Livingston's Gary is on Hand to take second place

Aug 14 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

LIVINGSTON’S Gary Hand used his pedal-power to cycle onto the podium placings at the 2008 Scottish Road Race Championships.

The 26-year-old from Adambrae finished narrowly behind professional Evan Oliphant to pick up an excellent silver medal.

Hand gave the two-time consecutive champion a fierce battle for the Scottish road race title on a tough course over 81 miles of the rolling Borders country around historic Hawick.

Gary said: “I’m pleased to get a medal, but we came here to win. Despite us having different combinations in the break, Evan was always there and too strong.

“In the final break we kept putting in ‘digs’ to try and get the others to work, eventually they got the message and began to go through.

“It was our goal today to arrive at the finish without Evan, but like I said, he was too strong. With 500 to go I thought that maybe I could get him, but he judged it perfectly.”

The West Lothian cyclist has the Commonwealth Games in India on his list of targets and given his performance in the Borders, Hand could well be flying the flag for the county and his country at the Delhi Games in 2010.