2014 – The Year that Was

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Twelve of the best images in the 2015 VeloUK Calendar from yet another memorable year in cycle racing in Britain

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2014 – The Year that Was

NOTE: Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

It won’t be long before 2015 dawns on us and a new season of cycle racing in Britain will be upon us. A week ago I decided to pick twelve images from the 70,000 plus I have from the 2014 archives for my own calendar for 2015. That calendar can be downloaded from here free of charge (398mb download zip file of 12 PDFs) .

The criteria for the images was simple, major event memories from the racing in 2014 taken by me. As I wasn’t at the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire due to being on duty for the website, the calendar doesn’t include that event. In fact, it doesn’t include a lot of worthy events/pictures from the season past.

Maybe next year, it needs to be a weekly calendar so I can pick from 52 photos!

Some useful links summing up 2014:
The top result go getters in 2014 in British events
Results from the 2014 Major Races
A look ahead to 2015 season
Major races in 2015
British Teams for 2015

Here are the images for the 2015 VeloUK Calendar from events in 2014

January

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Ian Field of Hargroves Cycles ploughs through the mud at Derby on his way to another British Cyclo-Cross title, something he is making his own in recent years with three and counting. I chose this image because the mud at Derby outside the pits was just so wet and deep, every picture was a winner!

February

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The Newport Nocturne. A great event that attracts a huge crowd in this market town and won in 2014 by Frenchman Mattheiu Boulo of Team Raleigh. On his wheel in this pic is a youngster Sam Williams of NFTO who showed great determination to step up a level in 2014. There are so many images I could have used from this event but the floodlights, the crowd lining the barriers, the cobbles and the riders full gas sums it up nicely.

March

Matt Bottrill. No look back at 2014 could ever be complete without a picture of the domestic British time trialist of the year by a long way, Matt Bottrill. A full time worker training a handful or so of hours a week, Matt set a comp record and won multiple titles in a memorable season. This was a pic from the blue ribbon ’25’ in the Lake District.

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April

Laura Trott – I have watched this young lady racing since she was in single figures and for sure, Laura is one of, if not the best female track rider in the World right now and has been for a few years. This though was Laura beating one of the world’s best road racers, World Cup winner and Commonwealth Games RR champion Lizzie Armitstead, in front of a big crowd in Abergavenny. Dani King in second too showed she was handy on the road as well.

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May

The 2014 CiCLE Classic with a backdrop of fluffy clouds and rapeseed was another memorable British event won by a youngster Tom Moses (in black here). As ever, the race was ultra-aggressive and Tom was a worthy winner.

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June

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Pearl Izumi Tour Series Edinburgh – a favourite city of mine with a bike race that provides a background that makes great pictures easy such as this. This round, like so many such as Jersey, Canary Wharf and others, proof of just how important the Sweetspot event is to British cycle racing

July

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RideLondon Classic and what a ‘classic’ it was! This rainstorm, which rendered one of my cameras useless, is a favourite image, not just for me but many people and includes eventual winner Adam Blythe (NFTO) and Sir Bradley Wiggins. The race evolved into a ‘classic’ pro race with the likes of Ben Swift and Phillipe Gilbert up against local team NFTO and Adam Blythe. One of the best races of the season!

August

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John Herety has been at the forefront of British racing for decades, as a rider and a team manager. Since parting company with GB, his teams have been a force to be reckoned with and they dominated the team competition in the 2014 Pearl Izumi Tour Series. John was ceremonially drowned in one of the events sponsor’s products on the final podium of this year’s season.

September

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Mark McNally: The 2014 Friends Life Tour of Britain was won by Dylan Van Baarle but for me the ride of the race was by Liverpool’s Macca who hit out in Liverpool to show himself in front of family and friends and came away with the KoM jersey. He then fought off challenges day in, day out to retain it until the end. Awesome!

October

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The Friends Life Women’s Tour was a sensational success in its first year with the World’s best riders, a great course, huge crowds and some attacking racing like this where Rossella Ratto wins in Bedford after a long break fails, just, to be caught. A classic race was born.

November

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Dean Downing. One of the most successful riders over the last decade and more in Britain has been Yorkshire’s Dean Downing who rode his last season in 2014. Dean (left) is pictured here with brother Russell (NFTO Pro Cycling) in Dean’s last race, the Sheffield Grand Prix. Glad to say Dean will be at plenty of races in 2015 … #legend

December

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Milton Keynes World Cup Cyclo-Cross: Another major event in 2014 having its first outing in Britain was the historic World Cup in Campbell Park. The day was a huge success with an awesome crowd paying to seeing some great ‘cross action from the worlds best. Fingers crossed it returns as well in 2015!

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

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