Colin Sturgess

Colin Andrew Sturgess (born 15 December 1968) is a retired English road and track cyclist who was active between 1986 and 2000. On the track, he won a gold and a bronze medal in the individual pursuit at the world championships in 1989 and 1991. He competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 4 km individual pursuit and finished in fourth place. On the road, he won the British National Road Race Championships in 1990. In 2010 he was inducted to the British Cycling Hall of Fame.

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• 1989 world pursuit final colin sturgess
• Cycling track pursuit 1988 seoul olympics 4km colin sturgess
• References

Sturgess was born in Ossett, Wakefield, England, the only child of Alan and Ann Sturgess, both from London. When he was six, his family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa. The family subsequently returned to the UK, settling in Leicester, in order to help Sturgess make progress in his cycling career. He took a silver medal in the individual pursuit at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, finishing ahead of Chris Boardman.

Sturgess turned professional after the 1988 Olympics. Among his professional teams was ADR, where he was a team-mate of Greg LeMond. He became noted for his distinctive strategy in the individual pursuit: rather than using the conventional tactic of attempting to maintain an even pace, he would save his energy for a fast finish on the final lap to provide a spectacle for the fans and to unsettle his opponents - perhaps most notably in his World Championship win in 1989, where he trailed Dean Woods by over a second going into the last lap but crossed the finish line 1.66 seconds ahead of his rival.

Disillusioned with the sport, in part due to drug-taking in the peloton, he had interrupted his career around 1993, when he graduated in English literature from Loughborough University and moved with his partner to Sydney, Australia. In Australia, he resumed competing, while working as a sports journal editor, and later returned to England. He finally retired in 2000, after winning a silver medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games as part of the England team pursuit squad alongside a young Bradley Wiggins, and worked as a wine maker and wine educator near Sydney, winning national awards for his work. According to Sturgess, the immediate reason for his retirement was a dispute with British Cycling's management regarding money, however he later identified the falling out as a symptom of a then-undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder, which contributed to the break-up of his two marriages, problems with alcoholism, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt. He returned to the UK in 2013, and has since involved himself with coaching. In 2014 he returned to competition, winning the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists time trial championship in September of that year. In May 2016 he joined the Metaltek-Kuota team in a dual role as a rider in veterans' races and also as the team's directeur sportif.