Steele Bishop

Steele Bishop (OAM) (born 29 April 1953) is a former track racing cyclist and World Champion.

Biography

Bishop was born in 1953 in Subiaco, Western Australia.^[1]

From 1971 until his retirement in 1984 Bishop won numerous Australian professional track titles, including the 5000 metre pursuit eight times. In Western Australia, he won the Westral Wheelrace six times between 1975 and 1984 and won the first two Griffin 1000 road races.

In 1972, at the age of 19, Bishop represented Australia in the 4000 metre team pursuit at the Munich Olympics.^[2]

In the world championships in Zurich in 1983 Bishop reached his zenith, retiring shortly after while at the peak of his career: riding in the 5000 metre Individual pursuit on a specially built pursuit bicycle made in Switzerland by Leo Estermann in 1981. The bicycle was badged Malvern Star by sponsor General Accessories, and later rebadged Steele Bishop. The Estermann stamp on the head tube remains.

A crack in the unusual stem was rectified by Avocet Cycles, owned and operated by John Sampson in Claremont Western Australia (no longer in business). The bicycle was relatively small framed against the powerfully built Bishop and featured aerodynamic tubing to reduce wind resistance. The bicycle is now in the collection of the Western Australian Museum.

Bishop faced off against Swiss Robert Dill-Bundi, the 1980 Olympic pursuit gold medallist. Riding the race of his life, three laps from the finish he caught his opponent, a feat almost unheard of in world-class cycling, thus winning the race and the championship. He set a personal best in the race of 5 minutes 51 seconds, and became the first Australian to beat 6 minutes in the event.

Bishop was awarded the Western Australian Sports Star of the Year award in 1983 and was inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Champions in 1985.

References

External links

• Steele Bishop profile at Cycling Archives

UCI Track Cycling World Champions – Men's individual pursuit
1946: Gerard Peters 1947: Fausto Coppi 1948: Gerrit Schulte 1949: Fausto Coppi 1950–51: Antonio Bevilacqua 1952–53: Sid Patterson 1954–56: Guido Messina 1957–59: Roger Rivière 1960–61: Rudi Altig 1962: Henk Nijdam 1963: Leandro Faggin 1964: Ferdinand Bracke 1965–66: Leandro Faggin 1967: Tiemen Groen 1968: Hugh Porter 1969: Ferdinand Bracke 1970: Hugh Porter 1971: Dirk Baert 1972–73: Hugh Porter 1974–75: Roy Schuiten 1976: Francesco Moser 1977–78: Gregor Braun 1979: Bert Oosterbosch 1980: Tony Doyle 1981–82: Alain Bondue 1983: Steele Bishop 1984–85: Hans-Henrik Ørsted 1986: Tony Doyle 1987: Hans-Henrik Ørsted 1988: Lech Piasecki 1989: Colin Sturgess 1990: Viatcheslav Ekimov 1991: Francis Moreau 1992: Mike McCarthy 1993: Graeme Obree 1994: Chris Boardman 1995: Graeme Obree 1996: Chris Boardman 1997–98: Philippe Ermenault 1999: Robert Bartko 2000: Jens Lehmann 2001: Alexander Symonenko 2002: Bradley McGee 2003: Bradley Wiggins 2004: Sergi Escobar 2005–06: Robert Bartko 2007–08: Bradley Wiggins 2009–10: Taylor Phinney 2011: Jack Bobridge 2012–13: Michael Hepburn 2014: Alex Edmondson 2015: Stefan Küng 2016: Filippo Ganna