Peter Longbottom (13 May 1959 – 10 February 1998) was a British road racing and time triallist
cyclist
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
. He won more than 40 national championship medals and won bronze and silver medals in the team time trial event at the 1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games.
Cycling career
Longbottom was born on 13 May 1959 in
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
to cycling parents.
[Archived]
on 2 August 2021. He began cycling with Clifton Cycling Club and Velo Club York with whom he won his first national team time trial medal, a bronze, in 1978.
[Archived 1]
https://archive.today/4nYiV 2] on 2 August 2021. He joined the
Manchester Wheelers' Club, Manchester Wheelers in the 1980s and also rode for GS Strada and North Wirral Velo.
He briefly rode with
A.C.B.B. during the 1982 season leading to an offer to turn professional with
Wolber, which he declined.
Combining his cycling career with a full time job as a civil engineer at
Ryedale District Council
Ryedale is a non-metropolitan district in North Yorkshire, England. It is in the Vale of Pickering, a low-lying flat area of land drained by the River Derwent. The Vale's landscape is rural with scattered villages and towns. It has been inha ...
, he won the Tour of the Cotswold road race in 1983 and 1989, the Grand Prix of Essex in 1984 and the Archer International in 1992, and over 40 medals in national competitions.
He competed in the
Milk Race
The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time.
The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after the S ...
ten times, winning the opening stage in 1989 in
Bournemouth
Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...
.
![Pete Longbottom memorial plaque York](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Pete_Longbottom_memorial_plaque_York.jpg)
He won a
bronze medal
A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...
in the team time trial, riding with
Chris Boardman
Christopher Miles Boardman, (born 26 August 1968) is a British former racing cyclist. A time trial and prologue specialist, Boardman won the inaugural men's World time trial championship in 1994, won the individual pursuit gold medal at the 19 ...
,
Ben Luckwell
Benjamin Luckwell (born 30 March 1966) is a British former cyclist. Luckwell competed in the team time trial at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
He represented England and won a bronze medal in the team time trial, at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Au ...
and
Wayne Randle, at the
1990 Commonwealth Games
The 1990 Commonwealth Games ( mi, 1990 Taumāhekeheke Commonwealth) were held in Auckland, New Zealand from 24 January – 3 February 1990. It was the 14th Commonwealth Games, and part of New Zealand's 1990 sesquicentennial celebrations. Partic ...
in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, and finished fifth in the road race.
Also in 1990, he broke the 25-mile time trial record held by
Alf Engers
Alfred Robert Engers (born 1 June 1940) is an English former racing cyclist who set national records and won national individual time trial championships from 1959 to the late 1970s. He established a British record of 49 minutes and 24 se ...
for 12 years with a time of 49 minutes 13 seconds and won the national 100-mile time trial, beating
Gethin Butler
Gethin ( or ) is a Welsh name with two possible origins. It may mean "dark-skinned, swarthy". In other cases it may originate as a familiar form of the Old Welsh name ''Grippiud'' (strong lord, from "cryf", strong, and "udd", lord or ruler), modern ...
by four minutes.
Four years later at the
1994 Commonwealth Games
The 1994 Commonwealth Games ( French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, from 18 to 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, ...
in
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...
, Canada, he won
silver medal
A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...
in the team time trial with
Matt Illingworth,
Paul Jennings and
Simon Lillistone.
He competed in the
team time trial
A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events).
The winning team in a TTT is determined by the comparing the times of ( ...
at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
finishing 14th.
Longbottom retired from racing in 1996.
He died on 10 February 1998 following a road accident near York as he was cycling on the
A64.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longbottom, Peter
1959 births
1998 deaths
British male cyclists
Olympic cyclists of Great Britain
Cyclists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Sportspeople from Huddersfield
Commonwealth Games medallists in cycling
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England
Cyclists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
Cyclists at the 1994 Commonwealth Games