Sandy G and the Wallace

I was in Peebles for the 70th birthday of Sandy Gilchrist. For the uninitiated, Sandy is a legend of Scottish cycling and known to be one of the best bike mechanics in the world.
 
I first met Sandy in his wee bike shop in Cadzow Place, Edinburgh in the days when I didn't even ride a bike. My mate Craig worked in the shop and I often found myself in the basement workshop with him, Jason and Colin. Before long, I had bought a mountain bike and developed a new circle of friends who were all bikies.
 
The 1st time I realised that Sandy was a great bike rider was when we all went to Carron Valley for a mountain bike race. I can't remember if Sandy won but he was definitely up there with some good riders that were 25 years younger. It wasn't that the result that marked Sandy out. It was the fact that my Dad, who didn't know anything about cycling, was impressed that I knew the guy.
 
Sandy had ridden for Scotland numerous times, done the legendry Peace Race, won the Best All Rounder (BAR) time triallist a few times and was a great hill climber. He was now making his mark as an auld MTBer on his very cool Alpine Stars Ti-mega XT (how do I remember that?).  Sandy rarely did any spannering in his shop but I found out that he was also a renowned mechanic at the Grundig World Cup which was being held in Strathpeffer that year.
 
Sandy was looking after Team Raleigh which had Caroline Alexander in it. The night before the big race, I remember sitting in the hotel bar with Sandy and the team swaneur Diego Maggio, who we kept asking what it was like to rub Alexander's legs, much to his faux disgust. World Champion John Tomac was staying in the same hotel too. He raced head to head the next day with Thomas Frischnecht  in a total mudfest and I think the latter won. Both were ahead of other legends Ned Overend, Tinker Juarez and Tim Gould.
 
Sandy and I's paths have continued to cross over the years with me bumping into him when world cup track events have been on in Manchester, where he's been looking after the Canadian and Irish bikes or for Team Scotland in the run up to the Commonwealth Games. What really excites me is that he also looks after Team Specialized, including Gwen Jorgenson and Javier Gomez. I suspect his work load has gone down after Jorgenson has learnt to stay upright on her bike to enable her to unleash her amazing running ability!
 
I'm proud to have Sandy as a friend. I've never heard a bad thing said about him and I know he's held in the highest esteem in both cycling and triathlon. Heiko jokes about Sandy and his ability to pour a very wee dram, but never two!  It was very fitting that we all got a miniature of whisky with a Sandy G label on it at the party.
 
Earlier in the day Rosemary and I had pedalled over to Innerleithen to visit friends Caroline, Nicky and the dugs! I've known Caroline nearly as long as Sandy and she's also a legend in sport. She was a damn good triathlete who I trained with a little bit when I first met her. That was until she went to Australia for a bit and came back far too fast for me to keep up…..she got even faster under the tutelage of Darren Smith! Caroline is a legend in my eyes as she's a PE teacher at Peebles High and takes the kids out MTBing. That may not seem like much, but Peebles is a world hotbed for young riders, and is a town where kids ride their bikes. Grant Ferguson, who I think will be riding this year's Olympics is a Peebles lad! 
 

It was an afternoon of chilling. I'm always happy when there are dugs about and I got acquainted with Roxy the husky (well hairy Alaskan looking dug anyway). She's got hauntingly two toned eyes, mainly blue and is my kind of beast. Caroline and Rosemary nattered loads about racing as they like the same types of events and have even competed in an Open 5 together (and won). On their day they are pretty closely matched!