12 Champions

This book looks in some detail at the lives and careers of a dozen top British racing cyclists of the post-war years. It was written to pay tribute to their achievement, to try to explore what cycling really meant to them, and to give some insight into their personalities. Except in one case – Beryl Burton – it was based on lengthy interviews with the chosen riders, but it doesn’t claim to be the complete and final story of their lives. The central question that the book asks is: what does it take to become a champion? Is it some in-built natural gift, or does it come only through ruthless dedication and endless hours devoted to training? Where does the will-power come from to push the body to its absolute limits in pursuit of championship titles and national records? Why did cycling inspire such passion in them that they devoted their lives to it? Talking to these great riders, the same answer emerged again and again – that cycling released something in their lives which they could not express in any way. Introvert or extrovert, they all found delight in the physical and mental release that comes through cycling, and they wanted to take that experience to the highest level that they could.

All these riders were active from the late 1940s to the late 1980s, in other words until just before cycle-racing underwent major changes that were scientific, technical, and structural. What all the people in this book have in common is that their cycling took the form of a process of self-discovery that came from within themselves. They trained and prepared themselves alone, with no scientific knowledge, no coaching, no financial support or rewards; all that they did, they did alone. They lived and raced in a world when ordinary working-class people could set new time-trialling records, win major road-races and compete internationally for Britain, and remain virtually unknown outside the sport of cycling. They competed for its own sake, not for any tangible rewards except perhaps the respect of other cyclists. In this sense the book takes us back to a simpler, but more heroic age of sporting history. The world in which these people raced has gone forever, but those who lived through those years will remember their names, and enjoy this book as a look-back at some of the great figures in seventy years of British bike-racing.