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Graeme Obree (born 11 September 1965)[1] is a Scottish racing cyclist who twice broke the world hour record, in July 1993 and April 1994, and was the individual pursuit world champion in 1993 and 1995. 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 has suffered from clinical depression and twice attempted suicide. His life and exploits have been dramatised in the film The Flying Scotsman. Obree created some of the most radical innovations in the history of bicycle design.
[edit] Biography[edit] OriginsObree was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, but has lived almost all his life in Scotland and considers himself Scottish. An individual time triallist, his first race was a 10-mile time trial to which he turned up 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."[2] 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.[3] In the 1990s he took an overdose of aspirin washed down by water from a puddle.[3][4] He had personality problems,[4][5] sniffed the gas he used to weld bicycles, and was being chased for £492 owed in college fees.[3] The bike shop that he ran failed and he decided the way out of his problems was to attack the world hour velodrome record.[3] It had been held for nine years by Francesco Moser, at 51.151kilometres. Obree said:
[edit] The bikeObree 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 fit them to his bike.[3][6][7][8] Obree regretted saying that was what he had done because journalists referred to that before his achievements and other innovations.[9] Obree called his bike "Old Faithful". It had a narrow bottom bracket, around which the pedal cranks revolve, to bring his legs closer as this is the "natural" position. As shown in the film, your feet want to pedal "one banana" apart. 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.
[edit] Taking the recordObree attacked Moser's record, on 16 July 1993, at the Vikingskipet velodrome in Hamar, Norway[n 2] He failed by nearly a kilometre.[10] He had booked the track for 24 hours and decided to come back next day.[3] The writer Nicholas Roe said:
Obree said:
Obree set a new record of 51.596 km beating Moser's record of 51.151 km by 445m.[4] [edit] Losing the recordObree's triumph lasted less than a week. The British Olympic champion, Chris Boardman broke it on 23 July, riding 52.270 km at Bordeaux, France, during the rest day of the Tour de France. His bike had a carbon monocoque frame, carbon 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.[11] [edit] Regaining the recordFrancesco 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 51.84 km. 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 19 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.[n 3] He rode 52.713 km, a distance beaten on 2 September 1994 by the Spanish Tour de France winner, Miguel Indurain. [edit] Old Faithful bannedThe 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.[12] Judges disqualified him when he refused to comply.[13] The magazine Cycling Weekly blamed "petty-minded officialdom."[12] 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.[12] That position was also banned. The bike is in the Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh. [edit] Other achievementsObree 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:
[edit] Professional careerObree 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."[2] He joined Le Groupement, a French team but did not attend a meeting in Les Carroz d'Arraches[13] and was fired for "lack of professionalism."[14] 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.[14] 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."[14] 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."[13][14] The Le Groupement team fell apart after a short time, when the sponsoring company was involved in scandal, with accusations that it was nothing but a pyramid selling scheme. Some of the team members claimed that they were owed money, and their wages had not been paid. [edit] DrugsObree 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."[4] 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."[15][n 4] 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."[16] [edit] Further suicide attemptObree's brother, Gordon, died in a car crash in October 1994,[7] and Graeme Obree again slid in and out of depression. He was found unconscious at Bellsland Farm in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, 12 km from his home. The Obree family horse was stabled there,[5] and he was discovered by a woman checking a barn.[7] He had tried to hang himself.[3] His wife, Anne, said he had been diagnosed as having severe bipolar disorder three years earlier.[5] [edit] Present dayObree 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.[17] In December 2006, he competed in the track event, Revolution 15, in a four kilometre pursuit challenge.[18] [edit] New Hour record attemptIn May 2009 Obree announced that he would make an attempt at the "Athlete's Hour" record on a bike he had built himself during 2009. Obree said in October 2009 that the attempt had been cancelled as the bike he'd built himself was not suitable for the conditions. He will not be attempting this again. [19] In December 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.[20] [edit] Book and filmHe published his autobiography in 2003 titled The Flying Scotsman.[n 5] He said: "It started with the psychologist saying it would do me good and ended up as my life story."[21] A film based on the book premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2006, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Boyd.[22] In November 2006 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer bought world distribution rights and the film was released in the US on 29 December 2006;[23] it was given a UK release on 29 June 2007. UK DVD release 5 November 2007.[24] [edit] Notes
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