Cycling
Cycling is a popular amateur sport, with 99 clubs throughout the country, from the Shetland Wheelers to the Stewartry Wheelers. At the elite level, Scots have been more successful at track cycling rather than road racing, although Scotland has a long history of time-trialing on the road. The lack of road races within the country, with not a single UCI-ranked event, is largely to do with the refusal of Scottish local authorities to close public roads to allow road races to take place safely. Scotland has two velodromes, one at Meadowbank Stadium, in Edinburgh and another at Caird Park in Dundee. Another is under construction in Glasgow for 2014 Commonwealth Games. The governing body is the Scottish Cyclists' Union.
In recent years mountain biking has become very popular, with Scottish geography being ideal for training and racing. The Fort William World Cup event has become the highlight of the series.
Scotland has produced several world-class cyclists. Probably the most renowned champion out of Scotland is the great Robert Millar, a King of the Mountains, and fourth-place overall, at the 1984 Tour de France; and very nearly a winner of the 1985 Vuelta a España (where the strange manner of his defeat to Pedro Delgado is still a matter of some controversy). He came second in the 1987 Giro d'Italia and second twice in the Vuelta: 1985 and 1986. Indeed Millar is widely considered to be the best cyclist to have ever come out of the UK (although many would also argue the merits of the Englishman Tom Simpson).
In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chris Hoy became the most successful British Olympian in over 100 years when he cycled to 3 golds in the velodrome in sprint events (Sprint, team sprint and keirin). His achievements earned him the honor of carrying the nation's flag in the closing ceremony and a knighthood in 2008.
Graeme Obree, and David Millar (no relation) have also reached the very peak of their respective events.
Read more about this topic: Sport In Scotland
Famous quotes containing the word cycling:
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
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—Ouida [Marie Louise De La Ramée] (1839–1908)
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—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)