Former Olympic skier Alain Baxter has been forced to delay his cycling debut this week after withdrawing from the national track championships because of illness. The 35-year-old was due to take on triple gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy in tomorrow’s sprint and Saturday’s keirin in the Manchester Velodrome.
Baxter said on the BBC Sport website: "I was really looking forward to racing against Chris Hoy as it would have been a pretty big experience. I might have got away with not being fully fit in skiing but this is brand new for me.”
"It's really disappointing as I've been in training all summer but there will be other opportunities to try and get into the Scotland team for the Commonwealth Games."
Edinburgh-born Baxter was forced to retire from competitive skiing earlier this year because of a back problem but has said he wants to compete as a cyclist at the 2012 Olympics.
Nicknamed “The Highlander” the Scot was at one point ranked as high as 11th in the world as a skiier an impressive feat for an athlete from a non-alpine country.
He won Britain's first Olympic skiing medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics but was stripped of it after failing a doping test. He put it down to using an American nasal inhaler and was later cleared of any wrongdoing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but his medal was not returned.
Despite Baxter’s absence there will be a strong Scottish contingent at the Championships, headed by Hoy. The championships will feature several other riders from Hoy's former club, City of Edinburgh, including sprinters Bruce Croall, Callum Skinner, Kevin Stewart, Charline Joiner and Daisy Sherwood.
The event is the first of three top cycling events in Manchester this autumn. It’s followed by the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics from Friday, October 30-Sunday, November 1 and the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships from Friday, November 6-Sunday, November 8.
At the given time of day on that date (8:15 am August 22nd) in that location the sun would be at 53° north, so you'd have to be driving at least...
I said it appears to on the basis of the graph you shared, I was at pains to point out that I hadn't read the article. Thanks for sharing the blog,...
7 October was just a bit of harmless fun until the "msm" ramped it up.
It's not censored if you just pirate it
an example of Kesgraves "best cycling infrastructure in the country" https://maps.app.goo.gl/GsCMbzDUTPdq59qS9
It turns out that that is national police policy. We found out from this process that there is national 'secured by design' policy which causes...
Been available for quite a while, full GRX mechanical 12 speed. Probably around the same time as 105 mechanical 12 speed if I were to guess.
Less harmful citrus degreaser is easy to find at £8 or less for 5 litres. Works ok for me, even diluted up to 4:1. Both paraffin and white spirit...
Nope, it's to keep your straps down and quieter. Plus most sunglasses are polycarbonate and aren't going to shatter like glass anyway
And, more seriously, where's the coverage of the closure of the cycle lane which forces you to cycle on the Totton bypass.