Cycling Circus: A New History of the Milk Race 1951-1993

It was the longest and toughest bike race in the country, Britain’s version of the Tour de France. It began in 1951 as the Tour of Britain, and later, sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board, it became the Milk Race. It was a national institution – the speeding bunches of cyclists criss-crossing 1400 miles of town and countryside in the first week of June. Almost every top racing cyclist in Britain rode it at some point, but to win it was the privilege of only a select few.

This book is a full year-by-year chronicle of all the Milk Races, telling the story of the winners and the losers, the heroes and the occasional villains. It tells of epic battles through the Pennines and the mountains of Wales, and the desperate high-speed sprints at the finishes. It tells of the international rivalries between the teams, and the problem of drugs which cast its shadow in some years, although never to the extent of the Tour de France. It tells of the transition from old-time amateurs, who worked for a living but still had the strength and dedication to train and race at such intensity; and then the transition to professionalism that became inevitable in its final decade. The last Milk Race took place in 1993, but this book is a lasting tribute to the men who organised it, and above all to all those who rode in it and raised it to its unique place in British cycling history.