who have you met

liversedge

Monty Dog wrote:

Ludovic Capelle stretching his legs before the race on Sunday. He was quite happy to sit-in or take a pull through the first of the cobbled sectors and great to follow his wheels and check out the lines he took.

What is it with the Belgian riders? Smack-heads

SunWuKong

I had a quick chat with Chris Hoy before the 2006 etape.

singlespeedexplosif

Sat next to Maurice Garin on a train once, many years ago ...

pah. I worked the bellows for Eugene Cristophe.

Patrick1.0

SunWuKong wrote:

I had a quick chat with Chris Hoy before the 2006 etape.

Did big Chris cope with the mountains? :P .

moray_gub

jimmerslimmer wrote:

Sat next to Maurice Garin on a train once, many years ago ...

Ahh so it was you who grassed him off for taking the train then !


cheers
MG

Bart Puss

Stayed in the same hotel as Oscar Friere...got him to autograph a world champs jersey for me...nice chap...but this was before he could speak much english...so not much of a conversation .

Wife liked him as well !!.

pottssteve

One of our PE teachers went to school with David Millar.
Stay calm now...

Gary Marshall

Charly Wegelius used to drink in my pub, we'd just bought it and got to know his mum, when he came back he was to say the least a little perturbed to discover i knew exactly who he was before being introduced!

From then on i thought it only correct to fill him with as much john smiths as possible on his flying visits to the UK. He is a thoroughly nice bloke who aimiably told me his war stories and taught the other locals great italian pulling lines!

I also met Mario Cippollini when on holiday in Lucca, i'd seen him before and the hysteria that surrounded him at the end of paris -tours once but this time i was just having a look in a bike shop window when a very suntanned figure , stripped to the waist shot past on a white specialized, i thought it must be him so shot off in pursuit.

finally caught up with him and had the extensive conversation thus....

me: mario?

him: si

Me : me inglese

Him: Hi

at that point i took sanctuary on his wheel and enjoyed a whizz round lucca with various locals shouting 'ciao mario'. he past me again a couple of days later too. Big cycling town lucca, our favourite restaurant was covered in bartoli's jerseys and they said mario was regular too.

Bustacapp

My mum saw Johnny Vegas in Lidl the other week.

Pross

Bustacapp wrote:

My mum saw Johnny Vegas in Lidl the other week.

Well worth a 4 year old thread resurrection to mention such a cycling legend

Paul 8v

Maybe he was buying some of their cycling gear, I'm always left with the XXXL sizes when I go in there...

Ron Stuart

Doing The Johnny Helms Memorial 2 up TT on the 7th of Oct with this guy....


Oh and bumped into this guy at the Tour of the Algarve just after his first TT win of the year and I'm the other guy

rick_chasey

Had a chat with Lars Boom before he did his ToB winning TT last year.

Pointed out a few potholes I knew about round parliament square.

Seemed genuinely a bit grateful for it.

I guess a growl from Hamilton after I asked after his long lost brother in his rock racing days doesn't count?

The Kennington Kaiser

Met Roger Hammond and Mark Cavendish outside my office as they piled out of the T-Mobile bus in early July 2007. They were doing a photo-shoot in front of Buckingham Palace a few days ahead of the London prologue - I think with Mick Rogers and Linus Gerdmann. Hammond was really nice and talkative, while Cav looked a bit overwhelmed and mute on being recognised. Early days of celebrity for him, I guess.

Met Sean Kelly at the Cycle Show the same year and got his autograph and a grunt. Certainly.

Last but not least. Bumped into the entire Katusha b-team on a training ride near Lake Idro in Italy last August. They were having a coffee and I had a chat with a Russian who spoke reasonable English. But then all the good work was undone when, in the car on the way home, their DS tried to overtake me and, as I wasn't going quick enough, lent out the window and gave me the bird and some choice abuse in Italian. Charming.

Pross

We had some bloke called Stephen Roche as guest speaker at our club dinner back in about '96. Chubby bloke, so when he came on our club run a skinny climber (me) decided to show him how it was done on a local climb. Turns out he had a slightly superior power to weight ratio than me One of the club's resident idiots also told him to be careful on one of the descents because it's 'a bit dangerous'!

Neil Martin used to come to our dinners and ride with us every year and was the point of contact to get Roche over.

Drumlin

I found myself exchanging emails with Chris Hoy after he'd won his first gold in Athens. Through his website I'd emailed a well done after he'd won the kilo and was totally flabbergasted when he emailed me a personal reply the following day. Top bloke.

Edit - Oh, and I was once stood at a bar in Club La Santa and realised that the gentleman next to me was a certain Bjarne Riis.

MrTapir

Graham Briggs checked out my girlfriend at the Woking round of the Tour Series this year. She was pleased as she thinks he is cute.

pottssteve

Blimey - this is such an old thread I can update it!

Met David Millar briefly before last year's Amstel Gold Race.
Interviewed Hendrik Redant for a website.
Met Mark Cavendish at his hotel earlier this year when he was riding (winning) the ZLM Toer. He signed my copy of The Rider.
We have the whole of the Rabobank squad using our gym for a photo shoot in October so I should be OK for a signature or two.....

I've been a busy chap.

MrT

Many years ago had a p*ss next to Eddy Merckx at the old Eastway circuit. He was just introducing his bikes to the UK. Waited until he'd washed his hands and was outside, then got him to sign my programme.
I'd like to say I'd ridden a few races with Eric Vanderaerden before he turned pro....but I saw him at the start....saw his back wheel disappear over the cobbles and was too far down to see him at the finish.....I think he was at home putting his feet up and counting his winnings.
At Bordeaux a couple of years ago, after Cav one the stage, found myself amongst the journos and Mr Zabel.....don't know why but asked him a few qs about Cav and had half a dozen recorders under my nose....blew it when I asked him to sign a freebie casquette for the kids....when they all realised I wasn't one of them...good laugh.....but I was asked if they could use the qs so can't have been that crap.
Bumped into Dave B at the back of the Death Star in Foix....had buggy and baby....always a good ice-breaker 5 min chat...before he got on and they left..couldn't believe it.
All a bit sad really.

Gazzetta67

Met Robert Millar at a Tony Doyle training camp. He was out there training at the time trying to get a contract after leaving TVM.. I had punctured twice inside 5kms and was F***ing swearing my head off and didnt realise both he & Tony Doyle had came back to help me...Millar said where abouts in Glasgow you fae from my swearing ...got talking about his old days back in glasgow training over the campsie hills.

inseine

One of my colleages is Christian Taillefer, who you've probably never heard of, but is a legend in France and one time 'fatsest man in the world (on a bike)'. Look him up, but basically 212kph down a snow covered mountain side.

davidof

Chatted to Max Sciandri and Chris Boardman when they've come through my town a few years ago and the Sky Team amongst others were here a couple of years ago and spoke to David Millar and Geraint Thomas... they were both less chatty than Boardman I have to say but polite. The big advantage was no separate team village so you could walk around and touch the bikes. It was also nice to walk out the front door and see a whole bike race preparing for the off. Oh and Sean Kelly and Claudio Chiappucci on the Giro.

My dad in law was invited to Stephen Roche's pad to do a day's cycling with him. How hard can it be, he asked me, he's a chubby middle aged Irish bloke. I managed to dissuade dad in law from taking his bike. Roche would have killed him.

Paul 8v

inseine wrote:

One of my colleages is Christian Taillefer, who you've probably never heard of, but is a legend in France and one time 'fatsest man in the world (on a bike)'. Look him up, but basically 212kph down a snow covered mountain side.

I remember him from years ago in Mountain biking UK, quite a distinctive name!

davidof

Paul 8v wrote:

I remember him from years ago in Mountain biking UK, quite a distinctive name!

It means "Iron Cutter". There is a mountain just outside Grenoble that bears the name and is very rich in iron ore - so much so that compasses don't work.

BR 1979

I bumped into Phil Liggett in the middle of the Vuelta...



...At St Pancras Station at 6.15am!

andyrr

A few years ago I went to watch RVV and ahead of me in the queue for a hire car at Brussels airport was none other than Gianni Bugno, the famous cyclist and helicopter pilot.

Teddy Westside

Holy thread resurrection Batman! :twisted:

I chatted with Alan Peiper after a City Centre Cycling race in Edinburgh back in the day. Such a friendly guy and elicited a cheer from the crowd when I said he was the best cycling commentator I'd heard in years (IIRC, I think that was for pieces to camera he'd been doing while riding whatever name the Tour of Britain was under at the time).

Chris Hoy was kind enough to chat to my girlfriend on the phone at her work when I met him during the 2008 post-Olympic parade.

Spoke with David Millar after he won the 2009 Edinburgh Nocturne but he was so gracious that all he really wanted to do was tell me about his team mate beside him, Cameron Mayer. He told me I should keep an eye on him as he was going to be a very good rider for the future. And he wasn't wrong!

greasedscotsman

It's a few years ago now, but here are some of the guys I met on a bike ride around the Ardennes!



Guy with the helmet on is Jorg Jackshe.



Alessio rider in front is Laurent Dufaux and in front of him is Franco Pellizotti. Come to think of it, it's a wonder I was able to keep up with any of them!

pottssteve

I met Bennie Ceulen today...

mr_goo

I used to play quite a lot of Golf in my younger days and met quite a few of the old guard, Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, Ian Woosnam, Nick Faldo etc.

Caddied for a mate in the World Matchplay pro-am at Wentworth many years back, for a team put up by Barclays Bank. The accompanying pro was Craig 'The Walrus' Stadler. My mate who played off 3 had to tee off on the 1st in front of a crowd of hundreds, and confided in me after his tee shot that he was bricking himself and could hardly hold the club let alone swing it. Last to tee off was Stadler who had been rushed in by taxi from the 'Redeye' at Heathrow. No practice session before hand, he looked pretty cr4p actually. He slashed at the ball with a driver, the ball went near verticle and landed about 150 yards up the fairway!! Hilarious, though the crown politely applauded.