Just champion - team Macdonald take national honours in Dundee

Kinlochleven all-terrain cyclist Gary Macdonald had plenty to celebrate recently.

 

Just two days before celebrating his 39th birthday, the Nevis Cycles rider took his third Scottish Cyclocross Championship title alongside partner Jo Doeg-Smith who had re-joined his road crew following her two-year battle with breast cancer.

 

Competing at Camperdown Country Park, Dundee, on Sunday November 15, Gary showed his intentions from the off when he and two other racers put distance between themselves and the rest of the field.

 

Gary, Lewis Martin and Sam Chisholm stayed together until past halfway, when injections of pace from his rivals proved too much for the latter.

 

With only a couple of minutes racing remaining, Gary and Lewis were shoulder to shoulder, vying for position into the final corners. Gary held his nerve and his position, however, to race round the last bend into the short finishing straight before punching the air in delight as he crossed the line.

 

Speaking the day after the race Gary said: 'To take the senior elite national championship is special for many reasons.

 

'It was a rollercoaster of emotions. Not because I lost out on the title in 2020 but because the real battle unknown to Jo and myself was just about to begin when just three days later she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

 

'The last year for Jo and I has been hellish but here we are, back again as a team and this time on top.

 

'To be able to get to this level has been nothing short of a miracle and the support out there yesterday was unbelievable. Thank you.'

 

Gary, who won the event in 2018 and 2019, also thanked Keith Stocker and Martin Harris and their team for putting on a great event, adding: 'Although the course didn't suit me, it made for close racing and brought a lot more riders into play.

 

'Lewis and I had yet another battle royale with countless attacks. We pushed one another beyond our limits while making it a race to remember once again.

 

'Congratulations to Lewis on his place and to Sam Chisholm who finished in third.'

 

Gary thanked his 'real family team' of team Jo, Iain Macdonald and Logan Anderson.

 

Photograph: Gary Macdonald punches the air in delight after crossing the finish line in first place in Dundee. NO_F47_GaryMacdonald_Cyclocross