Graeme Obree
Obree on Old Faithful
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Graeme Obree | |||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Flying Scotsman | |||||||||||||||
| Born |
11 September 1965 Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England |
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| Team information | ||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Fullarton Wheelers | |||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road and track | |||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Time Trial Specialist | |||||||||||||||
| Major wins | ||||||||||||||||
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World Hour Record 1993 (51.596 km), 1994 (52.713 km) World Champion (4000 m Pursuit) 1993, 1995 |
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Medal record
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Graeme Obree (born 11 September 1965), nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, is a Scottish racing cyclist who twice broke the world hour record, in July 1993 and April 1994, and was the individual pursuit world champion in 1993 and 1995. He was known for his unusual riding positions and for the Old Faithful bicycle he built which included parts from a washing machine. He joined a professional team in France but was fired before his first race.
He suffers from bipolar disorder and has attempted suicide three times. His life and exploits have been dramatised in the 2006 film The Flying Scotsman and more recently in the documentary film Battle Mountain: Graeme Obree's Story, which follows his journey to Battle Mountain, Nevada to compete in the 2013 World Human Powered Speed Championships. Obree has created some radical innovations in bicycle design but has had problems with the cycling authorities banning the riding positions his designs required.
In March 2010 he was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.
Obree was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire but has lived almost all his life in Scotland and considers himself Scottish. An individual time triallist, his first race was a 10-mile time trial to which he turned up wearing shorts, anorak and Doc Marten boots. He thought the start and finish were at the same place and stopped where he had started, 100 metres short of the end. He had started to change his clothes when officials told him to continue. He still finished in "about 30 minutes."
Obree suffers from bipolar disorder. He attempted suicide in his teens by gassing himself. He was saved by his father, who had returned early from work. In the 1990s he took an overdose of aspirin washed down by water from a puddle. He had personality problems, sniffed the gas he used to weld bicycles, and was being chased for £492 owed in college fees.
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