edinburgh rc cycling club

Travelling back from a road race down south, appropriately listening to ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ we took the opportunity to quiz Big Tim Blathwatyte on his progress  to date since joining ERC this time last year. 

Last year Tim was a chain-gang regular on the 9:30 ride, through and off was the way to go until he was plucked from the coast one Saturday morning by a few Road Race regulars and encouraged to do the upcoming ESCA RR Champs.  This was Tim first  experience of a race, the racing part didn’t last long as he was soon out the back with a few others. ‘I got punted early and probably finished last, I didn’t have a head or engine for the road, I had a chain-gang head’  Not disheartened Tim vowed to continue and at the seasons end applied for the newly formed ERC Men’s Squad.

A long winter of training and it was straight into racing in the ERC promoted event SuP6R Six Round 1, no great results in the first part of the season, but a lot of experienced was gained. 'Yeah it was a slow start, I seemed to race myself fit in the first half of the year, I must have done 20+ races by now, the turning point was the hard Dundee 2 Day, we were working to get the GC win for Aidan, and we nearly pulled it off'  Has being part of the Men's squad helped? 'Yes, definitely.  You learn pretty fast from the coaching input and other riders experiences.  Racing as part of a team is so much more fun than trundling around by yourself'

Ross Spence, Colin May and Tim Blathwayt 

The Ross McDonald Trophy 

Now down to the more serious business of diet.  I understand there have been some major changes this year? 'Ahh, I have reunited my love of meat after 15 years as a vegetarian, I just couldn't do all this riding without a good Sunday roast.  It started with a little bit here and there, but now it's full time'  And you don't mind a bit of cake as well?  The more cakes the better, especially after a hard race, my favourite would be a simple Madeira cake'

And finally what are the plans and aspirations for next year? ‘More results for a start,  I would like to get good results in the big races in Scotland and continue to work as part of a team.  We don’t have the most experience out there, but we all have an ounce of ability and the desire to improve,  all want to do is race, otherwise what’s the point of riding your bike...’

Can you spot Big Tim? 

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