The Flying Scotsman

In 1995, I was in Colombia watching the Worlds and staying at the same hotel as the Italians and British. There were many things that stand out from that trip. Seeing the British women who were racing in the Worlds road race and not knowing who they were was big bummer. It was such a statement about women's cycling that women weren't getting the press, getting the pics in the mags, shown on tv, etc... so I didn't know who they were. It's sad how things haven't changed a lot since then. (thank goodness for OV's posts) But, I digress.

One day, we saw the men's ITT on tv. There was one guy who had a really really bad race. He was barfing, could barely finish the race or stand up after. Since I hate ITTs, I could kind of relate in a silly way. Turns out that the same guy had just won the Track pursuit world championship and set a world record the week before. Since the Brits had a spot in the ITT and the previous winner had gone and broke his ankle at the 1995 TdF, this trackie had to fill in at the Worlds road ITT. A 5k race is a lot different than a 43K race. So anyway, this poor trackie had to do the World ITT, and he didn't have any fun at all.

A day or so later, we were eating breakfast, and there was this guy at the table. He was eating scrambled eggs and looked pretty darn happy. He looked like someone who was finished with racing and didn't have a care in the world. Turns out, it was the trackie who had the bad ITT and was also the pursuit World champ. It was Graham Obree. He was really friendly and chattty.

Now, he has a movie coming out, and I can't wait to see it. The movie is based on his autobiography. He wrote the book as part of his therapy after his wife found him hanging by a rope in their farm house. Mr. Obree has suffered all his life from depression. His book was sad, wonderful, and eventually quite uplifting. If you get a chance, grab a copy. The movie should be in SF soon.