Ever heard of Beryl Burton?

[User269]

Beryl was one of the group leaders at Graham Baxter's Ladies & Veterans Costa Blance training camp in '96. I rode in her group, and have a number of anecdotes which recall her fiercely competitive nature and athletic prowess.
One in particular comes to mind; I had a puncture and Beryl told the group to ride on to the coffee stop while she stayed to pace me back. I took ages to change the tube, and finally done, Beryl told me to get on her wheel. I rode eyeballs out just to keep her wheel, even on the flat. On the hills she just stayed in the same gear and cadence, while I searched for lower gears. On entering a flatter few miles with sharp bends I thought I'd at last get a breather, but no, I was led round bends at speeds I didn't think were possible. We caught the main group just before the coffee stop, by which time I was so bonked I had to ride back with the slower group. She was 15 years older than me, and had recently been treated for cancer.

Her excellent biography "Personal Best" is a good read, and I think it came back into print recently.

 

[vernon]

She's about to be given the freedom of the city of Leeds. A bit late for her to enjoy it if you ask me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-28002325

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Of course I've heard of BB, hasn't everyone ? Er, apparently not. Good to see her story featured on Countryfile last week, I noticed in the interview with her daughter they glossed over the refusing to shake hands on the podium incident. Just agreed that she was very competitive.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Nice mural of her in Morley, where my parents live. Amazing record holder

Indeed it is nice, but sadly hidden a bit out of the way - that said, she was apparantly quite an unassuming person off the bike

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/529628

 

[glasgowcyclist]

In 1967 she pedalled 277.25 miles in 12 hours, famously overtaking Mike McNamara, her male rival, and giving him a liquorice allsort as she passed. It wasn't until 1969 that a man went faster. No woman has ever bettered her time."

For the full story: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jun/13/tour-de-france-beryl-burton

Love that liquorice allsort!

Was she married to Bertie Basset?


GC

 

[DRM]

Indeed it is nice, but sadly hidden a bit out of the way - that said, she was apparantly quite an unassuming person off the bike

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/529628

The mural is tucked well out of the way, behind morrisons and next to a public toilet. Not only that but Morley was nothing to do with Leeds when she was at her peak, it was swallowed up in the 1974 government changes.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I heard part of a Radio 4 article just before midday today with contributions from Beryl, Maxine Peake and (I think) Beryl's daughter. I haven't managed to trace the link yet but I'll post it if I find it.

 

[Danny]

Finally got to see the play today - really excellent. It is not often that you get a drama about working class people where they are not gangsters or drug addicts or living in a disfunctional family. Hope it goes on tour so it gets a wider audience.

At the beginning of the play there was a brief history of cycling where it was said that the reason that cyclists started having time trials in the 19th century was that the gentry objected to having large groups of working class cyclists racing through the countryside on road races and were able to get to the police to stop these. The way that cyclists got round this was to introduce time trials with riders setting off at one minutes intervals so they couldn't be accused of obstructing the highway.

Does anyone know if this is an accurate history of the origins of time trialling?

 

[Rezillo]

Some original footage of Beryl in Velorama - no longer available on iplayer but it's on Youtube - starts 41mins 16s in.

[edit] The cycle tour starting at 22' 54'' is great.

 

[screenman]

Danny, it is very close, it will also help you know why courses have weird names, like the v718 which is a fast 10 course near Hull.

Also black was the colour of the day.

 

[PK99]

Finally got to see the play today - really excellent. It is not often that you get a drama about working class people where they are not gangsters or drug addicts or living in a disfunctional family. Hope it goes on tour so it gets a wider audience.

At the beginning of the play there was a brief history of cycling where it was said that the reason that cyclists started having time trials in the 19th century was that the gentry objected to having large groups of working class cyclists racing through the countryside on road races and were able to get to the police to stop these. The way that cyclists got round this was to introduce time trials with riders setting off at one minutes intervals so they couldn't be accused of obstructing the highway.

Does anyone know if this is an accurate history of the origins of time trialling?

Accurate but with a political spin.

In the 1890's cyclists were the fastest vehicle on the road and large groups of racing cyclists presented a clear danger to horse riders and horse drawn carriages..... Much the same as cyclists now feel threatened by motor vehicles. Now, by the nature of things, cyclists were to a large degree working class and carriage user were upper class, so there was a class distinction but that was not the key element in the dispute.

One of the old timers in my club ( now in his 80's, ex surrey and RAF champion) tells me that the antagonism between cyclists and horse riders carried on till not too many years ago and aggressive confrontations on the road were not uncommon.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Finally got to see the play today - really excellent. It is not often that you get a drama about working class people where they are not gangsters or drug addicts or living in a disfunctional family. Hope it goes on tour so it gets a wider audience.

At the beginning of the play there was a brief history of cycling where it was said that the reason that cyclists started having time trials in the 19th century was that the gentry objected to having large groups of working class cyclists racing through the countryside on road races and were able to get to the police to stop these. The way that cyclists got round this was to introduce time trials with riders setting off at one minutes intervals so they couldn't be accused of obstructing the highway.

Does anyone know if this is an accurate history of the origins of time trialling?

Between the wars and for a long time after the biggest opposition to massed start road racing came from the National Cycling Union, the sport's governing body in this country who oversaw time trialling. They were both terrified of attracting public attention to the sport which they feared would result in an outright ban and also snobbishly (And foolishly) believed that the continental form of "In line racing" was inferior to time trialling and that the best British riders would easily win events like the Tour de France because of their prowess in "The race of truth". The British League of Racing Cyclists was formed in either the late forties or early fifties to promote road racing and all who joined were banned for life by the NCU - who also insisted that competitors in TTs wore all black and did not carry numbers, start sheets for the event being marked Private and confidential. It was not until the NCU were reluctantly forced into a merger with the BLRC in the late fifties that a sort of peace broke out, and even a decade later when I started racing many old stalwarts still believed that British Pluck would put those swarthy continentals to the sword, despite it having been comprehensively proved by then that they wouldn't.

The blinkered attitude of the NCU during a time when the roads were almost devoid of motor vehicles and ideal for fostering a strong racing class meant that with a few notable exception it's only in recent years that British riders could compete on equal terms on the big stage.

 

[colly]

A great cyclist in her day but by no means the greatest British female, that mantle belongs to Nicole Cooke. Women's racing in the sixties was a very amateur affair, World Championship road races were only about 35 miles long and half the field would have had trouble staying with a fast club run.

Really? Don't think so.
While not doubting Nicole's prowess and her fantastic achievements just a quick scan through BB's list of records and titles won paints a different picture.

International honours
Burton won the women’s world road race championship in 1960 and 1967 and was runner-up in 1961. On the track, she specialised in the individual pursuit, winning world championship medals almost every year across three decades. She was world champion five times (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1966), silver-medallist three times (1961, 1964 and 1968), and winner of bronze in 1967, 1970 and 1973.

Domestic domination
In domestic time trial competition, Burton was almost unbeatable. She won the Road Time Trials Council’s British Best All-Rounder Competition for 25 consecutive years from 1959 to 1983. In total, she won 72 national individual time trial titles; she won four at 10 miles (the championship was inaugurated in 1978), 26 at 25 miles, 24 at 50 miles and 18 at 100 miles. Her last national solo time trial titles were achieved in 1986 (at 25 and 50 miles; she was part of the fastest team, Knaresborough CC, in the 50 mile event in 1989).

She also won a further 24 national titles in road racing and on the track: twelve road race championships, and 12 pursuit titles.

Record-breaker
In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles[3] – a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969.[4] While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder.

She also set about 50 new national records at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 100-mile distances; her final 10, 25 and 50-mile records each lasted 20 years before being broken, her 100-mile record lasted 28 years, and her 12-hour record still stands today. Her prowess led to the rare distinction, for a woman, of an invitation to compete in the Grand Prix des Nations in 1967.

In 1982, with her daughter Denise, Burton set a British 10-mile record for women riding a tandem bicycle: 21 minutes, 25 seconds.

All the above while bringing up her family, working as a farm labourer, for the most part funding all her own travel, often in fact riding to events.
No carbon framed steed, no lottery funding, no paid for training weeks in the sun, no top of the range kit from sponsors.

You can not compare athletes from different era for any number of reasons but to dismiss her because people race differently now to then is daft.
Given the amount of support, funding, and the technical advances made, Beryl Burton today, would still have the drive, determination and sheer natural athletic ability to be at the very top.

 

[Danny]

And foolishly) believed that the continental form of "In line racing" was inferior to time trialling and that the best British riders would easily win events like the Tour de France because of their prowess in "The race of truth".

So was time trialling initially a very British thing, or did it spread to other countries very quickly?

 

[totallyfixed]

One of her records

Really? Don't think so.
While not doubting Nicole's prowess and her fantastic achievements just a quick scan through BB's list of records and titles won paints a different picture.

International honours
Burton won the women’s world road race championship in 1960 and 1967 and was runner-up in 1961. On the track, she specialised in the individual pursuit, winning world championship medals almost every year across three decades. She was world champion five times (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1966), silver-medallist three times (1961, 1964 and 1968), and winner of bronze in 1967, 1970 and 1973.

Domestic domination
In domestic time trial competition, Burton was almost unbeatable. She won the Road Time Trials Council’s British Best All-Rounder Competition for 25 consecutive years from 1959 to 1983. In total, she won 72 national individual time trial titles; she won four at 10 miles (the championship was inaugurated in 1978), 26 at 25 miles, 24 at 50 miles and 18 at 100 miles. Her last national solo time trial titles were achieved in 1986 (at 25 and 50 miles; she was part of the fastest team, Knaresborough CC, in the 50 mile event in 1989).

She also won a further 24 national titles in road racing and on the track: twelve road race championships, and 12 pursuit titles.

Record-breaker
In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles[3] – a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969.[4] While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder.

She also set about 50 new national records at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 100-mile distances; her final 10, 25 and 50-mile records each lasted 20 years before being broken, her 100-mile record lasted 28 years, and her 12-hour record still stands today. Her prowess led to the rare distinction, for a woman, of an invitation to compete in the Grand Prix des Nations in 1967.

In 1982, with her daughter Denise, Burton set a British 10-mile record for women riding a tandem bicycle: 21 minutes, 25 seconds.

All the above while bringing up her family, working as a farm labourer, for the most part funding all her own travel, often in fact riding to events.
No carbon framed steed, no lottery funding, no paid for training weeks in the sun, no top of the range kit from sponsors.

You can not compare athletes from different era for any number of reasons but to dismiss her because people race differently now to then is daft.
Given the amount of support, funding, and the technical advances made, Beryl Burton today, would still have the drive, determination and sheer natural athletic ability to be at the very top.

One of those records still stands today, the 277 miles in 12 hours, never mind that the equipment, particularly wheels are so much lighter and quicker, add in that she did not have tri bars it makes you wonder what she could have done with modern equipment. My better half will be having a crack at the 12 hour this Sunday but she will be highly unlikely to do that kind of mileage. Beryl really was a one off, the best ever by a very long way.
Are you around for this @colly ?