Christopher Ryan Opie (born 22 July 1987) is a British cyclist. Outside of racing, Opie has been a contributor and presenter for the Global Cycling Network.

Career

Born in

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro c ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

, Opie grew up on a small beef and dairy farm. He attended Kea Primary and Penair Secondary Schools in Truro. He began cycling competitively at the age of 10 and progressed to lead the British National Junior RR Series in 2005. In 2006, Opie raced in France for UC Aubenas and he battled with a slight eating disorder and, in 2007, with Glandular Fever, but returned to racing in 2008, when he was based in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. He returned from the Netherlands to ride for Pendragon Sports/Le Col/Colnago in 2010, and when the team wound up at the end of the 2011 season he was signed by

Nigel Mansell Nigel Ernest James Mansell, (; born 8 August 1953) is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series (1993). Mansell was the reigning F1 champion when he moved over t ...

's . After Mansell decided to end his financial support of Team UK Youth, Opie signed for for the 2014 season. After one season with the team he was announced as part of the inaugural squad for the team for the 2015 season. Opie announced his retirement from competition in May 2018 immediately before his final race, the last round of that year's

Tour Series The Tour Series is an annual series of cycling criterium races held in the United Kingdom since 2009. It is televised by ITV4 in the UK. The competition emphasises team effort with individual wins deemed less important. The races are held over 1 ...

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

. Opie's retirement was a financial decision, following the bankruptcy of one of the team sponsors which led to a halving of riders' salaries. In January 2019, Opie joined Global Cycling Network as a presenter. However the transition away from racing was not without difficulty and as Opie described himself, led to a minor breakdown suffering from

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

(PTSD). Opie decided to make a return to racing in 2020, with the team, despite there being no races held during the period of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Personal life

Opie and his wife Meike have two children together. He is the brother-in-law of Dutch former racing cyclist

Remco van der Ven Remco van der Ven (born 24 June 1975) is a Dutch former cyclist. He was born in Montfoort and is the brother-in-law of British cyclist Chris Opie. Major results ;1997 : 1st Overall Olympia's Tour : 1st Prologue 3-Länder-Tour : 2nd Time tria ...

Major results

;2010 : 1st GP Al Fatah :

Tour of Libya Tour of Libya was a professional road cycling stage race held annually each March in Libya. The circuit is 860 km long.Ster van Zwolle The Ster van Zwolle is a single-day bicycle road race held annually in Zwolle, in the Dutch region of Overijssel. Since 2011, it is organized as a 1.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle raci ...

;2013 :

::1st Round 8 – Canary Wharf & Round 10 – Aylsham : 2nd Overall Tour of the Reservoir ::1st Stage 1 ;2014 : 2nd National Circuit Race Championships : 2nd Circuit of the Fens : 2nd Ipswich and Coastal Grand Prix : 3rd Otley Grand Prix : 3rd Wales Open Criterium : 4th Eddie Soens Memorial : 4th Grand Prix des Marbriers : 5th Colne Grand Prix ;2015 : 1st Stockton Grand Prix : 2nd Perfs Pedal Race : 2nd Rutland–Melton International CiCLE Classic : 3rd Overall Totnes-Vire Stage Race ::1st Stage 2 : 3rd Chepstow Grand Prix : 7th Overall Ronde van Midden-Nederland ;2016 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Ronde van Midden-Nederland ::1st Stages 1 ( TTT) & 2 : 1st Stage 2 Tour de Korea : 2nd Arnhem–Veenendaal Classic : 8th

Grand Prix de Denain Grand Prix de Denain is a professional cycle road race held in Denain, France. For 10 years from 2005 the race was organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour, before becoming a 1.HC The UCI 1.HC and UCI 2.HC are the second tier classifica ...

;2017 : 7th Ronde van Drenthe ;2018 : 8th

PWZ Zuidenveld Tour The PWZ Zuidenveld Tour, formerly the Zuid Oost Drenthe Classic, is a road bicycle race held annually in the Netherlands. It has been organized as a 1.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour since 2013. Winners References {{reflist UCI Europe Tour ...

References

External links

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Tour Series blog #7: Chris Opie in Woking, Cycling Weekly
15 June 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Opie, Chris 1987 births Living people English male cyclists Sportspeople from Truro