Sportscotland has today welcomed former world Hour record holder and Individual Pursuit World Champion Graeme Obree into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
Obree, nicknamed the Flying Scotsman, will join the likes of footballer Kenny Dalglish, rugby union player Gavin Hastings, Olympic 100m champion Allan Wells and racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart among the 88 names featured on the list of Scotland’s sporting greats.
He becomes only the second cyclist to make it into the Hall of Fame, joining Tour de France polka dot jersey winner Robert Millar, and with nomination criteria stipulating that those put forward must be retired from their sport for at least five years, it will be some time before Sir Chris Hoy will be eligible to join them.
Other sports stars being inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight are equestrian Ian Stark, judo’s Graeme Randall and the lawn bowler Richard Corsie, as well as two posthumous inductees, motorbike rider Steve Hislop and cricketer and rugby union player KG MacLeod.
Last year, we reported how Obree, who has endured a long battle with clinical depression, had been forced to abandon an attempt to break the Hour record for a third time on the advice of his doctor.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.