Ted Gray & a holiday to Jamaica
Jamaica has one, 500m velodrome, which encircles the running track in the National Stadium. The stadium, known as Independence Park, was built in 1962 and the velodrome added in 1966 for the Commonwealth games.
Welsh track cycling coach and former rider, Ted Gray went on holiday to Jamaica in the late 1960s. He saw the velodrome and played about on a bike and entered a few races.
On Ted's return to Britain he was approached by the Jamaican sports federation and asked if he would train their national cycling team, create a talent programme, source bikes and equipment.
Ted knew Condor founder, Monty Young well through cycle sponsorship sport and he brought the Jamaican riders to Condor store. The Jamaican sports federation has limited experience of competitive cycling. Ted turned to Condor for help.
"We started working with Jamaican riders in the early 1970s." explained Monty Young, in 2016, "We kitted them out with bikes, they were such nice guys and they had the greatest respect for Ted Gray. For many years they would come over once or twice a year. All the riders were big tall guys with massive legs; good riders."
Monty continued: "Condor at the time was only a tiny shop but they had never seen a shop like it. Just seeing a few frames hanging up was exciting and they appreciated what everyone was doing for them. I'm sure a lot of their earlier bikes were old used frames, possibly converted from old road bikes."
Having worked with the Federation for just a handful of years, entering the team in the Pan American games, winning medals in the Commonwealth games. The natural talent of Jamaican riders shone through, despite limited training facilities and dominance of Europeans. Several riders qualified for the Moscow 1980 games.
Moscow 1980 Games
Weller became a specialist at the 1000m Time Trial (known as The Kilo). In the Krylatskoye Sports Complex Velodrome, Moscow he qualified and progressed to the final round of the competition. Eastern Europeans dominated this discipline of cycling. The 23-year old's ride surprised many in the velodrome who fell silent as he clocked a new fastest time after the first lap of four.
David Weller finished third in a time of 1:05.241. The gold was won by Lothar Thomas of East Germany who set a time of 1:02.955 a new Olympic and World record. Aleksandr Panfilov (Russia) finished second.
(Watch the ride on Youtube)
David Weller's bronze medal time would have beaten the 1976 Olympic gold medal time Klaus-Jurgen Grünke set at the Montreal Games four years earlier..
David Weller represented Jamaican in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but a heavy crash two months before the games affected his training and he finished 6th in the Kilo. Monty explained that from the link with the Jamaican team Condor became so well known in the West Indies that "we had individuals and Commonwealth Games riders from Trinidad and Barbados all riding our track frames."
Jamaica withdrew its funding for cycling after the games and at age 27, David Weller retired.
