Born in the winter of 1945 William Bilsland came from a cycling family, his father being part of the Glasgow Wheelser 4000m pursuit team. Billy would come back full circle to his cycling roots and is now the president of that samw club. His racing career was in the 70's and was part of the Peugeot and Raleigh Team between 1970-1975.
He had some good results and was a work horse in the peloton, ending his career with a descent palmares:
1968 First stage in 13th Milk Race, Morecambe (GBR)
1969 2nd in 4th stage Tour Nivernais Morvan (FRA) 1969 First to sixth Tour stage Nivernais Morvan (FRA)
1969 2nd in General Classification Tour Nivernais Morvan (FRA)
1969 First part in a 10th stage Tour de l'Avenir, Clermont-Ferrand (FRA)
1971 Second in Gistel (BEL)
1971 Second in the GP d'Isbergues (FRA)
1971 First in Oud-Turnhout (BEL)
1971 Third in Assebroek (b) (BEL)
1971 Second in Zomergem (b) (BEL)
1971 Third in Circuit des Fronti?res, Templeuve (BEL)
1973 First stage in fifth GP Wills (GBR) 1973 3rd in National Championship, On the Road Race, Great Britain (GBR)
1974 2nd in National Championship, On the Road Race, Great Britain (GBR)
1974 Second in a second stage part Etoile des Espoirs, St Martin de Landelles (FRA)
The relaxed Scotsman along with coach Jimmy Dorward were the some of the forefathers of scientific approach to training. In a time were quantity was the order of the day when in came to training and a race calendar with more than a 100 races a year, the fact that Bilsland was opting for quality over quantity with the use of interval training was years ahead of his time. The evidence of this success can be seen in his results just in his penultimate year as an amateur, two classics and 17 wins. Impressive by any standards and closed the deal for signing with Peugeot in his break through year.
His raced three years at Peugeot and saw a top ten finish in the Tour of the Falling leaves in 1970. He was also no stranger to the tales that come from the peloton back in the day. When managers were hard men and demanded everything from the riders the Scotsman was found between the team leader,Godefroot, and the team manager, Gaston Plaud. Godefroot found out that the Spanish were holding out on him during a stage race and decided to play sick to get out of the race. As he dropped off the bunch Plaud told Bilsland to get his back into the bunch even if it meant dragging him to the line. Godefroot had no intention of finishing after this slight on him and told Bilsland to abandon with him. Not being at the top of the food chain Bilsland could not simply pack up and go home. This left him with a long hard chase to get back to the bunch. No sooner had he arrived that Plaud asked his what he was doing on the back of the bunch when the racing was going on in the front!!!
References:
Finished reading the article on the patron saint of cyclist on the cyclingnews site. Great story about the church that has hosted so many a Giro d'Italia and Giro di Lombardia. I then came across the picture of the statue that is outside this hillside chapel. It summed up my season so well I had to include it in my race overview from yeasterday's Championship. This season I started with some highs and ended off with more challenging lows. Call it beginners luck but my season start in the Sport Category had me thinking that this sport was easy. And thats exactly where I made the mistake, this sport is everything but easy. My first season saw me go from winning my category to suffering in the Expert category. Did I jump to quick? Its something that I couldn't and don't want to answer because I had a challenge in the last half of the the season that can only build character. The injuries in the later part of the year probably didn't help but might point to the fact I was pushing a bit too hard too early. So my season like this statue had me practising victory salutes and also grovelling asking why I was putting my body through this medievil torture.
Arogance and the badger were never far apart, I guess a man who wins five Tours has somewhat of a right to be arogant. He was the strength of the peleton orchestrating fellow riders to his iron will. If a stage was difficult the next day he was able to hold the group back. Any sign of imputence from a commetitor was followed by a harsh comeback from Hinault. He would rip the rider to pieces with his strength, in other words he was not to be messed with. As you can see in the photo he rode to his final tour victory with a black eye received in a crash. It is this determination that makes a great rider and something that I try to keep in mind on each ride when thinking about giving up.
For the first time in 40 years the Tour will also be without any prologue in the words of Jean-François Pescheux:“There will be a new feature at the departure from Brest: we have decided to replace the usual prologue time trial reserved for a dozen specialists, with a stage of almost 170 kilometers after which 100 cyclists will be in the running for possession of the Yellow Jersey. The race will therefore be enthralling from the opening kilometers and the Monts d’Arrée will be a formidable battleground in this very open first stage, because the arrival at Plumelec could hold some surprises in store. The remainder of the race, between Auray and Saint Brieuc is also certain to be action-packed, with its hilly course and the passage through Mur-de-Bretagne, just like the third stage which will depart from Saint-Malo and cross Ille-et-Vilaine… In short, it is certain to be a Grand Départ full of suspense.”
If you take the post war victories claimed by Frenchman then Brittany has indeed provided a plenty making up almost 50% of the overall titles claimed by the French. Of the fours riders to take the top spot on the podium Hinnault has taken five of the eleven. Needless to say this is an area richly enveloped in cycling tradition and seeped with the history of the Tour. Brittany does not lend itself to any major climbs although the undulating terrain makes for some energetic sprint finishing. A comment during the Giro made by one of the commentators comes back to me: "If cyclist were musicians then sprinters would be rocks stars".
[click on the map for full size]