Steele Bishop

Steele Bishop OAM (born 29 April 1953) is a former track and road racing cyclist and World Champion in 1983.

Steele Bishop
Personal information
Full nameSteele Bishop
Born (1953-04-29) 29 April 1953
Kalamunda, Western Australia, Australia
Team information
DisciplineTrack
RoleRider
Rider typePursuitist
Professional teams
1982Mavic - Clemenso
1983–1984Malvern Star
Major wins
World Champion

In 2018 he returned to competitive track cycling winning Gold in the West Australian State Masters Individual Pursuit.

His biography was published 2019. See Official Website link below.

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. Also in 1985 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.[3]

He returned to competitive track cycling in 2018 winning Gold in the West Australian State Masters Individual Pursuit and setting an unofficial world record. At the Australian Masters Track Cycling Championships in Brisbane in April 2019 he won three gold medals.[4] At the UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, UK in October 2019 he won gold medals in four men's 65-69 events; time trial, pursuit, 20 lap scratch race and the 40 lap points race. He also set a new world record in the qualifying round of the men's 65-69 2 km pursuit with a time of 2.24.646.

Bishop's autobiography, Wheels of Steele — The Makings of a World Champion, was released in 2019 by Rockpool Publishing[5] — see Official Website link below.

References
  1. W.A. Hall of Champions inductee booklet. (2006) Published by the Western Australian Institute of Sport
  2. "Raúl Gómez Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  3. "Steele Roy Bishop". Australian Honours Search Facility, Dept of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  4. https://www.thesenior.com.au/story/6111532/steele-the-one-they-all-have-to-beat
  5. Steele, Bishop (2019). Wheels of Steele: The makings of a world champion. Rockpool Publishing. ISBN 978-1925429862. OCLC 1076262570.
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