Daily Cycling Facts 03.11.2013

Brian Robinson

Today, British cyclists have made their mark forever on cycling's greatest race the Tour de France - Tom Simpson was the first to play the media and become a star, then became an even bigger star when he died on Mont Ventoux; Barry Hoban won eight stages; Robert Millar came fourth and won the King of the Mountains; David Millar earned time in all the different classification leaders' jerseys; Cav shattered Hoban's record with 23 stage wins, set a host of records, was declared the greatest sprinter the Tour had ever known and became a pin-up and then in 2012 Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner in the 109 year history of the race. Brian Robinson, born in Huddersfield on this day in 1930, wasn't the first Briton to enter the race (that had been Charles Holland and Bill Burls, who took part and failed to finish when Robinson was six years old in 1937) but he was the first to become a true Tour rider and the first to finish the race; in so doing blazing a trail that all those who came after him would follow.

Robinson was born into a cycling family, his father and older brother being members of the Huddersfield Road Club. He was permitted to join them for strictly non-competitive club rides from the age of thirteen and became a member when he reached the minimum age of fourteen; however, his father didn't allow him to begin racing for another four years. His father relented: Robinson's first attempt was a 25-mile individual time trial on a hilly parcours in March 1948 when he was seventeen and he completed in 1h14'50", a very respectable time for any rider making his debut, but he had already fallen for the glamour of European racing by this time and dreamed of a future in mass-start stage events - unfortunately, at that time the British League of Racing Cyclists (formed by Percy Stallard to establish and promote mass-start road racing in Britain) was still waging war with the National Cycling Union (which had banned mass-start road racing in Britain ever since the late 19th Century, fearing police would ban all bicycles from public roads). Robinson was an NCU member and was thus limited to the few NCU mass-start events that took place, all of them in very restricted circumstances such as on roads in public parks during the hours when the park was closed; he raced many times at Sutton Park in Birmingham where races had to stop before 09:30 when the public were allowed in.

Road racing was not banned on the Isle of Man, which as a self-governing nation had its own cycling union, and after taking third place in the Road Time Trials Council's National Hill Climb Championships and fifth in the NCU's mass-start closed circuit championships the previous year, Robinson went there in 1951 to come seventh at the prestigious Manx International. It wasn't banned in Ireland either; that same year he won Dublin-Galway-Dublin. In 1952 he entered the Route de France as part of a joint NCU/Army team whilst completing his mandatory national military service and did well, taking fifth place overall until the race reached the Pyrenees with three days to go - "I'd never seen mountains like that before" he said afterwards, having fallen into 40th place. That summer he and older brother Des were selected for the British team going to the Olympics; Brian finished in 27th place and Des in 26th. Jacques Anquetil, who would go on to become the first man to win the Tour five times and is still considered by many to be the greatest cyclist France has ever produced, was 12th; a month later at the World Championships Robinson raced against him again and they tied for eighth place. In 1954, having finished his national service, he signed to a team sponsored by Ellis Briggs as an independent; he was second overall in the Tour of Britain and won Stage 6 at the Tour d'Europe, a race held that year and again two years later before vanishing.

Later in 1954, Robinson was invited to join Hercules, a team that had originally been set up to break cycling records with riders including Eileen Sheridan but had later been approached by Derek Buttle who had been racing in France since 1952 with a plan to set up a road racing team. He accepted and, in 1955, he formed part of the first British team in the history of the Tour de France (Holland and Burl, back in 1937, had ridden for a British Empire team that included a Canadian rider). With many members of the team having little or no experience of racing in Europe and none at all of a Grand Tour, the race soon proved itself to be much, much harder than any of them had expected: only Robinson and Tony Hoar could finish, and Hoar was Lanterne Rouge. Robinson, meanwhile, proved himself - he was a respectable 29th, yet Hercules were not encouraged by his success to continue their racing program and the team dissolved at the end of the 1955 season. The following year, he demonstrated that he really was a rider able to take on the best Europe had to offer by performing well at the Vuelta a Espana (where he rode with a Swiss-British team led by le pédaleur de charme, 1951 Tour victor Hugo Koblet), then went to the Tour with a mixed-nationality team that included Charly Gaul, who had been third overall in 1955. Robinson finished Stage 1 in third place before taking 14th in the overall General Classification; Gaul, who won two editions of the Giro d'Italia and one of the Tour in spectacular style and who is still considered by many to have been the greatest climber cycling has ever seen, beat him by just one place.

If anyone now doubted that British cyclists couldn't hold their own at the very top of their sport, they were about to have their illusions shattered because early in 1957, having become the first british rider to sign a contract with a top continental team, Saint Raphael-R. Geminiani, Robinson beat Louison Bobet by almost a minute to win the Nice criterium. A short while later he took second and third place stage finishes at Paris-Nice, then he came third at Milan-San Remo ("by far the greatest achievement by a British roadman in a single-day race since the halcyon 19th-century days of George Pilkington Mills and the Bordeaux–Paris," said Cycling magazine). He crashed out of the Tour that year, but in 1958 he was second behind Arigo Padovan on Stage 7 - until Padovan was relegated to second after judges declared him to have twice tried to force Robinson into the crowd during the final sprint and, for the first time and more than half a century after the Tour began, a British rider had won a stage. It has been said that Stage 7 was the least important stage of the 1958, and those who say so are correct: the Pyrenees and - more important still - the Alps, where the TV crews that were for the first time that year broadcasting live from the mountain stages captured for posterity the incredible climbing abilities that won Gaul his Tour, were still far away and the General Classification contenders were saving their legs for the time trial the next day (and riders needed to think even more carefully than usual about when and where they spent energy, because in 1958 there were no rest days). Yet as far as British cycling fans - and fans of British cycling; an ever-growing number of whom, thanks to Robinson and Simpson (who was offered a contract with Saint Raphael the following year on Robinson's recommendation) and all those who followed the trail they blazed, are not British - it is one of the most important stages in the history of stage racing.

In 1959 Robinson won Stage 20. It was, once again, not a very important stage - the final Alpine stage had been the day before and Federico Bahamontes, who was the only rider able to even get near to Gaul when conditions suited the Luxembourger, had as good as won overall already. The other big names, competing for second and third place in the General Classification, were not concerned when Robinson broke away; however, with only two stages to go plenty of domestiques and also-rans would have been looking to grab any limelight that was available. That Robinson won by 20'06" - second place was taken by Arigo Padovan of all people - is therefore an impressive result. He continued racing for another three years, winning a stage at the GP du Midi-Libre and the Tour de l'Aude in 1960 and the General Classification at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 1961. 1962 passed without victory, then he was third at a criterium in Chaumont; he retired from competition at the age of 33 but still rides today.

John Tomac

John Tomac

If anyone can be said to have lived their life in cycling, it's John Tomac. Born in Michigan on this day in 1967, Tomac began BMX racing when he was 7 and had won a National Championship by his mid-teens; then after moving to California in 1986 he took up mountain biking and won races in that discipline too. Before long, a combination of race results and personality had made him one of the most famous riders in the world - Mongoose, the bike company for whom he had ridden throughout his professional career, marketed a "John Tomac Edition" mountain bike in 1987 and he starred in one of the first mountain biking videos that same year.

Between 1988 and 1991, Tomac also competed in road racing, winning the National Criterium Championship in his first year as a professional before going on to compete in several prestigious European events including Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d'Italia without notable success, leading to a decision to concentrate on mountain biking after 1991. Towards the end of the decade he formed a partnership with Doug Bradbury, the founder of the Manitou MTB suspension company, and set up Tomac Cycles. He no longer owns the brand - which passed through the hands of the American Bicycle Group conglomerate before being bought by Joel Smith, a businessman who had made his name in mountain biking as brand manager with components manufacturer Answer - but still takes an active role in running it and is involved in the design of new bikes.


Jules Rossi, who was born in Acquanera di San Giustin, Italy on this day in 1914 and went to France to live with relatives when he was orphaned at the age of 6, became a professional rider with Alcyon-Dunlop in 1935. He remained with them for most of his career, which lasted for sixteen years; in 1937 he became the first Italian to win Paris-Roubaix (unless - as is possible - Maurice Garin was still Italian when he won), in 1938 he won Stage 6a at the Tour de France and then first place at Paris-Tours after maintaining an average speed sufficient to also win him the Ruban Jaune.

Bobbie Traksel, born in Tiel, Netherlands on this day in 1981, won the 2010 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne after battling through weather so bad that 169 of the riders to start the race abandoned.

Other riders born on this day: Arnaud Labbe (France, 1976); Udo Hempel (Germany, 1946); Maxime Bouet (France, 1986); Anneliese Heard (GB, 1981); Chris Jenner (New Zealand, 1974); Armin Meier (Switzerland, 1969); Oscar Zeissner (Germany, 1928); Javier Suárez (Colombia, 1943); Tacettin Öztürkmen (Turkey, 1913); Alan Bannister (Great Britain, 1922, died 2007); Georges Lutz (France, 1884, died 1915); Børge Mortensen (Denmark, 1921); Peder Pedersen (Denmark, 1945); Joann Burke (New Zealand, 1969); Clarence Kingsbury (Great Britain, 1882, died 1949); Galip Cav (Turkey, 1912); Mario Margalef (Uruguay, 1943).

Daily Cycling Facts 04.10.2013

Emma Davies
Born in Knutsford, Great Britain on this day in 1978, Emma Davies joined the Manchester Wheelers CC when she was twelve and crashed during her very first ride with them - she made the other team members promise not to tell her mum and dad in case they thought cycling was too dangerous and forbade her from continuing. Fortunately, they didn't find out - and having decided to make the switch to track cycling, she won a bronze medal in the Pursuit at the 1998 National Track Championships. The following year she won silver for the Pursuit, again at the Nationals, and was fifth in the same event at the European Under-23 Championships; then repeated her placing at the Nationals in 2000 before taking gold in 2001. She then won it again in 2002, 2003 and 2004, adding the Points race too in the last two years.

In September 2005, Davies married; just a month later she was seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident near Manchester Velodrome. She was left in agony with a compressed vertebral stress fracture, but got off relatively lightly - a shard of bone had splintered off and lodged 2mm from her spinal chord; had it have gone only slightly further, it could have cut through the chord and left her permanently paralysed. For months after leaving hospital, she couldn't walk more than half a kilometre without fainting from the pain. Yet, with a large amount of physiotherapy, she was able to make a full recovery - and in March 2006 she won a bronze medal in the Pursuit at the Commonwealth Games, then two criterium road races in Belgium.

Stan Brittain

Maurice Boeck and Stan Brittain

Arthur Stanley Brittain, who was born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool on this day in 1931, joined the Woolton Wheelers whilst still a teenager and, dressed in plimsolls, badly-fitting shorts and an oversized shirt, won the first race he entered. In 1952 he was called up to the Army to complete his mandatory military service and found a sort of fame as the nephew of the Regimental Sergeant Major said to have the loudest voice on any drill ground in the country, then found more when he was placed in a cycling team alongside Brian Robinson - who in 1955, with Tony Hoar, would become one of the first British riders to complete the Tour de France (but not the first to take part - that had been Charles Holland and Bill Burl in 1937).

Brittain's Army cycling career was not especially successful: he was one of 58 riders to abandon an Irish stage race due to bad weather in 1953 and crashed out of the World Road Race Championships in 1954, where he rode in a team that included Ray Booty who would become the first man to complete a 100-mile time trial in under four hours two years later. However, from 1955 he seemed to enter his best years (or was no longer pursuing a course of studied incompetence, a technique commonly used by those forced to join the armed services against their will) and performed very well at the Peace Race, finishing Stage 1 in second place and taking the race lead in Stage 2, then retaining the lead until Stage 7 when it went to Gustav-Adolf Schur, later the winner of several National Championship titles in his native East Germany and father to professional cyclists Jan and Gus-Erik. Brittain came third overall, with Schur first and a multiple Czech national champion named Jan Veselý taking second; he rode the Peace Race again the following year but abandoned at the start of Stage 6 and also took part in the Olympics where he won a silver medal in the Team Road Race, then in 1957 he won Stages 2 and 9 at the Peace Race and was second overall behind Bulgarian Nentcho Christov.

In 1958, the Tour de France invited Great Britain to enter a team. Unfortunately, it was unable to field a sufficient number of riders capable of taking part; instead Brittain, Robinson and Ron Coe were joined by Seamus Elliott (Ireland's first Grand Tour stage winner and, in 1962, very nearly the World Champion) and a selection of riders from Denmark, Austria and Portugal to make up a primarily British international team. Robinson won Stage 7 and thus became not only one of the first British men to complete a Tour but also the first to win a stage. Brittain finished in 66th place but was under no illusion that he ever stood a chance of winning anything: "The Tour is a race and a half. It was then and is now. It is the class of riders who make the race and the country you go through: the Alps and the Pyrenees - the toughest in the world - which makes it a bike race. I wasn't involved in the racing. That was up front with the big-hitters. Just to get through the Alps and the Pyrenees was something. I had lost my climbing ability, but even in my best climbing years I was never going to climb those mountains, some 12 miles long. I was six-foot something and with a racing weight of 12 stones four, which made it difficult to take over the hills and the mountains," he later told Cycling magazine.

During 1958 Brittain rode for the French Helyett-Potin-Hutchinson team (though not at the Tour, it being the period during which the race was competed by national teams rather than trade teams), also home to Elliott, André Darrigade and Jacques Anquetil; after the Tour he left for the British team Viking Cycles. He couldn't enter the Tour in 1959 due to a broken wrist, then went to Belgium after realising how much money he could make racing there and his form and confidence improved, leaving him feeling that he had the chance to do well when he returned to cycling's most important event in 1960 - but then he fell ill and, having been unable to eat for two days, abandoned in Stage 9. He was again unable to finish the race in 1961.


Cécile Odin, born in Blaye, France on this day in 1965, came third at the Tour de France Féminin in 1985 and 1994, also winning Stage 6 in the latter year. She also won the Tour de Bretagne in 1987, the Tour de l'Aude in 1989, the GP de France in 1990 and was third at the National Individual Time Trial Championships in 1995.

Other cyclists born on this day: Bernard Esterhuizen (South Africa, 1992); Richárd Bicskey (Hungary, 1936); Rainer Podlesch (West Germany, 1944); Christopher Church (Great Britain, 1940, died 2001); Nedyu Rachev (Bulgaria, 1915); Harumitsu Okada (Japan, 1960); Alexius Ekström (Sweden, 1883, died 1958).

Daily Cycling Facts 20.10.2013

Charles Holland

Charles Holland

Born in Aldridge, Great Britain on this day in 1908, Charles Holland was a natural athlete who played cricket and soccer, when he dreamed of one day playing for the Warwickshire cricket team and had an audition to play soccer for Aston Villa. His first bike was a 24"-wheeled machine bought by his father - who was himself a cyclist and had set a Walsall-Matlock record time - for Holland's older brother Walter; it was then handed down to him when Walter grew too big for it. Aged 12, Charles accompanied his father on a cycling tour. In 1927 he entered the Wyndham Novices 25-mile time trial and came second, his first race; then in 1928 he won the Walsall Roads CC's 10-mile race. In those days, road racing was banned in Britain by the National Cycling Union so Holland tried track racing, but it didn't suit him - except in a sprint, when he was almost unbeatable.

In 1932, the final year in which the Olympics road race was run as a time trial, Holland was selected to compete for the Great Britain team alongside Frank Southall, Ernie Johnson, Bill Harvell and Stan Butler and the team came fourth overall; then in 1934 he rode in the World Championships with Fred Ghiliks and Percy Stallard who would later set up the British League of Racing Cyclists, which stood in opposition to the NCU and returned road racing to Britain (its first race, Llangollen-Wolverhampton, grew into the Victory Cycling Marathon after the Second World War and then, over the years and after a four year hiatus at the start of the 21st Century, became the Tour of Britain). They came third behind Italy and France. Holland also rode in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; years later he told how, while out on a training ride, he had stopped for a rest on a bridge crossing the autobahn when a cavalcade including a open-topped Mercedes carrying Hitler passed underneath. Had he have had a brick, he said, he could have prevented the War. Later that year, he won the Best British All-Rounder Award, a year later he was commemorated with a page in the Golden Book of Cycling.

Today, Holland has been criminally almost forgotten except among cycling historians and a dwindling number of cyclists, a few of whom were fortunate enough to have seen him race. He deserves much more because, with Bill Burl, he was the first British rider to ride in a Tour de France, competing in 1937. Considering the thinly- veiled (and sometimes quite open) dislike the French organisers and fans often displayed towards foreign riders, Holland and Burl were initially welcomed with open arms - in an interview towards the end of his life, Holland still remembered how he had received a polite and warm response to his application to ride and that the organisers offered to pay all of their costs. But then, it almost didn't happen: in June, he caught his foot in a rabbit hole and fell, snapping a collar bone that had only recently healed following a crash at a track in Wembley earlier in the year. News of his accident reached France and were misunderstood, the two riders being somewhat to surprised to read in L'Auto just a fortnight before the race was to begin that neither of them would now be riding. They contacted Henri Desgrange for clarification and must have been very relieved the next day when he sent a telegram informing them that he was very happy to confirm their places.

The British cycling team, 1932 Olympics

When they arrived in France, things immediately took a turn for the worse. Neither man had ever met Pierre Gachon, a French-Canadian who would be riding with them to form a British Empire team, before and neither man thought much of him when they did, finding him amateurish and, in Holland's opinion, unlikely to do well in "a second-class British event," never mind an undertaking such as the Tour. As a result, it might not have seemed particularly disastrous at the time when he abandoned during the first day. On Stage 2, a far greater disaster: Burl crashed and broke his own collarbone, forcing him to also abandon. Holland decided to continue alone.

He probably wouldn't have made it much further were it not for his considerable will and determination and, perhaps most of all, more French support, this time from the French team (this was during the days of national teams rather than trade teams) understood that road racing had been banned by the British cycling federation and that Holland was inexperienced as a result, so they adopted him as a sort of mascot and let him stay with them in their hotels, fed him and even managed to provide him with mechanical assistance from their support van. It seems that the organisers, on the other hand, no longer viewed him as favourably as they had - he revealed later that he had been left with the impression that they wanted him out of the race. We'll never know if this was because they had begun to fear he might do better than expected and make a hero of himself in the process or if it was down to Desgrange's pathological dislike of riders receiving assistance during the race because of what happened next.

On Stage 14c (the last of three stages on that one day), he punctured and, when he'd fitted his replacement tubular tyre, discovered that the seal in his pump had perished in the hot sun and left him unable to pressurise the tyre more than halfway, so he had to keep his speed low. Soon, he had two more punctures. He remembered that a crowd of spectators, peasants, crowded around him and tried to cheer him on but none could help further than that. The local priest brought him a bottle of cold beer which he gladly accepted and drank, assuming that his Tour was over. Then, a miracle - somebody showed up with a  tyre for him, but when he fitted it he was in such a hurry to inflate it that he bent the piston rod of his pump, rendering it useless. The peasants managed to find another one and the tyre was eventually inflated, but turned out to be such a loose fit on the wheel that the bike could not be ridden. Once again the peasants brought salvation, finding another tyre which turned out to be a better fit and he could finally set off - but he knew that he was now so far behind that he stood little chance of doing well. He recalled flagging down a press vehicle and asking for a lift to the finish, but they tried to persuade him from giving up and grabbed his jersey to pull him along. "I did not wish to finish this great race unless it was by my own efforts," he later said and finally, having ridden more than 3,200km, he called it a day and abandoned the race. No other British riders would enter for almost two decades.

The Second World War brought the Tour and most European events to a temporary close and, by the time it was over, Holland was both too old to continue as a professional and prevented by the arcane rules of the day to return to amateur competition. He used the money he had won as a rider to set himself up as a newsagent, started playing golf, at which he became quite successful, and rarely, if ever, mentioned his previous career. His two daughters, Nina and Frances, had seen some of his trophies but had no idea who their father had once been until 1962 when they attended a function at the Royal Albert Hall and he was invited up onto the stage to stand alongside Louison Bobet, Jacques Goddet and Brian Robinson, the man who in 1958 had become the first British rider to win a Tour stage. In 2007, 18 years after he had died, they discovered a suitcase in the loft. Inside it were letters from fans, photographs and articles clipped from newspapers and magazines, medals and jerseys from the 1932 and 1936 Olympics and, most poignant of all, the jersey he wore in his Tour de France.

Aldo Ronconi

Aldo Ronconi
20.09.1918 - 12.06.2012

Born in Brisighella, Ravenna on the 20th of September 1918, Aldo Ronconi turned professional with the Legnano team in 1940, winning the Giro dell'Umbria that year. After the Second War, he became National Road Race Champion in 1946, also winning the Giro di Toscana and Stage 15 at the Giro d'Italia.

Ronconi entered the Tour de France for the first time in 1947, the first edition of the race since 1939. That year, the Italian team was made up of Italians resident in France as the peace treaty between the two nations had not yet been formalised and they were, therefore, technically still at war. He won Stage 3, wore the maillot jaune for two days, and was fourth in the overall General Classification. After retiring from competition in 1952, he ran a bike shop in Faenza for many years and was well-known among the local cycling enthusiasts; remaining in the city until his death at the age of 93 on the 12th of June in 2012.

"How ExperiencePlus customers met Aldo Ronconi," ExperiencePlus

Olaf Pollack

Olaf Pollack, who was born in Räckelwitz, East Germany on this day in 1973 and turned professional with Agro-Adler-Brandeburg in 1997, picking up numerous good results in the subsequent years before switching to Gerolsteiner in 2000 and finding more success on track and on the road, including third place in the Points competition at the 2004 Giro d'Italia. The following year he went to T-Mobile, then in 2007 to Wiesenhof Felt and in 2008 to Volksbank. In August 2009, Pollack announced he would be retiring immediately from competition due to an eye problem, which later turned out to be a detached retina. A month later, news emerged that he had failed a doping test with his A and B samples both proving positive for a drug that has never been revealed - he was banned for two years.

Born in Gemla, Sweden on this day in 1980, Gustav Larsson was National Time Trial Champion in  2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012. He turned professional with Fasso Bortolo in 2003, then went to La Française des Jeux in 2006 for a year before joining Unibet, which got into a row with the Amaury Sports Organisation that year and was blocked from entering Paris-Nice, the Tour de France and, when other race organisers sided with the ASO, all the other major events; it closed down as a result. Larsson then signed to Saxobank and remained with them for four years, during which time he won the Tour du Limousin (2010), before joining Vacansoleil-DCM for 2012 and winning Stage 1 at Paris-Nice. Larsson is married to Veronica Andrèasson, also a racing cyclist.

Clara Sánchez, born in Martigues, France on this day in 1983, was World Keirin Champion in 2004 and 2005. She has also held a total of 14 National Championship titles, three European Championship titles and won six World Cup events.

Néstor Mora, born in Bogota, Colombia on this day in 1963, was Amateur National Champion in 1984, won Stage 9 at the Vuelta a Espana in 1990 and rode the Tour de France four times with his best finish, 63rd overall, coming in 1987. On the 20th of February in 1995 he went  out on a training ride in Manizales and was killed by a truck.

Alfredo Balloni, born in Rome on this day in 1989, was National Novices Road Race Champion in 2005, National Juniors Road Race Champion in 2006, National Juniors Time Trial Champion in 2007 and National Under-23 Time Trial Champion in 2009.

Mariano Martínez was born in Burgos, Spain on this day in 1948 but took French nationality in 1963 and competed for France after that date. In 1972, he was sixth overall in the Tour de France; he then came eighth two years later and in 1978 he was tenth, winning Stage 11 and the overall King of the Mountains. He won another stage, 17, in 1980.

Vladimir Karpets

Vladimir Karpets, born in Leningrad, USSR on this day in 1980, won the Youth category at the Tour de France in 2004, came seventh at the Giro d'Italia in 2005, won the Tour de Suisse and came seventh at the Vuelta a Espana in 2007, was 12th at the Tour de France in 2009, 14th at the Giro and 13th at the Vuelta in 2010, 28th at the Tour in 2011 and then 53rd at the Tour in 2012. In 2013, he was second on Stage 2 at the Giro and came 47th overalll.

Danny Hart, born in Redcar, Great Britain on this day in 1991, was World Downhill Mountain Bike Champion in 2011.

Kathleen Shannon, born in Salisbury, Australia on this day in 1964, was National Road Race Champion in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, she was seventh in the Olympic Games road race.

Maria Lawrence, born in Market Harborough, Great Britain on this day in 1970, was National Road Race Champion in 1996 and 1997.

Alfo Ferrari, born in Sospiro, Italy on this day in 1924, became World Amateur Road Race Champion in 1947.

Other cyclists born on this day: Ren Chengyuan (China, 1986); Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica, 1984); Stéphane Heulot (France, 1971); Nguyễn Văn Ngan (South Vietnam, 1943, died 1998); Ole Wackström (Finland, 1932); Dimitar Bobchev (Bulgaria, 1926); Antonio Quintero (Cuba, 1961); Leonard Harvey Nitz (USA, 1956); Andrey Teteryuk (Kazakhstan, 1967); Exequiel Ramírez (Chile, 1924); Walter Bortel (Austria, 1926).

Daily Cycling Facts 03.11.12

Brian Robinson

Today, British cyclists have made their mark forever on cycling's greatest race the Tour de France - Tom Simpson was the first to play the media and become a star, then became an even bigger star when he died on Mont Ventoux; Barry Hoban won eight stages; Robert Millar came fourth and won the King of the Mountains; David Millar earned time in all the different classification leaders' jerseys; Cav shattered Hoban's record with 23 stage wins, set a host of records, was declared the greatest sprinter the Tour had ever known and became a pin-up and then in 2012 Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner in the 109 year history of the race. Brian Robinson, born in Huddersfield on this day in 1930, wasn't the first Briton to enter the race (that had been Charles Holland and Bill Burls, who took part and failed to finish when Robinson was six years old in 1937) but he was the first to become a true Tour rider and the first to finish the race; in so doing blazing a trail that all those who came after him would follow.

Robinson was born into a cycling family, his father and older brother being members of the Huddersfield Road Club. He was permitted to join them for strictly non-competitive club rides from the age of thirteen and became a member when he reached the minimum age of fourteen; however, his father didn't allow him to begin racing for another four years. His father relented: Robinson's first attempt was a 25-mile individual time trial on a hilly parcours in March 1948 when he was seventeen and he completed in 1h14'50", a very respectable time for any rider making his debut, but he had already fallen for the glamour of European racing by this time and dreamed of a future in mass-start stage events - unfortunately, at that time the British League of Racing Cyclists (formed by Percy Stallard to establish and promote mass-start road racing in Britain) was still waging war with the National Cycling Union (which had banned mass-start road racing in Britain ever since the late 19th Century, fearing police would ban all bicycles from public roads). Robinson was an NCU member and was thus limited to the few NCU mass-start events that took place, all of them in very restricted circumstances such as on roads in public parks during the hours when the park was closed; he raced many times at Sutton Park in Birmingham where races had to stop before 09:30 when the public were allowed in.

Road racing was not banned on the Isle of Man, which as a self-governing nation had its own cycling union, and after taking third place in the Road Time Trials Council's National Hill Climb Championships and fifth in the NCU's mass-start closed circuit championships the previous year, Robinson went there in 1951 to come seventh at the prestigious Manx International. It wasn't banned in Ireland either; that same year he won Dublin-Galway-Dublin. In 1952 he entered the Route de France as part of a joint NCU/Army team whilst completing his mandatory national military service and did well, taking fifth place overall until the race reached the Pyrenees with three days to go - "I'd never seen mountains like that before" he said afterwards, having fallen into 40th place. That summer he and older brother Des were selected for the British team going to the Olympics; Brian finished in 27th place and Des in 26th. Jacques Anquetil, who would go on to become the first man to win the Tour five times and is still considered by many to be the greatest cyclist France has ever produced, was 12th; a month later at the World Championships Robinson raced against him again and they tied for eighth place. In 1954, having finished his national service, he signed to a team sponsored by Ellis Briggs as an independent; he was second overall in the Tour of Britain and won Stage 6 at the Tour d'Europe, a race held that year and again two years later before vanishing.

Later in 1954, Robinson was invited to join Hercules, a team that had originally been set up to break cycling records with riders including Eileen Sheridan but had later been approached by Derek Buttle who had been racing in France since 1952 with a plan to set up a road racing team. He accepted and, in 1955, he formed part of the first British team in the history of the Tour de France (Holland and Burl, back in 1937, had ridden for a British Empire team that included a Canadian rider). With many members of the team having little or no experience of racing in Europe and none at all of a Grand Tour, the race soon proved itself to be much, much harder than any of them had expected: only Robinson and Tony Hoar could finish, and Hoar was Lanterne Rouge. Robinson, meanwhile, proved himself - he was a respectable 29th, yet Hercules were not encouraged by his success to continue their racing program and the team dissolved at the end of the 1955 season. The following year, he demonstrated that he really was a rider able to take on the best Europe had to offer by performing well at the Vuelta a Espana (where he rode with a Swiss-British team led by le pédaleur de charme, 1951 Tour victor Hugo Koblet), then went to the Tour with a mixed-nationality team that included Charly Gaul, who had been third overall in 1955. Robinson finished Stage 1 in third place before taking 14th in the overall General Classification; Gaul, who won two editions of the Giro d'Italia and one of the Tour in spectacular style and who is still considered by many to have been the greatest climber cycling has ever seen, beat him by just one place.

If anyone now doubted that British cyclists couldn't hold their own at the very top of their sport, they were about to have their illusions shattered because early in 1957, having become the first british rider to sign a contract with a top continental team, Saint Raphael-R. Geminiani, Robinson beat Louison Bobet by almost a minute to win the Nice criterium. A short while later he took second and third place stage finishes at Paris-Nice, then he came third at Milan-San Remo ("by far the greatest achievement by a British roadman in a single-day race since the halcyon 19th-century days of George Pilkington Mills and the Bordeaux–Paris," said Cycling magazine). He crashed out of the Tour that year, but in 1958 he was second behind Arigo Padovan on Stage 7 - until Padovan was relegated to second after judges declared him to have twice tried to force Robinson into the crowd during the final sprint and, for the first time and more than half a century after the Tour began, a British rider had won a stage. It has been said that Stage 7 was the least important stage of the 1958, and those who say so are correct: the Pyrenees and - more important still - the Alps, where the TV crews that were for the first time that year broadcasting live from the mountain stages captured for posterity the incredible climbing abilities that won Gaul his Tour, were still far away and the General Classification contenders were saving their legs for the time trial the next day (and riders needed to think even more carefully than usual about when and where they spent energy, because in 1958 there were no rest days). Yet as far as British cycling fans - and fans of British cycling; an ever-growing number of whom, thanks to Robinson and Simpson (who was offered a contract with Saint Raphael the following year on Robinson's recommendation) and all those who followed the trail they blazed, are not British - it is one of the most important stages in the history of stage racing.

In 1959 Robinson won Stage 20. It was, once again, not a very important stage - the final Alpine stage had been the day before and Federico Bahamontes, who was the only rider able to even get near to Gaul when conditions suited the Luxembourger, had as good as won overall already. The other big names, competing for second and third place in the General Classification, were not concerned when Robinson broke away; however, with only two stages to go plenty of domestiques and also-rans would have been looking to grab any limelight that was available. That Robinson won by 20'06" - second place was taken by Arigo Padovan of all people - is therefore an impressive result. He continued racing for another three years, winning a stage at the GP du Midi-Libre and the Tour de l'Aude in 1960 and the General Classification at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 1961. 1962 passed without victory, then he was third at a criterium in Chaumont; he retired from competition in 1933 but still rides today.

John Tomac

John Tomac

If anyone can be said to have lived their life in cycling, it's John Tomac. Born in Michigan on this day in 1967, Tomac began BMX racing when he was 7 and had won a National Championship by his mid-teens; then after moving to California in 1986 he took up mountain biking and won races in that discipline too. Before long, a combination of race results and personality had made him one of the most famous riders in the world - Mongoose, the bike company for whom he had ridden throughout his professional career, marketed a "John Tomac Edition" mountain bike in 1987 and he starred in one of the first mountain biking videos that same year.

Between 1988 and 1991, Tomac also competed in road racing, winning the National Criterium Championship in his first year as a professional before going on to compete in several prestigious European events including Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d'Italia without notable success, leading to a decision to concentrate on mountain biking after 1991. Towards the end of the decade he formed a partnership with Doug Bradbury, the founder of the Manitou MTB suspension company, and set up Tomac Cycles. He no longer owns the brand - which passed through the hands of the American Bicycle Group conglomerate before being bought by Joel Smith, a businessman who had made his name in mountain biking as brand manager with components manufacturer Answer - but still takes an active role in running it and is involved in the design of new bikes.


Jules Rossi, who was born in Acquanera di San Giustin, Italy on this day in 1914 and went to France to live with relatives when he was orphaned at the age of 6, became a professional rider with Alcyon-Dunlop in 1935. He remained with them for most of his career, which lasted for sixteen years; in 1937 he became the first Italian to win Paris-Roubaix (unless - as is possible - Maurice Garin was still Italian when he won), in 1938 he won Stage 6a at the Tour de France and then first place at Paris-Tours after maintaining an average speed sufficient to also win him the Ruban Jaune.

Bobbie Traksel, born in Tiel, Netherlands on this day in 1981, won the 2010 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne after battling through weather so bad that 169 of the riders to start the race abandoned.

Other riders born on this day: Arnaud Labbe (France, 1976); Udo Hempel (Germany, 1946); Maxime Bouet (France, 1986); Anneliese Heard (GB, 1981); Chris Jenner (New Zealand, 1974); Armin Meier (Switzerland, 1969); Oscar Zeissner (Germany, 1928); Javier Suárez (Colombia, 1943); Tacettin Öztürkmen (Turkey, 1913); Alan Bannister (Great Britain, 1922, died 2007); Georges Lutz (France, 1884, died 1915); Børge Mortensen (Denmark, 1921); Peder Pedersen (Denmark, 1945); Joann Burke (New Zealand, 1969); Clarence Kingsbury (Great Britain, 1882, died 1949); Galip Cav (Turkey, 1912); Mario Margalef (Uruguay, 1943).

Daily Cycling Facts 04.10.12

Emma Davies
Born in Knutsford, Great Britain on this day in 1978, Emma Davies joined the Manchester Wheelers CC when she was twelve and crashed during her very first ride with them - she made the other team members promise not to tell her mum and dad in case they thought cycling was too dangerous and forbade her from continuing. Fortunately, they didn't find out - and having decided to make the switch to track cycling, she won a bronze medal in the Pursuit at the 1998 National Track Championships. The following year she won silver for the Pursuit, again at the Nationals, and was fifth in the same event at the European Under-23 Championships; then repeated her placing at the Nationals in 2000 before taking gold in 2001. She then won it again in 2002, 2003 and 2004, adding the Points race too in the last two years.

In September 2005, Davies married; just a month later she was seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident near Manchester Velodrome. She was left in agony with a compressed vertebral stress fracture, but got off relatively lightly - a shard of bone had splintered off and lodged 2mm from her spinal chord; had it have gone only slightly further, it could have cut through the chord and left her permanently paralysed. For months after leaving hospital, she couldn't walk more than half a kilometre without fainting from the pain. Yet, with a large amount of physiotherapy, she was able to make a full recovery - and in March 2006 she won a bronze medal in the Pursuit at the Commonwealth Games, then two criterium road races in Belgium.

Stan Brittain

Maurice Boeck and Stan Brittain

Arthur Stanley Brittain, who was born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool on this day in 1931, joined the Woolton Wheelers whilst still a teenager and, dressed in plimsolls, badly-fitting shorts and an oversized shirt, won the first race he entered. In 1952 he was called up to the Army to complete his mandatory military service and found a sort of fame as the nephew of the Regimental Sergeant Major said to have the loudest voice on any drill ground in the country, then found more when he was placed in a cycling team alongside Brian Robinson - who in 1955, with Tony Hoar, would become one of the first British riders to complete the Tour de France (but not the first to take part - that had been Charles Holland and Bill Burl in 1937).

Brittain's Army cycling career was not especially successful: he was one of 58 riders to abandon an Irish stage race due to bad weather in 1953 and crashed out of the World Road Race Championships in 1954, where he rode in a team that included Ray Booty who would become the first man to complete a 100-mile time trial in under four hours two years later. However, from 1955 he seemed to enter his best years (or was no longer pursuing a course of studied incompetence, a technique commonly used by those forced to join the armed services against their will) and performed very well at the Peace Race, finishing Stage 1 in second place and taking the race lead in Stage 2, then retaining the lead until Stage 7 when it went to Gustav-Adolf Schur, later the winner of several National Championship titles in his native East Germany and father to professional cyclists Jan and Gus-Erik. Brittain came third overall, with Schur first and a multiple Czech national champion named Jan Veselý taking second; he rode the Peace Race again the following year but abandoned at the start of Stage 6 and also took part in the Olympics where he won a silver medal in the Team Road Race, then in 1957 he won Stages 2 and 9 at the Peace Race and was second overall behind Bulgarian Nentcho Christov.

In 1958, the Tour de France invited Great Britain to enter a team. Unfortunately, it was unable to field a sufficient number of riders capable of taking part; instead Brittain, Robinson and Ron Coe were joined by Seamus Elliott (Ireland's first Grand Tour stage winner and, in 1962, very nearly the World Champion) and a selection of riders from Denmark, Austria and Portugal to make up a primarily British international team. Robinson won Stage 7 and thus became not only one of the first British men to complete a Tour but also the first to win a stage. Brittain finished in 66th place but was under no illusion that he ever stood a chance of winning anything: "The Tour is a race and a half. It was then and is now. It is the class of riders who make the race and the country you go through: the Alps and the Pyrenees - the toughest in the world - which makes it a bike race. I wasn't involved in the racing. That was up front with the big-hitters. Just to get through the Alps and the Pyrenees was something. I had lost my climbing ability, but even in my best climbing years I was never going to climb those mountains, some 12 miles long. I was six-foot something and with a racing weight of 12 stones four, which made it difficult to take over the hills and the mountains," he later told Cycling magazine.

During 1958 Brittain rode for the French Helyett-Potin-Hutchinson team (though not at the Tour, it being the period during which the race was competed by national teams rather than trade teams), also home to Elliott, André Darrigade and Jacques Anquetil; after the Tour he left for the British team Viking Cycles. He couldn't enter the Tour in 1959 due to a broken wrist, then went to Belgium after realising how much money he could make racing there and his form and confidence improved, leaving him feeling that he had the chance to do well when he returned to cycling's most important event in 1960 - but then he fell ill and, having been unable to eat for two days, abandoned in Stage 9. He was again unable to finish the race in 1961.


Cécile Odin, born in Blaye, France on this day in 1965, came third at the Tour de France Féminin in 1985 and 1994, also winning Stage 6 in the latter year. She also won the Tour de Bretagne in 1987, the Tour de l'Aude in 1989, the GP de France in 1990 and was third at the National Individual Time Trial Championships in 1995.

Other cyclists born on this day: Bernard Esterhuizen (South Africa, 1992); Richárd Bicskey (Hungary, 1936); Rainer Podlesch (West Germany, 1944); Christopher Church (Great Britain, 1940, died 2001); Nedyu Rachev (Bulgaria, 1915); Harumitsu Okada (Japan, 1960); Alexius Ekström (Sweden, 1883, died 1958).

Daily Cycling Facts 20.09.12

Charles Holland

Charles Holland

Born in Aldridge, Great Britain on this day in 1908, Charles Holland was a natural athlete who played cricket and soccer, when he dreamed of one day playing for the Warwickshire cricket team and had an audition to play soccer for Aston Villa. His first bike was a 24"-wheeled machine bought by his father - who was himself a cyclist and had set a Walsall-Matlock record time - for Holland's older brother Walter; it was then handed down to him when Walter grew too big for it. Aged 12, Charles accompanied his father on a cycling tour. In 1927 he entered the Wyndham Novices 25-mile time trial and came second, his first race; then in 1928 he won the Walsall Roads CC's 10-mile race. In those days, road racing was banned in Britain by the National Cycling Union so Holland tried track racing, but it didn't suit him - except in a sprint, when he was almost unbeatable.

In 1932, the final year in which the Olympics road race was run as a time trial, Holland was selected to compete for the Great Britain team alongside Frank Southall, Ernie Johnson, Bill Harvell and Stan Butler and the team came fourth overall; then in 1934 he rode in the World Championships with Fred Ghiliks and Percy Stallard who would later set up the British League of Racing Cyclists, which stood in opposition to the NCU and returned road racing to Britain (its first race, Llangollen-Wolverhampton, grew into the Victory Cycling Marathon after the Second World War and then, over the years and after a four year hiatus at the start of the 21st Century, became the Tour of Britain). They came third behind Italy and France. Holland also rode in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; years later he told how, while out on a training ride, he had stopped for a rest on a bridge crossing the autobahn when a cavalcade including a open-topped Mercedes carrying Hitler passed underneath. Had he have had a brick, he said, he could have prevented the War. Later that year, he won the Best British All-Rounder Award, a year later he was commemorated with a page in the Golden Book of Cycling.

Today, Holland has been criminally almost forgotten except among cycling historians and a dwindling number of cyclists, a few of whom were fortunate enough to have seen him race. He deserves much more because, with Bill Burl, he was the first British rider to ride in a Tour de France, competing in 1937. Considering the thinly- veiled (and sometimes quite open) dislike the French organisers and fans often displayed towards foreign riders, Holland and Burl were welcomed with open arms - in an interview towards the end of his life, Holland still remembered how he had received a polite and warm response to his application to ride and that the organisers offered to pay all of their costs. But then, it almost didn't happen: in June, he caught his foot in a rabbit hole and fell, snapping a collar bone that had only recently healed following a crash at a track in Wembley earlier in the year. News of his accident reached France and were misunderstood, the two riders being somewhat to surprised to read in L'Auto just a fortnight before the race was to begin that neither of them would now be riding. They contacted Henri Desgrange for clarification and must have been very relieved the next day when he sent a telegram informing them that he was very happy to confirm their places.

The British cycling team, 1932 Olympics

When they arrived in France, things immediately took a turn for the worse. Neither man had ever met Pierre Gachon, a French-Canadian who would be riding with them to form a British Empire team, before and neither man thought much of him when they did, finding him amateurish and, in Holland's opinion, unlikely to do well in "a second-class British event," never mind an undertaking such as the Tour. As a result, it might not have seemed particularly disastrous at the time when he abandoned during the first day. On Stage 2, a far greater disaster: Burl crashed and broke his own collarbone, forcing him to also abandon. Holland decided to continue alone.

He probably wouldn't have made it much further were it not for his considerable will and determination and, perhaps most of all, more French support. The French team (this was during the days of national teams rather than trade teams) understood that road racing had been banned by the British cycling federation and that Holland was inexperienced as a result, so they adopted him as a sort of mascot and let him stay with them in their hotels, fed him and even managed to provide him with mechanical assistance from their support van. It seems that the organisers no longer viewed him as favourably as they had, however - he revealed later that he had been left with the impression that they wanted him out of the race. We'll never know if this was because they had begun to fear he might do better than expected and make a hero of himself in the process or if it was down to Desgrange's pathological dislike of riders receiving assistance during the race because of what happened next.

On Stage 14c (the last of three stages on that one day), he punctured and, when he'd fitted his replacement tubular tyre, discovered that the seal in his pump had perished in the hot sun and left him unable to pressurise the tyre more than halfway, so he had to keep his speed low. Soon, he had two more punctures. He remembered that a crowd of spectators, peasants, crowded around him and tried to cheer him on but none could help further than that. The local priest brought him a bottle of cold beer which he gladly accepted and drank, assuming that his Tour was over. Then, a miracle - somebody showed up with a  tyre for him, but when he fitted it he was in such a hurry to inflate it that he bent the piston rod of his pump, rendering it useless. The peasants managed to find another one and the tyre was eventually inflated, but turned out to be such a loose fit on the wheel that the bike could not be ridden. Once again the peasants brought salvation, finding another tyre which turned out to be a better fit and he could finally set off - but he knew that he was now so far behind that he stood little chance of doing well. He recalled flagging down a press vehicle and asking for a lift to the finish, but they tried to persuade him from giving up and grabbed his jersey to pull him along. "I did not wish to finish this great race unless it was by my own efforts," he later said and finally, having ridden more than 3,200km, he called it a day and abandoned the race. No other British riders would enter for almost two decades.

The Second World War brought the Tour and most European events to a temporary close and, by the time it was over, Holland was both too old to continue as a professional and prevented by the arcane rules of the day to return to amateur competition. He used the money he had won as a rider to set himself up as a newsagent, started playing golf, at which he became quite successful, and rarely, if ever, mentioned his previous career. His two daughters, Nina and Frances, had seen some of his trophies but had no idea who their father had once been until 1962 when they attended a function at the Royal Albert Hall and he was invited up onto the stage to stand alongside Louison Bobet, Jacques Goddet and Brian Robinson, the man who in 1958 had become the first British rider to win a Tour stage. In 2007, 18 years after he had died, they discovered a suitcase in the loft. Inside it were letters from fans, photographs and articles clipped from newspapers and magazines, medals and jerseys from the 1932 and 1936 Olympics and, most poignant of all, the jersey he wore in his Tour de France.

Aldo Ronconi

Aldo Ronconi
20.09.1918 - 12.06.2012

Born in Brisighella, Ravenna on the 20th of September 1918, Aldo Ronconi turned professional with the Legnano team in 1940, winning the Giro dell'Umbria that year. After the Second War, he became National Road Race Champion in 1946, also winning the Giro di Toscana and Stage 15 at the Giro d'Italia.

Ronconi entered the Tour de France for the first time in 1947, the first edition of the race since 1939. That year, the Italian team was made up of Italians resident in France as the peace treaty between the two nations had not yet been formalised and they were, therefore, technically still at war. He won Stage 3, wore the maillot jaune for two days, and was fourth in the overall General Classification. After retiring from competition in 1952, he ran a bike shop in Faenza for many years and was well-known among the local cycling enthusiasts; remaining in the city until his death at the age of 93 on the 12th of June in 2012.

"How ExperiencePlus customers met Aldo Ronconi," ExperiencePlus

Olaf Pollack

Olaf Pollack, who was born in Räckelwitz, East Germany on this day in 1973 and turned professional with Agro-Adler-Brandeburg in 1997, picking up numerous good results in the subsequent years before switching to Gerolsteiner in 2000 and finding more success on track and on the road, including third place in the Points competition at the 2004 Giro d'Italia. The following year he went to T-Mobile, then in 2007 to Wiesenhof Felt and in 2008 to Volksbank. In August 2009, Pollack announced he would be retiring immediately from competition due to an eye problem, which later turned out to be a detached retina. A month later, news emerged that he had failed a doping test with his A and B samples both proving positive for a drug that has never been revealed - he was banned for two years.

Born in Gemla, Sweden on this day in 1980, Gustav Larsson was National Time Trial Champion in  2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012. He turned professional with Fasso Bortolo in 2003, then went to La Française des Jeux in 2006 for a year before joining Unibet, which got into a row with the Amaury Sports Organisation that year and was blocked from entering Paris-Nice, the Tour de France and, when other race organisers sided with the ASO, all the other major events; it closed down as a result. Larsson then signed to Saxobank and remained with them for four years, during which time he won the Tour du Limousin (2010), before joining Vacansoleil-DCM for 2012 and winning Stage 1 at Paris-Nice. Larsson is married to Veronica Andrèasson, also a racing cyclist.

Clara Sánchez, born in Martigues, France on this day in 1983, was World Keirin Champion in 2004 and 2005. She has also held a total of 14 National Championship titles, three European Championship titles and won six World Cup events.

Néstor Mora, born in Bogota, Colombia on this day in 1963, was Amateur National Champion in 1984, won Stage 9 at the Vuelta a Espana in 1990 and rode the Tour de France four times with his best finish, 63rd overall, coming in 1987. On the 20th of February in 1995 he went  out on a training ride in Manizales and was killed by a truck.

Alfredo Balloni, born in Rome on this day in 1989, was National Novices Road Race Champion in 2005, National Juniors Road Race Champion in 2006, National Juniors Time Trial Champion in 2007 and National Under-23 Time Trial Champion in 2009.

Mariano Martínez was born in Burgos, Spain on this day in 1948 but took French nationality in 1963 and competed for France after that date. In 1972, he was sixth overall in the Tour de France; he then came eighth two years later and in 1978 he was tenth, winning Stage 11 and the overall King of the Mountains. He won another stage, 17, in 1980.

Vladimir Karpets

Vladimir Karpets, born in Leningrad, USSR on this day in 1980, won the Youth category at the Tour de France in 2004, came seventh at the Giro d'Italia in 2005, won the Tour de Suisse and came seventh at the Vuelta a Espana in 2007, was 12th at the Tour de France in 2009, 14th at the Giro and 13th at the Vuelta in 2010, 28th at the Tour in 2011 and then 53rd at the Tour in 2012.

Danny Hart, born in Redcar, Great Britain on this day in 1991, was World Downhill Mountain Bike Champion in 2011.

Kathleen Shannon, born in Salisbury, Australia on this day in 1964, was National Road Race Champion in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, she was seventh in the Olympic Games road race.

Maria Lawrence, born in Market Harborough, Great Britain on this day in 1970, was National Road Race Champion in 1996 and 1997.

Alfo Ferrari, born in Sospiro, Italy on this day in 1924, became World Amateur Road Race Champion in 1947.

Other cyclists born on this day: Ren Chengyuan (China, 1986); Ricardo Lynch (Jamaica, 1984); Stéphane Heulot (France, 1971); Nguyễn Văn Ngan (South Vietnam, 1943, died 1998); Ole Wackström (Finland, 1932); Dimitar Bobchev (Bulgaria, 1926); Antonio Quintero (Cuba, 1961); Leonard Harvey Nitz (USA, 1956); Andrey Teteryuk (Kazakhstan, 1967); Exequiel Ramírez (Chile, 1924); Walter Bortel (Austria, 1926).

Pooley wins Durango-Durango

Emma Pooley

British AA Drink-Leontien.nl rider Emma Pooley chalked up (what by my reckoning) was her 41st professional victory and her first this season at Tuesday's Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria after using her highly respected climbing skills to escape from a strong lead group on the penultimate climb, then rode hard to maintain her advantage all the way to the line.

The initial part of the race had been characterised by constant tit-for-tat battles with various attacks firing off and being chased down only for a new attempt to replace it. In the last 20km, the opposing teams redoubled their efforts and worked together to try to bring Pooley back but were simply outclassed on the final pair of hills.

With 2km it was clear that the only remaining battle was the one for second place: the chase groups merged and began concentrating on getting their sprinters into position and, with Pooley already home and dry, thirteen of them contested second place. Orica-GreenEDGE's Claudia Haussler did a superb job of leading out Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, but on this occasion Teut's incredible sprint didn't deliver and she settled for third behind Specialised-Lululemon's Charlotte Becker.

Elizabeth Armitstead and Sharon Laws, also AA-Drink, took fourth and eighth respectively. With their Dutch team mate Lucinda Brand taking ninth, it was a great day for AA Drink - and further proof that if you want to see British riders dominate cycling, the women are the ones to watch.

It's also indication that a slow start to the season was caused by Pooley timing her peak for the Giro Donne, the last Grand Tour in women's cycling, and for the Olympics.

Top Ten
  1.  Emma Pooley AA Drink-Leontien.nl 2h51'35"
  2.  Charlotte Becker Specialized-Lululemon +54"
  3.  Judith Arndt Orica GreenEDGE ST
  4.  Elizabeth Armitstead AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST
  5.  Annemiek Van Vleuten Rabobank ST
  6.  Alena Amialyusik Be Pink ST
  7.  Emma Johansson Hitec Products-Mistral Home ST
  8.  Sharon Laws AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST
  9.  Lucinda Brand AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST
  10.  Ellen Van Dijk Specialized- Lululemon ST
(Full results)

How a Bicycle is Made (1945)

"This worker can fill over 1000 hubs in an eight hour day..." I wonder if 1000 hubs are even made in Britain in each day now?

Cycling Evening News 23.04.12

Greipel wins in Turkey - Berlin withdraws Tour bid, cites cost and doping as reason - Contador case "Mr. X" was Liberty Seguros soigneur - Canadian event designed to promote women's cycling -  Boost for British CX - Tour prologue extended - Ng Yong Li hit by car - Paracycling in mainstream news - Meersman to ride Romandie - Gilbert Bros. compete at Tour of Belgium - Sky announce Romandie roster - Newswire - Addison Lee protest - The importance of hydration

Andre Greipel, now with Lotto-Belisol

Racing
Greipel wins in Turkey
Lotto-Belisol's Andre Greipel won the second stage at the Tour of Turkey today (Monday), winning a sprint against Matthew Goss of GreenEDGE (who took second place for the second time in the race) after a very hot 153km ride along the coast from Alanya to Antalya featuring a tough climb to Aksu at 130km. Greipel's form appeared to take a dive over the last month or so after good results and six wins early in the year, so his cosy advantage as he crossed the line will have come as something of a relief to him and his team management.

Five riders led by Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) broke away early in the stage and remained out in front for the majority of the race, at one point achieving a lead of 4'30"; but they'd all been caught with 5km to go to the finish line. (Full results when available)

Tomorrow, the riders face another grueling 152km from Antalya, heading inland to the mountains and Elmali and twice climbing to more than 1,600m. (Stage 3 map and profile)

Berlin withdraws Tour bid
Success in Yorkshire's bid to host the start of the 2016 Tour de France comes a step closer today with an announcement made by the Sports Minister of Berlin stating that the German city will withdraw its own bid due to the high cost. Hosting the start would cost about ten million euros, "a damned high sum of money" says Andreas Statzkowksi. Instead, the city hopes to instead attract the World Track Championships, a far more affordable prospect at 1.5 million euros.

Cycling has done more than any
sport to combat doping, but still
suffers from the association

It's good news for Yorkshire, but bad news for cycling because, worryingly, doping was also part of the Berlin government's decision - according to newspaper Der Tagespiegel, "the Senate was encouraged to cancel the bid by the years of doping scandals in cycling... A World Indoor Championships would be worth more [to the city] than the Tour, which has been battered by doping scandals," an indication that despite the sport and the Tour taking up widespread measures that are frequently above and beyond what is required by the UCI and WADA to rid itself of the problem, the names of cycling and its greatest race are still tarnished. (More from Der Tagespiegel)

Contador rode for Liberty from 2003
to 2006

Contador case "Mr. X" was Liberty Seguros soigneur, says Spanish magazine
Mr. X - the mysterious figure who claimed to have seen Alberto Contador injecting himself at the 2005 Tour de France with insulin supplied by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes - has been revealed as an ex-soigneur at the Spanish rider's then team Liberty Seguros by Spanish magazine Interviu.

Mr. X is understood to have been sworn in during the hearing and asked for anonymity, saying he was afraid for his own and his family's safety. However, his WADA-requested admission in the case was refused by the CAS after moves by Contador's legal team. The magazine does not say if it knows his identity, but it's surely only a matter of time before someone remembers who was working for the team that year. (More from Interviu.es)

Canadian Cycling teams up with Fast and Female to bring more girls into the sport
The Canadian Federation is working with Fast and Female to run an event at the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau, Canada's only women's UCI road race and time trial, on the 20th of May with the aim of encouraging girls and young women aged between 9 and 19 to take up competitive cycling. Tickets cost $20 (for which every attendee will receive lunch and a t-shirt valued at $40) and the event will feature various motivational activities including talks by famous riders including National Criterium Champion Leah Kirchmann. More details here.

Boost for British CX
British cyclo cross is due to receive a massive boost following an announcement made by British Cycling that a series of summer events will be held in Cumbria this year. Open to anyone who pays a small entrance fee, whether they ride a CX bike or a mountain bike, races at Ulverston, Ambleside, Whitehaven, Whinlatter, Sedbergh and Penrith are already confirmed and the Federation says more will be added if they prove successful.

Every venue will host races for under 10s, under 12s, under 14 and under 16s, women, juniors, seniors and veterans - and as a result will help introduce a wide range of people to one of the most accessible forms of competitive cycling and, with a bit of luck, result in some future champions. (More information from British Cycling)

Other Racing News
The 2012 Tour de France prologue - to be held in Liège and originally intended to be as identical as possible to that in 2004, when a 23-year-old Fabian Cancellara beat favourite Lance Armstrong by 3" - will have to be extended by 300m due to roadworks. The parcours will now be 6.4km in length. (More from Cycling News)

Malaysian National team member Ng Yong Li considers himself fortunate to have escaped with deep cuts to his back, arms and head after he was hit by a motorcycle during a training ride yesterday. "I was cycling alone and I don’t know how the motorcycle hit me as the road was clear,” says the 26-year-old, who became the first Malaysian rider ever signed to a European team with a contract from Portugal's Vitoria ASC in 2007. "Luckily there was a police patrol car passing by and they took me to the hospital - my back really hurts after the accident but luckily I don’t have any broken bones," he adds. (More from The Star Online)

Congratulations are due to The Daily Mirror which carries an article on paracycling's Sarah Storey this morning - a story about paracycling is a very welcome sight in the British tabloid newspapers, which have only begun to cover cycling at all over the last couple of years (largely inspired by The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns 39.1% of Sky and thus has a vested interest in promoting the sport). That Storey happens to be very pleasing to look upon (there's a large-format portrait proving the fact) very likely helped encourage editors to go with the piece, but nevertheless: paracycling in the mainstream news = a good thing. (More from The Daily Mirror)

Gianni Meersman has recovered from the knee problem that has plagued the start of his 2012 season and hopes to perform well in the Tour di Romandie this week. I've now had three painless training rides, and I'm hoping it'll stay that way in competition," he told Het Nieuwesblad. "My form should not have been too badly affected by my short break from riding and it ought to be possible for me to get something from each Romandie stage." (More from Het Nieuwesblad)

Jerome Gilbert - little brother to BMC's Philippe - signed up to Accent Jobs-Willems Veranda's recently and made his professional debut at Liège-Bastogne-Liège last week. Now, the brothers are to compete against one another for the first time in a stage race, as both have been selected by their teams for the Ronde van België which begins in one month's time. (More from Het Nieuwesblad)

Team Sky have revealed their Tour di Romandie squad. General Classification contender Bradley Wiggins will be joined by Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Danny Pate, Richie Porte, Michael Rogers and Kanstantsin Siutsou. The race begins tomorrow (24th April) with a 3.34km time trial at Lausanne.

Team Sky ‏ @TeamSky
#Romandie squad: @MarkCavendish @chrisfroome @TheDPate @richie_porte @mickrogers Kanstantsin Siutsou, @GeraintThomas86 @bradwiggins

Newswire
Andrea Guardini warming up for the Giro d’ Italia 2012 (Bettor.com)

MIRC Patiala’s Atul Kumar wins Mumbai-Pune Cycle Race (The Indian Express)

Imagine training next to speeding cars (PressDemocrat)


Cycling
Addison Lee protest

British cyclists plan to hold a "die-in" protest at 18:00 this evening outside the Central London offices of minicab firm Addison Lee this evening after boss John Griffin used the company's in-house magazine Add Lib to claim riders should be held responsible for their own misfortune when injured or killed on the capital's road because "throwing themselves onto some of the most congested spaces in the world...[on] a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat" is their own choice. Those who wish to take part should meet at the corner of Stanhope Street and William Road (51°31'37.80"N 0° 8'27.00"W). Pedestrians and responsible drivers are also welcome. More details here.

Other Cycling News
Cyclist dies of dehydration in Palm Springs (2News/AP)

Annoyed at the authorities' lack of haste in providing cycle lanes and failure to consult cyclists when they do, Moscow cyclists took matters into their own hands by creating their own (RT)

Cycling deaths are raising concerns in New York City, with drivers who kill cyclists walking away without criminal charges laid against them (World News Australia)