Graeme Obree

Obree on "Old Faithful"
Personal information
Full name	Graeme Obree
Nickname	Flying Scotsman
Date of birth	September 11, 1965 (1965-09-11) (age 43)
Country	United Kingdom
Team information
Current team	Fullarton Wheelers
Discipline	Road and track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time Trial Specialist
Major wins
World Hour Record 1993 (51.596km), 1994 (52.713km) World Champion (4000m Pursuit) 1993, 1995
Medal record Competitor for  Great Britain Track cycling World Championships Gold 1993 Hamar 4000m Pursuit Gold 1995 Bogota 4000m Pursuit
Infobox last updated on:
June 27, 2007

Graeme Obree (born 11 September 1965^[1] in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK) is a British racing cyclist who broke the world hour record in July 1993. He was known for his unusual riding positions and for a bicycle he built which included parts from a washing machine. He joined a professional team in France but was fired before his first race. He suffered mental problems for much of his life and twice tried suicide. A film has been made of his life.

[edit] Origins

Obree, who has lived almost all his life in Scotland and considers himself Scottish, was a local individual time triallist. His first race was a 10-mile time trial, wearing shorts, anorak and Doc Marten boots.^[2] He thought the start and finish were at the same place and stopped where he had started, 100 metres short of the end. He had started to change his clothes when officials told him to continue. He still finished in "about 30 minutes."^[3]

He had been troubled by depression and attempted suicide in his teens by gassing himself. He was saved by his father, who had returned early from work.^[4] In the 1990s he took an overdose of aspirin washed down by water from a puddle.^[5][6] He had personality problems,^[7][8] sniffed the gas he used to weld bicycles, and was being chased for £492 owed in college fees.^[9]

The bike shop that he ran failed and he decided the way out of his problems was to attack the world hour velodrome record.^[10] It had been held for nine years by Francesco Moser, at 51.151kilometres. Obree said:

The record had fascinated me since Moser broke it. It was the ultimate test - no traffic^[11], one man in a velodrome against the clock. I didn't tell myself that I will attempt the record, I said I would break it. When your back is against the wall, you can say it's bad or you can say: 'I'll go for it.' I decided, that's it, I've as good as broken the record.^[12]

[edit] The bike

Obree had built frames for his bike shop and made another for his record attempt. Instead of traditional dropped handlebars it had straight bars like those of a mountain bike. He placed them closer to the saddle than usual and rode with the bars under his chest, his elbows bent and tucked into his sides like those of a ski-jumper. Watching a washing machine spin at 1,200rpm led him to take the bearings, which he assumed must be of superior quality, and fitting them to his bike.^{[13][14] [15][16]}Obree regretted saying that was what he had done because journalists referred to that before his achievements and other innovations.^[17]

Obree called his bike "Old Faithful". It had a narrow bottom bracket, around which the pedal cranks revolve, to bring his legs closer to lessen wind resistance. The bike had no top tube, to prevent his knees hitting the frame. The chainstays were at 45 degrees rather than horizontal to let the cranks pass with a narrow bottom bracket. A French writer who tried it said the narrow handlebars made it hard to accelerate the machine in a straight line but, once it was at speed, he could hold the bars and get into Obree's tucked style.

At a high enough speed, [I could] tuck in my arms. And, above all, get in a very forward position on the bike, on the peak of the saddle. The Obree position isn't advantageous simply aerodynamically, it also allows, by pushing the point of pedalling towards the rear, to benefit from greater pressure while remaining in the saddle. You soon get an impression of speed, all the greater because you've got practically nothing [deux fois rien] between your hands. Two other things I noticed after a few hundred metres: I certainly didn't have the impression of turning 53 × 13, and the Obree position is no obstruction to breathing. But I wasn't pedalling at 55kmh, 100 turns of the pedals a minute, yet my arms already hurt.^[18]

[edit] Taking the record

Obree attacked Moser's record, on 16 July 1993, at the Vikingskipet velodrome in Hamar, Norway^[19] He failed by nearly a kilometre.^[20] He had booked the track for 24 hours and decided to come back next day.^[21] The writer Nicholas Roe said:

To stop his aching body seizing up, Obree then took the unusual measure of drinking pint upon pint of water so that he had to wake up to go to the lavatory every couple of hours through the night. Each time he got up, he stretched his muscles. On the next weary day, he was up and out with minutes, at the deserted velodrome by 7.55am and on the track ready to start just five minutes after that. He had barely slept. He had punished his body hugely the previous day. Surely this was a waste of time?^[22]

Obree said:

I was Butch Cassidy in terms of swagger. I didn't want any negativity. This was blitzkrieg. I'm going in there. Let me do it. I'm not going to be the timorous guy from Scotland. That's what the difference was. Purely mental state. The day before, I had been a mouse. Now I was a lion.^[23]

Obree broke the record with 51.596km.^[24]

[edit] Losing the record

Obree's triumph lasted less than a week. The English Olympic champion, Chris Boardman broke it on 23 July, riding 52.270km at Bordeaux, France, during the rest day of the Tour de France. His bike had a carbon tube and wheels and a triathlon handlebar. Their rivalry grew: a few months later Obree knocked Boardman out of the world championship pursuit to take the title himself.^[25]

[edit] Regaining the record

Francesco Moser, whose record Obree had beaten, adopted Obree's riding position - adding a chest pad - and established not an outright world record but a veterans' record of 51.84km. He did it on 15 January 1994, riding in the thin air of Mexico City as he had for his outright record, whereas Obree and Boardman had ridden at close to sea level.

Obree retook the record on 27 April 1994, using the track that Boardman had used at Bordeaux. He had bolted his shoes to his pedals, to avoid what had happened in the final of the national pursuit championship, when he pulled his foot off the pedal during his starting effort.^[26]

He rode 52.713km, a distance beaten on 2 September 1994 by the Spanish Tour de France winner, Miguel Indurain.

[edit] Old Faithful banned

The world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale grew concerned that changes to bicycles were making a disproportionate improvement to track records. Among other measures, it banned his riding position: he did not find out until one hour before he began the world championship pursuit in Italy.^[27] Judges disqualified him when he refused to comply.^[28] The magazine Cycling Weekly blamed "petty-minded officialdom."^[29]

Obree developed another riding position, the Superman style, his arms fully extended in front, and he won the world pursuit championship with this and Old Faithful in 1995.^[30] That position was also banned. The bike is in the Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh.

[edit] Other achievements

Obree was individual pursuit world champion in 1993 and 1995. He broke the British 10-mile individual time trial record in 1993, won the RTTC 50-mile championship the same year (a record 1h 39m 1s), and won the 25-mile championship in 1996. In 1997 he timed 18m 36s in a 10-mile time trial and next day won the British Cycling Federation 25-mile championship. The writer Peter Bryan, of the The Times, said:

To see Obree in full flight, shoulders hunched and elbows tucked into his ribs, is a memorable sight. His face contorted with pain illustrates the effort he is putting in. And yet, not too many minutes after he has finished a ride the champion is sufficiently relaxed to talk with a queue of pressmen.^[31]

[edit] Failed professional career

Obree rode his hour records as an amateur. He took a professional licence after winning his first world championship, telling Bryan: "I reckon I can make more money on the bike than I get from unemployment benefit."^[32]

He joined Le Groupement, a small French team but did not attend a meeting in Les Carroz d'Arraches^[33] and was fired for "lack of professionalism."^[34] Obree had been racing in Florida, USA, when the team first met. But he was on holiday there when the team met again for publicity photographs. He got to the next get-together but flew to Paris instead of Lille, where the meeting was held.^[35]

The team manager, Patrick Valcke, said: "If a rider has that attitude, it's best to stop working together as soon as possible. We paid for his tickets [to fly from Glasgow to Geneva ] and he didn't even turn up, didn't even phone to explain why he was not coming. He said that he did not want to leave his family so soon after the death of his brother (see below) but he could have phoned to tell us that. I don't want any more to do with him."^[36]

Obree said: "I was too ill to attend the get-together and had no success when I attempted to contact team officials on 1 January. My wife, Anne, who is a nurse, insisted I was not well enough to travel to France."^[37][38]

[edit] Drugs

Obree said of his short professional career: "I still feel I was robbed of part of my career. I was signed up to ride in the prologue of the Tour back in 1995, but it was made very obvious to me I would have to take drugs. I said no, no way, and I was sacked by my team. So there I was, 11 years later, sitting there waiting for the Tour cyclists to come by, and something welled up in me. I feel I was robbed by a lot of these bastards taking drugs. I also hate the way that people think anyone who has ever achieved anything on a bike must have been taking drugs. I was surprised how resentful I felt when I was in Paris. It had obviously been simmering away in there for years. That's something new I'll have to talk to my therapist about." ^[39]

He said in L'Équipe: "In my opinion, 99 per cent of riders at élite level take EPO or a similar drug, not particularly to dope themselves but to be at the same level as the others. And I find that rather sad."^[40][41]

His web site says: "AND by the way, I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time as has been happening in the sport for a long time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. In other words, if you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later."^[42]

[edit] Further suicide attempt

Obree's brother, Gordon, died in a car crash in October 1994^[43], and Graeme Obree again slid in and out of depression. He was found unconscious at Bellsland Farm in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, 12km from his home. The Obree family horse was stabled there,^[44] and he was discovered by a woman checking a barn.^[45] He had tried to hang himself.^[46] His wife, Anne, said he had been diagnosed as a severe manic-depressive three years earlier.^[47]

[edit] Book and film

He published his autobiography in 2003 entitled The Flying Scotsman.^[48] He said: "It started with the psychologist saying it would do me good and ended up as my life story."^[49] A film based on the book premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2006, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Boyd.^[50] In November 2006 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer bought world distribution rights and the film was released in the US on 29 December 2006;^[51] it was given a UK release on 29 June 2007. UK DVD release 5 November 2007.^[52]

[edit] Present day

Obree lives with his wife and two children near Irvine, in Scotland. He continues to race occasionally in individual time trials for Ayrshire-based Fullarton Wheelers cycling club. In May 2005, he crashed in rain in the national 10-mile time trial championship near Nantwich in Cheshire. He was a member of the winning three-man club squad that took the team title in the Scottish 10-mile championship in May 2006.^[53] In December 2006, he competed in the track event, Revolution 15, in a four kilometre pursuit challenge.^[54]

[edit] References

[edit] Related media

• Flying Scotsman: Cycling to Triumph Through My Darkest Hours Graeme Obree VeloPress 2005 ISBN 1-931382-72-7
• Flying Scotsman Graeme Obree Birlinn Books 2003 ISBN 1-84158-335-9
• Graeme Obree at the Internet Movie Database
• The Flying Scotsman speaks: Graeme Obree interview stv website

[edit] External links

• Graeme Obree
• Graeme Obree's Bikes
• Graeme Obree and the World Hour Record
• VeloPress U.S. Edition of the Graeme Obree Autobiography Flying Scotsman: Cycling to Triumph Through My Darkest Hours
• MGM to release Obree movie in the U.S.
• Graeme Obree's home made bike photograph
• The Flying Scotman movie (unofficial site)
• photo story by Jonathan Worth