Editor’s note: This week we have Browney aka The Hornet. Some stories of his early cycling life have unfortunately had to be cut pending a ruling by the UCI’s truth and reconciliation commission.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is David Browne, 38yrs old and I like riding bikes, racing bikes, fixing bikes and watching bike racing. I am married with 2 boys (4.75yrs old and 20 months old), both have bikes. I work as a Procurement Manager by day and bike mechanic by night at TSS. My wife also has one bike.
Bicisport Track Team 2002
2. What got you into cycling?
There is a bit of family history around cycling as my Great Uncle, Grandfather and one of my uncles on my Mother’s side of the family used to race track so there was a little bit of encouragement but not over the top. My Father used to ride bikes as a form of cross training when he was running (100m and 200m). I decided to take up road cycling at 14yrs of age after 2yrs of local BMX racing. I liked watching the TDF on Wide World of Sports on a Saturday afternoon 5 months after it was run back in the day.
One day I was mucking around in the shed at my parents place when I heard on the radio that there was a bike race passing through town later in the afternoon, the race was the Goulburn to Liverpool (Now Goulburn to Camden). I told Mum and Dad that I wanted to go for a ride to see the race. I pedalled as hard as I could from the outskirts of Camden to the base of Razorback. I found a shady spot and waited for the race to pass. When the bunch went past I was in awe of the whole spectacle and I knew then that I wanted to race on the road. I pestered my parents day and night for close to a year before they caved in. My mother worked as a nurse at the local hospital and knew a few of the ambulance officers who raced, she obtained the details of the local cycling club (Macarthur District Amateur Cycling club or MDACC). My first race was a 18km juniors only race and I nearly won taking second place in a photo. After this race I was well and truly hooked on bike racing and lived and breathed the dream from that moment on, the rest is history…
1988 Sydney to Wollongong Finish
1990 Penrith 2 Day Junior Tour Hawkesbury Lookout Stage
3. How did you come to join the Easy Riders?
I was commuting to and from Thornleigh/CBD and kept seeing a group of riders on a regular basis. I used to just put my head down, catch them, pass them and keep on going. One night about 4 years ago I was riding home a little later than usual and I caught the same group going up the hill on Millar Street at North Sydney. I was met by 52, DT and Coops amongst others. I got talking to 52 who seemed very excited at the time and wanted to chat, he was talking so fast he was hard to understand with his accent at the time. I also chatted to DT on the same ride and by the time we reached Chatswood I had a 5D business card and an email address to contact. I met the group on and off for a few months after until I ended up riding home each night with the group. It was a much smaller bunch back then and often the group was 3 or 4 on most nights with a big night being 6 to 8.
4. Tell us about your bikes.
As you know I like bikes. I generally keep around 4 bikes in running order, 2 for racing, 1 for training and one play bike (mtb). Currently I am riding a Cannondale Super 6 with Campagnolo 10spd Record groupset, a nice bike which is stable and light, stiff in the right places and responsive. This bike will be my roadie for next years road races. I have a custom made track bike made by Kerry Hopkins with a mix of Reynolds 531 mtb, 531os, Columbus SL and SLX. I use 3 different sets of track wheels for various events on the Velodrome. The fixie is a Colnago Technos frame which was my team bike in 1998 with a mix of Campagnolo Record and Chorus components and custom built wheels and finally the mountain bike is a Surly 1×1 pimped weighing in at 8.5kgs. I also have a Colnago Master frame with Record 10 parts but not complete at the moment and I’m also restoring a number of frames for future use as either TSS loaner bikes or future training bikes. There is also an ergo in the workshop under the house for hurt sessions.
OPT 1998 Colnago Technos with Campagnolo Chorus 9spd Groupset
How to wash your bike Dutch style
5. If you could ride anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Difficult question to answer…The back roads of the NSW Southern Highlands would be my pick as this is the place where I did mega miles in my youth, it brings back fond memories (you all thought I would say anywhere in Belgium which of course is a close second). Favourite Velodrome is the Ron King Velodrome in Muswellbrook closely followed by Ghent Velodrome and then the DGV.
Clarence Street Cup 2010
6. Tell us a riding story.
I was super excited when I was offered a ride in a stage race overseas in 1997. I was to ride with a team called OPT, a very small low budget pro team who I ended riding with in 1998 as well. The race was the tour of French Polynesia which raced on the islands of Tahiti and Morea. It was a 6 day stage race covering around 700km with split stages on days 3 and 4 and a 80km criterium as the final stage at the marina in Papeete. I was racing with 2 other Aussie riders, 2 New Zealanders and 4 French riders. I could barely speak a word of French (I still can’t). We were picked up from the airport in the middle of the night by the team director (DS) and the Managing Director of OPT. The DS barely spoke a word of English but the team driver/helper spoke fluent English and French. We were dropped off at the team HQ, it looked like a one star motel with no electronic contact to the outside world except one telephone in the hall. We asked the DS what time breakfast was and the response was 8am, what time was dinner? 6pm was the answer, what time was lunch? The answer…lunch time…this didn’t give me a great deal of confidence at the time.
I was thrown into the deep end as they say in that race. After the first stage, a hilly 7km prologue with a downhill finish, the team sat down after dinner to work out who was marking who from the other teams. I drew a rider called Jean-Marc Riviere who rode for the Cannondale sponsored team. This guy had placed 6th behind Richard Virenque in the Coupe de France the previous year, a classy rider. My role was to mark this rider for the following 5 days. His team mate was in Yellow after the prologue so Jean-Marc was out to chase sprint primes for extra cash in between looking after his team leader or trying to take the lead himself. By day 4 I was feeling cooked after chasing this powerhouse who seemed to have turbo charged legs. The DS and team driver pulled me aside and said that Jean-Marc was only human, he would make a mistake and I would be there to capitalise on that mistake. The DS advice was “he has 2 arms and 2 legs, just like everybody else”. By the end of day 5 Jean-Marc was sitting in 2nd place on GC with our star rider in Yellow by 1 second (I was in 24th after losing about 15mins on a Cat1 climb at the end of day 5, totally cooked).
The final stage was the 80km Criterium so it was do or die for our team to protect the win. I stuck to Jean-Marc’s wheel like glue and after about 20mins he started to attack the bunch. This went on and on for about 20mins (seemed like forever at the time) and each time he attacked I would chase and then sit up forcing him to slow and then I wouldn’t work with him which would bring us back to the main field. The bunch was still together for the final 2kms as we approached the final hairpin left hander. My instruction was to stay on Jean-Marc’s wheel, my team leader on my wheel. As we hit the turn (way to fast) I touched the brakes before shifting back 3 gears, Jean-Marc didn’t and hit the gutter on the opposite side of the road. His bike bounced in front of me which left me no choice but to ride over his front wheel, he ended up on the footpath into the barricades. This left us a clean run to the finish line, I lead out with my team leader on my wheel who took the win, I rolled in totally stuffed in 4th at about 10km/h, exhausted. The DS was so excited he ripped the bidons out of the bike and put in two longnecks of beer in the cages. We celebrated by sharing the beer with the team while riding the 5km or so back to the team HQ, by the time we arrived I was feeling well tipsy and I was so exhausted I couldn’t carry my bike up the stairs.
Polar Team Pre-Season Training Camp
7. Do you have any advice for the riders at the back of the ER peloton?
Yes, give yourself a little bit of distance to the rider in front, never watch the rear brake calliper of the rider in front of you, always look at the riders 2 to 3 rows ahead of you in the bunch to judge your speed and direction. Also don’t hesitate to ask questions as there is no such thing as a silly question IMHO. Above all, enjoy the ride and fun that ER freely provides.
8. Lastly, tell us something we don’t know about you.
I hate the taste of coffee.