Flying Scotsman Graeme Obree crashes with depression

Published on Tuesday 17 November 2009 21:24

GRAEME Obree has been forced to abandon a comeback after a new world record attempt left the Scottish cyclist in a pit of depression.

• Graeme Obree had hoped that his new home-made bike could, like his first, Old Faithful, break the world hour distance record

Obree announced earlier this year he was attempting to break cycling's one-hour world record again at the age of 44.

But Obree, who has twice attempted suicide while battling depression, says the pressure of getting back into competitive cycling left him hiding "under a duvet for weeks".

Eventually, his doctor ordered him to give up the world record attempt, despite his being in top physical shape.

Announcing the end of his dream to return to the top of his sport, he said: "I became so depressed that I wasn't able to do it."

He says the depression struck when his home-made bike – built in his shed in Ayrshire, just like the Old Faithful bike that won him two world records in the 1990s – failed to reach the speeds he wanted.

He said: "I spent weeks under the duvet. I never had back-up plans, I was so sure about the bike. A normal person would just have been bitterly disappointed but it went beyond that because of who I am."

On his failed world record bid, Obree said: "Oh well, nobody died. I had to find out. I would have regretted it if I didn't give it my best shot."

Obree was intent on reclaiming, later this month, the one-hour record he won twice in the 1990s. He had self-built a unique bike, with an enormous 67-tooth chain ring for speed, Reynolds 653 tubing and silver soldering.

Obree spent a year and a half training on the bike, which he said worked brilliantly on the road. Despite his age, he was clocking times that brought the hour record within his grasp. Obree said: "I was just a smidgen short of the form that I had when I was racing Jason MacIntyre at my peak."

His friend MacIntyre was a triple British and Scottish champion time-trial cyclist who was killed in a collision while training on a public road in 2008.

Cycling experts believed Ayrshire-based Obree was capable of taking the world hour record for the third time. But when Obree took to Manchester's velodrome for a trial run in August, it went badly wrong. Watched by former national British cycling coach Doug Daley, Obree's bike proved useless.

It was the end of the dream for the former champion, who had also refused to search for a sponsor for his new world bid.

He said: "If I had to go back to scratch and spend five weeks on the track, like Chris Hoy did, it would cost a fortune without a sponsor."

To get over the disappointment of this latest setback, Obree is now writing a book: A Survivor's Guide to Depression, which he says will be packed with "good, solid advice" on beating the illness.

He has asked fans to remember his glory days rather than this latest disappointment.

He said: "Muhammad Ali got his jaw broken but he's still known as the best boxer ever."

Obree built his first hour-record bike, Old Faithful, in his workshop – including old bits of washing machine in the construction.

With his trademark "superman" riding style, Obree broke the world hour record in 1994 with 52.713km, and held the world champion individual pursuit 4,000m title in 1993 and 1995.

Obree, from Irvine, Ayrshire, has continued cycling since his 1990s heyday, but stepped out of the public eye in the wake of the publication of his autobiography and the subsequent movie, The Flying Scotsman, starring Jonny Lee Miller.

Top athletes' driven personalities are vulnerable to attacks of mental illness

GRAEME Obree was one of the first sportsmen to admit suffering from depression – saying top athletes are vulnerable to the illness because of their driven personalities.

Obree said: "We have a weird level of contentment. Think about it – if you have to win every race then there's something not right about you. It's not a healthy obsession, not the sign of a balanced, self-fulfilled person, happy in their own skin."

He is one of many top level athletes who have battled mental illness.

The death of German goalkeeper Robert Enke last week shone a new light on the issue of depression among top sportsmen.

The 32-year-old player, who played for Hannover 96 and had a good chance of being Germany's starting goalkeeper at next year's World Cup in South Africa, stepped in front of a train near his Hannover home.

His widow, Teresa, appeared on television a day later to say her husband had been suffering from depression for six years but did not want it known.

Neil Lennon, the former Celtic captain, was one of the first footballers to break the great sporting taboo of mental illness and write about his battle with depression.

In his book Man and Bhoy he said: "It's very difficult to come forward and talk about it, but … it is an illness, it's like getting the flu or breaking a leg. It happens, and it can happen for no reason."

English cricketer Marcus Trescothick withdrew from the 2006 Ashes tour after being struck by stress related depression, and received widespread sympathy.

Other sporting figures have suffered ridicule due to mental illness. When former England star Stan Collymore was diagnosed with clinical depression, his club manager at Aston Villa John Gregory was publicly cynical, asking of the highly paid player: "What's he got to be depressed about?"