The famous "tuck" position, on his custom made bike. This picture was used by the French sporting magazine "L'Equipe" for its cover, titled "The Incredible Mr Obree!", and a multi-page article which went into detail about the timing he'd achieved in his hour record run, the geometry of the bike etc.
After the cycling establishment (the UCI) outlawed the tuck position (and sent him home from defending his pursuit world championship title in 1994 because it felt his position was illegal, even though the bike met all of the then current regulations, Graeme responded by adopting what became known as the "Superman" position, below.
The UCI eventually banned the Superman style too - but not before it was adopted by top cyclists at major championships, and even used by Chris Boardman to set what was the last real "hour" record.
In the year 2000, the UCI retired the hour record, and replaced it with one which would seek to emulate the equipment used by Belgian legend Eddy Merckx in 1972, in an attempt to make the pursuit of the hour record more about the athlete and less about the machine.
What's ironic is that Merckx not only set his record at altitude (which is hardly normal, everyday conditions), he used what was then a state-of-the-art bike, obsessively drilled out to reduce weight and making use of super-exotic materials at the time (such as titanium componentry).
Maybe the UCI should just issue the rider with a standard steel-framed, steel-wheel, Sturmey-Archer hub geared bike...
The Film
The Flying Scotsman film will raise Graeme's profile again, and may even encourage non-cyclists to become interested in the sport. It's a fairly dramatised take on what really happened (eg the main supporting cast, with the exception of Graeme's wife Anne, didn't exist in the real story), and goes a bit light on the cycling detail. Keen cyclists will probably want to see it, but may be left feeling like the juicy bits (ie the bike bits) are somewhat glossed over, whereas non-cyclists might get a bit bored with the "here he goes riding round a track, grimacing" bits.
Jonny Lee Miller talks about his role (though the woman's voiceover is super annoying)
All in, I thought it was a good film, but having read the book I'd say that anyone with a real interest should check out both.
Buy the book from Amazon...
Graeme's autobiography, on which the story of the film is based, is well worth reading, especially if you're interested in cycling. He talks about the events which led up to his rise to fame, describes what happened in the various races (and talks a bit about the kit he was using), and goes into some detail on the mental state which saw him oscillate between highs and depressive lows.
A later edition of the book has the same cover as used for the film... and Amazon allow you to read select pages with the "
Search Inside" function.