For someone who has been part of BC cycling development squads since his early teens I dont think he really went anywhere near the school of hard knocks

He did fall off a lot though, looked quite painful to me.

he was just not good enough to convert that onto the road discipline until this year.

Bit unfair, he’s won minor classics and week-long stage races – but has only had a couple of goes as uncontested leader in a grand tour. He’s mainly been working as one of the very best domestiques in the biz.

Hattie Harnden. Awesome young MTB and CX rider being very well coached by T-Mo.

Chris Akrigg, Mark Cavendish (but then I’m biased, being from the Isle of Man and a trials rider…)

Robert Millar/Philipa York, if qualifying.

Epic watching the polka dot battles in the 80s.

Brendan Fairclough
Adam Brayton
Steve Peat
Josh Bryceland

Josh Beyceland

I did a little wee in my pants first time I saw Nick Craig in the flesh. Lovely chap.
🙂
& A.Ruffle, M.Cavendish ,S Cummings, G.Thomas ,R.Millar/P.York ,G.Obree , C Boardman, C Akrigg And D Mckaskill etc etc there’s loads…

Cavendish for determination, power and passion

Jedi, for being incredibly nice, super skilled and made me look cool in pics!

chakaping

Subscriber
For someone who has been part of BC cycling development squads since his early teens I dont think he really went anywhere near the school of hard knocks

He did fall off a lot though, looked quite painful to me.

Pretty sure he hasnt fallen off as many times and as hard as Cavendish; so does Cav belong to the school of hard knocks too?

I’ve always wondered what the school of hard knocks is too

Is there a fiercer competitor than Cav in all of cycling, let alone Britain?

Doesn’t matter what school he went to, he could teach plenty of riders a lesson or two.

Froomey had some particularly nasty and painful looking crashes just this year alone; another one from the school of hard knocks?

Gotta be Adam Brayton for me. Absolutely top bloke, happy to chat in the WC pits, and I love the fact that he’s shunned massive factory teams to stay loyal to Hope.

Apart from a lot of those already mentioned, Jason Queally was a big deal for me. IMHO he basically kick started the modern British domination of Olympic track cycling.

Love watching Brayton ride / smash trails, plus he seems like a top bloke.

Akrigg is up there too.

Brendog for always looking super stylish.

T-mo is legend and a great ambassador for the sport.

Katy Winton always comes across really well on the podcasts that I’ve listened too.

Don’t follow much road stuff, and a lot of DH riders have been covered so from BMX –
Dylan Clayton was the man BITD, unbelievably smooth around a BMX track.
Jamie Bestwick – winning X game Vert nine times in a row and having tricks to spare.
Stephen Murray – from a Number 1 BMX racer, to backflipping the pro sets in a race, to setting new heights in BMX dirt but didn’t get the appreciation at the time and paid the price.
Rob Ridge – took BMX tech to new levels. had a few mates than knew him and would travel down to visit “the trick factory” and play on his mini-ramps and witness “ridge-rage” first hand. Legend.
https://digbmx.com/videos/rob-ridge-a-pinch-of-salt

Froomey had some particularly nasty and painful looking crashes just this year alone; another one from the school of hard knocks?

I realise you’re trolling, but do you know anything about Chris Froome’s early cycling career, training in Africa, etc?

It wasn’t exactly the world class performance programme, by the sound of it.

@chakaping: you may know this already, but this past week’s CW actually does a few pages on Froome’s African training in the early days. It’s quite impressive.

Thanks SR, I only know bits and bobs from podcasts and interviews really, but it’s clear he was successful in spite of a lot of things – and because of his freakish natural talent obvs.

I’m going to throw Kris Kyle into the mix his bmx videos are brilliant. Handy on a mountain bike aswell.

chakaping

Subscriber
Froomey had some particularly nasty and painful looking crashes just this year alone; another one from the school of hard knocks?

I realise you’re trolling, but do you know anything about Chris Froome’s early cycling career, training in Africa, etc?

It wasn’t exactly the world class performance programme, by the sound of it.

It seems I know more about Froomeys early years than you; my point was that people still wrongly buy into the media portrayal of GT as working class kid who clawed his way to the top despite having no breaks or support; assuming he somehow has had to do things the hard way – when he most definitely did not. And yet most commenting on Froomey wrongly assume he had something of a posh privileged easy ride to the top.