Daily Cycling Facts 22.08.2014

Tatiana Guderzo

Guderzo at the 2012 Olympics

Born in Marostica, Italy on this day in 1984, Tatiana Guderzo came second at the World Junior Independent Time Trial Championhips in 2002, then became famous in the cycling world with overall General Classification victory at the Eko Tour Dookola Polski, a gold medal at the European Under-23 Independent Time Trial Championship and a silver in the World Elite Road Race Championship in 2004. She turned professional with Top Girls Fassa Bortolo Hausbrandt Caffé for the 2005 season, and her name has been a regular inclusion among the top results of many of the most prestigious women's races in the world ever since.

In 2005, Guderzo became Elite National ITT Champion but missed out on another gold at the European U-23 ITT Championships, taking the silver instead; in 2006 she won Stage 2 at the Emakumeen Bira - one of the most important races on the women's calendar, was third in the National ITT Championship and the European U-23 Pursuit Championship and second at the European U-23 Road Race and ITT Championships, then in 2007 she won the Elite National Pursuit Championship. In 2008, she won a bronze medal at the Olympics when she came third in the road race, and one year later she became World Road Race Champion when she beat three of the most legendary riders in the history of the sport - Marianne Vos, Noemi Cantele and Kristin Armstrong - by 19 seconds at Mendrisio, Switzerland. She won the National ITT Championship again and was third in the Giro Donne (the last women's Grand Tour, equal in importance to the Tour de France) in 2010; then in 2011 she was fourth at the Giro Donne and won the pursuit race at the National Track Championships. She won the National ITT Championship again in 2012, then returned to the Giro with her MCipollini-Giordana team in 2012 and came seventh overall.

Guderzo remained with MCipollini for 2013 and got her season off to a good start with another National Time Trial Championship victory and second place overall at the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol, then took four top ten stage finishes and second place overall at the Giro Rosa (the new name for the Giro Donne), a stage win (7) at the Thuringen Rundfahrt and fourth overall at the Route de France. She is with the same team, now called Ale-Cipollini, in 2014.



Theo Bos

Bos takes on Chris Hoy, World
Track Championships 2008

Born in Hierden, Netherlands on this day in 1983, Theo Bos is one of the few sprinters active today able to take on - and beat - Mark Cavendish. He has become, therefore, one of the most popular riders in the modern professional peloton. His older brother Jan has also had some success in cycling, but is better known as a speed skater.

Bos was enormously successful as an amateur, winning the Junior World Track Championship 1km in 2002, then the 1km and Sprint at the European Under-23 Track Championships and at the National Championships, where he competed at Elite level, in 2003; a year after that he became World Elite Sprint Champion, then successfully defended his Sprint title and added the National Keirin title at the Nationals. In 2005 he won the 1km at the World Championships, in 2006 the Sprint and Keirin events at both the Worlds and the Nationals; at the Moscow round of the World Cup that year he also broke the 200m world record, which had stood for eleven years (a faulty computer originally gave him a time of 9.086", which would have been superhuman, his actual time of 9.772" was still enough). He would keep the World Sprint Champion and both National titles in 2007 and won the European Omnium Championship in 2008.

Bos at the 2008 Olympics

In February 2009, having joined the Rabobank ProContinental team, Bos won the 160km Prémio de Abertura road race - his first major success away from the track. He followed it with victory at the Ronde van Noord-Holland and the Omloop van Kempen, then won Stages 1, 2 and 4 at the Olympia's Tour (now very much a sprint specialist, his results on the other stages were far lower and as a result he didn't place in the overall top ten, despite the team also winning the Prologue) - the year brought controversy as well as glory, however: at the Tour of Turkey, he was involved in a crash during the final sprint of the last stage. The UCI subsequently decided that Bos had caused the accident by grabbing hold of Daryl Impy, then levied a fine and banned him for one month; Bos admits that he did come into contact with Impy, but says that he did so not to try to slow him down but to push him away as the South African was forcing him into the crowd barrier alongside the road.

The following year he moved to the Cervélo Test Team and rode his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, where he twice broke into the top ten with ninth place on Stages 5 and 13. These results earned him a contract with Rabobank's top World Tour team for 2011 and, ten years after his first victory, Bos moved to the top level of road cycling. He won two stages at the Tour of Oman (beating Cavendish into second place on Stage 1) that year and took third place stage finishes at the Tours of Britain and Beijing, and to date in 2012 he has won the Dwars door Drenthe, two stages at the Tour of Turkey, one stage at the Benelux Tour and the 197km Veenendal-Veenendal road race. In 2013, Bos won Stage 2 at the Volta ao Algarve, Stages 1 and 2 at the Tour de Langkawi, Stage 1 at the Criterium International, Stage 3 at the Tour of Norway and Stage 2 at the Ster Elektrotoer; in 2014 he won the General and Points Classifications at the World Ports Classic, four stages at the Tour de Langkawi and one stage at the Tour of Poland.

Omer Huyse

Omer Huyse, born in Kortrijk, Belgium on this day in 1898, won Stage 5 at the eventful 1924 Tour de France, when he raced as a second class rider (sponsored, but deemed unlikely to win stages or overall) for the O. Lapize team. He was ninth overall that year, then returned in 1925 to come seventh and again in 1926 when he was thirteenth.

Jokin Mújika, born in Itsasondo, Euskadi on this day in 1962, won Stage 7 at the Tour de l'Avenir in 1986 and was Spanish Cyclo Cross Champion in 1994 and 1996

New Zealander Des Thomson, who was born on this day in 1942, represented his nation in the road race and the independent time trial at the Olympics in 1964, then the road race and 100km team time trial in 1968, but was unable to take home medals in either instance. He was far more successful at the Commonwealth Games of 1966, where he won the silver medal in the road race.

Erik Hoffman, born in Windhoek, Namibia on this day in 1981, won the National Road Race Championship in 2007.

Other cyclists born on this day: Marcelo Arriagada (Chile, 1973); Richard Trinkler (Switzerland, 1950); Gianluca Brambilla (Italy, 1987); Endrio Leoni (Italy, 1968); Haakon Sandtorp (Norway, 1911, died 1974); Oleg Bondarik (Belarus, 1976).

Daily Cycling Facts 21.10.2013

Fred de Bruyne

Alfred de Bruyne, born in Berlare, Belgium on this day in 1930, became the dominant Classics and Monuments rider of the late 1950s. Like many Classics specialists, his powerful sprint made him a formidable stage winner too, though he never stood a chance of challenging the General Classification of the long stage races: winning the Independents Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1953 earned him a place at his first Tour de France - he finished Stage 5 in 3rd place. The next year, he won Stages 8, 13 and 22.

In 1955, de Bruyne finished two stages at the Tour in the top three and was second at the Giro di Lombardia. In 1956 he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo, then came second behind Louison Bobet at Paris-Roubaix before winning Stages 2, 6 and 10 at the Tour. He also won the Desgrange-Colombo, a season-long competition run by L'Équipe, Het Nieuwsblad/Sportwereld, La Gazzetta dello Sport and the now-defunct Les Sports newspapers that formed an early version of today's UCI ranking system; he would win it again in 1957 and 1959 - the Swiss Tour de France winner Ferdinand Kübler had won it three times too, but de Bruyne is the only rider to have won it three times consecutively.

De Bruyne could ride well on the track too, winning the Six Days of Gent with Rik van Steenbergen in 1957 prior to achieving one of the rarest and most prestigious doubles in cycling: winning the notoriously difficult Ronde van Vlaanderen and then, a week later, Paris-Roubaix - a feat that in almost a century (Paris-Roubaix began in 1896, the Ronde in 1913), only ten other riders have managed. He finished the season with victory at Paris-Tours, then got 1958 off to a good start when he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Nice for a second time. In 1959 he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège again and was second at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. From that year, de Bruyne's performance began to tail off and in 1960 he won only one event, a derny race at Zedelgem. The following year was to be his last as a professional rider, but he went out on a high with victory at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

De Bruyne retained his links to cycling after retiring, writing books on the careers of van Steenbergen, Rik van Looy, Patrick Sercu, Peter Post and himself - they were well-received and remain worth seeking out today. He also served as a manager, later an official spokesperson, for the Ti-Raleigh team when it was at the the height of its legendary success, then became a TV sports commentator before his death aged 63 in 1994.

Schorn at the 2012 Giro

At the 2012 Giro d'Italia where his NetApp team made their Grand Tour debut, Daniel Schorn (born in Zell am See, Austria on this day in 1988), managed to avoid a crash 400m from the Stage 5 finish line and then out-sprinted several older and more-experienced sprinters to take fifth place. In 2013 he managed three top 20 finishes at the Vuelta a Espana; now aged 25, he seems a rider to watch in the coming years.

Luke Parker, born in Melbourne, Australia on this day in 1993, rode with the winning Sprint team at the Junior National Championships in 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he won the Austral Wheel Race, the oldest track competition still held anywhere in the world; in 2013, riding with the OCBC Singapore Continental team, he won Stage 2 at the Tour of the Philippines.

Kari Myyryläinen, born in Hyvinkää, Finland on this day in 1963, became National Champion in Cyclo Cross, Road Racing and Individual Time Trial in 1983, then successfully defended the ITT title and added the Points Race Championship in 1984. In 1985 he was Road Race and ITT champion again and won the GP de France; then he won the Road Race Championship in 1986, the Cyclo Cross Championship in 1991 and 1992, the ITT Championship in 1993 and the Cyclo Cross Championship in 1994 and 1995.


Other cyclists born on this day: Albert Kruschel (USA, 1889, died 1959); Orlando Rodrigues (Portugal 1969); Neil Ritchie (New Zealand, 1933); Ivan Valant (Yugoslavia, 1909); Bent Hansen (Denmark, 1932); Kathlyn Ragg (Fiji, 1962).

Daily Cycling Facts 11.10.2013

Uwe Ampler

Uwe Ampler

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

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

Masson, left, with 1896 team mate Léon Flameng

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Cycling Facts 22.08.2013

Tatiana Guderzo

Guderzo at the 2012 Olympics

Born in Marostica, Italy on this day in 1984, Tatiana Guderzo came second at the World Junior Independent Time Trial Championhips in 2002, then became famous in the cycling world with overall General Classification victory at the Eko Tour Dookola Polski, a gold medal at the European Under-23 Independent Time Trial Championship and a silver in the World Elite Road Race Championship in 2004. She turned professional with Top Girls Fassa Bortolo Hausbrandt Caffé for the 2005 season, and her name has been a regular inclusion among the top results of many of the most prestigious women's races in the world ever since.

In 2005, Guderzo became Elite National ITT Champion but missed out on another gold at the European U-23 ITT Championships, taking the silver instead; in 2006 she won Stage 2 at the Emakumeen Bira - one of the most important races on the women's calendar, was third in the National ITT Championship and the European U-23 Pursuit Championship and second at the European U-23 Road Race and ITT Championships, then in 2007 she won the Elite National Pursuit Championship. In 2008, she won a bronze medal at the Olympics when she came third in the road race, and one year later she became World Road Race Champion when she beat three of the most legendary riders in the history of the sport - Marianne Vos, Noemi Cantele and Kristin Armstrong - by 19 seconds at Mendrisio, Switzerland. She won the National ITT Championship again and was third in the Giro Donne (the last women's Grand Tour, equal in importance to the Tour de France) in 2010; then in 2011 she was fourth at the Giro Donne and won the pursuit race at the National Track Championships. She won the National ITT Championship again in 2012, then returned to the Giro with her MCipollini-Giordana team in 2012 and came seventh overall.

Guderzo remained with MCipollini for 2013 and got her season off to a good start with another National Time Trial Championship victory and second place overall at the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol, then took four top ten stage finishes and second place overall at the Giro Rosa (the new name for the Giro Donne), a stage win (7) at the Thuringen Rundfahrt and fourth overall at the Route de France.



Theo Bos

Bos takes on Chris Hoy, World
Track Championships 2008

Born in Hierden, Netherlands on this day in 1983, Theo Bos is one of the few sprinters active today able to take on - and beat - Mark Cavendish. He has become, therefore, one of the most popular riders in the modern professional peloton. His older brother Jan has also had some success in cycling, but is better known as a speed skater.

Bos was enormously successful as an amateur, winning the Junior World Track Championship 1km in 2002, then the 1km and Sprint at the European Under-23 Track Championships and at the National Championships, where he competed at Elite level, in 2003; a year after that he became World Elite Sprint Champion, then successfully defended his Sprint title and added the National Keirin title at the Nationals. In 2005 he won the 1km at the World Championships, in 2006 the Sprint and Keirin events at both the Worlds and the Nationals; at the Moscow round of the World Cup that year he also broke the 200m world record, which had stood for eleven years (a faulty computer originally gave him a time of 9.086", which would have been superhuman, his actual time of 9.772" was still enough). He would keep the World Sprint Champion and both National titles in 2007 and won the European Omnium Championship in 2008.

Bos at the 2008 Olympics

In February 2009, having joined the Rabobank ProContinental team, Bos won the 160km Prémio de Abertura road race - his first major success away from the track. He followed it with victory at the Ronde van Noord-Holland and the Omloop van Kempen, then won Stages 1, 2 and 4 at the Olympia's Tour (now very much a sprint specialist, his results on the other stages were far lower and as a result he didn't place in the overall top ten, despite the team also winning the Prologue) - the year brought controversy as well as glory, however: at the Tour of Turkey, he was involved in a crash during the final sprint of the last stage. The UCI subsequently decided that Bos had caused the accident by grabbing hold of Daryl Impy, then levied a fine and banned him for one month; Bos admits that he did come into contact with Impy, but says that he did so not to try to slow him down but to push him away as the South African was forcing him into the crowd barrier alongside the road.

The following year he moved to the Cervélo Test Team and rode his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, where he twice broke into the top ten with ninth place on Stages 5 and 13. These results earned him a contract with Rabobank's top World Tour team for 2011 and, ten years after his first victory, Bos moved to the top level of road cycling. He won two stages at the Tour of Oman (beating Cavendish into second place on Stage 1) that year and took third place stage finishes at the Tours of Britain and Beijing, and to date in 2012 he has won the Dwars door Drenthe, two stages at the Tour of Turkey, one stage at the Benelux Tour and the 197km Veenendal-Veenendal road race. In 2013, Bos won Stage 2 at the Volta ao Algarve, Stages 1 and 2 at the Tour de Langkawi, Stage 1 at the Criterium International, Stage 3 at the Tour of Norway and Stage 2 at the Ster Elektrotoer

Omer Huyse

Omer Huyse, born in Kortrijk, Belgium on this day in 1898, won Stage 5 at the eventful 1924 Tour de France, when he raced as a second class rider (sponsored, but deemed unlikely to win stages or overall) for the O. Lapize team. He was ninth overall that year, then returned in 1925 to come seventh and again in 1926 when he was thirteenth.

Jokin Mújika, born in Itsasondo, Euskadi on this day in 1962, won Stage 7 at the Tour de l'Avenir in 1986 and was Spanish Cyclo Cross Champion in 1994 and 1996

New Zealander Des Thomson, who was born on this day in 1942, represented his nation in the road race and the independent time trial at the Olympics in 1964, then the road race and 100km team time trial in 1968, but was unable to take home medals in either instance. He was far more successful at the Commonwealth Games of 1966, where he won the silver medal in the road race.

Erik Hoffman, born in Windhoek, Namibia on this day in 1981, won the National Road Race Championship in 2007.

Other cyclists born on this day: Marcelo Arriagada (Chile, 1973); Richard Trinkler (Switzerland, 1950); Gianluca Brambilla (Italy, 1987); Endrio Leoni (Italy, 1968); Haakon Sandtorp (Norway, 1911, died 1974); Oleg Bondarik (Belarus, 1976).

Daily Cycling Facts 06.11.12

Today would have been Frank Vandenbroucke's 38th birthday. Frank, nicknamed VDB, was a bad boy but a colourful one - in 2006, while banned from professional racing, we was caught out while competing in an Italian race using a licence made out to Francesco del Ponte with a photograph of Tom Boonen. His cocaine addiction was a likely contributor to his long-standing depression and the pulmonary embolism that killed him when he was just 34 years of age.

It's the 48th anniversary of the death of Tour de France (1951) and Giro d'Italia (1950) winner Hugo Koblet, another colourful character whose career might have brought more success had he not have succumbed to a playboy lifestyle featuring a number of beautiful women, countless parties and, eventually, debt. He died in a car crash that many eye-witnesses believe was a deliberate suicide, having seen him drive his Alfa Romeo past a roadside pear tree three times before apparently deliberately steering into it at high speed. He was 39 years old.

Not so well known nowadays is Heiri Suter, another Swiss cyclist who became the first man to ever win Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders in a single year in 1923. Suter was also unofficial world champion in 1922 and 1925 after winning the Grand Prix, official Swiss road champion five times during the 1920s and multiple winner of several Classics including the now defunct Züri-Metzgete (six times in ten years) and Paris-Tours (twice) and the first non-Belgian to win the Tour of Flanders. He died aged 79 in 1978.

In 2005, Marianne Vos won the Elite European Cyclo Cross.

On this day in 2007, bike component manufacturer SRAM purchased the wheel and component manufacturer ZIPP Speed Weaponry.

Daily Cycling Facts 21.10.12

Fred de Bruyne

Alfred de Bruyne, born in Berlare, Belgium on this day in 1930, became the dominant Classics and Monuments rider of the late 1950s. Like many Classics specialists, his powerful sprint made him a formidable stage winner too, though he never stood a chance of challenging the General Classification of the long stage races: winning the Independents Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1953 earned him a place at his first Tour de France - he finished Stage 5 in 3rd place. The next year, he won Stages 8, 13 and 22.

In 1955, de Bruyne finished two stages at the Tour in the top three and was second at the Giro di Lombardia. In 1956 he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo, then came second behind Louison Bobet at Paris-Roubaix before winning Stages 2, 6 and 10 at the Tour. He also won the Desgrange-Colombo, a season-long competition run by L'Équipe, Het Nieuwsblad/Sportwereld, La Gazzetta dello Sport and the now-defunct Les Sports newspapers that formed an early version of today's UCI ranking system; he would win it again in 1957 and 1959 - the Swiss Tour de France winner Ferdinand Kübler had won it three times too, but de Bruyne is the only rider to have won it three times consecutively.

De Bruyne could ride well on the track too, winning the Six Days of Gent with Rik van Steenbergen in 1957 prior to achieving one of the rarest and most prestigious doubles in cycling: winning the notoriously difficult Ronde van Vlaanderen and then, a week later, Paris-Roubaix - a feat that in almost a century (Paris-Roubaix began in 1896, the Ronde in 1913), only ten other riders have managed. He finished the season with victory at Paris-Tours, then got 1958 off to a good start when he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Nice for a second time. In 1959 he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège again and was second at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. From that year, de Bruyne's performance began to tail off and in 1960 he won only one event, a derny race at Zedelgem. The following year was to be his last as a professional rider, but he went out on a high with victory at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

De Bruyne retained his links to cycling after retiring, writing books on the careers of van Steenbergen, Rik van Looy, Patrick Sercu, Peter Post and himself - they were well-received and remain worth seeking out today. He also served as a manager, later an official spokesperson, for the Ti-Raleigh team when it was at the the height of its legendary success, then became a TV sports commentator before his death aged 63 in 1994.

Schorn at the 2012 Giro

At the 2012 Giro d'Italia where his NetApp team made their Grand Tour debut, Daniel Schorn (born in Zell am See, Austria on this day in 1988), managed to avoid a crash 400m from the Stage 5 finish line and then out-sprinted several older and more-experienced sprinters to take fifth place. Now aged 24, he seems a rider to watch in the coming years.

Luke Parker, born in Melbourne, Australia on this day in 1993, rode with the winning Sprint team at the Junior National Championships in 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he won the Austral Wheel Race, the oldest track competition still held anywhere in the world.

Kari Myyryläinen, born in Hyvinkää, Finland on this day in 1963, became National Champion in Cyclo Cross, Road Racing and Individual Time Trial in 1983, then successfully defended the ITT title and added the Points Race Championship in 1984. In 1985 he was Road Race and ITT champion again and won the GP de France; then he won the Road Race Championship in 1986, the Cyclo Cross Championship in 1991 and 1992, the ITT Championship in 1993 and the Cyclo Cross Championship in 1994 and 1995.


Other cyclists born on this day: Albert Kruschel (USA, 1889, died 1959); Orlando Rodrigues (Portugal 1969); Neil Ritchie (New Zealand, 1933); Ivan Valant (Yugoslavia, 1909); Bent Hansen (Denmark, 1932); Kathlyn Ragg (Fiji, 1962).

Daily Cycling Facts 11.10.12

Uwe Ampler

Uwe Ampler

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

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

Masson, left, with 1896 team mate Léon Flameng

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Cycling Facts 22.08.12

Tatiana Guderzo

Guderzo at the 2012 Olympics

Born in Marostica, Italy on this day in 1984, Tatiana Guderzo came second at the World Junior Independent Time Trial Championhips in 2002, then became famous in the cycling world with overall General Classification victory at the Eko Tour Dookola Polski, a gold medal at the European Under-23 Independent Time Trial Championship and a silver in the World Elite Road Race Championship in 2004. She turned professional with Top Girls Fassa Bortolo Hausbrandt Caffé for the 2005 season, and her name has been a regular inclusion among the top results of many of the most prestigious women's races in the world ever since.

In 2005, Guderzo became Elite National ITT Champion but missed out on another gold at the European U-23 ITT Championships, taking the silver instead; in 2006 she won Stage 2 at the Emakumeen Bira - one of the most important races on the women's calendar, was third in the National ITT Championship and the European U-23 Pursuit Championship and second at the European U-23 Road Race and ITT Championships, then in 2007 she won the Elite National Pursuit Championship. In 2008, she won a bronze medal at the Olympics when she came third in the road race, and one year later she became World Road Race Champion when she beat three of the most legendary riders in the history of the sport - Marianne Vos, Noemi Cantele and Kristin Armstrong - by 19 seconds at Mendrisio, Switzerland. She won the National ITT Championship again and was third in the Giro Donne (the last women's Grand Tour, equal in importance to the Tour de France) in 2010; then in 2011 she was fourth at the Giro Donne and won the pursuit race at the National Track Championships. She won the National ITT Championship again in 2012, then returned to the Giro in 2012 and came seventh overall.

Theo Bos

Bos takes on Chris Hoy, World
Track Championships 2008

Born in Hierden, Netherlands on this day in 1983, Theo Bos is one of the few sprinters active today able to take on - and beat - Mark Cavendish. He has become, therefore, one of the most popular riders in the modern professional peloton. His older brother Jan has also had some success in cycling, but is better known as a speed skater.

Bos was enormously successful as an amateur, winning the Junior World Track Championship 1km in 2002, then the 1km and Sprint at the European Under-23 Track Championships and at the National Championships, where he competed at Elite level, in 2003; a year after that he became World Elite Sprint Champion, then successfully defended his Sprint title and added the National Keirin title at the Nationals. In 2005 he won the 1km at the World Championships, in 2006 the Sprint and Keirin events at both the Worlds and the Nationals; at the Moscow round of the World Cup that year he also broke the 200m world record, which had stood for eleven years (a faulty computer originally gave him a time of 9.086", which would have been superhuman, his actual time of 9.772" was still enough). He would keep the World Sprint Champion and both National titles in 2007 and won the European Omnium Championship in 2008.

Bos at the 2008 Olympics

In February 2009, having joined the Rabobank ProContinental team, Bos won the 160km Prémio de Abertura road race - his first major success away from the track. He followed it with victory at the Ronde van Noord-Holland and the Omloop van Kempen, then won Stages 1, 2 and 4 at the Olympia's Tour (now very much a sprint specialist, his results on the other stages were far lower and as a result he didn't place in the overall top ten, despite the team also winning the Prologue) - the year brought controversy as well as glory, however: at the Tour of Turkey, he was involved in a crash during the final sprint of the last stage. The UCI subsequently decided that Bos had caused the accident by grabbing hold of Daryl Impy, then levied a fine and banned him for one month; Bos admits that he did come into contact with Impy, but says that he did so not to try to slow him down but to push him away as the South African was forcing him into the crowd barrier alongside the road.

The following year he moved to the Cervélo Test Team and rode his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a Espana, where he twice broke into the top ten with ninth place on Stages 5 and 13. These results earned him a contract with Rabobank's top World Tour team for 2011 and, ten years after his first victory, Bos moved to the top level of road cycling. He won two stages at the Tour of Oman (beating Cavendish into second place on Stage 1) that year and took third place stage finishes at the Tours of Britain and Beijing, and to date in 2012 he has won the Dwars door Drenthe, two stages at the Tour of Turkey, one stage at the Benelux Tour and the 197km Veenendal-Veenendal road race.

Omer Huyse

Omer Huyse, born in Kortrijk, Belgium on this day in 1898, won Stage 5 at the eventful 1924 Tour de France, when he raced as a second class rider (sponsored, but deemed unlikely to win stages or overall) for the O. Lapize team. He was ninth overall that year, then returned in 1925 to come seventh and again in 1926 when he was thirteenth.

Jokin Mújika, born in Itsasondo, Euskadi on this day in 1962, won Stage 7 at the Tour de l'Avenir in 1986 and was Spanish Cyclo Cross Champion in 1994 and 1996

New Zealander Des Thomson, who was born on this day in 1942, represented his nation in the road race and the independent time trial at the Olympics in 1964, then the road race and 100km team time trial in 1968, but was unable to take home medals in either instance. He was far more successful at the Commonwealth Games of 1966, where he won the silver medal in the road race.

Erik Hoffman, born in Windhoek, Namibia on this day in 1981, won the National Road Race Championship in 2007.

Other cyclists born on this day: Marcelo Arriagada (Chile, 1973); Richard Trinkler (Switzerland, 1950); Gianluca Brambilla (Italy, 1987); Endrio Leoni (Italy, 1968); Haakon Sandtorp (Norway, 1911, died 1974); Oleg Bondarik (Belarus, 1976).

Daily Cycling Facts 06.11.11

Today would have been Frank Vandenbroucke's 37th birthday. Frank, nicknamed VDP, was a bad boy but a colourful one - in 2006, while banned from professional racing, we was caught out while competing in an Italian race using a licence made out to Francesco del Ponte with a photograph of Tom Boonen. His cocaine addiction was a likely contributor to his long-standing depression and the pulmonary embolism that killed him when he was just 34 years of age.

It's the 47th anniversary of the death of Tour de France (1951) and Giro d'Italia (1950) winner Hugo Koblet, another colourful character whose career might have brought more success had he not have succumbed to a playboy lifestyle featuring a number of beautiful women, countless parties and, eventually, debt. He died in a car crash that many eye-witnesses believe was a deliberate suicide, having seen him drive his Alfa Romeo past a roadside pear tree three times before apparently deliberately steering into it at high speed. He was 39 years old.

Not so well known nowadays is Heiri Suter, another Swiss cyclist who became the first man to ever win Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders in a single year in 1923. Suter was also unofficial world champion in 1922 and 1925 after winning the Grand Prix, official Swiss road champion five times during the 1920s and multiple winner of several Classics including the now defunct Züri-Metzgete (six times in ten years) and Paris-Tours (twice) and the first non-Belgian to win the Tour of Flanders. He died aged 79 in 1978.

In 2005, Marianne Vos won the Elite European Cyclo Cross.

On this day in 2007, bike component manufacturer SRAM purchased the wheel and component manufacturer ZIPP Speed Weaponry.