Tag Archives: track

In this show I interview Katie Archibald, who should need no introduction – multiple European champion on the track, a gold medallist in the Team Pursuit at the Rio olympics and recently crowned World Champion in the omnium.

Listen on the player below:

Or listen on Apple Podcasts:

I net Katie during a talk to 3 primary schools – Ladywell, St Bernadette’s and another Motherwell school. She was there to encourage them to have a shot on their bikes, down at the velodrome or on the course at the Motherwell Tour Series on Tuesday 23rd May.

Katie Archibald talk to school children in Motherwell

I’ll be there in a work capacity, for my employers Robertson Group, a construction company that have contracts with North Lanarkshire Council, who are hosting the race. I hope to catch up with some of you on the day.

Katie Archibald, Ladywell Primary, Tour Series Motherwell launch
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Scottish cycling podcast 3: my 2016 predictions

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After my last episode at the Scottish cyclocross champs I got some great feedback and discussion on Facebook in the Scottish cyclocross group. I was really pleased to see this – I’m not aiming to be controversial for the sake of it, or to draw attention, but to raise constructive discussion points and this is what happened, so thans everyone who commented.

I thought I would keep the run going with an ‘inbetweenisode’ – just me talking. Tis the season to make woefully inaccurate prognostications, but I’m not much of a gambler, so I’ve gone for a few fairly safe predictions for the Scottish cycling scene in 2016.

Blogger Spokedoke has posted his view of how the future of cycling will look and this is a good look at the way things are changing in international pro road cycling.

  • ASO V UCI
  • Light weight bikes with the removal of 6.8kg rule
  • How this might affect:
    •    Disc brakes on road bikes
    •    Power meters
  • Thought on Rio Olympics and how athletics doping crisis may affect things

In the podcast, I delve into my humble predictions for the coming year with a Scotland-centric hat on.

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Who are “The Racers”?

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– After noticing a new Scottish development team, “The Racers”, on twitter and scoring an early season result via Jack Barret at the Velo29 winter series south of the border, I got in touch to find out more. To my surprise, I found that the team was not brand new, but born out of an existing track club, based at Meadowbank Velodrome. I seem to have scored the journalistic jackpot, because after one of The Racers wrote me this piece to explain what they are all about, they scored another result at the Dick Longdragon Road Race, with Philip Trodden winning and Fin Young third. 

So, the Rigmar Racers, eh? The team’s slick new website TheRacers.org went live last Monday, and since then there have been a fair few questions flying about. To clear any clouds of confusion, I shall try to enlighten you on this new look team stepping up in 2014.

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A tougher track ahead for John Paul

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I had missed the news back in April, reported by Susan Swarbrick in the Herald that John Paul had been dropped from the British Cycling Academy programme.

He’s a rider that most trackies will know about, but maybe others won’t. A young Scottish track sprinter has the ‘next Chris Hoy’ tag to deal with but he seemed to be progressing well.


image © Larry Hickmot / British Cycling.

After a poor 2012 though, where he failed to meet qualification times, he was let go abruptly from the performance programme but Shane Sutton, British Cycling performance manager, said:

“John Paul has left the British Cycling Academy Programme as he didn’t reach the performance targets set out for him. The door is not closed for John to return to the programme in the future, and we wish him well with his cycling career.”
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Breast Cancer Care cycling team launch

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I had hoped to attend the launch for the Breast Cancer Care cycling team at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome on Saturday afternoon but after putting my back out, I missed it and the Revolution track meeting in the evening.

The information that was released from BCCCT was of personal interest, therefore, as well as important for the Scottish Cycling community in general and hopefully Drum-Up readers. Scottish Cycling had been involved in Team Ibis in 2012 and the news that this team was to fold was met with great concern late in 2012. I understand a great deal of work went in to securing the sponsorship and organisation for this new team, so hats must be doffed to SC and whoever else was involved for making it happen. Of course there are English riders and other nationalities, but my main interest is in some of the riders who will be familiar to us on the local scene.

bccrt-1

Looking to Glasgow 2014, the team will provide top level competition for the Scottish women, primarily on the road in Holland and Belgium, but I should expect we will see them on the track in Glasgow too.

On Saturday the 2nd of February the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome played host to the team launch of the Breast Cancer Care cycling team, the UK’s number one domestic women’s cycling team. In these impressive surroundings in one of the venues for the 2014 Commonwealth games, the team, its riders and its sponsors were presented to an assembled crowd of media, supporters, friends and family. The presentation was hosted by well-known cycling commentator Anthony McCrossan of Cyclevox, himself a big supporter of women’s cycling.

Anthony McCrossan speaks to Eileen Roe
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Inside the velodrome, right inside it

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Writer and broadcaster Matt Rendell was involved in producing videos for British Cycling at the recent Track World Cup in Glasgow.

In addition to the usual rider interviews and spots covering the sporting element, a couple of shorts stood out to me- taking a look in areas most of us won’t get to see. I’m invovled in architecture, through my work, so found these alternative views of the velodrome are interesting.



I’ve had trouble embedding the youtube video- watch it here.


Link to watch this one here
See all the other videos on the British Cycling youtube channel

Scottish Magazine Cover of the Decade

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Well done to designer Matt Ball for winning the PPA Scottish Magazine Cover of the Decade award last night at the Scottish Magazine Awards in Glasgow.

Matt’s beautiful cover design was created to illustrate an interview I did with Steve McCaw, a Clarion rider who broke the VTTA hour record at Meadowbank in 2011.

I don’t want to claim any credit for this, rather express pride at being associated with it and congratulations to Matt and the Clarion – a great accolade for a volunteer publication for an amateur sports club to beat established commercial titles. As well as the cover, Matt put his skills to great use in laying out and designing the piece, giving it a classy, professional feel and great aesthetics to ‘boot’.

Matthew Ball Design
West Lothian Clarion
Professional Publishers’ Association
The award

Sir Chris Hoy and Danny McAskill at Glasgow Velodrome

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Sir Chris and Danny in a video by the Glasgow 2014 organisation promoting the new velodrome.

As if excitement wasn’t already high enough amongst cyclists that the new velodrome has opened, this footage shows Hoy ripping around the boards and really whets the appetite.

Sir Chris’ BMX background came through a little as he appreciates Danny’s trials skills.
Some bits of funny banter, I liked the ‘get those legs shaved’ comment.

Video filmed by MTBCut
Glasgow 2014
Glasgow velodrome
Chris Hoy twitter
Danny McAskill facebook

Velodrome progress

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After reading about wood flooring being installed in the Velodrome, I have been digging around for progress updates on the project. These can be difficult to find, as generally the architects, contractors and clients on such high profile projects tend to keep things under wraps until construction is complete. For the 2012 Olympics, some companies are not even allowed to publicise their involvement with a stadium or arena until after the Games have finished.

2012 Olympics velodrome (Oct 2011)
Image by Alexander Kachkaev

After reading the sumptuous Architects’ Journal Building Study special about the 2012 velodrome by Hopkins Architects (above), I have been digging for information about Glasgow’s forthcoming track. I read a short piece in Scottish architecture magazine Urban Realm, which mainly covered the fire and thermal performance of the cladding of the building, which houses both the velodrome in its 2000 seat arena, as well as the National Indoor Sports Arena, a 5000 seat venue.
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