The Best of Memories: Colin Sturgess

New Series! In the first of a series called “The Best of Memories”, we find out from superstar Colin Sturgess what his best memories are in the sport of cycling

The Best of Memories: Colin Sturgess

He is one of the most popular riders I know based on the attention he gets at races and online and he’s also a bloody nice guy.

Colin won a rainbow jersey and a Bronze medal in the individual pursuit at the World Track Cycling Championships in 1989 and 1991 and also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 4 km individual pursuit where he was fourth. Showing how versatile he was, Colin, on the road, won the British Road Race Championship in 1990.

Sturgess turned professional after the 1988 Olympics and rode for pro teams such as ADR, where he was a team-mate of Greg LeMond. Other pro teams here and abroad were Tulip Computers, Team Brite and Men’s Health.

Looking back at his palmeres, Colin’s major successes goes back a bit with second in the Commonwealth Games Individual Pursuit way back in 1986 (and second in the Team Pursuit in 1998) and among his road wins was the Tour of the Cotswolds (1998) which was a major cycling event in Britain.

Nowadays, Colin has been the DS at Elite team Metaltek Kuota and UCI team Madison Genesis, ridden all manner of races from hill climbs to the CiCLE Classic and become a coach as well. Colin is co-owner of Champion Cycling Services offering training, racing, and coaching advice and other cycling related services (www.championcyclingservices.com) and can be found on twitter at @ChampionCS

Asked what his best memories are, he says “I guess in many ways my cycling career has been defined by my win at the 1989 World Championships in the Professional Individual Pursuit, but I view that result as one among many that I’m fortunate enough to have achieved.

But it’s not all about the wins.

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There have been some races, and indeed training sessions that have given me lasting and affirming memories. I lived for many years in Australia after I first retired (I quit the sport twice: first in 1992, then again in 2000) from professional racing, and found myself riding and racing mountain bikes to a National standard over there. Gary Sutton (now coach for the USA track squad) was nagging me to get back on a track bike, so I rocked up at Tempe velodrome (Sydney, New South Wales) one afternoon with the NSWIS squad lads and held my own.

Within the week, I was on the team, training with the state’s best: Graeme Brown, Stephen Wooldridge, Brent Dawson, Paul Dobson, Sean Eadie, Anthony Peden, and the Kersten brothers (big big names from Aussie cycling).

The “youngsters” looked to me for experience and know-how, and I to them for their infectious enthusiasm. It worked, and at the 1998 Australian National track championships, we took a close run silver medal to the dominant South Australian quartet (made up of all the AIS squad riders) in the team pursuit. For me it was perhaps my 30th national medal (as an interesting aside: to my knowledge I am the only rider in the world to have podiumed in three countries: GB, South Africa, and Australia) but for the young guys it was their first taste of national senior success, and a step up the ladder.

Colin with another medal LOL! This time riding for Kuota UK/GSG with another former pro, Dave Williams and Maddy Scott

Brownie went on to win Olympic, Commonwealth golds, and Stephen Wooldridge, Olympic gold and four world team pursuit titles. The hours and hours spent together forged lifelong friendships, and I was (still am) devastated when Big Steve (or ‘The Kink’ as we used to call him) took his life in 2017. Having experienced periods of bleak and profound depression myself, I failed to see it in Stevie and miss him dearly. Wins, medals, “arms-in-the-air” are all well and good, but ‘mateship’, camaraderie and life is where it’s at.”

Thank you Colin for that brilliant memory. A very emotional one for some one who knew a few of the people in there and also a proud Australian LoL!

VeloUK has many more Best of Memories coming in, very uplifting in these desperate times we live in … life is after all, about creating these memories…