|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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
|
|||
|
|||
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 | |
|
|
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 |