One of TB's greatest stalwarts - Walter, "The Breaker of Wind" Vannoy finally calls time to his professional cycling career - and with it a one-club career.
A teenage sensation with Eastbourne Rovers Cycling Club he developed his niche expertise on the flats and racing against the wind after many years of cycling the Pevensey and Romney marshes. He very quickly came to the attention of TB Cycling academy, which at the time was a young club seeking local talent. He made an immediate impression in his first season as a young 19yo with a podium and a place, helping to play his part in TB's second successive U23 Title. After a quiet S39, he replicated his performance again for S40 and S41 with two podiums in the latter playing a big role in TB securing a third U23 title.
Moving into the Pro-Leagues, Vannoy found it difficult to find his pedals and success was few and far between, apa...
Read moreOne of TB's greatest stalwarts - Walter, "The Breaker of Wind" Vannoy finally calls time to his professional cycling career - and with it a one-club career.
A teenage sensation with Eastbourne Rovers Cycling Club he developed his niche expertise on the flats and racing against the wind after many years of cycling the Pevensey and Romney marshes. He very quickly came to the attention of TB Cycling academy, which at the time was a young club seeking local talent. He made an immediate impression in his first season as a young 19yo with a podium and a place, helping to play his part in TB's second successive U23 Title. After a quiet S39, he replicated his performance again for S40 and S41 with two podiums in the latter playing a big role in TB securing a third U23 title.
Moving into the Pro-Leagues, Vannoy found it difficult to find his pedals and success was few and far between, apart from an occassional placement. This was all to change in S46 with 7 placements and his best ever overall ranking and his was followed the following season by securing a place in the Brebes-Brebes and he was starting to show particular skill at the Oryx which came to be one of his favourite tours. In S48, Vannoy came out of the shadows and surprised everyone with a fantastic performance in the Oryx scoring two placements and a place in the GC - still a Club record to this day. As Walter said himself at the end of the tour - the wind blew favourably that year.
After S48, Vannoy developed specifically as a wind-breaker domestique, hence his nickname and wheeled out to help the team performance so individual performances became few and far between. However his Oryx performances, U23 titles and his TB record at the Kalush on Ukraine's Home Soil has endeared him to TB's Hall of Fame and the Management Staff are extremely pleased that Vannoy has agreed to join the Coaching Staff as Specialist Wind-Breaker coach. He will be much missed.
Key Stats:
Wins: 0
Podiums: 3
Tour GC: 1 (S48 8th Oryx Tour)
Classics: 1 (S48 9th Brebes-Brebes)
Placements: 21
Highest ever Ranking: 1737th (S46)
Best Podium Performance: 2nd - Conakry - Coyah (U23) #9/Porto Novo TT (U23)
(both ND U23 races, S41)
Highest ever Divisional Performance: 26th Funningur 100 #41(D4 S51)
Best Div4 Performance: As Above
Best Div5 Performance: 15th Vuelta a Mallorca #33 (S44)
Best Div6 Performance: 5th St. Oshakati – Namutoni #8 (S49 stage 1 Oryx) &
Solitaire – Walvis Bay #7 (S48 stage 3)
Best Div7 Performance: 4th Kalush Street Race #31 / Tricase - Copertino #31
both D7 S46.
Best Div8 Performance: 19th Michal´any - Vranov nad Topl´ou #25 (S41)
Best Div9 Performance: Not competed
Best Div10 Performance: Not competed
Best Div11 Performance: Not competed
Best ND Performance: As above
Ukraine Record
S46 4th Kalush Street Race #31 (D7)
U23 Honours
S38 U23 Champions (category 501-800)
S41 U23 Champions (category 501-800)
Tour Record (*TB records)
Minutemen (D4)
Best GC: N/A
Best Av. Place: 100th (S54)
Best Stage Perf: 86th Revere’s Midnight Ride (ITT) #39 (S54)
Stone City (D5)
Best GC: N/A
Best Av. Place: 112th (S53)
Best Stage Perf: 92nd Atakent - Toshkent #5 (S53)
Monte Rosa Tour (D5)
Best GC: Not recorded
Best Av. Place: S50 97th
Best Stage Perf: S50 59th Bern Prologue #37
Fast on Wheels (D5)
Best GC: Not recorded
Best Av. Place: S52 76th
Best Stage Perf: S51 44th Odense - Odense (ITT) #32
Oryx (D6)
Best GC: (S48) 8th*
Best Av. Place: (S48) 11th)*
Best Stage Perf: (S48) Solitaire-Walvis Bay - 5th*(jt)
(S49) Oshakati-Namutoni - 5th*(jt)
Cesko-Slovensky-Pohar (D6)
Best GC: Not recorded
Best Av. Place: S51 & S50 56th
Best Stage Perf: S51 30th Bratislava TT
Sanraizan (D7)
Best GC: Not recorded
Best Av. Rating: S45 48th
Best Stage Perf: S47 15th Nagoya – Kyoto #4
England