Battle of the Brits: Hour record heroes

Graeme Obree, Hour Record, old faithful, scotland, race against time

It takes a lot to push the Tour de France off the front page of French sports daily L'Equipe in July, writes Edward Pickering. The World Cup manages it every four years, but otherwise, the first thing French cycling fans digest every morning, along with their café au lait, is several pages of Tour coverage.

However, one day in 1993, an unknown Scottish cyclist pushed the Tour back to the middle of the newspaper. Graeme Obree, crouched over his bike in the tuck position familiar to followers of domestic British time trialling but a complete novelty to international cycling fans, had broken the World Hour record.

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