Iconic British motorsports manufacturer has joined forces with Hope and British Cycling on their latest track bike which they hope will beat the world’s best at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Coming twenty eight years after Chris Boardman famously rode a revolutionary Lotus bike to gold medal in the Barcelona Olympic pursuit, these new Lotus bikes bring the same sense of radical design once again.

Featuring immediately noticeable super wide seat stays and forks that wouldn’t look out of place on a fat bike have surprised many by passing UCI approval. 

Take a look at the video below. What do you think about this shift in design? Do you reckon it will transfer over to the road bike market? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

This photo angle of the new bike below really highlights the shift in design ideas, where the previous notions of close ‘cigarette paper’ clearances are discarded in favour of huge gaps and aerofoil type structures

In order to get UCI approval for use in the Olympic Games the bikes have to be ridden in events in the lead up to the games. Luckily for us British fans we get an opportunity to see them in action on home ground for the first time at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Glasgow, on the weekend of 8-10 November.

Remember the success the original Lotus track bike from the 1992 Olympics was? Let’s hope Lotus and Hope have the same success in Tokyo

If you’ve never seen the original Lotus bike in action, here’s something special from back when Chris Boardman shocked the cycling world with the gold medal winning display he put on that day

Let’s hope Team GBs riders have the same success in 2020.

The Mountain of Hell event in takes place every year at the end of June in Les Deux Alpes giving riders from around the world an MTB derby that starts at the top of a mountain glacier, with 2500m descent over 25 bone shaking kilometres.

The route takes in snow, ice, shingle and rock, and every year the organisers change the route to add adrenaline and spice to the competition.

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The final event is on Sunday is the highlight of the weekend. The riders set off in a massed start from the glacier at 3400m, and then it’s downhill in the snow to 900m – giving an incredible 2500m of altitude drop.

With 700 riders ready to hurtle down the mountain it’s like the starting blocks of the 24 hours of Le Mans and you’d be right in thinking there might be a few spills, but this is another level.

We’re glad to hear from friends on the ground that everyone is generally ok, which is something to be very thankful for given the severity and the speeds involved

. The event was eventually won by Frenchman Kilian Bron who was quoted in the French press as saying he reaches speeds of 125km/h which is a whopping 78mph, on the glacier.

Last year I remember, it was about 125 km / h on the glacier, there were 1000 people around me. You had to be in it, no choice. It is much anticipation and do not let yourself run on adrenaline, […] you have to reason, to do things intelligently to finish in front. “

You can watch his entire race winning awesome run here

Live updates to follow as we get them

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As well as the national junior road race championships, contested over one day, the top junior male cyclists in the UK also get to compete in a season long competition that aims to find the most consistent young riders in the UK.

Racing for the prestigious Peter Buckley trophy, named in honour of a promising Manx champion cyclist who died aged only 24, this series sees the best Juniors from around the country competing on anything from 5 to 12 events depending on logistics. In recent years the competitors also do battle over the multi day Junior Tour of Wales, allowing the calibre of the country’s future international stage race winners to shine through.

We’ve gone through our archives to build what proves to be an interesting list of the cream of the UK’s top young riders. We’ve highlighted which ones went on to ride in the Tour de France, which ones became senior world champions, which ones are in cycling families, which ones ended up riding for Team Sky and which ones set world records.

We’ve had some incredible riders break through on the world stage in recent years. We can only wonder what would have happened to more of the youngsters of the 70s and 80s had their been the support their is now.

Anyway, let’s enjoy their achievements and wonder what success the current crop of youngsters will win for GB on the world stage.

YEAR	WINNER	SECOND	THIRD
1971	Tony Davies	Jeff Morris	Mike Heathcock
1972	Stu Morris	Peter Hall	Steve Fleetwood
1973	Dave Penketh	John Harrison	Dave Baronowski
1974	Les Fleetwood	Mike Williams	Alaric Gayfer
1975	Jon Kettell	Glen Mltchell	Jim Parry
1976	Glenn Mitchell	Tony Doyle	John Kettell
1977	Steve Joughin	Shaun Fenwick	Nigel Bloor
1978	Mark Bell	Neil Martin	Simon Thomas
1979	Mike Doyle	John Wainwright	Malcolm Elliott
1980	Darryl Webster	John Wainwright	Craig Stevens
1981	Keith Reynolds	Rob Kennison	Kevin Davis
1982	Chris Walker	Kevin Byers	Rob Kennison
1983	Chris Walker	Deno Davie	Chris Lillywhite
1984	Chris Lillywhite	Simon Cope	Will Mansfield
1985	Stuart Coles	Glen Sword	Paul Brown
1986	Lester Clarke	David Cook	Alex Webster
1987	Simeon Hempsall	Simon Lillistone	Dylan Williams
1988	Matt Stephens	Gareth Gimson	Ian Wright
1989	Mark Dawes	Ian Bryant	Toby Pinn
1990	Victor Slinn	Julian Ramsbottom	Paul Spencer
1991	Mark Dolan	Will Wright	Scott Bennett
1992	Tim Griffin	Richard Bruce	Jeremy Hunt
1993	Danny Axford	Hugh Fairgrieve	Anthony Malarcyzk
1994	James Taylor	Huw Pritchard	Paul Manning
1995	Gavin Sellen	David George	Russell Downing
1996	Charlie Wegelius	Russell Downing	James Griffiths & Graham Hughes
1997	Bradley Wiggins	Martin Lonie	Stephen Joseph
1998	Richard Heath & Jamie Alberts	Joint 1st Place	Sam Collins
1999	Mark Baker	Stephen Cummings & Tom Southam	Joint 2nd Place
2000	Andrew Allan	James Bell	Alex Coutts
2001	Alex Coutts	Chris Penketh	Ross Adams
2002	Adam Illingworth	Andrew Murphy	Christian Varley
2003	Tim Wallis	Ryan Bonser	Matt Brammeier
2004	Geraint Thomas	Ian Field	Andrew Hill
2005	Alex Dowsett	Russell Hampton	Alex Atkins
2006	Andrew Griffrths	Mark McNally	Simon Holt
2007	Peter Kennaugh	Luke Rowe	Mark McNally
2008	Erick Rowsell	Luke Rowe	David Nichols
2009	Joe Perrett	Tim Kennaugh	David Nichols
2010	Simon Yates	Tom Moses	Joshua Edmondson
2011	Alistair Slater	Luke Grivell-Mellor	Brennan Townshend
2012	Alex Peters	Harry Tanfield	Tao Geoghegan Hart
2013	Jake Kelly	Scott Davies	Gabriel Cullaigh
2014	Matthew Gibson	James Shaw	Alexander Braybrooke
2015	Etienne Georgi	Joey Walker	Robert Scott
2016	Charlie Meredith	Robert Scott	Peter Kibble
2017	Oscar Mingay	Harry Hardcastle	Daniel Coombe
2018	Mason Hollyman	Samuel Watson	Lewis Askey

Key:

 Strong cycling family

 Became a senior world champion

 Won Olympic medals

 Set a UCI World Record

 Rode the Tour de France

You might have noticed some surprising names missing from the list. No Robert Millar, Chris Boardman, Mark Cavendish, Mark Walsham, Ed Clancy, Rob Hayles, Roger Hammond or Dean Downing.
Some developed their endurance later on, others concentrated on track or time trialling and for some travelling the length of the country as a teenager just wasn’t viable. But that’s a feature for another day.
Want more old school cycling knowledge? Check out our pages on the legendary cycling commentator David Duffield