Graeme Obree
Encyclopedia
Graeme Obree 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 the "Old Faithful" 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.
Obree was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame
in March 2010.
, Warwickshire
, but has lived almost all his life in Scotland
and considers himself Scottish. An individual time trial
list, his first race was a 10-mile time trial to which he turned up wearing shorts, anorak and Doc Marten boots. 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."
Obree suffers from bipolar disorder
He attempted suicide
in his teens by gassing himself. He was saved by his father, who had returned early from work. In the 1990s he took an overdose of aspirin
washed down by water from a puddle. He had personality problems, sniffed the gas he used to weld bicycles, and was being chased for £492 owed in college fees.
The bike shop that he ran failed and he decided the way out of his problems was to attack the world hour velodrome
record. It had been held for nine years by Francesco Moser
, at 51.151 kilometres. Obree said:
than usual and rode with the bars under his chest, his elbows bent and tucked into his sides like those of a skier. 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. Obree later regretted admitting to the bearings experiment, because journalists referred to that before his achievements and other innovations.
Obree called his bike "Old Faithful". It has a narrow bottom bracket
, around which the cranks
revolve, to bring his legs closer together, as he thought this is the "natural" position. As shown in the film, he thought a tread
of "one banana" would be ideal. The bike has no top tube, so that his knees did not hit the frame. The chainstays are not horizontal so that the cranks can pass with a narrow bottom bracket. The fork
had only one blade, carefully shaped to be as narrow as possible. 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.
in Hamar
, Norway
The track, 250m round, was built of Siberian pine in three and a half weeks. It was demolished after the world championships were held there. He failed by nearly a kilometre. He had booked the track for 24 hours and decided to come back the next day. The writer Nicholas Roe said:
Obree said:
Obree set a new record of 51.596 kilometres, beating Moser's record of 51.151 kilometres by 445 metres.
broke Obree's record by 674 metres, 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.
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.Bolting shoes to the pedals was pioneered by the Australian sprinter John Nicholson at the world championship in Leicester in 1970. Riders today use conventional shoe fixings but hold their feet to the pedal with supplementary straps.
He rode 52.713 kilometres, a distance beaten on 2 September 1994 by the Spanish Tour de France winner, Miguel Indurain
.
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
. Judges disqualified him when he refused to comply. The magazine Cycling Weekly
blamed "petty-minded officialdom."
Obree developed another riding position, the Superman
style, his arms fully extended in front, and he won the individual pursuit at the world championships
with this and Old Faithful in 1995. That position was also banned. The bike is on display at the new Riverside Transport Museum in Glasgow.
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 Times
, said:
He joined Le Groupement, a French team but did not attend a meeting in Les Carroz d'Arraches and was fired for "lack of professionalism." 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.
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."
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."
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.
He said in L'Équipe
: "In my opinion, 99 percent 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.""A mon avis, 99% des coureurs de l’élite prennent aujourd’hui de l’EPO ou une drogue similaire. Pas forcément pour se doper, mais pour être au même niveau que les autres. Et c’est plutôt navrant."
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."
, Ayrshire
, 12 km from his home. The Obree family horse was stabled there, and he was discovered by a woman checking a barn. He had tried to hang himself. His wife, Anne, said he had been diagnosed as having severe bipolar disorder three years earlier.
-based Fullarton Wheelers cycling club
. In May 2005, he crashed in the 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. In December 2006, he competed in the track event, Revolution 15, in a four kilometre pursuit challenge.
In January 2011, Obree disclosed in an interview with the Scottish Sun that he is gay
and that his difficulty with coming to terms with his sexual orientation contributed to his earlier suicide attempts. "I was brought up by a war generation; they grew up when gay people were put in jail. Being homosexual was so unthinkable that you just wouldn't be gay. I'd no inkling about anything, I just closed down." He came out
to his family in 2005.
In December 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame
.
premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
in 2006, starring Jonny Lee Miller
and Billy Boyd. In November 2006 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer bought world distribution rights and the film was released in the US on 29 December 2006; it was given a UK release on 29 June 2007. The DVD was released in the UK on 5 November 2007.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
racing cyclist who twice broke the world hour record
Hour record
The hour record for bicycles is the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour on a bicycle. There are several records. The most famous is for upright bicycles meeting the requirements of the Union Cycliste Internationale . It is one of the most prestigious in cycling...
, 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 the "Old Faithful" 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
Failed suicide attempt
Failed suicide attempts comprise a large portion of suicide attempts. Some are regarded as not true attempts at all, but rather parasuicide. The usual attempt may be a wish to affect another person by the behaviour. Consequently, it occurs in a social context and may represent a request for help....
. His life and exploits have been dramatised in the film The Flying Scotsman
The Flying Scotsman (film)
The Flying Scotsman is a 2006 British drama film, based on the life and career of Scottish amateur cyclist Graeme Obree. The film covers the period of Obree's life that saw him take, lose, and then retake the world one-hour distance record...
. Obree created some of the most radical innovations in the history of bicycle design.
Obree was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame
Scottish Sports Hall of Fame
The Scottish Sports Hall of Fame is the national sports hall of fame in Scotland, initiated on St Andrew's Day 2001. It is a joint project organised by sportscotland, the national governmental body for Scottish sport, and the National Museums of Scotland. It is also funded by BBC Scotland and...
in March 2010.
Origins
Obree was born in NuneatonNuneaton
Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, but has lived almost all his life in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and considers himself Scottish. An individual time trial
Individual time trial
An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...
list, his first race was a 10-mile time trial to which he turned up wearing shorts, anorak and Doc Marten boots. 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."
Obree suffers from bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
He attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in his teens by gassing himself. He was saved by his father, who had returned early from work. In the 1990s he took an overdose of aspirin
Aspirin
Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
washed down by water from a puddle. He had personality problems, sniffed the gas he used to weld bicycles, and was being chased for £492 owed in college fees.
The bike shop that he ran failed and he decided the way out of his problems was to attack the world hour velodrome
Velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
record. It had been held for nine years by Francesco Moser
Francesco Moser
Francesco Moser , nicknamed "Lo sceriffo" , is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer. He was one of the dominant riders from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, and won the 1984 Giro d'Italia, the 1977 world road racing championship and six victories in three of the five Monuments...
, at 51.151 kilometres. Obree said:
- The record had fascinated me since Moser broke it. It was the ultimate test - no traffic,The slipstream from passing traffic can increase the speed of time-triallists on busy roads 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.
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 saddleBicycle saddle
A bicycle saddle, often called a seat, is one of three contact points on an upright bicycle, the others being the pedals and the handlebars.The bicycle saddle has been known as such since the bicycle evolved from the draisine, a forerunner of the bicycle...
than usual and rode with the bars under his chest, his elbows bent and tucked into his sides like those of a skier. Watching a washing machine
Washing machine
A washing machine is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets...
spin at 1,200rpm led him to take the bearings, which he assumed must be of superior quality, and fit them to his bike. Obree later regretted admitting to the bearings experiment, because journalists referred to that before his achievements and other innovations.
Obree called his bike "Old Faithful". It has a narrow bottom bracket
Bottom bracket
The bottom bracket on a bicycle connects the crankset to the bicycle and allows the crankset to rotate freely. It contains a spindle that the crankset attaches to, and the bearings that allow the spindle and cranks to rotate. The chainrings and pedals attach to the cranks...
, around which the cranks
Crankset
The crankset or chainset , is the component of a bicycle drivetrain that converts the reciprocating motion of the rider's legs into rotational motion used to drive the chain, which in turn drives the rear wheel...
revolve, to bring his legs closer together, as he thought this is the "natural" position. As shown in the film, he thought a tread
Q Factor (Bicycles)
The Q Factor of a bicycle is the distance between the pedal attachment points on the crank arms, when measured parallel to the bottom bracket axle. It may also be referred to as the "tread" of the crankset. The term was coined by Grant Petersen during his time at Bridgestone Bicycles.Q Factor is...
of "one banana" would be ideal. The bike has no top tube, so that his knees did not hit the frame. The chainstays are not horizontal so that the cranks can pass with a narrow bottom bracket. The fork
Bicycle fork
A bicycle fork is the portion of a bicycle that holds the front wheel and allows the rider to steer and balance the bicycle. A fork consists of two fork ends which hold the front wheel axle, two blades which join at a fork crown, and a steerer or steering tube to which the handlebars attach ...
had only one blade, carefully shaped to be as narrow as possible. 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.
Taking the record
Obree attacked Moser's record, on 16 July 1993, at the Vikingskipet velodromeVelodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
in Hamar
Hamar
is a town and municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
The track, 250m round, was built of Siberian pine in three and a half weeks. It was demolished after the world championships were held there. He failed by nearly a kilometre. He had booked the track for 24 hours and decided to come back the next day. 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 7:55 am 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?
Obree said:
- I was Butch CassidyButch CassidyRobert LeRoy Parker , better known as Butch Cassidy, was a notorious American train robber, bank robber, and leader of the Wild Bunch Gang in the American Old West...
in terms of swagger. I didn't want any negativity. This was blitzkriegBlitzkriegFor other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
. 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.
Obree set a new record of 51.596 kilometres, beating Moser's record of 51.151 kilometres by 445 metres.
Losing the record
Obree's triumph lasted less than a week. On 23 July, the British Olympic champion, Chris BoardmanChris Boardman
Christopher "Chris" Boardman MBE is a former English racing cyclist who won an individual pursuit gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics and broke the world hour record three times, as well as winning three stages and wearing the yellow jersey on three separate occasions at the Tour de France...
broke Obree's record by 674 metres, riding 52.270 km at Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, during the rest day of the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
. His bike had a carbon monocoque frame, carbon wheels, and a triathlon
Triathlon
A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...
handlebar. Their rivalry grew: a few months later Obree knocked Boardman out of the world championship pursuit to take the title himself.
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 51.84 kilometres. He did it on 15 January 1994, riding in the thin air of Mexico CityMexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
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.Bolting shoes to the pedals was pioneered by the Australian sprinter John Nicholson at the world championship in Leicester in 1970. Riders today use conventional shoe fixings but hold their feet to the pedal with supplementary straps.
He rode 52.713 kilometres, a distance beaten on 2 September 1994 by the Spanish Tour de France winner, Miguel Indurain
Miguel Indurain
Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya is a retired Spanish road racing cyclist. He won five consecutive Tour de Frances from 1991 and 1995, the first to do so, and the fourth athlete to win five times. He won the Giro d'Italia twice, becoming one of only seven people in history to achieve the Giro Tour...
.
Old Faithful banned
The world governing body, the Union Cycliste InternationaleUnion Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland....
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
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Judges disqualified him when he refused to comply. The magazine Cycling Weekly
Cycling Weekly
Cycling Weekly is a British cycling magazine. It is published by IPC Media and is devoted to the sport and past-time of cycling. It is affectionately referred to by British club cyclists as "The Comic".-History:...
blamed "petty-minded officialdom."
Obree developed another riding position, the Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
style, his arms fully extended in front, and he won the individual pursuit at the world championships
UCI Track Cycling World Championships
The UCI Track Cycling World Championships are the set of world championship events for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling and are regulated by the Union Cycliste Internationale...
with this and Old Faithful in 1995. That position was also banned. The bike is on display at the new Riverside Transport Museum in Glasgow.
Other achievements
Obree was individual pursuitIndividual pursuit
The individual pursuit is a track cycling event where two cyclists begin the race from a stationary position on opposite sides of the track.The event is held over 4 km for men and 3 km for women. The two riders start at the same time and set off to complete the race distance in the...
world champion in 1993 and 1995. He broke the British 10-mile individual time trial
Individual time trial
An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...
record in 1993, won the RTTC
Cycling Time Trials
Cycling Time Trials is the British bicycle racing organisation which supervises individual and team time trials in England and Wales. It was formed out of predecessor body the Road Time Trials Council in 2002.-Time trialling:...
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 Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 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.
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."He joined Le Groupement, a French team but did not attend a meeting in Les Carroz d'Arraches and was fired for "lack of professionalism." Obree had been racing in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, 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
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
instead of Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, where the meeting was held.
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
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
] 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."
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."
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.
Attitude to doping
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."He said in L'Équipe
L'Équipe
L'Équipe is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of football , rugby, motorsports and cycling...
: "In my opinion, 99 percent of riders at élite level take EPO
Erythropoietin
Erythropoietin, or its alternatives erythropoetin or erthropoyetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
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.""A mon avis, 99% des coureurs de l’élite prennent aujourd’hui de l’EPO ou une drogue similaire. Pas forcément pour se doper, mais pour être au même niveau que les autres. Et c’est plutôt navrant."
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."
Further suicide attempt
Obree's brother, Gordon, died in a car crash in October 1994, and Graeme Obree again slid in and out of depression. In 2001 he was found unconscious at Bellsland Farm in KilmaursKilmaurs
Kilmaurs is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It lies on the Carmel, 21.1 miles south by west of Glasgow. Population recorded in 2001 Census, 2601- History :...
, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
, 12 km from his home. The Obree family horse was stabled there, and he was discovered by a woman checking a barn. He had tried to hang himself. His wife, Anne, said he had been diagnosed as having severe bipolar disorder three years earlier.
Present day
Obree is divorced from his wife, and the couple have two children. He continues to race occasionally in individual time trials for AyrshireAyrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
-based Fullarton Wheelers cycling club
Cycling club
A cycling club is a society for cyclists. It can be local or national, general or specialised. The Cyclists' Touring Club, CTC) in the United Kingdom is a national association; i-Team and are internet clubs; the Tricycle Association, Tandem Club and the Veterans Time Trial Association, for those...
. In May 2005, he crashed in the rain in the national 10-mile time trial championship near Nantwich
Nantwich
Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The town gives its name to the parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich...
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. 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. In December 2006, he competed in the track event, Revolution 15, in a four kilometre pursuit challenge.
In January 2011, Obree disclosed in an interview with the Scottish Sun that he is gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and that his difficulty with coming to terms with his sexual orientation contributed to his earlier suicide attempts. "I was brought up by a war generation; they grew up when gay people were put in jail. Being homosexual was so unthinkable that you just wouldn't be gay. I'd no inkling about anything, I just closed down." He came out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
to his family in 2005.
New Hour record attempt
In 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.In December 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame
British Cycling Hall of Fame
The British Cycling Hall of Fame was established in 2009 as part of British Cycling's 50th anniversary celebrations.On 17 December 2009, the names of fifty riders to be inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame were announced...
.
Book and film
He published his autobiography in 2003 titled The Flying Scotsman.Published by Birlinn, UK, with a foreword by Francesco Moser He said: "It started with the psychologist saying it would do me good and ended up as my life story." A film based on the bookThe Flying Scotsman (film)
The Flying Scotsman is a 2006 British drama film, based on the life and career of Scottish amateur cyclist Graeme Obree. The film covers the period of Obree's life that saw him take, lose, and then retake the world one-hour distance record...
premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
in 2006, starring Jonny Lee Miller
Jonny Lee Miller
Jonathan "Jonny" Lee Miller is an English actor. During the initial days he was best known for his roles in the 1996 films Trainspotting and Hackers...
and Billy Boyd. In November 2006 Metro-Goldwyn Mayer bought world distribution rights and the film was released in the US on 29 December 2006; it was given a UK release on 29 June 2007. The DVD was released in the UK on 5 November 2007.
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
- The Flying Scotsman speaks: Graeme Obree interview stv website
- Graeme Obree interview: Velo Club Don Logan Podcast (Feb 2011)