 got off to a successful start when he won the Prologue at the Vuelta de San Juan, then he made a promising return to the track to win the Scratch and Team Pursuit at the PanAmerican Championships. Riding for Lampre-Merida, Richeze got the chance to go to the Vuelta a Espana that summer and performed well, finishing second on Stages 5 and 6, third on Stages 12 and 17 and fifth on Stage 21; he suffered on the mountainous stages and was frequently among the last riders to finish (on Stage 20, which climbed the notorious Angliru, he was the 144th and final rider to finish), eventually coming 141st overall - only three riders finished with slower times.


Wesley Van der Linden, born in Geraardsbergen, Belgium in this day in 1982, won the National Under-23 Cyclo Cross Championship in 2003 and 2004, also taking a silver medal at the European Cyclo Cross Championships in 2003.

Bruno Hubschmid, an Swiss National Amateur Champion, won Stage 2 at the Tour of Britain (called the Milk Race at the time) in 1971 and Stage 2 at the Tour de l'Avenir in 1971 and 1972.

Other cyclists born on this day: Nathalie Even-Lancien (France, 1970); Michael Hiltner (USA, 1941); Mohamed Khodavand (Iran, 1950); Bruno Hubschmid (Switzerland, 1950); Thurlow Rogers (USA, 1960); Michel Nédélec (France, 1940, died 2009); Piet Beets (Netherlands, 1900, died 1996); Laurent Gané (France, 1973); Mustafa Osmanlı (Turkey, 1920); Friedrich von Löffelholz (West Germany, 1953); Eduard Rapp (USSR, 1951); Milan Dvorščík (Slovakia, 1970).

Daily Cycling Facts 06.03.2014

Paris-Nice began on this day in 1988, 1994, 2005 and 2011. The 1988 edition brought a record seventh victory for the Irish rider Sean Kelly. Unlike Jacques Anquetil's five wins - which he'd equaled in 1986 - Sean's seven ran consecutively and as such are likely to be never equaled, let alone broken. The start line was moved to start Villefranche-sur-Saône after two years in Paris.

In 1994 Tony Rominger became the third Swiss rider to win the event, then Bobby Julich was the first from the USA in 2005. Tony Martin, the German rider by then well on his way to taking the unofficial World's Fastest Cyclist from Fabian Cancellara, won in 2011.

Gerrie Knetemann

Gerrie Knetemann, born in Amsterdam on this day in 1951, shares the Dutch record for Tour de France stages won (10) with Jan Raas and Joop Zoetemelk. His career took off in 1974 with victory at the Amstel Gold Race; then he won Stage 12 at the Tour in 1975 and journalists discovered he was their dream come true - not only was he showing signs of being a great rider, he was also highly intelligent with a fully-operational and razor-sharp sense of humour. Before long, he was the star of special features during Dutch coverage of the Tour and other races, giving a unique and frequently very funny take on the event.

The next year, he won the first of his four triumphs at the Ronde van Nederland (also 1980, 1981, 1986) and a string of other races including the Vuelta a Andalucia and in 1977, the Four Days of Dunkirk and Stages 19 and 21 at the Tour. 1978 saw him take victory at the Six Days of Ghent, Six Days of Maastricht, the Tour Méditerranéen and Paris-Nice, also winning Stages 18 and 22 on the Champs-Élysées at the Tour where he wore the race leader's yellow jersey for two days, and the World Road Race Championship. He wore yellow again at the 1979 Tour, this time for one day and won the prologue and Stage 22; then achieved a similar result in 1980 with a win in Stage 12. He didn't win any stages in 1981 but wore the jersey for four days, suggesting that he had the makings of a General Classification contender as well as being capable of bagging stage wins, then won Stages 4 and 12 (and the Stage 9a team time trial) a year later. The Dutch fans wondered if, sooner or later, he might live up to that GC promise.

Then in 1983, having already won the year's Tour Méditerranéen, he was badly injured in a crash at the Dwars door Vlaanderen and took months to recover. He returned in 1984 and won a few races, but it was obvious at the Tour de France that something was wrong - the sparkle was no longer there, either when he raced or when he was interviewed. He seemed a different, less lively character altogether.

The following years brought some success - another Amstel Gold Race, the Six Days of Madrid, a Postgirot Open and of course his fourth Ronde van Nederland - but a part of him never recovered from the crash, and he retired in 1989. Having won 127 races over his 17 professional years, he was too valuable to be allowed to vanish from the cycling world and found employment as the national team coach. On the 2nd of November in 2004, he was mountain biking with three friends in Bergen, Noord-Holland when his bike threw its chain. He dismounted and, as he bent down to put it back on the chain ring, suffered a heart attack and died. He was 53. The Grote Prijs Gerrie Knetemann in Gelderland, Netherlands, was named in his honour and his daughter Roxanne is a professional cyclist with Skil-Koga.


Zak Carr, born in Norwich, Great Britain on this day in 1975, held National Time Trial titles for 50 miles, 100 miles and 12 hours and was to compete in the 2008 Paralympics as pilot to a blind stoker when he was killed by a car on the A11 near his home in Attleborough. The car's driver was later found guilty of negligence, having tried to drive home following an overnight flight which had caused him to fall asleep at the wheel and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Freddie Grubb
Freddie Grubb, who died on this day in 1949, was called "the most talked-of cyclist in Great Britain" in 1910 after he set a new 100 mile time trial record, covering the distance in under five hours - on road, riding a fixed-wheel bike without normal brakes. One year later he entered a 12-hour competition on a 210 mile course near Liverpool, that distance being judged impossible by the event's organisers. They had to extend it by 10.5 miles because Grubb ran out of road.

Review of an F.H. Grubb bike, 1920

Grubb could be seen as one of the forefathers of the Straight Edge movement that has many followers among BMX and mountain bike riders - he never smoked, refused to consume alcohol and was strictly vegetarian at a time when few had even heard of such a concept and the general wisdom was that cyclists should consume vast amounts of meat before a race (Maurice Garin famously got through 45 cutlets of meat during a 24-hour race 17 years before Grubb's 100 mile record).

In 1912, he competed in the Olympics and won two silver medals, then turned professional in 1914. Cycling wrote, "He is 25 years of age, and scales 12st stripped, and when he gets accustomed to the Continental methods there is no reason he should not shine as a star of the very first order in the professional ranks." However, his professional racing career (which - who knows? - might have led to the first British success in the Tour de France) didn't last long - not, as was the case with so many riders of the day, due to war; but because he found European ways not at all to his liking - he said that the Continental riders would "stick an inflator [pump] in your spokes as quick as look at you" - and hankered to return home. He must really have hated it, because the National Cycling Union had banned road racing in Britain and the rules of the time stated that once a rider had competed as a professional, he or she could not downgrade to amateur status nor compete against amateurs. Thus, a return to Britain effectively spelled the end of his competitive career, yet he did it anyway.

Perhaps that made him bitter. After the First World War (during which he abandoned a bike shop he'd set up in 1914 and had to give up his vegetarianism or starve while serving in the Royal Navy), he went into business with a man named Ching Allin and, supported by funds from a member of his cycling club, the two men set themselves up as Allin & Grubb, a bike manufacturer based at 132 Whitehorse Road in Croydon, South London (the building, much altered, is still there and is now occupied by a firm of safe engineers. According to historian Mick Butler, Grubb was an intensely dislikable man who, among other things, demanded to be given sole credit for the quick release system they'd invented since he was the firm's chief designer and despite the fact that the system appears to have actually been invented by Charley Davey, the man who had provided the funds to start the business (incidentally, the quick release was the first example of its kind, predating better-known systems by several years). Customers found Grubb hard to deal with, so before long Allin was handling sales and relations while his partner concentrated on design.

Advert for Grubb bikes (£12!) from
Cycling, 22.05.1925

Nevertheless, the pair fell out: by 1920 Allin & Grubb had changed its name to A. H. Allin and was selling bikes under the Davey brand. Grubb, meanwhile, set up a new business based at 250 London Road in West Croydon (an advert in Cycling, 04.03.1920, lists F.H. Grubb at the address as having "no connection to any other company," suggesting that the split had been far less than amicable and that the two men were keen to distance themselves from one another - the very imposing building is still there, but is now an ice cream shop), moving to Twickenham in 1926, and by 1924 had a shop in Brixton. That company produced what is believed to be the first British recumbent bike and lasted until 1934 when it went into liquidation - not only had it lasted fourteen years, it must also have been financially successful because when Grubb set up a new company under the name FHG, he re-employed 20 of his old staff at a new premises located at 147a Haydon's Road in Wimbledon, South-West London (that building is long gone, replaced by ugly low-rose flats). His family kept the business going after his death, then sold it in 1952 to Holdsworth, one of the most famous British bike manufacturers of the times. Holdsworth continued to produce Freddie Grubb-branded bikes right up until 1978 (Holdsworth, incidentally, remained in operation at 132 Lower Richmond Road in Putney and became an institution on the British cycling scene; the shop sadly closed after 86 years in October 2013).

Servais Knaven

Servais Knaven
(image credit: Ralf Seger CC BY-SA 3.0)

Henricus Theodorus Josephus "Servais" Knaven, born in Lobith, Netherlands on this day in 1971, was National Track Pursuit Amateur Champion in 1991 and 1992, then began to concentrate primarily on road racing and became National Road Racing Champion at professional Elite level in 1995. He won numerous criterium races and one-day classics, including Paris-Roubaix in 2001 and is one of only two men to have entered and finished the notoriously dangerous race sixteen times (the other was Raymond Impanis). He also won Stage 17 at the Tour de France in 2003. Since retiring at the end of the 2010 season, Knaven has worked as a directeur sportif at Team Sky.


Tomasz Marczyński, winner of the Polish National Championships in 2007, was born in Kraków on this day in 1984.

Charles Moss, born in Ascot, Great Britain on this day in 1881, competed with Freddie Grubb at the 1912 Olympics Team Road Race in which they won a silver medal.

On this day in 2012, Mario Cipollini made the surprising claim that at the age of (very nearly 44) he was planning to return to professional cycling and would take part in that year's Giro d'Italia riding for Farnese Vini-Selle Italia. The UCI responded by pointing out that any rider returning to competition must have been subject to six months' doping tests, which Cipollini had not; meanwhile, fans wondered if the whole story might be nothing more than a ploy to advetise the Italian sprinter's bike range - which seemed more likely when Farnese Vini-Selle Italia bosses told the press they knew nothing about the plan. The fact that the Lion King never did make his return suggests those fans were correct.

Other cyclists born on this day: Nelson Oliveira (Portugal, 1989); Mikel Pradera (Euskadi, 1975); Carlos Cardet (Cuba, 1951); Romain De Loof (Belgium, 1941); Yevgeny Kovalyov (Russia, 1989); Jean Hansen (Denmark, 1932, died 1987); Bruno Bulić (Yugoslavia, 1958); Hans Goldschmid (Austria, 1914); Ainhoa Artolazábal (Spain, 1972); José Magnani (Brazil, 1913); John Musa (Zimbabwe, 1950); Jack Mourioux (France, 1948); Leslie King (Trinidad and Tobago, 1950); Henning Jørgensen (Denmark, 1949); Meng Lang (China, 1984); Gaston Delaplane (France, 1882, died 1977); Kim Cheol-Seok (South Korea, 1960); Imre Géra (Hungary, 1947); Koku Ahiaku (Togo, 1963).

Daily Cycling Facts 05.03.2014

Paris-Nice began on this day in 1978, 1980, 1989, 1995, 2000, and 2006. Gerrie Knetemann won in 1978, then Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle in 1980 when the start line was moved to Issy-les-Moulineaux after five years in Fontenay-sous-Bois. 1989 saw the start move to Paris after a year in Villefranche-sur-Saône and Miguel Indurain, who would become world famous when he won five Tours de France, became the first Spanish victor. Laurent Jalabert won the first of his three consecutive victories in 1995.

The 2000 edition was notable for three reasons. Firstly, the start line moved back to Paris for the first time since 1990; secondly the Points leader's jersey was changed to pink and purple (which made the wearer look as though he was covered in bruises) and thirdly, the race passed into the ownership of two-time Tour de France and once Giro d'Italia winner Laurent Fignon. The winner was the German rider Andreas Klöden. In 2006, it was won for the second time by an American, Floyd Landis, Bobby Julich having been the first American to win one year previously.

Filip Meirhaeghe at the 2007 Omloop het Volk
(image credit: Peter Huys CC BY-SA 2.0)

Filip Meirhaeghe
Filip Meirhaeghe, born in Ghent on this day in 1971, is a professional mountain bike rider who also competes in cyclo cross, road racing and track. He has been most successful in MTB and became National Cross Country Champion in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001; National Downhill Champion in 1994 and European Cross Country Champion in 2000. He won the Paris-Roubaix Mountain Bike race in 1997 and 2002; the Lugano round of the 2003 World Cross Country Championships and the Mountain Bike World Cup in 2002.

Having won a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics, Meirhaeghe entered again in 2004 but was caught out when an anti-doping test revealed traces of EPO at the World Cup a short while before the Games began. Several other riders also tested positive day but Meirhaeghe refused to join them in protesting his innocence and calling the validity of the test and professionalism of the testers into doubt; instead preferring to come clean and confess that he had indeed used the drug, then announced his retirement. He later wrote a book titled Positief about his experiences, but it has only been published in Dutch and is difficult to find in other countries.

Meirhaeghe was suspended after the positive Olympic test, but returned to racing in 2006 with professional contracts in mountain biking (Versluys-Landbouwkrediet-Sportstech) and on road (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago), each for three years, and won his last National Cross Country gold medal that year. He took silver the following year and bronze the next, then retired in 2009 once his contracts expired.


Christian Knees, born in Bonn on this day in 1981, became National Road Race Champion in 2010 and was offered a contract with the Australian Team Pegasus. However, when it was announced that the team had not been successful in gaining a Pro Continental licence, he turned them down in the hope of being picked up by more fortunate team. That decision worked extremely well in his favour - he was offered a contract with the Pro Tour Team Sky and rode in the Tour de France; he is still with Sky in 2014.

Georges Chappe, born on this day in Marseilles in 1944, won Stage 4 at the 1968 Tour de France and the Critérium International in 1970 - then became Lanterne Rouge at the Tour in 1971.

Sergei Ivanov, born in the USSR on this day in 1975, has been National Road Race Champion six times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2009, won Stage 9 at the 2001 Tour de France, Stage 14 in the 2009 Tour de France, Stage 5 at the 2003 Tour of Luxembourg, Stage 4 at the 2004 Tour of Britain, overall at the 2008 Tour de Wallonie, the Amstel Gold Race in 2009 and the Points classification at the 2010 Tour of Luxembourg.

This day in 2010 brought the first ever Egyptian Cycling Day, with thousands of cyclists meeting in Tahrir Square, Cairo. The event was a success, meaning that a repeat was planned for 2011 - however, the Square became the focal point of the 2011 Revolution when the people of Egypt rose up and defeated the oppressive government, toppling President Hosni Mubarak. At the time of writing, Egypt is close to civil war as the population attempt to end military rule and so Cycling Day is unlikely to take place in 2012, and possibly not for many more years.

Other cyclists born on this day: Hamish Haynes (Great Britain, 1975); Seamus McGrath (Canada, 1976); Rob Woods (Australia, 1968); Derek Harrison (Great Britain, 1944); Roberto Maggioni (Italy, 1968); Leo Nielsen (Denmark, 1909, died 1968); Stanley Butler (Great Britain, 1910, died 1993); Janus Braspennincx (Netherlands, 1903, died 1977).

Daily Cycling Facts 04.03.2014

Paris-Nice began on this date in 1959 and 1990. The earlier year was a remarkable one in that it was the longest edition ever, at 1,955km - the reason for this being that it was run from Paris to Nice and then on to Rome. It was organised as a sort of three-in-one race with three General Classifications, the first from Paris to Nice, the second from Nice to Rome and the third covering the entire parcours. It seems that organisers thought this a splendid idea and had every intention of continuing to run it this way, but the riders were not at all impressed and declared the distance excessive in a six day race. The following year, the race stopped at Nice once more. The winner was Jean Graczyck.

Despite the name, Paris-Nice has started in Paris just four times since 1963 - in 1986, 1987 and 1989 and then again in 1990 before moving to Fontenay-sous-Bois. Paris-Nice's classification leadership jerseys have been altered numerous times during the history of the race, and in 1990 the King of the Mountains jersey - which had been blue since 1985 - changed to yellow and blue, the corporate colours of new sponsor Agrigel. It had been yellow and blue for one year in 1984 when it had been sponsored by Le Crédit Lyonnais.

Helen Wyman
Helen Wyman, born in St. Albans, Hertforshire on this day in 1981, is Great Britain's most successful cyclo cross rider and one of the nation's most successful athletes in any sport.

Having won a series of races both at home and abroad early on in her career, Wyman won the National Championship title in 2006, then won it again in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014; she was also European Champion in 2012 and 2013, and came third at the World Championships in 2014. While 'cross remains her speciality, she is also a talented road racer - in 2011 she was the overall winner of the Women's Tour Series, and in 2013 she won the Sheffield GP criterium. Along the way, she has either won or achieved a podium finish at almost of all the most prestigious races in Europe and the USA, including first place at the 2010 GVA Trophy Koppenberg - her first win in Belgium, cyclo cross' spiritual home, for six years despite a puncture.

Now riding for the Kona/FSA Factory team, Wyman is one of the most popular riders with the fans and can frequently be found chatting with them and answering their questions on Twitter. Her race reports, published on her website, are highly informative and often very funny.

Tinker Juarez
Born in California on the day in 1961, David "Tinker" Juarez has had one of the longest and most comprehensive careers of any cycling. He became a professional BMX rider in 1977, one of the first people to make a living from the sport and having already won the first ever BMX Grandnational Championship two years previously. He would become one of the most influential figures in the development of the fledgling Freestyle scene, inventing several of the tricks that are now considered classics, as well as the High Air style on both vert and dirt ramps - incredibly, he avoided the injuries that most BMX riders will suffer regularly and didn't break a single bone during a ten year career.

Tinker Juarez in 1988
(image credit: Patty Mooney CC BY-SA 3.0)

Around the middle of the 1980s, he became involved in the so-called Formula 1 cycle racing scene, a new discipline featuring rather peculiar bikes that looked a little like a road/mountain bike hybrid fitted with BMX-size 20" wheels (you can see one if you click here). F1 fizzled out almost as soon as it began, perhaps due to the bikes looking just a bit to ridiculous to be taken seriously, but Juarez was not ready to bow out just yet and took up mountain biking, winning the National Cross Country Championship three times, National Solo 24-Hour Champion fours times and laid claim to another "first" - he competed in the first Olympic mountain bike event. He still races mountain bikes to this day.

From 2005, he also began to compete in long-distance endurance road races and won the 800km single-stage Heart of the South event, later coming 2nd overall at the Furnace Creek 508, a 818km (508 miles) single-stage race that climbs 11,000m in total and passes through Death Valley where temperatures regularly approach 50°C (122°F). As a podium finisher, he automatically became eligible to enter the Race Across America, a 4,800km multi-day, single stage event that encourages entrants to ride for as long possible, without stopping, on roads open to traffic.

Juarez, now 51, is still racing to this day. In 2010, he won the UCI Mountain Bike Masters World Championship in Brazil.


A 12-year-old Steven Burke, who was born on this day in 1988 in Burnley, Great Britain, watched Jason Queally win a gold medal for the 1000m time trial at the 2000 Olympics and was inspired to take up track cycling himself. Eight years later, he stood next to his hero Bradley Wiggins on the podium at the Games in Beijing to receive a bronze medal for the individual pursuit race. To date, he had seven British Track Championship and five European Track Championship wins to his name.

Michael Andersson, born in Höganäs in Sweden on this day in 1967, is a multiple National Champion and is the only rider to have won the Postgirot Open (Tour of Sweden) three times. Unfortunately, it looks as though he'll be the remain the only rider to have done so because the race has not been held since 2002.

Italian Flavio Vanzella, born in Vazzola on this day in 1964, wore the yellow jersey for Stages 4 and 5 at the 1994 Tour de France. The following year he won a stage at the Tour de Suisse and overall at the Giro di Veneto.

Georges Ronsse

Born in Antwerp on this day in 1906, Belgian rider Georges Ronsse is remembered by few now. Yet his career, which spanned 13 years between 1926 and 1938, included many very impressive victories - among them were Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1925; Bordeaux-Paris and Paris-Roubaix in 1927; Paris-Brussels and a World Championship in 1928; another World Championship, Bordeaux-Paris and the National Cyclo Cross Championship in 1929; a third Bordeaux-Paris, a second National Cyclo Cross Championship and the GP Wolber in 1930; 5th place overall and Stage 4 at the 1932 Tour de France and three National Track Stayers Championships in 1933, 1934 and 1935 in addition to podium finishes at most of the big races of the time. He retired in 1938, after winning a silver medal at the National Track Stayers Championship.

Dave Rayner, twice winner of the Under-22 Category at the Milk Race (Tour of Britain) was born in Shipley, West Yorkshire, on this day in 1967. Dave died on the 16th of November 1994, one day after becoming involved in an incident outside a Bradford nightclub when he was just 27 years old. One year later, a memorial fund was created in his name to provide financial assistance to promising British riders, allowing them to compete in European races - the first rider to benefit was David Millar.

Australian cyclist Darren Lapthorne was born in Melbourne on this day in 1983. He achieved good results in his first years as a professional, then became National Champion in 2007. 2008 began well for him with a stage win at the Geelong Bay Classic Series, but tragedy struck later in the year when his sister Britt went missing from a nightclub in Croatia, a country she was visiting during a backpacking tour of Europe. Her body was discovered washed up on a beach less than a month later. The cause of her death has never been discovered, but there is some evidence that suggests her body was weighed down before it went into the sea. The rider returned to racing later, knowing that his sister would not have wanted him to give it up. "She was so proud of what I did and she was there at one of the last races in Germany that I did, she was my biggest fan," he said.

Clarence Kingsbury in 1908

Aketza Peña, born in Zalla in the Basque Country on this day in 1981, was a rider with Euskaltel-Euskadi between 2004 and 2007 when he was disqualified from the Giro d'Italia after it was revealed that he had tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid 19-nortestosterone during the Giro del Trentino earlier in the year. In 2010, he joined the Caja Rural team.

Marin Niculescu, born on this day in 1922, won the Tour of Romania in 1951.

Clarence Kingsbury, a successful British track rider in the early 20th Century, died on this day in 1949 at the age of 66. He competed in the 1908 Olympics and won two gold medals for the 20km and Team Pursuit competitions.

Edouard Klabiński died on this day in 1997, aged 76. In 1947 he won the Critérium du Dauphiné and became the first Polish rider to compete in the Tour de France, where he came 34th overall, then won a series of criterium races. He entered the Tour for a second time in 1948 and came 18th overall, finishing Stages 17 and 20a in second place. In the same year, he won the Grand Prix de Saint-Quentin.

Other cyclists born on this day: Elia Rigotto (Italy, 1982); Bohumil Rameš (Bohemia - now Czech Republic, 1895); Arne Johansson (Sweden, 1927); Wu Weipei (China, 1966); Slavoj Černý (Czechoslovakia, 1937); Tibor Magyar (Hungary, 1947); Stanisław Kłosowicz (Poland, 1903, died 1955); Marin Niculescu (Romania, 1923); Ivo Lakučs (Latvia, 1979); Jang Yun-Ho (South Korea, 1961).

Daily Cycling Facts 03.03.2014

Paris-Nice began on this day in 1985, and would be won that year for a fourth consecutive year by the Irish rider Sean Kelly - thus breaking the three consecutive wins record set by Eddy Merckx in 1971 (what's more, Sean would win the next year to equal Jacques Anquetil's five win record too. Then he won for the next two years as well, setting a seven consecutive victory record that is unlikely to be broken). The classification leadership jerseys of Paris-Nice have changed several times over the years and this year it was the turn of the King of the Mountains, which became blue.


Maurice Garin

Garin with masseur and son, 1903

Maurice-Francois Garin was born in Arvier, Italy on this day in 1871 - a tiny village of just seven families, five of them with the surname Garin - and died on the 19th of February 1957 in France. Garin's father was 36 and his mother 19 when they married and life was difficult - the cottage in which he was born can still be seen in Arvier, a short way from the French border, but it lies in ruins and must have been horrendously cramped when occupied by the couple and their nine children, this no doubt being one of the reasons they emigrated over the border when Maurice was 14. It seems that they did so illegally - legal emigration was possible, but the mayors on the French side had been instructed to make it as difficult as possible and the family members traveled separately to escape detection. According to legend, Maurice was exchanged for a round of cheese at some point along the way - a frequently recounted in support of the (often true) "desperate boys from a harsh background" stereotype that makes up a large part of early cycling's mythos.

In fact, the legend may be true. In those days, a 14-year-old boy was considered to be ready to make his own way in the world and, rather than displaying a lack of care, Garin's parents may have believed that they were doing the right thing. That he was working as a chimney sweep in Reims a year later suggests that they cheese may have been a sort of custody payment from an employer - Garin would, as a result, have been tied to the job for a certain number of years, but better that than no job at all in a world where the concept of state unemployment benefits was a long way off. Also, it paid enough for him to join forces with two of his brothers and set up a bike shop in Roubaix in 1895. The exact date at which he became a naturalised Frenchman is unknown, but is thought to have been either 1892 or 1901, by which time the other members of his family had dispersed around France and his father, having returned to Arvier, was dead.

The shop seems to have been quite successful as it paid Garin enough to buy his first bike in 1889 for 405 old francs, roughly €1,400 today. He had no interest in racing but became known locally for the high speeds at which he cycled around town and earned the nickname "Le Fou," The Madman, which brought him to the attention of a cycling club secretary who pleaded with him to race for the organisation. Garin not only agreed, he also finished a very respectable 5th - not bad at all for a first race and despite suffering from the great heat that day. He realised that racing was something he could be good at, and entered more races. His first win came in 1893 and he sold his bike, combined the proceeds of that with the money he'd won in the race and bought a newer, lighter model for the equivalent of €3,000. It was fitted with the newly-popular pneumatic tyres that had been patented by a Scots-Irish vet three and a half years earlier.

He became a professional that same year, and did so in typically unusual fashion: having turned up for a race in Avesnes-sur-Helpes, he was informed by officials that the event was open only to professional riders. Rather than going home or becoming a spectator, he waited until nobody was looking once the riders had set off and then jumped on his bike and went after them. He crashed twice but dropped them all, finishing the race far ahead of them. The crowd loved it - the organisers, meanwhile, were not so impressed and refused to pay him the prize money; so the spectator had a whip-round and gave him 300 francs, double what the professional winner received. It was not long until a sponsor approached him with a contract, and his first victory as a professional came a short while later at a 24-hour race in Paris during which he covered 701km. A record survives showing what Garin claimed to have eaten during the race and makes for impressive reading even when compared to the vast quantities of food (and, in some cases, intoxicating substances) consumed by rider since: 5 litres of tapioca, 2kg of rice, 45 cutlets of meat, 7 litres of tea, 8 eggs, 19 litres of drinking chocolate, some oysters, a mixture of champagne and coffee and "lots" of strong red wine.

Remarkable though his early life and career may have been, Garin will be forever remembered as the man who won the very first Tour de France in 1903 and then won the second one too but was stripped of the victory for cheating. Originally, the race had been planned as a mammoth five-week ordeal by organiser Henri Desgrange, but only 15 cyclists had liked the sound of that and expressed interest so it was reduced to a six-stage event over 2,428km. Garin won 3,000 francs, but the race had been hard - he told journalist Pierre Chany:

"The 2,500km that I've just ridden seem a long line, grey and monotonous, where nothing stood out from anything else. But I suffered on the road; I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was sleepy, I suffered, I cried between Lyon and Marseille, I had the pride of winning other stages, and at the controls I saw the fine figure of my friend Delattre, who had prepared my sustenance, but I repeat, nothing strikes me particularly.
But wait! I'm completely wrong when I say that nothing strikes me, I'm confusing things or explaining myself badly. I must say that one single thing struck me, that a single thing sticks in my memory: I see myself, from the start of the Tour de France, like a bull pierced by banderillas, who pulls the banderillas with him, never able to rid himself of them."

1904 was harder still. The race remained the same distance, but this time fans remembered the events of the previous year and started vendettas against riders they disliked, felling trees across the road to hold them up and physically beating them given the chance. Garin had apparently incurred their wrath at some point, because he was attacked under cover of darkness during a night stage as he climbed  the Col de la République, suffering  severe beating and being hit in the face with a stone. The mob were wild, braying "Up with local hero, André] Faure! Down with Garin! Kill them!" The Italian rider Paul Gerbi was punched and kicked until he became unconscious and had his fingers broken - which suggested that the death threats may well have been carried out had officials not arrived and dispersed the crows by firing their pistols into the air. Later on in the same stage, they ran into a gang of men on bikes and were attacked again - this time, Garin's arm was injured and he had to steer with one hand to the end of the stage.

As if the spectators hadn't been trouble enough, there was widespread cheating among the riders that year (some of them may even have paid for the nails that the spectators threw into the road to cause punctures). No fewer than nine had been kicked out during the race, mostly for "illegal use of cars and trains" (Lucien Petit-Breton said that he'd seen a rider he preferred not to name publicly getting towed by a motorbike, but when he tried to remonstrate with the man, he pointed a pistol at him) and more complaints came in when the race was over. The Union Vélocipédique Française started an investigation, details of which were lost when records were transported to the South of France for safe-keeping during the Nazi Occupation, and in the end a further 20 riders were disqualified. Among them were Garin, who had won the race, 2nd place Lucien Pothier, 3rd place César Garin (Maurice's brother) and 4th place Hippolyte Aucouturier. 19-year-old Henri Cornet, real name Henri Jardry, had been given an official warning after he was spotted getting a lift in a car during the race but, perhaps on account of his youthful inexperience, was not disqualified and thus his 5th place finish was upgraded to 1st. He remains the youngest winner in Tour de France history. However, Garin did not confess.

Retirement was good for Garin - he ran a garage in Lens and, though not rich and rarely recognised even though a velodrome was named in his honour in 1933 and he received a gold medal for his services to sport five year later, seems to have been happy with it and was comfortable (the garage still stands at 116 Rue de Lille, but is much modernised). He retained his interest in cycling throughout his life and started a professional team after the Second World War. He lived to see the 50th anniversary of the Tour, watching the finish from a special podium with several other stars of the races from days gone by, and died four years later at the age of 85. After his death, the world began to take an interest and film crews started to document his life. In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais cemetery where he is buried, they discovered that the cemetery attendant was from Lens and had been familiar with Garin and his garage during his boyhood - and revealed that, as an old man, Garin freely admitted to his cheating in the 1904 Tour.

Even without his Tour success, Garin was a phenomenally talented rider who more than lived up to the promise he showed when he was an amateur and beat the professionals. He won Paris-Roubaix twice (d came 3rd twice), Paris-Saint-Malo, Guingamp-Morlaix-Guingamp, Paris-Le Mans, Paris-Mons, Liège-Thuin, Paris-Royan, Paris-Cabourg, Tourcoing-Béthune-Tourcoing (twice), Valenciennes-Nouvion-Valenciennes, Douai-Doullens-Douai, Paris–Brest–Paris, Bordeaux–Paris and set a world record for riding 500km behind a human pacer (ie, a series of cyclists) in 15h2'32". The money he won would have bought his parents a lot of cheese.


Caroline Alexander, a mountain biker born in Millom, Great Britain on this day in 1968, won the British Cross Country Championship in 1999, 2000 and 2002. She also enjyed success in cyclo cross, winning the National Championship in 1995 and 1996, and on road where she won a silver medal at the 2000 National Championships and 2002 finished La Flèche Wallonne Féminine in 7th place overall. Alexander also competed for Scotland in the Mountain Bike Cross Country event at the Commonwealth Games in 2002, the first time mountain bike races had ever formed a part of the event. She retired two years later and was inducted onto the British Cycling Hall of Fame in 2009.

Raul Alcala
(image credit: Eric Houdas CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Raúl Alcalá
Born on this day in Monterrey, Mexico in 1964, Raúl Alcalá became the first Mexican to compete in the Tour de France in 1986. He won no stages and came 114th overall. The next year, however, he finished in 9th position overall and won the Youth Classification. 1988 wasn't so good with 20th overall, but 8th overall plus Stage 3 in 1989 and 8th again with Stage 7 in 1990 proved his earlier results were more than beginner's luck (for those with the peculiar belief that the Tour grants such favours to new riders, anyway).

He retired at the end of the 1994 season, but then resurfaced as a mountain biker with the GT team four years later before a second retirement. Then, in 2008 he popped up again at the Vuelta Chihuahua and began a third career that culminated in 2010 when he became National Time Trial Champion at the age of 46.


Samantha Cools has been Canadian National BMX Champion thirteen times and a World Champion at Junior level five times. She was born in Calgary on this day in 1986.

Romāns Vainšteins, born in Talsi, Latvia on this day in 1973, had an extensive but relatively undistinguished career for his first few years, then won a National Championship, Paris-Brussels, the GP Kanton Aargau, the Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, the World Championship, Coppa Bernocchi and stages in several classics all within a two-season period over 1999 and 2000. In 2001, he was 3rd at Paris-Roubaix but never achieved anything quite like those two years ever again.

Other births: Radoslav Rogina (Croatia, 1979); Jean Barnabe (Congo, 1949); Aleksandr Petrovsky (USSR, 1989); Ray Hicks (Great Britain, 1917, died 1974); Dimitar Kotev (Bulgaria, 1941); Rubén Darío Gómez (Colombia, 1940, died 2010); Per Sarto Jørgensen (Denmark, 1944); Paul Nyman (Finland, 1929); Lars Jensen (Denmark, 1964); Jürgen Schütze (East Germany, 1951, died 2000); Régis Ovion (France, 1949); Hussein Monsalve (Venezuela, 1969); Laurence Byers (New Zealand, 1941); Gennadi Simov (Bulgaria, 1907).

Daily Cycling Facts 02.03.2014

Sean Kelly

Paris-Nice began on this day in 1986 (the earliest date it's ever started) when the start was in Paris - which, despite the name of the race, had last hosted the start in 1962. It was won by the Irishman Sean Kelly for the fifth time, this equaling Jacques Anquetil's record set in 1966. However, Kelly had won five times consecutively. Not only had no other rider managed to do that, he would also win for the following two years as well and become by far the most successful rider in this race of all time.


Max van Heeswijk, born in Hoensbroek, Belgium on this day in 1973, won Paris-Brussels in 2000, stages at several French and Benelux races, the Points Classification at the Vuelta a Andalucia and Danmark Rundt in 2004, wore the race leader's yellow jersey for one stage at the 2004 Vuelta a Espana and the leader of the Points classification's red jersey for two stages in the same race one year later.

On this day in 2011, Dominik Klemme won the GP Fina-Fayt-le-Franc, better known as Le Samyn. It was LeopardTrek's first victory.

Patrice Halgand, born in St-Nazaire, France on this day in 1974, turned professional in 1995 and won a few races on road and in cyclo cross including General Classification victories at the Vuelta Ciclista de Chile and Etoile de Bessèges in 1997, then made his name as one of only three Festina riders to be declared clean and emerge unscathed from 1998's notorious Festina Affair. He went on to win the Tour du Limousin in 2000, the Regio Tour International in 2001, Stage 10 at the Tour de France and a second Tour du Limousin in 2002 and a series of stages in other races prior to retirement in 2008.

Oscar Egg lugs
(image credit: Classic Lightweights UK)

Oscar Egg
Oscar Egg, born in Schlatt in Switzerland on this day in 1890, set three Hour Records at the Vélodrome Buffalo before the First World War. In the first, he covered 42.122km; in the second, 43.525km and in the third, 44.247km. The third record would remain unbroken for twenty-one years.

He won the Six Days of Chicago four times in 1914, 1915, 1923 and 1924 and became National Track Champion in 1916, the National Sprint Champion in 1926. In the intervening years, he also won the Six Days of Paris (1921, 1923) and the Six Days of Ghent (1922). Egg was also successful on the road: he won Stages  8, 10 and 11 in the Independents category (semi-professional riders who arranged and paid for their own food and board) at the 1911 Tour de France; the National Championship, Paris-Tours and Stages 4 and 5 at the 1914 Tour de France (now as a professional); Milano-Torino and Milano-Modena in 1917 and Stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia in 1919.

Egg also invented the famous Oscar Egg Lug, a type of lug that was as strong as a conventional lug but far lighter and considerably more attractive. Today, the bikes he produced are among the most sought-after by collectors of vintage machines.


Sylwester Szmyd, born on this day in 1978 in the Polish town Bydgoszcz is one of the most respected climbing specialists of his generation. In 2009, he won Stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné - a 154km route from Valance to the summit of cycling's holiest and deadliest mountain, Mont Ventoux.

Other births: Volodymyr Duma (Ukraine, 1972); Christian Faure (France, 1951); Louis Chaillot (France, 1914, died 1998); Madeleine Lindberg (Sweden, 1972); Jamie Richards (New Zealand, 1957); Komi Moreira (Togo, 1968); Ferdinand Vasserot (France, 1881, 1963); Roland Ströhm (Sweden, 1928); André Moes (Luxembourg, 1930); Dave Rowe (Great Britain, 1944); Jan Georg Iversen (Norway, 1956); Georg Johnsson (Sweden, 1902, died 1960); Mohamed El-Kemissi (Tunisia, 1931); Rob van den Wildenberg (Netherlands, 1982).