Feature Articles
Jacques Anquetil’s remarkable Dauphiné – Bordeaux-Paris double
By Graham Healy In 1965, Jacques Anquetil achieved a remarkable double when he won the eight-day Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in the Alps and the 557-km Bordeaux-Paris directly afterwards. The Dauphiné finished on May 31st at 3.00pm with Bordeaux-Paris starting on the other side of the country at 1.30am the following morning. It was a remarkable idea to aim to win...
Cheetah: The Nelson Vails Story (VIDEO)
Nelson Vails' story is a triumph over almost insurmountable odds. Nelson was the youngest of 10 children growing up in the Harlem projects and worked as a New York City bicycle messenger to support his family. Nicknamed "The Cheetah" because he was the fastest cat in the jungle, Nelson rode furiously while working, trained in Central Park after work...
Giuseppe Enrici – The First US-Born Giro d’Italia Winner
By Graham Healy In 1924, Giuseppe Enrici won the Giro d'Italia to become the first rider born outside of Italy to win the race, or any Grand Tour for that matter. Although Enrici raced as an Italian, he had actually been born in Pittsburgh on 2 January 1896. Waves of Italian immigrants had moved to Pennsylvania in the final decade of...
The Evil Stones of Arenberg – The 1988 Paris-Roubaix (VIDEO)
By Graham Healy In the 1980s, the US TV channel CBS would show highlights of Paris-Roubaix and the video below is from their coverage of the 1988 race. Paris-Roubaix that year was unusual in that the early break that invariably goes clear managed to stay away until the end. The 12-man break which went away in the first hour of racing...
When Adri van der Poel finally became World Cyclocross Champion (VIDEO)
By Graham Healy Dutch rider Adri van der Poel built up a pretty impressive palmares during his career. Amongst his victories were the Tour of Flanders in 1986, Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1988, Amstel Gold in 1990 in addition to two stages of the Tour de France. However, one race that was missing from his list of victories and that he had come...
Archive footage of Shay Elliott’s 1960 Giro d’Italia stage win
By Graham Healy In 1960, Shay Elliott became the first English-speaking cyclist to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia when he took victory on the 18th stage of the race from Trieste to Belluno, and below is some footage from that stage. Going into the stage, Elliott's Fynsec-Helyett team-mate Jacques Anquetil held a comfortable 3 minute lead over Gastone Nencini...
Otto Olsen – The acrobatic Danish six-day racer
By Graham Healy The photo above appeared in recent days on Twitter showing a cyclist riding along the advertising hoardings at a velodrome, but nobody seemed sure of who was in the photo. It's actually a Danish cyclist from the forties and fifties named Otto Olsen. Olsen first started taking part in six-day races in 1948, and was often paired up...
When Joop Zoetemelk took on Tony Ward – Remembering the TV show Superstars
By Graham Healy In 1973, a TV programme debuted on ABC in the US which featured top athletes competing in various different sports, other than their own. The show was called Superstars and would soon have World, International, European and British versions. Over the years, a number of cyclists appeared on the show including Jean-Pierre Danguillaume, Walter Godefroot, Freddy Maertens, Hennie...
Remembering Eric de Vlaeminck’s World Championship wins (VIDEO)
Eric de Vlaeminck sadly passed yesterday at the age of 70 after battling a long illness. The Belgian held the record for most World Cyclocross titles with a remarkable seven wins. He took the title in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973. It's difficult to comprehend now, but before his first win in 1966, a Belgian rider had...
When Tom Simpson and Shay Elliott raced in the South Pacific
By Graham Healy In recent years, pro cyclists have travelled to Curaçao in the Caribbean to unwind at the end of the season, where they would take part in a race on the island and let their hair down. Andy Schleck and his brother Frank, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde and Tom Boonen were amongst the cyclists who would line up...
The Raleigh Vektar
The Vektar, the worlds first computer bike, was launched in 1985 long before we had health and safety laws. Equipped with 'micro chip technology' the rider could see how fast they were going, how far they had gone and how long they had been riding for at the touch of a button. The head's down display ensured that you...
The Six-Day race Stephen Roche and Tony Doyle lost to a home-town decision
By Graham Healy In November 1985, Stephen Roche crashed in the Paris Six-Day damaging his right knee and he would suffer from the injury for the rest of his career. However, he did return to the track and came very close to a victory in one of the prestigious six-days when he finished second with Tony Doyle in the 1991...
Tom Gascoyne – The English champion cyclist killed at Passchendaele
By Graham Healy One of the many well-known cyclists killed in action during World War 1 was Tom "Jeb" Gascoyne. Although he was from England, Gascoyne ended up fighting for the Australians in France and Belgium. He had started bike racing back in 1893 and would go on to set a number of world records, including that for twenty-five miles, which...
The Tour de France stage which inspired Freddie Mercury
By Graham Healy In the summer of 1978, Bernard Hinault was emerging as the next big thing in cycling. That July, the Breton was on his way to winning the first of five Tours de France. Hinault had been one of the pre-race favourites after his Vuelta a Espana win earlier that year. What was also helping to position Hinault...
Stephen Roche showing how to gain time on the final descent to be used in the 2016 Tour (VIDEO)
Next year, the final major climb of the Tour de France will be the Col de Joux Plane which the riders will climb on the penultimate day. That final stage in the Alps from Megeve to Morzine will see the riders face the Col des Aravis, Col de la Colombiere and Col de la Ramaz before they take on...
The Irish Olympic cyclist who fought in the Easter Rising
By Graham Healy At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, and despite objections from other countries, the British Olympic Association (BOA) entered three teams in the cycling events, with one team from each of the separate English, Scottish and Irish governing bodies for the sport. One of the cyclists who represented Ireland was Michael Walker. The Dubliner was born in 1885, and...