Obree’s first race as an amateur was a ten-mile time trial, he arrived in Doc Marten boots and thought he had finished when he returned to the starting point. Even though he was already getting changed when he was told he was 100 metres short of finishing, he still managed to finish in around 30 minutes. A sufferer of mental health issues, Obree is known to suffer from bipolar disorder. Throughout his teenage years, he made two suicidal attempts and suffered from personality problems. When the bike shop that he ran begun to fail, Graeme decided to channel his concentration into breaking the world hour velodrome record.
He took a shot at breaking the record in Norway’s Vikingskipet velodrome, he booked it out for 24 hours but failed on his first attempt by nearing a whole kilometre. With time in the velodrome remaining, he returned the next day. He came up with a tactic in order to make sure that his body did not seize up overnight, he drank a pint of water before going to bed so that he would wake up on a few occasions in the night to use the bathroom. After a night of interrupted sleep, Obree described himself to be a mouse on the first day and return as a lion on the second. His courage, determination and dedication meant that he broke the world record by an incredible 445 metres.
With Chris Boardman taking the record from him less than a week later, Graeme took it upon himself to retrieve it back. He went to the extremity of bolting his shoes to the pedals to avoid his feet pulling off like in the national pursuit championship and rode a distance record of 52.713km.
There were a few aspects that helped Obree achieve at the record-breaking standard, he had adopted an unusual riding position that had influenced other cyclists. He also rode on his bike named the Old Faithful in which he designed from parts of a washing machine. Its structure had a narrow bottom bracket around which the cranks revolve, this bought his legs closer creating a more natural position. The bike also had no top tube so that his knees did not make contact with the frame. When the Union Cycliste Internationale banned both of these, Obree was resilient and adopted a new riding position named the Superman-style.
After a further suicide attempt, Graeme came out as gay to his family. He explained that it was difficult to come to terms with his sexual orientation due to being bought up in a war generation who had seen homosexuals being put in jail. He realised that this was a big factor within his attempts to take his own life as well as his mental condition. After his attempt at the Athletes Hour was cancelled due to his bike being unsuitable, Graeme was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame in 2009. A year later, he was also inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame due to his determination within cycling.
An individual pursuit world champion in 1993 and 1995, Obree also went on to set a new record for a rider in the prone position whilst attempting the human-powered vehicle land speed record. He set a speed of 52.9 mph in Battle Mountain, Nevada, which is the fastest achieved on a two-wheeled HPV. A motivational figure within sport and the LGBT community, Obree has even published an autobiography titled The Flying Scotsman which was later turned into a film. With many incredible anecdotes from his inspirational life story, Graeme Obree is a favourite within our roster of motivational speakers.
