A Cycling & bikes forum. CycleBanter.com

Go Back   Home » CycleBanter.com forum » Regional Cycling » UK
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

The rise of British cycling (sport that is)



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 14th 08, 01:41 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Colin Blackburn[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 64
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)

There's an article on the BBC news website tracing the rise of British
cycling from 1996 when Hoy took his own bike to the U23 championships
and wore a loaned track suit through to the current state of affairs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ng/7534073.stm


Colin
Ads
  #2  
Old August 14th 08, 02:31 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
suer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 41
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)

In article ,
Colin Blackburn wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ng/7534073.stm


That's a good article.

Peter Keen has turned the sport completely around. He came on the scene
when it was amateurish, under-funded, and to be blunt, unless you
happened to live in the area where the national coaches lived and knew
the right people (or even slept with the right people), then you
wouldn't get selected.

Peter was viewed with a lot of suspicion when he first came on the
scene. The British traditional view of "we've always done it this way,
why should we change just because this new person's on the scene and who
is he and where's he come from anyway?"

I remember meeting him for the first time at a inter-regional track
training day somewhere outdoors in the midlands and I could sense other
coaches/officials "backs getting up" and I remember thinking that Peter
was going to be very influential in changing the sport over the coming
years, whether the sport wanted to be changed or not. Good man!

The results we are getting now speak volumes for the foundations he's
put in place, the huge influx of lottery money, the Manchester indoor
velodrome to replace all those outdoor can't-ride-in-the-rain ones or
Calshot's far-too-small-indoor-one, the engagement of Dave Brailsford
and other good people, and the putting in place of a proper "system" to
train and support cycling athletes.

I only wish such a system had been in place when I was racing. 1984 saw
the first-ever women's cycling time trial at the Commonwealth Games plus
road and track races. But the national cycling scene at the time was so
under-funded, and women's racing so under-represented and
under-reported, that although a full men's team were sent to contest
track, road and time trial, only about 4 women in total were sent who
had to be "all-rounders" in all 3 disciplines, rather than specialists.
Result, no medals for the girls. By contrast, this Olympics has seen
gold on the road, silver in the test and doubtless more to come from the
track from the women. It's been a long time coming and it's bloody
well-deserved by the cycling athletes, male and female, and the coaches.

It gives me immense pleasure and huge satisfaction to watch our team
going out and winning in Worlds and Olympics across the cycling
disciplines. Absolutely first-class and spot-on. Brilliant!
  #3  
Old August 14th 08, 07:59 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
burtthebike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 540
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)


"Colin Blackburn" wrote in message
...
There's an article on the BBC news website tracing the rise of British
cycling from 1996 when Hoy took his own bike to the U23 championships and
wore a loaned track suit through to the current state of affairs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ng/7534073.stm


Reminds me of the interview I heard with the late great Beryl Burton, who
rode to her first world championship, in France I think, and had ridden most
of the way back before someone gave her a lift.

  #4  
Old August 15th 08, 12:55 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
suer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 41
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)

In article ,
"burtthebike" wrote:

"Colin Blackburn" wrote in message
...
There's an article on the BBC news website tracing the rise of British
cycling from 1996 when Hoy took his own bike to the U23 championships and
wore a loaned track suit through to the current state of affairs:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ng/7534073.stm


Reminds me of the interview I heard with the late great Beryl Burton, who
rode to her first world championship, in France I think, and had ridden most
of the way back before someone gave her a lift.


Indeedy. Beryl was an amazing cycling athlete. If she'd been born 40
years later, she'd be world-famous among the general public rather than
just among the old cycling affiocionadoes.

She won the RTTC season-long time trial championship in 1983 and had won
the same championship on 24 previous years (!!) as well as numerous
individual champioships. In earlier years she was very successful on
road and track too. So you might have expected her to have earnt a
guaranteed place at the inaugural women's time trial at the Commonwealth
Games in 1984 but no. A great shame. She would have brought home a
medal.

I remember early in 84, when she tried road-racing again because the
selectors said the girls had to be all-rounders, no specialists would be
sent to the Commonwealth Games that year from women's cycling, there
was a race near Milton Keynes. The previous night saw Milton Keynes
Youth Hostel filled-up with racing girls. A big hush fell on the
dormitory I was in because the great Beryl Burton was in it too, whom
most of us regarded as a bit like the Queen - sort of unapproachable
because just would we say to such a famous, fabulous cyclist (we were
naive youngsters, late teens, early 20s, she was 40-something).

Beryl went to bed very early and put her mattress on the floor, telling
us that she needed a firm, hard bed to sleep on the night before a race,
otherwise her back would give her jip and she'd not perform as well.

....

Hands up who among the rest of us young girlies spent the rest of the
1984 season sleeping on mattresses-on-the-floor, or even straight on the
floor, in the hopes of raising our game to her level. Ha, I did.
  #5  
Old August 16th 08, 07:34 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
burtthebike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 540
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)


"suer" wrote in message
...

Hands up who among the rest of us young girlies spent the rest of the
1984 season sleeping on mattresses-on-the-floor, or even straight on the
floor, in the hopes of raising our game to her level. Ha, I did.


Great story suer, thanks. Beryl was one of the all time women greats, and
it seems incredible that she had a serious debilitating illness when young
(polio?) but came back to beat everyone for a very long time indeed.

The story I love best was when she was doing a 24 hours time trial, and
passing one of her male rivals, reached into a pocket and offered him a
liquorice allsort! Rumour has it that he retired from the ride.

  #6  
Old August 16th 08, 11:38 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
John Grove
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 24
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)


"burtthebike" wrote in message
...

"suer" wrote in message
...

Hands up who among the rest of us young girlies spent the rest of the
1984 season sleeping on mattresses-on-the-floor, or even straight on the
floor, in the hopes of raising our game to her level. Ha, I did.


Great story suer, thanks. Beryl was one of the all time women greats, and
it seems incredible that she had a serious debilitating illness when young
(polio?) but came back to beat everyone for a very long time indeed.

The story I love best was when she was doing a 24 hours time trial, and
passing one of her male rivals, reached into a pocket and offered him a
liquorice allsort! Rumour has it that he retired from the ride.


It was a 12 not a 24. the other rider was Mike McNamara Rockingham CC

In that event Mike McNamra broke the 18 year long standing men's record of
Owen Blower

Beryl Burton set the womens record about 1 mile further than the mens
record!

I remember a local girl, Christine, getting into the GB team as the third
sprinter
behind Jean Dunn and Val Rushworth to go to the world champs at Rocourt
Belgium.
Our training for her 1st World Track Champs was to find a 180 degree bend in
a road
draw a chalk line go back 200m another chalk line then go back further then
sprint the bend for the chalk line! We could not afford to go to Fallowfield
or Nottingham to practise. The local track league on red shale tracks was
out as women were not allowed to race men at that time.


  #7  
Old August 18th 08, 11:16 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
suer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 41
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)

In article ,
"John Grove" wrote:

I remember a local girl, Christine, getting into the GB team as the third
sprinter
behind Jean Dunn and Val Rushworth to go to the world champs at Rocourt
Belgium.
Our training for her 1st World Track Champs was to find a 180 degree bend in
a road
draw a chalk line go back 200m another chalk line then go back further then
sprint the bend for the chalk line! We could not afford to go to Fallowfield
or Nottingham to practise. The local track league on red shale tracks was
out as women were not allowed to race men at that time.


It seems crazy now to think that's how we and those before us trained.

Likewise, how many years running were the national track championships
held at outdoors Leicester track in August, where rain would always stop
play for a few hours at least.

It seems unthinkable now to not have a proper-sized (Calshot doesn't
count!) indoor track such as we have in Manchester to train the squad
and bring the young promising riders on.

It's good to see that Hog Hill Race Circuit opens in Redbridge tomorrow
(10am) to replace Eastway Cycle Circuit which was dug-up to make way for
the London Olympics stadium.

When they first mooted that Eastway was going, I was worried that it
would be the end of having a road circuit, same as when Harlow track
went, a replacement was never found/built. So it's good to see that a
promise was kept and the sporting cyclists in my old haunt are getting a
seriously good roadracing facility again.

We also hope to resite a bench in memoriam of one of the Crest CC's
younger members and keen road racers, Dave Ford ("Weapon"). The bench
was sited at Eastway after his untimely death from sudden illness aged
just 43 and we now just need to liaise with the Hog Hill peeps to find a
nice spot to cement it in at the new circuit.
  #8  
Old August 18th 08, 04:55 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
David Martin
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,059
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)

And to add the icing on the cake of this success, Edinburgh COuncil
are about to redevelop Meadowbank - into housing with no replacement
for the velodrome that spawned the likes of Chris Hoy.

http://www.youtube.com/SaveMeadowbank

  #9  
Old August 19th 08, 10:15 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Roger Thorpe[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13
Default The rise of British cycling (sport that is)

suer wrote:

It's good to see that Hog Hill Race Circuit opens in Redbridge tomorrow
(10am) to replace Eastway Cycle Circuit which was dug-up to make way for
the London Olympics stadium.


We also hope to resite a bench in memoriam of one of the Crest CC's
younger members and keen road racers, Dave Ford ("Weapon"). The bench
was sited at Eastway after his untimely death from sudden illness aged
just 43 and we now just need to liaise with the Hog Hill peeps to find a
nice spot to cement it in at the new circuit.


I'm glad that Eastway has been replaced. I used to love riding the
evening 10s there. They attracted a better mix of abilities than I think
you'd get anywhere else, and were a good introduction for novices. I
remember passing Percy Wilding a few times, who seemed to think that we
were all going too fast and wouldn't be able to finish.
I'm rather sorry to hear about Weapon. I came across him a few times and
my 'special friend' in Crest was forever telling me about his antics.
There was something special about Crest then, and I hope that there
still is.
Roger Thorpe
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
An alternative way to support British Cycling... kellyfenn UK 2 August 12th 08 05:00 PM
Final Session With British Cycling vernon UK 6 October 19th 07 10:03 AM
British Cycling Activities for Schools vernon UK 108 September 19th 07 08:20 AM
Suffolk - big rise in people cycling to work Mr R@t \(2.30zi\) UK 4 September 29th 06 12:08 PM
Rhyll - British Cycling speak out David Martin UK 1 January 11th 06 01:24 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:12 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CycleBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.