Vet Leaguer 12006 - LVRC

LEAGUE OF VETERAN RACING CYCLISTS 

The 

Veteran Leaguer 

The official newsletter of the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists 

Volume 15 No 01 Winter 2005/6 

Inside 

Editorial 2 

Announcements & amendments 3 

Point of View: Tom McCall 4 

Orford: still campaigning 4 

Albert Missen remembered 4 

Peace on the road? 5 

Motorists and cyclists 5 

Regional News 6 

International racing 8 

The Feeding Station: what should I eat? 9 

Post is a four-letter word: Allan Peiper 10 

Picture Pages 12–13 

Inspector Gino investigates 14 

Caption competition 15 

L’Eroica fondo: Peter Coombs 16 

It happened in Monterrey: Arthur Puckrin 17 

Slower Speeds Initiative/RoadPeace 

press release 18 

Reviews 19 

Letters 20 

That was then: Dennis Talbot 21 

Coaching Page: RPE 24

LEAGUE OF VETERAN RACING CYCLISTS 

The Veteran Leaguer is the 

official Newsletter of the 

League of Veteran Racing 

Cyclists 

Newsletter Editor 

Ray Minovi, 

45 Augusta Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8AE 

Tel/fax: 0121-449-1347 

email: cnews@tiscali.co.uk 

Executive Committee 

Chairman 

Peter Ryalls, 11 Devonshire Close, Dronfield, 

Sheffield S18 1QY 01246-413515 

Secretary 

Peter Wilson 52 Knoll Drive, Southgate, 

London, N14 5NE. 0208-368-0698 

Treasurer 

John Flear, 14a Water Lane, North Hykeham, 

Lincs LN6 9QT 01522-687738 

Newsletter Editor & Coaching Secretary 

Ray Minovi, 45 Augusta Road, Moseley, 

Birmingham B13 8AE 

Tel/fax: 0121-449-1347 

cnews@tiscali.co.uk 

Registrar 

Colin Dooley, 62 Gillhurst Road, Harborne, 

BirminghamB17 8PB 0121-427-2149 

Stock Controller 

Jean Flear, 14a Water Lane, North Hykeham, 

Lincs LN6 9QT 01522-687738 

Events Co-ordinator 

Barrie Mitchell, Holly Cottage, 15 High Street, 

Marton, Nr Rugby, Warwickshire CV23 9RR 

01926-632948 

Results Co-ordinator 

Tom McCall, 1 Norfolk Road, Thornton Heath, 

London CR7 8ND 0208-7680081 

Advertising manager: Jim Golden, Foxglove 

Cottage, 18 The Village, Keele, Staffs 

01782-624631 mail@jimgolden.fsnet.co.uk 

Plus one representative from each region 

LVRC Website: www.lvrc.org 

Webmaster: roy@roygardiner.com 

You can see The Veteran Leaguer 

on the website in full colour 

We welcome all contributions from anyone 

– letters, comments, results, articles, 

reports, pictures, even abuse as long as 

it’s in the best possible taste. We’d rather 

have your stuff handwritten than not at 

all, but if you can type it or supply it on 

computer disk we’re even happier. 

Word, .rtf, or ASCII are all fine. 

Deadline for next issue: 20 December 

Nostalgia’s back 

IKNOW OF at least one member of the LVRC who really dislikes ‘any 

of that old stuff. Whenever I see anything about the old days, it turns 

me right off,’ he says. But be a little charitable to us – at this time of 

year we have problems. Remember that we haven’t got four pages of 

results that usually take up one-fifth of the Newsletter, and as any TV 

executive will tell you, once they’ve given you all that space you have 

to fill it with something, even if it’s only I’m a Celebrity, get me out of 

Ladies’ Underwear. 

So no apologies for all the stuff about the old days: Gino Bartali, 

Fausto Coppi, British Independents in the 1950s, Peter Post. Even the 

account of a recent Italian fondo in which they had to ride 25-year-old 

bikes and a coaching article about pre-heart monitor times. 

For the time being, having been relieved of some of the chores 

which editorship reluctantly acquired along the way, I shall after all 

be continuing to edit this journal on an issue-by-issue basis until the 

hour brings forth the man to replace me. So that’s all right then. 

And remember: before you criticise someone else you should walk a 

mile in his shoes. That way, when he finds out you’ve criticised him 

you’ll be a mile away and he’ll have no shoes. 

On page 18 you’ll find a press release from the Slower Speeds Initiative 

and RoadPeace, issued just before Christmas. If you read this in conjunction 

with the report on page 5 of the horrific deaths of four cyclists 

in a road accident, you won’t have much difficulty in spotting that if 

even a little of their advice could somehow get through to motoring 

organisations, the police, and motorists themselves, then there’s a 

distinct possibility that these four people would be alive today. For 

instance, both organisations call for ‘involvement of speed to be estimated 

by calculations recorded at the end of the investigation, not at 

the initial reporting stage’. In North Wales the police inspector in 

charge pre-empted the question of the motorist’s speed by saying, on 

apparently no evidence, that ‘there is no indication to suggest that this 

is down to excessive speed.’ 

Deadlines and intended publication dates of future issues 

Issue Deadline Publication 

2/2006 15 April 15 May 2006 

3/2006 1 August 31 August 2006 

Cover Pictures 

The field in the Cwmcarn Paragon Race 2 (E–G). Photo: Heather Sims 

Small picture: Tony Woodcock,second in the ICF Road Race Championship and winner 

of the LVRC’s Fourmies Trophy for International success. 

Page 2 The Veteran Leaguer: Winter/Spring 2006

Announcements, additions, amendments 

Changes to race 

dates in Region 10 

The GS Europa road race is now 

on Sunday September 24 th and 

not on May 21 st. All other details 

as in Handbook. 

CC Weymouth RR is now on 

Sunday July 30 th and not on July 

2 nd . All other details as in 

Handbook. 

ICF Road Race 

Championships 

6th August at Bonheiden, 

Belgium 

Peter Ryalls will do a block entry for LVRC 

members. Standard forms, plus £6 fee, to him 

by 3rd July 2006. 

Date of birth essential 

Event details page 8 

Loose lorry wheel kills 

schoolboy champion 

James Berry, 13, the talented member of 

the Team Scottish Provident squad, was 

killed after he was hit by a loose wheel 

from an oncoming lorry in the Isle of Man 

on Thursday 29th December. He died in 

hospital the following day. Berry began 

racing at the age of four and his ability 

was considered so ex-ceptional that he 

was drafted into British Cycling’s 2006 

Talent Team a year earlier than usual. 

AGM 

2006 

is on 7th October 2006 in the 

Village Hall, Napton, Warwickshire. 

Meeting begins 3.30 pm 

Objective of the LVRC 

The provision of a programme of 

competitive and social cycling events for 

male and female members of 40 years of 

age and over 

Phil Cooke Memorial Rides 

Sunday 29th January 2006 

Nene Valley and Northamptonshire, 32 

miles or 52 miles. Start at 9.45 and 

10.00 a.m. from the A5 Rangers 

clubroom on the A5 in Towcester. Entry 

fee on the day, £2.00. Details from Don 

ParryCastle Farm Cottage32 North 

Street, Rothersthorpe, Northants NN7 

3JB Tel: 01604-831969 

donparry_1@hotmail.com 

Sunday 19th February 2006 

Warwickshire and Northants, 40 miles 

and 66 miles. Entry fee on the day 

£3.50. Details: Martin Hackley, The 

LVRC records on disk 

A record of all current LVRC members has 

been held on disk for several years now. 

This database is invaluable in keeping track 

of members and in printing labels for the 

distribution of the Newsletter. However, 

not all regional registrars have computers 

now and there are some whose regional 

membership records are hand-written. In 

order to reduce the volume of work landing 

at any one time on the desk of National 

Registrar Colin Dooley, will all registrars 

please supply him as soon as possible with 

their records of new members, and also, 

where known, of permanent deletions. See 

opposite page for addresses. 

LVRC Public 

Liability Insurance 

For the over 40s this is 

without doubt the best value 

on the market. It covers 

members for both social and 

competitive cycling at all 

times in UK and all European 

countries except Switzerland. 

Limit of Indemnity: five million 

pounds. All free with LVRC 

membership! 

However, as the name 

implies, this insurance is 

public liability only. If you 

want personal cover, you’ll 

have to arrange your own. 

Heathfield, Bilton Lane, Dunchurch, 

Warwicks CV22 6PT. Tel: 01788- 

810212. mvh@gatechnology.co.uk 

Car parking and refreshments available 

for both events. Under-16-year-olds 

must provide parental consent. All riders 

take part at own risk and organisers 

accept no responsibility for accidents or 

losses. 

These events are not races. All finishers 

receive a certificate with time taken 

recorded. 

Promoted by MI Racing and Nene Valley 

CRT. 

Cancer Research 

Cycle in Denmark 

1st – 7th July 2006 

Cyclists required to raise money 

for cancer research 

Team Sarcoma 2006 is an 

internationally-coordinated event 

designed to raise public awareness 

Come and enjoy biking in the 

beautiful countryside of the Danish 

peninsula from Jutland to 

Copenhagen 

Contact Patricia 040239370 

Email patriciasmith@eircom.net 

Or shriver@genesis2.com 

LVRC Shop 

All clothing sold out!!!!!! 

Two pairs size 2 bibshorts 

left: £10 each. Please 

ring to check availability 

Cloth badges £2.00 

Metal badges £3.00 

Jean Flear, 14A Water Lane, 

North Hykeham, Lincoln LN6 

9QST 

Telephone: 01522-687738 

Please make cheques payable to 

LVRC 

The Veteran Leaguer: Winter/Spring 2006 Page 3

Point of View 

I 

AM SURE that all of us will have been 

touched by the terrible accident in North 

Wales. I probably speak for most us when I 

say that I feel for them as it could have been 

any one of us. Maybe this was just an accident, 

but so many incidents between cars and 

cyclists are caused because we are just not 

in the equation. It can be carelessness on 

behalf of the motorist, or inexperience, or, 

in more serious cases, total lack of consideration, 

or rage. This one is usually in the 

form of retaliation from an earlier encounter, 

as car drivers somehow do not like being 

told, and they come after you like big brave 

boys in their full metal jacket. In many cases, 

there is a deep anger in the attitude of many 

drivers towards cyclists. I have never quite 

managed to work this one out, and I think it 

would need a pretty good behaviour therapist 

to do so. My theory is that there is a degree 

of inadequacy in their make-up or in 

their lives, and cyclists who just happen to 

be in their way, are made to bear the brunt 

of this inadequacy. 

Orford: still campaigning 

READERS OF THIS journal will know that 

Dave Orford is an indefatigable campaigner 

for all aspects of cycling. It’s not 

always possible to identify his successes, 

but the resurfacing of (most of) the 

potholed back road to Campanet followed 

letters Dave wrote to the tourist 

authorities in Mallorca. Could be just 

coincidence, of course. The dilapidated 

base of the Tom Simpson memorial on 

Mont Ventoux was renovated after Dave 

wrote to the mayor of Bédoin. His campaign 

about the dangerous state of the 

Via Gellia on the A6 near Matlock resulted 

in the local MP taking up the cause 

and improvements being made. 

So far his attempts to get some kind of 

official recognition for Ian Steel have not 

achieved the desired end. Steel’s victory 

in the 1952 Peace Race is arguably the 

most outstanding international stage race 

victory ever by a British rider. Only Brian 

Robinson’s Dauphiné and Tom Simpson’s 

Paris – Nice can claim to match it. Yet 

Ian, most probably because, as a BLRC 

rider, his claim to an OBE was blocked 

by the ‘official’ NCU, received no formal 

recognition. 

But Dave hasn’t given up hope. George 

Galloway, Independent MP and Big 

Brother celebrity has agreed to arrange 

for a special award to one of Scotland’s 

most outstanding sportsmen. 

Living in a South London suburban area I 

have 20-30 minutes of hacking through the 

traffic before I get on to quieter roads. I’m 

used to it, and a combination of pre-judgement 

and defensive riding usually gets me 

through. I try to get eye-contact with drivers 

who look as though they might put me at 

risk, and I shout at drivers if I think I have not 

been seen. It’s no good assuming it will all 

be OK – it may be too late by then. I also try 

to be positive and let other road users know 

what I am doing. However, the greatest care 

in the world will not protect you in the face 

of a freak accident, or of being run down 

from behind, and it is no use being paranoid 

– if you were to think too deeply about this, 

you would never ride a bike again. You have 

to have faith! 

A few survival tips for survival: always carry 

a mobile phone, some form of ID, a pencil 

and paper, and some money – this way you 

are equipped to handle most situations. 

Never ride through red lights even if others 

on bikes do, and, if a motorist does give way 

Another of Dave’s current campaigns 

is to get the UCI to introduce five-year 

age bands into their Masters events. This 

one centres particularly on Derbyshire 

time-triallist Jill Henshaw, who at 71 has 

to compete with 60-year-olds. CTT (formerly 

the RTTC) secretary Phil Heaton 

points out that for their joint national 

championship with BC the age categories 

rise in five-year increments up to 70- 

plus. 

British Cycling takes its usual rather 

lofty stance: ‘As far as I am aware,’ writes 

President Brian Cookson, ‘UCI operates 

clear guidelines for age group categories 

and the number of competitors in them 

determines whether they will each have 

separate championship status. So there 

is no need for a campaign: if and when 

more women compete at a given age, 

then UCI will follow this by awarding full 

championship status.’ Meanwhile those 

who have no chance when competing 

against riders 15 years younger vote with 

their feet. If they’re put off entering, then 

there will never be enough ‘at a given 

age.’ 

There is, incidentally, no longer a UCI 

Masters Commission. It was scrapped a 

year or so ago. The various other Commissions 

(road, track, etc) have taken over 

responsibility for Masters in their various 

disciplines. V 

Tom McCall 

for you, always raise your hand in acknowledgment. 

The PR factor in these last two is 

invaluable – more than you may realise. 

The recent AGM did not produce any contentious 

issues. Membership goes up to £14 

and it is still tremendous value for money. 

The Percy Stallard series will continue – again 

with 10 events, best 5 to count, but with 

points only for the first 6 in each group. This 

is sensible. Our Editor has agreed to continue 

– at least for one more Leaguer. We are trying 

to fine-tune his activities to make his job 

more specific. 

The October AGM sees the return of the 

popular AGM race. The race programme goes 

right into November in the South, and I am 

sure there would be plenty of entries if the 

LVRC calendar did too. Some new promoters 

would be welcome at a time of year when 

a lot of us are still race-fit, but run out of 

events to ride. 

Finally, overheard at a race HQ post race 

discussion: ‘I feel cheated, I was in every 

move except the one that mattered’ – Doh. 

Albert Missen: a 

tribute 

For various reasons this journal, I am 

ashamed to confess, omitted to mark 

the passing of one of cycle road racing’s 

most devoted servants. Albert 

Missen (writes Dave Orford) dominated 

the East Midlands road racing 

scene as an official, promoter and 

organiser, throughout the life of the 

BLRC, from his demob from the 

army at the end of World War II, that 

is from 1945 to 1959. Without him 

road racing, especially in the Leicester 

area, would not have got off the 

ground. 

Albert went through North Africa 

with the Eighth Army and then into 

Italy; and in Rome, in 1943, he met 

and married an Italian girl. Sadly his 

wife died 12 years ago. Albert also 

became a life-long supporter of Gino 

Bartali. 

When TLI and the LVRC came into 

being Albert was again an avid promoter, 

even well into his seventies. 

He received a framed diploma for 

his work at the BLRC Association’s 

60 th Anniversary in 2002. He leaves 

his second wife, Sue, who helped at 

all his later promotions. 

Albert Missen, 1919 – 2005. 


Driver kills four on icy road: ‘Not excessive speed’ say police 

Peace on the road? 

THE NEW YEAR has so far been disas 

trous for cyclists. On 8th January 

four members of the Rhyl CC were 

killed when a car, a Toyota Corolla, collided 

with a group of 12 in north Wales. 

They were on a 60-mile training ride. All 

four died at the scene. The ‘traumatised’ 

driver was treated for a minor injury. 

Those who died were Thomas 

Harland, 14; club chairman Maurice 

Broadbent, 61; Dave Horrocks, 55; and 

Wayne Wilkes, 42. All eight other riders 

were also injured. Police have described 

the road as ‘among the eleven most 

deadly roads in North Wales.’ 

The accident occurred just after 10 

a.m. on a curve in the A547 at Abergele. 

Overnight rain had frozen to ice. 

Police prejudged any investigation by 

immediately exonerating the driver from 

blame. Chief Inspector Lyn Adams said: 

‘The driver had lost control because of 

the ice on the road. There is no indication 

to suggest that this is down to excessive 

speed. Our best estimate at the 

moment is that the car was driving at 

something like 50 mph. And on a road 

like this, that isn’t excessive speed … At 

this stage there is nothing to suggest that 

the driver did anything but lose control 

and on the face of it this seems to have 

been a terrible accident.’ (see page 19) 

However, ‘excessive speed’ depends 

entirely on road and traffic conditions. 

The road had been gritted (it is claimed) 

at 6.20 the previous evening, but local 

residents heard cars skidding during the 

night, and there had been a minor accident 

at the spot only an hour before. 

Conwy Council has demanded a report 

on why the road was in such poor condition. 

50 mph on a dry road might well 

have been appropriate; on ice it clearly 

wasn’t. The car hit the group broadside, 

continued across a verge, hit a stone wall, 

and bounced back to its own side of the 

road. The impact at this ‘not excessive 

speed’ was so violent that four people 

were killed and all eight others injured. 

Two were hurled over the stone wall into 

the field beyond. Had the car been travelling 

at, say, 30 mph, the accident might 

not have happened at all; and if it had, 

the consequences might not have been 

so serious. 

The Rhyl accident comes after a year 

when the continuing attack on cyclists 

by the media was led by high-profile television 

motoring presenter Jeremy 

Clarkson. The lifelong adolescent and 

high-speed groupie has been accused of 

inciting motorists to run down cyclists. 

In his column in The Sun he warned cyclists: 

‘Don’t cruise through red lights, 

because if I’m coming the other way, I 

will run you down, for fun. And don’t 

pull up at the front of the queue at the 

lights, because if I’m behind you, I will 

set off at normal speed and you will be 

crushed under my wheels’. Roadpeace 

campaigner and LVRC member Allan 

Ramsay is looking into the possibility of 

bringing a private prosecution for incitement 

against Clarkson. V 

Why motorists demonise cyclists: envy 

Cyclists are now routinely demonised 

by the media. We’re accused of a 

host of offences: riding through red lights, 

riding on pavements at risk of pedestrians’ 

lives, wearing hideous lycra clothing, 

using mobile phones while riding, 

and generally being a public nuisance. 

Well-known attackers include Tony Parsons, 

Betty Boothroyd, Simon Hoggart, 

Jeremy Clarkson and Matthew Wright 

(The Wright Stuff, a daytime TV show) 

who opened a programme last year with 

‘Why do we all hate cyclists?’ It’s true 

that most of the people complaining live 

in London, where cycle couriers may indeed 

cause problems – but even they 

have so far not managed to kill anyone. 

Meanwhile nobody seems able to get 

a platform to complain about motorists. 

So begin here. Ninety percent of all 

motorists break the law every time they 

drive their cars. All motorists exceed 

speed limits. Millions park illegally. Large 

numbers drive vehicles that aren’t roadworthy. 

Large numbers drive unlicensed 

and uninsured. Every week millions drive 

while over the legal limit for alcohol. 

And these same people dare to complain 

about cyclists being a nuisance and 

tell us we have don’t have the same rights 

as them because we ‘don’t pay taxes.’ 

The big difference is they weigh upwards 

You can bet this one complains about 

cyclists riding on the pavement 

of 20 hundredweight, travel at 70 mph, 

and do 30 miles per gallon. We weigh 

upwards of 70 kilos, travel at 20 mph, 

and do 1600 miles to the gallon. Oh, and 

they’re fat. No wonder they complain – 

it’s called envy. V 


News from the 

Regions 

Region 1 

THE AGM ON 8 TH December was attended 

by a dozen members. The following 

officers were elected: Secretary 

and Chairman, Wally Hodge; Registrar 

and Treasurer, Ray Groves; Events Coordinator, 

Dave Hargreaves; Quartermaster, 

Warren Chamberlain; Leaguer 

Distributor, Tony Money; Correspondent, 

Harry Benson. 

Dave Hargreaves will be involved in 

the Bashall Eaves RR, the C & D Championship; 

and with a group of members 

he will also be involved in two more 

events, probably on the Elswick circuit. 

The Region’s first promotion will be the 

Jazz Night at Scorton on 15 th February, 

with Harry Colledge. Harry Benson. 

Region 2 

WE ARE TO run a series to commemorate 

the L.V.R.C. 20 th Anniversary. All three 

events will be held on the Boroughbridge 

course. Full details in the Handbook 

which comes with this Leaguer. The first 

five places in each category in all three 

events will be recorded and the region 

will present medals to the highest scoring 

riders in each category after the final 

event, the Brigante R.R. in August. 

At my Club’s A.G.M. (Mercury RT) Dr. 

Alastair Cameron said he’d consider organising 

the L.V.R.C. A.B.C. Champs in 

2007. One for the committee to pick up. 

Best wishes to Derek Smith, (he of the 

ponytail), who leaves on January 29 th to 

ride in the International Masters South 

Pacific Games in Hamilton (!), New Zealand. 

A further reminder to visit Derek 

Browne’s Classic Bike Display on Sunday 

April 9 th at Wadehouse Community 

Centre, Shelf, Halifax. Items can be taken 

and auctioned, proceeds to Dave Rayner 

Fund. Contact Derek on 01274 674693. 

And lastly a big thankyou to Ray for continuing 

to produce the Leaguer and race 

calendar, without which we would all be 

lost. 

Dave Hamilton 

Dismal weather means training is getting 

under way slowly in the East Riding. But 

Steve Macklin is training as he always 

does, as are the two Fulstow twins Dean 

and Gary, and Andy Barnes who made 

quite an impression last year – and he 

only started two years ago. Talk is that 

Mark Robinson and Rob Stones are getting 

their racing machines out. 

The Vic Sutton Road Race is on a new 

course around Middleton, a village on 

the Wolds, with slightly longer distances 

than last year. Event organiserMike 

Gomersall will be assisted by two local 

clubs, Hull Thursday and Cottingham 

Coureurs. Jim Sampson 

Region 4 

RIDERS FROM AS far away as Norwich and 

Colchester attended Dave Watson’s 

three annual track sessions at Manchester 

Velodrome. Once again he could not 

have done it without his team: coaches 

Fred Smith and Brian Sowter plus derny 

driver Alan Whitworth, not forgetting 

Dave’s wife Anne who kept the riders 

fed and watered. As usual at the December 

session, Anne collected for Oxfam 

and received enough donations to buy a 

lavatory for the developing world ( last 

year they bought a bike). Dave would 

like to thank the riders for their safe 

riding and generous donations. 

Fears that plans to switch the Golden’s 

Oldies road race to the more rural and 

competitive Worleston circuit might be 

scuppered by the demolition of The Hut, 

which served as HQ for so many road 

races over the years, have been allayed: 

the event, (this year a Percy Stallard 

event), will now use St Oswald’s Primary 

School not far away. The move will give 

riders a bonus, as tea and cakes will be 

available, something The Hut would not 

have been able to serve up. Jim Golden 

Region 5 

THANKS TO THE dedicated bunch of organisers 

in our region we have a full calendar 

of events this season, despite losing 

the very successful Team Velo Club 

Notts event at Newark through cyclists’ 

indiscipline; but on the plus side we have 

regained the Laughton Forest event 

thanks to Roger Hampshire’s efforts. 

If you thought the imminent retirement 

of three of our most illustrious members 

of the Executive Committee wasn’t bad 

enough, then think a little bit closer to 

home, because John & Jenny Downing 

are hanging up their boots in January 

2007. After 14 years exemplary service 

our Chairman and Registrar will be a difficult 

act to follow, so if you are looking 

for a challenging position on the regional 

committee then please don’t be shy in 

putting your names forward. 

Colin Abdy is home! Racing in Australia 

last October, Colin came down in 

a big crash and sustained a deflated lung, 

a broken pelvis and broken ribs. It will 

be three or four months before he’s back 

on his bike. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, 

Colin. 

While on the subject of good eggs, two 

names stand out in our region for their 

good works, support and donation to the 

region over the years: Dave Orford and 

Bill Cotton. Thanks to both from the 

Chairman and members of Region Five. 

Phil Etches 

Region 6 

AS WELL AS a new Registrar and Treasurer, 

the Region now has a new events 

co-ordinator in Mike Amery, 18 Gifford 

Drive, Welland, Malvern WR13 6SE, tel: 

01684-310168. Colin Willetts has re-invented 

himself as Secretary. 

The Region is to put on 11 events during 

the 2006 season, including the National 

Handicap Championship, a Percy 

Stallard event (Claverdon RR), and the 

3-day Tour of the Abberleys – a total of 

13 days of racing. The Abberleys will include 

a prologue time-trial for the first 

time. New events include the Birmingham 

CC’s Summer Crits at Birmingham 

Business Park on 9th July, and John 

Callaghan’s Mark Ide Memorial on 6th 

August. 

Region 9 

The Region seems to have gone into 

winter hibernation with the usual 

exceptions at Eastway and Hillingdon 

where some vets have continued to pull 

up trees. This is particularly true of 

Hillingdon where a hard core have been 

more than mixing it with Tony Gibb & 

co. in the Doug Collins’ BC Winter 

Series. Our northern escapee Konrad 

Manning, Finsbury Park, saw recent 

action in the LVRC Cross Championships. 

Unfort-unately a puncture robbed him 

of a medal: further evidence that living 

in the south softens a rider. I understand 

a puncture never hinders a northerner. 

Congratulations to Mick McManus, 

recently a proud grandparent and to 


Peter Jones (PJ) Hillingdon CC, who has 

or is about to become an E cat. In a 

magnanimous gesture both have 

promised to buy a celebratory drink for 

any Region 9’er, who can show them a 

current ‘06 licence. This splendid offer 

is open till the end of March so to claim 

your drink you need to get your 

membership applications to Bill Ollis 

promptly. Hillingdon is about to get a new 

5.5 metre high chain link fence between 

the circuit and the football pitches, which 

should stop riders from joining in the 

football games. Eastway has been 

promised life up to the end of September 

‘06 so that we may lose the last L VRC 

Summer Series race scheduled for 

October. 

Norman Bright has been welcomed 

back after months of illness but is talking 

of promoting races again under another 

organisation’s rules. Be scared. Be very 

scared! Dick Naylor is off again to Oz to 

see his son Andy for a month but on his 

return intends to rent out his newly 

acquired house in France. It’s on the 

boundary between the departements of 

the Charente and the Dordogne, a 

delightful region of rural France which I 

know personally and cannot praise its 

delights enough. The region may be 

equalled but never beaten. A bit like Dick 

really. Bookings come with a huge 

discount to any Leaguer booking before 

the end of January 06. 

It was a great pleasure to meet up again 

with John Mirrol at Eastway. You may 

recall he’s the vet who had the golfing 

accident. He’s had his glass eye fitted and 

it looks great but I would have thought 

those responsible would have tried 

harder to match as only one is now 

bloodshot. I hear Sid Lovatt is in FULL 

training and now weighs well under 13 

stones. You have been warned. Club 

mate Dave Wright is riding again after a 

second bout of therapy. Well done Dave. 

Fred Little and the Southend Wheelers 

are organising their annual Burnham & 

Baddow Cyclo Sportive on the 26th 

February starting from East Hanningfield 

Village Hall, Essex, at 9.00 am. Distances 

are 38.80 or 120kms. All welcome but 

Fred would like to see more vets this year 

as he feels more comfortable surrounded 

by the elderly. 

We learn that Eddie Cook, one of the 

local original founders with Percy Stallard 

of the LVRC in 1986, has just spent six 

weeks in hospital and I know all Leaguers 

will wish him a full and speedy recovery. 

Roll on the new season. Richard Wall 

Cycling in Provence 

Delightful sunny climate 

Wonderful traffic-free routes 

Stunning scenery 

Ideal base for tackling Mont Ventoux 

Excellent standard of accommodation 

One week packages available from £85 

per person, per week, includes 7 nights 

accommodation 

Groups of 2 to 40 people accommodated 

Call Colin or Helen on 0161 928 4965 

or visit www.propertyprovencal.com 

Rio Frio 

Cycling 

With year-round sunshine and quiet, 

well-maintained roads, Southern Spain is 

the place for cyclists of all standards to 

get in some serious training or just to 

rediscover the joy of cycling without 

layers of foul-weather gear! 

At Rio Frio we provide great vehiclesupported 

cycling routes, with on-site 

workshop facilities and sports therapy, 

just a short drive from Malaga airport, 

but a million miles from busy roads! 

Holidays & Training 

Camps in Southern Spain 

Give us a call, drop us a line, 

or visit our website for further 

details. 

Mel & Marie Richards 

Phone/Fax: 

(UK) 0870 068 8173 

(Spain) 0034 958 348 973 

E-Mail: info@rio-frio.com 

Website: www.rio-frio.com 


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ICF meeting reviews Oostende, announces plans for Bonheiden 

International Racing 

From the LVRC’s representative, 

Graham Webb 

The ICF met at Bonheiden, Belgium 

on 1st October 2005. 

All delegates present agreed that the 

World Championships in Oostende were 

a huge success as regards organisation 

and sporting performances. The only 

negative point was the sound quality of 

the P.A. system. The chairman of the ICF 

also raised the drunken behaviour of race 

official Guy Bloem, WAOD chairman no 

less! All present agreed to a one-year ban 

for Mr Bloem. 

The organisers for the 2006 championships 

at Bonheiden and the circuit reviewed. 

It is 7.3 km, totally flat with quite 

narrow road sections, but with nice long 

straight stretches and few corners, and a 

finishing straight of 900 metres. It will be 

completely closed to traffic in both directions. 

Very good large car-parks, with room 

for campers, are all situated outside the 

race circuit. There are large changing 

rooms. Disposable double race jersey 

numbers will be provided but you will, 

as usual, have to provide your own safety 

pins. Signing-on and all race formalities 

will be in the same building, only 200 

metres from the finish. 

Cat 60+ 7 laps = 51.1 km, start at 09:00 

Cat 50+ 9 laps = 65.7 km, start at 10:30 

Cat 40+ 11 laps = 80.3 km, start at 

12:30 

Amateurs 16 laps = 116.6 km, start at 

15:00 

Pre-race entry fee is • 6 Euro, including 

• 1 for non-returnable frame numbers; 

entries on the day • 11 Euro. 

The photo finish services of the 

Wielerbond Vlaanderen (WBV – the UCIaffiliated 

body), so good at Oostende will 

be used again. The expense is well worth 

it. To help cover the extra hiring cost, it 

was agreed to raise the yearly ICF affiliation 

fee to • 100. 

Riders holding a licence from one of 

the ICF-affiliated federations and also a 

UCI licence, will be allowed to ride in 

these Championships on condition that 

they are entered by their ICF affiliated 

federation. This should be no problem 

for British riders, most of whom have 

LVRC or TLI licences along with their BC 

(masters) licence. 

The WBV have written to the various 

Flemish ICF affiliated federations suggesting 

looking at ways of working together, 

most committee members had different 

opinions about this. The WBV seems to 

be seeking cooperation because of their 

failing membership and the success of 

the ICF affiliated federations. We at the 

ICF are very wary and suspect that the 

WBV would like to poach some of our 

members, or at least take a piece of the 

cake. 

The ICF committee has agreed to let 

the chairman and the secretary have a 

meeting with the WBV for talks and to 

see what they have to offer us in the way 

of cooperation. At such a meeting the 

chairman and the secretary will under no 

circumstances go into a deal with the 

WBV, but will bring a report of these talks. 

The results of these talks may necessitate 

a new meeting of the ICF committee. 

On behalf of the LVRC and TLI, I raised 

the question of a separate World Championship 

for the 65+ age group. Of the 

83 riders in the Over-60s race at 

Oostende, 21 were aged 65 or over. A 

separate race for 21 riders on the same 

day would be too difficult, and I was 

asked if there was any chance of the 

LVRC and TLI holding the championships 

in 2007. I said that I would ask around, 

and said that a World championship in 

the UK should be held as close to Dover 

as possible. This is to make it worthwhile 

for continental riders to travel over and 

thus make a World Championship in the 

UK as prestigious as possible. Experiences 

with Buxton and Eastway have frightened 

most foreign riders off travelling any distance 

into England for a race. I have 

promised to put some feelers out and 

report back to the ICF secretary. Anyone 

interested and able to put a championship 

on at this level in the Kent area, 

please keep the ICF posted. 

The next meeting of the ICF is scheduled 

for 8th April 2006 at Bonheiden, 

Belgium. V 

ICF Road Race Championships 

6th August at Bonheiden, south 

of Antwerp and east of Mechelen 

Flat 7.3km course. 60+ start 9am; 50+start 10.30; 40+start 12.30 

Peter Ryalls will do a block entry for LVRC members. Standard forms, plus £6 fee, 

to him (see Executive Committee, page 2) by 3rd July 2006. 

Please note: date of birth is essential 

UCI Masters Championships, St Johann, Austria 

World Cup: 20th – 22nd August 

World Masters: 24th – 27th August 

Information from the website, www.masterswm.org, or from: 

Harald Bauman, A-6380 St Johann in Tirol, Postfach 77, Austria. 

Ghent 

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Antwerp 

Mechelen 

BONHEIDEN 


The Feeding Station 

What should I eat? 

We’re all familiar with phrases like ‘healthy eating’ and ‘a balanced diet’, but they can 

mean all things to all men: one man’s or woman’s idea of eating well might be someone 

else’s poison. In the developed world most governments have published recommended 

dietary goals. We give a basic outline. 

MANY GOVERNMENTS HAVE recog 

nized the importance of diet 

in relation to their nation’s 

health and economic prosperity. Accordingly, 

some departments responsible for 

health have provided guidelines about 

the quantity of specific nutrients people 

should eat to ensure adequacy and prevent 

nutrient deficiency. 

In addition, some government bodies 

(such as the US Senate Committee on 

Nutrition and Human Needs) have made 

more general dietary recommendations 

aimed at reducing nutrition-related diseases. 

Most of these recommendations 

advise adults to: 

 

 

MAINTAIN DESIRABLE WEIGHT 

Consume the same amount of 

energy (calories) as you expend to 

keep in energy balance. (For male 

adults, this is about 2500 Calories 

each day, and 2000 Calories for 

females) 

INCREASE THE CONSUMPTION OF COM- 

PLEX CARBOHYDRATES 

The World Health Organization 

(WHO) recommend that 70 per 

cent of our total calorie intake 

should be complex carbohydrates 

which include fruit and vegetables, 

pulses, and grains 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DECREASE REFINED SUGAR INTAKE. 

Added sugar should contribute no 

more than 10 per cent of energy 

intake 

REDUCE TOTAL FAT CONSUMPTION. 

Countries vary in their recommendations. 

UK guidelines suggest a 

decrease in the average fat intake 

from about 40 per cent to 35 per 

cent. WHO suggest that only 15- 

30 per cent of food energy should 

come from fat with a maximum 

of 10 per cent as saturated fat 

MODERATE PROTEIN INTAKE. 

Should be about 10-15 per cent 

of calorie intake 

REDUCE CHOLESTEROL INTAKE 

Restrict consumption to less than 

300 mg per day 

EAT LOW-FAT SOURCES OF CALCIUM-RICH 

FOODS. 

This is especially important for 

adolescent and premenopausal 

women to reduce the risk of osteoporosis 

INCREASE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INTAKE. 

Leafy green and yellow vegetables 

are particularly good sources of 

vitamins , minerals, and antioxidants. 

The WHO recommend that 

we eat more than 400 g each day 

(about five servings a day). 

 

 

 

 

INCREASE DIETARY FIBRE INTAKE. 

Adults should eat about 30 g of 

fibre each day (18 g of non-starch 

polysaccharide) 

AVOID OVERCONSUMPTION OF SUPPLE- 

MENTS. 

Supplements are necessary for 

some people, but most people can 

obtain adequate nutrients from a 

varied, balanced diet. Supplement 

use can lead to toxicity 

DECREASE SALT CONSUMPTION. 

Sodium intake should be less than 

1.6 g per day (equivalent to about 

4 g of table salt a day) 

RESTRICT ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION. 

Consume no more than one 

ounce of pure alcohol a day (approximately 

3 units, equivalent to 

about two glasses of wine). 

Most dietitians emphasise the advantages 

of eating a variety of natural, 

unrefined foods to ensure that we obtain 

sufficient nutrients. They also say 

that, with some adjustments, almost 

anyone’s diet can meet the dietary recommendations. 

There is no need to 

give up your favourite food. V 

Potato & Bacon Casserole 

800g (1¾lbs) old potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 

1 medium onion, thinly sliced 

65g (2½oz) lean bacon rashers, chopped 

1 chicken stock cube dissolved in a small amount of boiling 

water 

½ tbsp olive oil 

Preparation Time: 15 min Cooking Time: 1½ hours (approx.) 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4. 

2. Layer the potato, onion and bacon in a casserole dish. 

3. Add the stock and enough extra hot water to fill the dish to two 

thirds of the level of the ingredients. 

4. Brush the top level with a little olive oil and bake uncovered for 

1½ hours or until potatoes are tender and golden coloured. 

Serve with: Hot vegetables 

Nutrition at a glance (per serving) 

410 Calories, Protein 17g, Fat 7g, Carbohydrate 74g 

A good recipe to leave cooking whilst you are doing your winter 

training on the turbo. 

Good source of vitamin C, moderate source of folic acid 


In his recently published autobiography Allan Peiper tries hard to find the nice guy in Peter Post, but 

it’s a desperate search, and it’s doubtful if he really succeeds in convincing us … 

‘Post’ is a four-letter word 

Allan Peiper 

Management styles occupy a continuum from extreme authoritarianism at one end to ‘do just as you please’ at the other. 

Either approach can be successful, even if their paths are strewn with casualties. As a rider Peter Post was an outstanding 

road and track rider with an amazingly broad range of all-round abilities: he won Paris–Roubaix at a record speed, and at 

one time held the record (40) for Six-Day victories. Then he became possibly the most ruthless manager the sport has seen. 

Allan Peiper, now a manager himself, gives an account of the man who seems to have used Genghis Khan as a role model. 

POST RULED PANASONIC with an iron 

rod. He had a very powerful character 

and most of us were frightened 

of him. He had this thing when we 

were eating where he would pick someone 

to sit next to, and if he sat next to 

you, you were in for it. We used to say 

that he had picked a victim. 

He would sit and ask you questions that 

there was no right answer to. If your answer 

was white, the correct one would 

have been black. If you said black, it 

would have been white. Then when 

you’d given the wrong answer, he had 

you. I don’t know why he did it. Maybe 

he thought it motivated you. 

He did it with me once in Tirreno – 

Adriatico. I had been riding on the front 

all week, working for Vanderaerden. We 

came to the last day, a time trial, and I 

was shattered, so I thought, I’m just going 

to ride easy today and try to recover 

for Milan–San Remo, which was only two 

days away. We were having breakfast 

before the time trial and Post sat down 

next to me and said, ‘So Allan, are you 

riding your time trial bike today or your 

road bike?’ Trick question. If you said 

time trial bike he would say, ‘Why are 

you doing that, don’t you know Milan- 

San Remo is only two days away? Who 

do you think you are?’ Or if you said that 

you were riding your road bike it would 

be, ‘Why are you not riding your time 

trial bike, are you tired? You should be 

fit and strong enough by now to do a 

good time trial and still be ready for Milan–San 

Remo, what have you been doing 

all winter?’ 

Anyway, I told him the truth. I told him 

I wasn’t riding my time trial bike because 

I was tired and wanted to recover in time 

for Milan-San Remo. So off he went: 

Manager: Peter Post 

‘What have you been doing all winter? 

You’ve been in Australia lying on the 

beach haven’t you?’ And he tore strips 

off me, but then he said something about 

my wife. She ran a hamburger stand and 

Post said, ‘Anyway, what does your wife 

do for a job?’ At that Fred de Bruyne, the 

team’s PR man came over and stood between 

us and said, ‘Peter, you’re out of 

line,’ and Post just shut up. Fred was one 

of the few people I knew who would 

stand up to Post. 

I was very upset. It was OK him having 

a go at me, but what had my wife to do 

with anything? It was a snobbish remark 

that Post made. In Belgium and Holland 

street traders are looked down on, and 

hamburger salesmen are the worst. They 

make really good money, but that doesn’t 

matter. Making money isn’t as respected 

in Belgium and Holland as it is in America 

or Britain. It is more what you do that 

gives you social status. You could be a 

poor lawyer, or a rich businessman, but 

in your town or village the people will 

only call the lawyer ‘Mister’. 

I told Phil Anderson about what Post 

had said while we were driving to Milan, 

and he must have spoken to Post because 

something happened at the team meeting 

that night. Peter didn’t exactly say he 

was sorry, but it came across that he was, 

and I ended up doing a good Milan-San 

Remo. 

Actually, both directeurs at Panasonic 

were hard men in their own way. I think, 

in five years Walter Planckaert only said, 

‘Good ride’ to me twice. I am trying not 

to be like that with my riders now. I try 

to give them feed-back and make them 

feel valued. We have a system within 

Davitamon where we tell everyone when 

they have done something correctly, as 

well as when they’ve done it wrong, even 

if it’s something that hasn’t worked. I 

think that is the way to be. I think it gets 

more results in the long run than being 

hard all the time. 

And Post was hard. There were no excuses 

you could give him. No exceptions 

would ever be made. Well, nearly no 

exceptions. Post did understand when 

you had gone as far as you could possibly 

go, as I found out in the 1987 Tour 

de France. 

To get into the Panasonic Tour team 

you really had to fight for selection. I did 

it by doing a good ride in the Tour of 

Switzerland in 1987, but that meant I 

went straight from the Tour of Switzerland 

to the start of the Tour, which was 

more than four weeks of racing with very 

little rest. 

We had a very good team in the 1987 

Tour: we had two sprinters in 

Vanderaerden and Planckaert; we had 


Phil Anderson, and we had 

Robert Millar for the overall. A 

lot of leaders, but it meant that 

there were very few 

domestiques to share the work 

of looking after them, so it was 

very hard for us. We had to 

ride for the sprinters; we had 

to ride for the team time trial; 

we had to ride for Anderson; 

and we had to ride to get 

Robert in a good position before 

the mountains. 

Five days from the end I was 

on my knees and I still had to 

do a mountain stage to La 

Plagne, and another after that. 

I was absolutely wasted. It was 

all I could do to get to the finish, 

just pedal over pedal. I got 

to the finish, eventually, and 

from there somehow found 

my hotel room. In those days 

it wasn’t like it is now after a 

stage, where the teams have a 

doctor and they put riders straight onto 

a drip to get liquids and glucose into 

them. All there was in those days was a 

bread roll on your bed. 

Anyway, I ate that and crawled under 

the blankets. Then I cracked. I just lay 

under the blankets and began to cry. I 

had finished just inside the time limit and 

I couldn’t get over the fact that I had to 

do it all again the next day. There were 

four mountains the next day; I didn’t 

know how I was going to do it. 

I was sharing a room with a Dutch rider, 

Teun Van Vliet, and he must have gone 

to fetch Peter, because all I was doing 

was sobbing under my blankets. I 

wouldn’t come out. After a few minutes 

Peter came into the room and sat down 

on my bed. I still didn’t come out, so Peter 

just sat there rubbing me on the back 

like you would comfort a child and repeating, 

‘It’ll be all right, it’ll be all right.’ 

He did that until I felt better; so, as much 

as he could be a hard bastard and humiliate 

you in front of the other riders, 

he did have a soft spot, although he hid 

it well and you had to go through hell to 

find it! 

The next day I was dropped on the first 

climb. I was the first and Urs Zimmerman, 

a Swiss rider who had been third 

in the Tour the previous year, got dropped 

next. He was riding about ten metres in 

front of me, zigzagging all over the road. 

Then he rode into the gutter and fell off. 

I went past him and Walter came up next 

to me in the car and said, ‘Don’t you 

Rider: Peiper in the Paris-Nice prologue 

think you should stop? There are four big 

mountains after this, and you are by yourself 

already.’ So I stopped. I was done. 

They put my bike on the roof of the car 

and I got into the ambulance. Three days 

from the end of the Tour – that is a terrible 

feeling. 

I didn’t see Peter that night, and next 

morning Fred de Bruyne was taking me 

in the car to the airport in Geneva. I was 

just getting in the car when Peter came 

out of the hotel and put his arms around 

me. On the way to the airport, Fred took 

me to a restaurant on the lake and we 

had lunch. It was beautiful weather, and 

we sat outside on a sort of jetty. We had 

a nice meal and a really good bottle of 

wine, and I said, ‘Fred, what are we doing 

here? This must be so expensive.’ 

And Fred said, ‘No, 

it’s OK. Peter said I had to 

take you out for lunch.’ Peter 

understood that I couldn’t 

have finished the Tour; I 

couldn’t have climbed those 

mountains and finished in the 

time limit. He understood 

that I had given everything for 

the team. 

Essentially, that 1987 Tour 

de France experience is an illustration 

of what being a 

good domestique in cycling 

is all about. You have to put 

the team before your personal 

ambitions. On the one 

hand, there is personal glory 

of finishing the Tour, no matter 

what position you are in. 

On the other, the feeling of 

stopping with three days to go 

is totally bleak, totally without 

any personal glory. In fact, 

after I arrived home in 1987 I was so 

ashamed that I hid in my house, not 

wanting to see or talk to anyone. It is such 

a temptation to save something so that 

you make it to Paris, but that isn’t why 

you are being paid. You must give everything, 

and if that means you can’t finish, 

then so be it. 

If I look back at Post, and I look at the 

job I have now, and at our management 

team at Davitamon-Lotto, maybe if we 

lack one thing it is the ability to wield 

the iron rod. But having said that, I’m 

not sure that this generation of riders 

would respond to it. Times have changed 

and maybe Post wouldn’t have been a 

good directeur today, or he would have 

had to change the way he was. V 

A Peiper’s Tale: Allan Peiper, with Chris Sidwells. Mousehold Press, 2005. 180 pages paperback, 

£12.95. ISBN 1-874739-39-0. Available from bookshops or from Sport and Publicity, 

75 Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead, London NW3 6PD. Thanks to Adrian Bell for permission 

to print the above extract. 

Swimming coach cleared of bullying 

Complaints published in The Times last August 

from members of British Swimming’s 

national squad, about the alleged bullying 

behaviour of the national coach, Australian 

Bill Sweetenham, prompted the governing 

body to commission an independent report. 

The report has now been submitted. BS 

says that while allegations of bullying are 

not proven, the report has ‘identified a 

number of issues which will need to be discussed 

with Mr Sweetenham in an appropriate 

fashion.’ 

The original Times report concluded that 

Sweetenham was a bully, had damaged British 

swimming, and caused the retirement 

of 13 senior Britain team members. However, 

alongside Peter Post Sweetenham 

seems to be a positive pussycat. He removed 

TV aerials from rooms, banned sunbathing 

and massage, made swimmers put 

their mattresses on the floor. 

His worst terror was to threaten to withdraw 

lottery funding as a response to disobedience. 

Clearly not a nice man, and probably 

a bully, but as we all know, nice guys 

come second … 


Picture Pages 

This column: Ed Demery wins the B race 

at Cwmcarn; middle, riders in the 

Abberleys; bottom, Phil Mason, winner at 

the Abberleys (all photos by Heather Sims) 


Above: Simon Jenkins wins the A race at 

Cwmcarn; middle right: Bottom: Dave 

Maughan, Steve Macklin, Allan Ramsay, 

Martin Hackley lead in the Abberleys 

(photos: Heather Sims). 

Top right: winners at the Angel of the 

North: between organiser Jack Watson (L) 

and Bill Baty (R), Clive Pinfold, Tony 

Woodcock, Dave Maughan; Peter 

Greenwood , Phil Axe, Billy Mitchinson . 

Opposite page, far right top: the field in 

the Cwmcarn Paragon races; middle, 

Roger Barnes taking the sprint; bottom, 

in the Alford Wheelers race Chris Davies 

is chased by Ken Corbett, Nigel Clifford 

and Andy Barnes. All photos Heather Sims, 

except for Angel of the North. 


As he grew older Gino Bartali remained determined to fight off the threat which Fausto Coppi represented to his own 

pre-eminence in Italian cycling. Eventually his attempts to crack his rival’s secrets became an obsession… 

Inspector Gino 

investigates 

Gino Bartali 

In 1946 the birth of Gino’s second son, a source of great joy for him, motivated him to try to recapture the glory of his prewar 

years. The form was there. It was true that he still disliked fast starts, but towards the finish, he found himself fresher 

than ever and could have continued the race for far longer. Right from the start of the season his great adversary was 

Coppi, now with Bianchi, while Gino remained with Legnano. Gino won two races in Switzerland and knew he was in 

good shape for the Giro, but so was Coppi; and Gino could feel the threat of this young, ever-rising star, hungry for 

victories, at the height of his form. The Tuscan planned to spy on his younger rival and try to discover the secret of his 

successes. Many years later he told the story of this 1946 Giro to Miroir des Sports. 

Deadly enemies on the bike, the two men, here at the Giro d’Italia (Bartali, LEFT) 

became reconciled and almost friends after Bartali’s retirement. 

At Milan, the day before the start, at 

dinner, Fausto stated openly, in 

front of me and three other riders 

(Leoni, Ortelli and Ricci), that he would 

win. On the hairpins of the Col di Bracco, 

during the third stage from Genoa to 

Montecattini, I was thinking bitterly 

about how much damage his victory 

would do to me, when I saw him put to 

his mouth a glass phial which he emptied 

and threw into the verge. I saw the 

glass flash in the sun, fall into the grass, 

bounce up and land in a bush. 

My first thought was to locate the precise 

spot. I identified a telegraph pole, 

slightly curved towards the top, as a point 

of reference. 

This day Fausto was going particularly 

strongly, and this reinforced my determination 

to find the mysterious phial. ‘Find 

phial Bracco Fausto’ I wrote in my notebook 

at Montecattini. At this time I was 

32, Fausto was 27, and I had no intention 

of giving up my supremacy to him 

without a fight. 

At the end of the Giro, which I won 

with a 47-second lead over Fausto, I 

drove flat out to Genoa and set off up 

the Bracco. I found the pole all right, but 

the grass had grown in three weeks and 

altered the look of the place. Ignoring the 

curious looks of the campers and walkers 

I grubbed about in the grass, and suddenly 

there it was, undoubtedly Fausto’s 

phial! With the meticulous care of a detective 

collecting evidence for fingerprinting 

I picked it up, dropped it into a white 

envelope and put it carefully in my 

pocket. All the way back to Florence I 

was consumed with curiosity. What mysterious 

elixir could it have contained, 

what potent potion? The next day I 

rushed round to my personal doctor and 

asked him to send the phial to a lab for 

analysis. 

Disappointment: no drug, no magic 

potion. It was nothing more than an ordinary 

tonic, made in France, that I could 

have bought without a prescription at any 

chemists in France. 

‘If you want some, and you think you 

need it, you can take it it too,’ the doctor 

told me. 

Naturally I ordered a whole case. 


Fausto really was formidable: not only 

because of his athletic abilities but also 

because he was up to date with the latest 

research in sports medicine – and he 

could talk about it with the competence 

of a specialist. I was a good deal put out 

by his self-confidence. Yet at the same 

time he was quiet and reserved, said very 

little to other people, but reasoned things 

out in a sort of private dialogue with himself. 

He had an amazing flair for technology. 

He was always the first to adopt new 

equipment for his bike. I never found that 

sort of thing easy to pick up. I’d been a 

mechanic for ten years, but I was frequently 

uncertain when faced with innovations. 

He, on the other hand, benefited 

from my reluctance and gained advantage 

from my indecisiveness. Just as 

he cared for his bike, so he cared for his 

body; he turned our sport into a true science, 

an integration of man and machine. 

I didn’t rest on my laurels. I too sought 

out improvements, but he was always 

ahead of me. Everything new in the 

medical field – energy supplements, 

agents for cleaning out the system, he 

took in his stride. But since he never involved 

me in his discoveries I had to find 

it all out for myself. 

I realised that I should have to try to 

outsmart him and I devised my own investigation 

system. The first thing was to 

make sure I always stayed at the same 

hotel for a race, and to have the room 

next to his so I could mount a surveillance. 

It wasn’t always easy because our 

rivalry tended to keep us apart. We 

couldn’t room together – which would 

have been the ideal solution for me – 

even in the Tour de France where we 

were team-mates. 

Fausto preferred to 

surround himself with his own guys – his 

brother Serse, Ricci, Milano. I tended to 

room with Corrieri and Favalli, my lieutenants. 

Our contact was limited to hotel 

corridors, a handshake, a few words 

about the stage. 

The active phase of my enquiry would 

begin ten minutes before the start of the 

race. It was an ultra-condensed form of 

work, and I lived through moments of 

intense and powerful emotion. 

I would watch him leave with his 

mates, then I would tiptoe into the room 

which ten seconds earlier had been his 

headquarters. I would rush to the waste 

bin and the bedside table, go through 

the bottles, flasks, phials, tubes, cartons, 

boxes, suppositories – I swept up everything. 

I had become so expert in interpreting 

all these pharmaceuticals that I 

could predict how Fausto would behave 

during the course of the stage. I would 

work out, according to the traces of the 

product I’d found, how and when he 

would attack me. 

Poor Fausto! I feel positively ashamed 

to think how I did all that to him – and 

he so innocent, so pure, so free of all 

suspicion. Under the pressure of our bitter 

rivalry all my harshness and aggressiveness, 

which are part of the nature of 

us Tuscans, came to the surface, and he 

never even knew he had an enemy. 

The greatest problem of Operation 

Wastebasket was that Fausto never left 

his room until the last moment, only leaving 

me a few seconds for my ‘work’ if I 

wasn’t to miss the start. 

‘Always behind, always late,’ the 

commissaire would say. And there I’d be, 

out of breath, hand trembling as I signed 

the control sheet, always the last. And 

he would always, without mercy, impose 

a fine – which I always paid willingly, 

because I was rewarded by my discoveries. 

This procedure kept me busy, but it 

also became an obsession. And it wasn’t 

entirely without its risks. 

One morning, looking down from the 

balcony, I saw Fausto in the street. Green 

light – the search was on! I shot into his 

room. Two riders, not his mates, were 

just fastening their suitcases. Red in the 

face and muttering excuses I returned to 

my room where I learned that Fausto, 

unknown to me, had changed rooms the 

night before. V 

 

Between 1930 and 1960 the Tour was based on national teams, regardless 

of the riders’ own sponsors. 

Caption Competition 

The very popular Caption Competition returns for 2006. All 

you have to do is dream up a suitable caption for the picture 

shown left (photo by Heather Sims) and send it to the Editor 

at 45 Augusta Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8AE, or e- 

mail to cnews@tiscali.co.uk by 11th April, by which time 

we’ll have found some suitable prizes. Please submit your 

entry in writing – no phone calls or casual mentions in passing 

to the editor when you see him on the other side of the car 

park: they tend to get mislaid. 

Previous examples: 

Left: ‘These mobile phones are a pain in the bum – can’t even 

break wind without being disturbed.’ (Allan Ramsay) 

Right: ‘Has Bill Sykes gone through yet?’ (Joe Rowe) 


A special fondo for bikes 25 years old, or more – along with their riders, of course. 

Heroics, Chianti and fruit cake 

Peter Coombs 

You must be mad,’ Johnnie 

Miller said when he heard that 

I was one of five Brits, along with 

my clubmate John Warren (Wally) 

who’d elected to do the whole 200 

kms of L’Eroica, the annual fondo in 

the Chianti hills specifically for bikes at 

least 25 years old. The bike also has to 

have exposed brake cables, down tube 

gear changers and toe clips and straps. 

I make a precarious living dealing in 

antiques and things old, so I get a little 

fed up with the idea that to be any 

good, a thing has to be new. 

The event starts and finishes in the 

Tuscan village of Gaoile, midway 

between Florence and Siena, and it 

turned out not to be the fish-andchipper 

I had expected – it’s big. Every 

local shop had posters in the windows, 

the tourist office was full of it, the local 

papers carried details, the car parks 

were full of camper vans with vintage 

racing bikes on the back. Out of 900 or 

so entrants about 20 were from 

England. 

Signing on was at five in the morning 

and at that time in Tuscany it’s cold. 

Very cold. And dark. Only 90km of the 

200 is on tarmac – the rest is 110 

kilometres of unsurfaced white limestone 

tracks. Think a cross between 

Brighton beach and the track that leads 

to your local quarry and you’ll get the 

general idea. The limestone ascents 

were hard, the descents were hairy, it 

was party-time in the villages we rode 

through, the excellent feed stations 

served local food, and during the last 

hour it threw it down. 

But we made it. And for once the 

reward was justified: two bottles of 

Chianti, one specially labelled for the 

event, a bottle of local olive oil, a 

rather nice sticky fruit cake and a 

plaque for the wall. I rode my 1980 

Peugeot with sprints and tubs like 

(rather surprisingly) quite a lot of riders, 

and more surprisingly I didn’t puncture, 

unlike Wally on clinchers, who had 

three. 

Would I do it again? No. Would I advise 

anyone else to do it? You bet. V 

Fred Whitton Lakeland Challenge 

Some of you may remember our publishing in the 

Spring 2005 issue a piece by Dave Gretton telling the 

story of his ride in the Lakeland Fred Whitton Challenge. 

We were unfortunately unable to download any 

pictures from the disk, probably because it didn’t 

recognise our ancient version of Windows, but we’ve 

now been able to remedy that. So here’s a shot of a lot 

of tired men flogging their way up the main street of a 

Lakeland village. 

The event raised no less than £11,000 for the 

McMillan Nurses and the David Rayner Fund. This 

year’s event on 7th May, I’m afraid, had already 

reached its limit of 550 riders by early January. 


The South American 24 hour cycling Championships. Monterrey, Mexico 7th May, 2005 

It happened in Monterrey 

Arthur Puckrin 

Arthur Puckrin has been an LVRC member for several years but has never 

raced, as his primary sport is triathlon, which he took up at the age of 58, 

35 years after he last rode a bicycle. Now aged 67 he’s ‘surprised to find 

myself World Champion overall for DecaBiathlon (1120-mile cycle ride, 

262-mile run), and recently 24-hour cycling champion of South America.’ 

Apart from short mid-week time-trials, this was Arthur’s first cycle race. 

After a 24-hour journey from 

Teesside, I arrived in Monterrey 

where I was greeted by my host 

and race organiser Jorge Adonie. 

Unfortunately it was raining, and the 

weather, unusually for Mexico, remained 

damp and cold all week. Even more 

unfortunately, my bicycle remained at 

Amsterdam Airport. I stayed in the sports 

village with the Mexican volleyball team. 

Mexico may be a poor country, but their 

sports facilities are a revelation. There 

were 50 tennis courts, all in excellent and 

new condition and within a mile of the 

sports village were three stadia including 

a velodrome. The accommodation was 

basic, but cheap, cheerful and 

acceptable. 

My missing bike had only recently been 

repaired after I had been struck by a car 

while I stood waiting at a roundabout for 

the traffic to clear. Apart from bruises and 

loss of skin, I seemed to be OK. Anyway, 

after two days I was reunited with it, and 

I decided that I would either have to ride 

in the rain or not at all. It looked like 

being a long and cold 24 hours. Race 

day dawned dark, grey & wet, but about 

lunchtime the sun came out. We were 

off about 20 minutes late at 12.20pm. 

With the adrenalin flowing, I made a 

good start, not quick enough because 

there was a group of five ahead, including 

representatives of ten-man teams taking 

part in the team relay race. I could 

beat all these guys, I told myself, and burst 

past them. 

I was averaging 20mph for the first 60 

miles, and although the pace gradually 

dropped, I was still in the lead and feeling 

comfortable at 100 miles, reached in 

5 hours 23 minutes. It was now extremely 

hot and I began to feel the pace: I would 

ride easily for a while and recover. Somehow 

I reached the end of the lap, got off 

the bike and lay down. I had something 

to eat, but still felt unwell. After travelling 

all this distance, it seemed I was not 

going to be able to complete the course. 

But after two hours, I had more to eat 

and felt better. There were 15 hours to 

go, plenty of time. It was now dark, I was 

in last place, but at least I was moving. 

In the cool, my speed increased. There 

was a shout from my support crew. It was 

half way, I was in second place 25 miles 

behind the leader, number 58. I had seen 

him, and knew he was tiring. I told myself 

that we would all go through a bad 

patch at some stage during the 24 hours, 

and I had had mine. It was now two a.m, 

much cooler, I was spinning round at 

20mph, feeling good and counting down 

the laps to the leader, lapping him every 

few laps. 

I had asked my support crew to keep 

me notified about the time passing. They 

shouted out the time at each hour. It 

seemed a long way: 11 hours, 10 hours, 

9 hours. Eventually at 4a.m. number 58 

stopped for food. I had closed to about 

15 miles, but now I would reach him 

much quicker. Eventually, at 5 a.m., I had 

him. Now I would build up a lead of 

about 10 miles before I stopped – he 

might be revitalised once daylight came 

and he realised there was not much further 

to go. When I took a short stop for 

soup, coffee, jam sandwiches, I lost only 

two laps and soon made them up again, 

and indeed increased my lead. Eventually, 

I saw light in the sky – only another 

seven hours to go. I was drinking a great 

deal, but I did not eat very much, just a 

few bananas, jam sandwiches, soup and 

bread. Cold drinks went down a treat. I 

did have two coffee stops late on when 

it was clear I had a good lead, just to 

break up the time a little bit, so I did lose 

a few laps towards the end. Number 58, 

I discovered, was Jesus Sigala a 40-yearold 

from Santa Catarina. We rode together 

for the last few laps and crossed 

the line together. I had been beaten by 

only four of the ten teams of ten relay 

riders. 

I had not slept for 36 hours, but after 

the race I found it impossible to sleep or 

eat. I just lay on the bed. Later on I did 

find the energy to pack my bike, and the 

next day, it was back to the real world. 

Thanks to Mary, my support crew who 

kept me fed and watered throughout the 

24 hours, to Paul Godley, who repaired 

my bike, and to Jorge Andonie and his 

team who organised a superb race and 

an excellent event. V 

Results: 

1. Arthur Puckrin, Great Britain, 592 

kms 

2. Jesus Sigala, Santa Catarina 540 kms; 

3. Alejandro Sigala, Santa Catarina; 4. 

Carlos Alberto, Monterrey; 5. Juan 

Gaona, Guadalupe. 

Ladies: 

1. Silvia Andonie, Mexico 330 kms 

2. Juana Xapata, Guadalupe 269 km 

The presentation: Arthur with 

support crew Mary Miller 


Just before Christmas the Slower Speeds Initiative and RoadPeace issued a joint press release. 

Peace on the roads? 

THE SLOW SPEEDS Initiative and 

RoadPeace welcome news that at 

least 1745 deaths and serious 

injuries have been prevented by speed 

limit enforcement. They also welcome 

lower thresholds for enforcement and the 

promise of new funds for local road safety 

but criticised the Government for still 

requiring casualties as a prerequisite for 

law enforcement. Four years of 

enforcement action by Safety Camera 

Partnerships has shown that speed 

cameras could be used to prevent as well 

as reduce casualties. 

The organisations are confident that 

local accountability and the introduction 

of a value for money approach will 

ensure that cameras will remain a top 

option for roads with speed limits above 

30mph. The new system should also 

allow authorities to use cameras to 

enforce 20mph limits for roads where 

humps are not practical. 

Paige Mitchell, co-ordinator of SSI, 

said: ‘The Government is finally taking 

on board two important messages: that 

there should be more funding for road 

safety and that local communities should 

have a say in how speed cameras are 

used. But as long as road safety measures 

follow casualties rather than preventing 

them, it will always be “too little too late” 

for many communities and families. 

Speed reducing measures are the best 

way to reduce road danger. Transport 

budgets should be invested accordingly.’ 

Dr Ian Roberts, a public health expert 

and patron of RoadPeace, said ‘There is 

increasing evidence that speed cameras 

save lives. When you have people dying 

in the streets and you know that speed 

cameras can prevent from dying, then 

it’s negligent and irresponsible not to use 

them. 

RoadPeace Director, Brigitte 

Chaudhry said: ‘Drivers need to be 

reminded of the causal relationship 

between speeding and casualties with 

fine revenue also invested in victim 

assistance and rehabilitation, as crash 

victims do not currently qualify for 

criminal compensation and victim 

support services’. 

For further information, contact Paige 

Mitchell 0845 345 8459; mobile 078331 

08900 Brigitte Chaudhry 0208 964 1800 

Dr Ian Roberts 020 7958 8128 

The Slower Speeds Initiative works for 

better understanding of the impacts of 

speed and the benefits of lower and 

better enforced speed limits. Its founders 

are the Children’s Play Council, CTC, the 

Environmental Transport Association, 

Living Streets, the Road Danger 

Reduction Forum, RoadPeace, Sustrans 

and Transport 2000. 

RoadPeace is the leading national charity 

supporting victims of road crashes and 

bereaved families. 

In October of this year RoadPeace and 

the Slower Speeds Initiative published 

a briefing pack on Safety Cameras (see 

www.roadpeace.org). We called for: 

The casualty requirements for 

safety cameras (both speed and 

red light cameras) to be ended. 

 

 

 

 

Safety cameras should be used 

to increase compliance with 

road traffic laws and to prevent 

death and injury. 

Inconspicuous, i.e. covert, 

cameras to be trial led and 

existing cameras to be used 

more effectively with additional 

speed cameras to be installed 

according to local operational 

criteria established in 

consultation with communities. 

Consistent and proper 

evaluation of all road safety 

interventions, including those 

aimed at reducing excessive 

and inappropriate speed. A 

lower standard should not be 

tolerated for more popular 

measures that may well be 

less effective at saving lives 

and preventing disability. 

Fine revenue to be invested in 

national publicity campaigns 

explaining rationale for safety 

cameras and also in road traffic 

victim support and rehabilitation 

services. This would 

remind drivers that speeding is 

not a victimless crime. 

Involvement of speed to be 

estimated by speed calculations 

recorded at the end of the 

investigation, not at the initial 

reporting stage, as is currently 

done when only a ‘best guess’ 

is possible. V 

Guided riding 

Supported tours 

Road & MTB 

Cyclosportives 

Ride the Valencian 

Mountains and the 

Spanish Costa Blanca 

CostaBlancaCycling.com 

Everything you ever needed to know 

about Cycle Training and Coaching 

The 

Association of British Cycling Coaches 

ABCC CD+ 

Over one million words of text (seven thick books) V Dozens 

of training & coaching articles V 45 indexed back nos of Cycle 

Coaching V 55 pages training advice V 30 pages of nutrition 

advice V 400+ indexed Sports Science Abstracts V Interviews: 

Sean Yates, Roger Hammond, Magnus Backstedt V Reviews: 

165 books, tapes, disks V 4 Levels of Training 

Intensity booklet V Guide to Nutritional Supplements V 

Drugs Watch, 100 pages indexed V 20 back numbers 

of The Veteran Leaguer V 1000 cycling photos, drawings, 

pictures V Cycling’s Training Manual for 1903 


Artwork? 

Epoustouflant! 

Strength Training Anatomy: Frédéric 

Delavier. Human Kinetics, Second Edition, 

2006. 144 pages illustrated, paperback, 

£14.99. ISBN 0-7360-6368-4 

THE AUTHOR IS a former editor-in-chief of 

PowerMag, and the text is translated from 

the French. Not that there’s all that much 

text, because this is a book consisting entirely 

of illustrations with captions, notes 

and explanations. And what illustrations! 

I don’t very often use exclamation marks, 

but the artwork, mon ami, is 

époustouflant! 

The seven chapters each deal with one 

major muscle group: arms, shoulders, 

chest, back, legs, buttocks and abdomen, 

and altogether there are 115 exercises, 

either on machines or using free weights. 

Depending on what’s being described or 

exposed, you get muscle, every surface 

fibre shown, with the active bits in colour 

on a grey drawing, or detailed colour 

drawings of the skeleton. 

If you’re a weight trainer I’m not sure 

how much benefit it would be to know 

in minute detail what precise muscles are 

operating in a given movement – but if 

you do want to know, it’s here. Made 

with HK’s usual quality on heavy, slightly 

satin paper. At the very least it’s the least 

expensive and most thorough introduction 

to the musculo-skeletal system you’ll 

find anywhere, and an excellent guide 

for anyone planning a little off-season 

weight-training. I wouldn’t be surprised 

Diets designed for athletes: Maryann 

Karinch. Human Kinetics 2002. 222 

pages paperback, £12.99. ISBN 0-7360- 

3834-5 

This appears at first to be the standard 

account of what food is for, how it works, 

which you’d find in most sports nutrition 

books. But its focus is on ‘engineered 

foods’ which ‘aim to combine good nutrition 

with convenience.’ Hence the 

author’s concentration on the vast range 

of supplements, energy bars, sports 

drinks, prohormones and other substances 

which are keeping the executives 

of giant food corporations in luxury. I’m 

still not clear about how far this fits with 

Ms Karinch’s wish that everyone should 

enjoy a balanced diet and avoid processed 

food, except that hundreds of 

to hear of these pictures being scanned, 

enlarged, framed and put up in gyms and 

swish living rooms all over the western 

world. Eat your heart out Damien Hirst. 

Ray Minovi 

Engineered foods and all that jazz 

phytochemicals in fruit and vegetables 

‘are not yet captured adequately in supplement 

form’. So there’s still hope. After 

all, agriculture cannot be held to 

blame for all our ills: human metabolism 

was sorted several hundred thousand 

years before we grew crops and kept 

cattle. 

Of course Ms Karinch is often right: 

many athletes’ diets are unbalanced, especially 

those of bodybuilders (athletes?). 

We were taught that rare steak was the 

standard pre-competition meal for endurance 

athletes, and that too much 

fluid, even on a hot day, was bad for you. 

But Barry Sears and his Zone diet get 

so many mentions that I thought there’d 

be a credit for sponsorship. His recommendation 

that your protein portion at 

a single meal should be no bigger than 

the palm of your hand is good, but Sears’ 

40% CHO, 30% protein, 30% fat is a poor 

formula for an endurance athlete, and 

you really can get all your protein from 

your diet without needing supplements. 

Ms Karinch spends a lot of time on supplements: 

glutamine is favourite, but she 

offers plenty of others. There’s little scientific 

basis for the claims made for most 

of them, and many are merely expensive 

ways of enhancing your urine. 

She’s keen on whey and casein products 

too, especially as recovery aids; and 

it’s true that a little protein added to your 

post-race drink will speed recovery; but 

eating chicken works just as well. She 

offers a guide to help you avoid being 

exploited, but there’s an even easier way 

to do that. 

She’s also enthusiastic about Victor 

Conte and his BALCO outfit. Apparently 

old Vic used to send his lads out to buy 

other people’s supplements and was dismayed 

when their vitamin and trace element 

levels remained low. So he began 

to design his own drugs and market them 

through his coaches, with the result that 

a hundred or so athletes have been 

banned and Victor is, as I write, serving 

a richly-deserved four months in a California 

jail. 

Bodybuilders and weightlifters are 

major targets of her advice and there are 

no fewer than seven pages on 

prohormones, the most notorious of 

which is androstenedione. They convert 

to anabolics (nandrolone, testosterone) 

in the body and most are banned outside 

the US. Androstenedione, freely and 

cheaply available on the Internet, probably 

accounts for the huge number of 

nandrolone positives in recent years – 

and don’t think they’re taking it by accident. 

Athletes will confess to taking 

‘handfuls’ of supplements without much 

idea of what they do, except that they 

think it might make them go faster. 

There’s plenty of basic information, 

and lists of lots of supplements, some of 

them illegal in sport. But if you want a 

book on general sports nutrition, you can 

undoubtedly do better than this. 

There are three pages of resources and 

reference, a glossary, an excellent index, 

and a sample health questionnaire. And 

a few phrases which, thanks to our tabloid 

press, no British writer would use 

unknowingly nowadays: ‘When was the 

last time I bonked,’ would keep the average 

Sun reader in stitches for a fortnight. 

Ray Minovi 


From Roger Sunderland, Halifax 

Adding to your article, ‘How Orford 

invented the Milk Race’, readers ought 

to know that from the initial one-man 

membership of the British Professional 

and Independents Cycling Association 

it grew to a thriving body and ran a 

points championship for the Viking 

Trophy and had elected officers. For 

1958 these were President Bob Thom, 

Chairman Trev Fenwick, and Secretary 

Dave Orford. Certainly no-one did 

more for we independents than Dave 

Orford. 

From Barrington Day, Fareham 

When I saw that there was cycling on 

the television on Christmas Day I was 

really quite excited: my viewing for the 

big day was sorted – the Queen’s 

Speech and a review of the year with 

none other than David Duffield. 

We should have received a very 

serious health warning. I was taken 

aback: I did not expect to see the 

season of Lance Armstrong. Don’t you 

think that we have seen quite enough 

of this boring three week wonder? Not 

the complete cyclist in many people’s 

eyes. What about the real cyclists? The 

programme will be shown three times 

in all. Really bad news. 

Why on earth does Duffers always 

pander to the Americans and Australians? 

Continental cycling is surely 

about the French, Belgians, Italians, 

Germans, Dutch and” Swiss riders, 

after all they are the ones that made 

the sport what it is, producing many 

heroes and characters over the years to 

delight us all. 

From John Oxnard, Newcastle upon 

Tyne 

Milk Race Reunion. As organiser I wish 

to put things straight ref ‘The Veteran 

Leaguer Autumn 2005’ page 21. The 

Milk Race Reunion was as this past 

weekend proved, I refer to the 2 page 

spread in Cycling Weekly doing the 

event the justice it deserved, as the 

Veteran Leaguer did some weeks ago. 

I now wish to make it clear as the 

question is in the Autumn edition 

‘whether Dave Orford should have 

been invite’ I can verify Dave Orford 

was invited as were perhaps 350 to 

400 people I was able to contact 

personally and as all who attended 220 

plus were at the event the one and 

only reunion for Milk Race riders 

Officials and the superveterans who 

At the first AGM and Dinner of the British Professional 

and Independents Cycling Association Brian 

Robinson, right, presents Brian Haskell with the 

Viking Trophy. Behind, chairman Trevor Fenwick 

started the whole thing some years 

before, from ‘The Tour of Britain’ etc. 

What a weekend we had, ask anyone 

who attended. 

I personally invited Dave Orford 

along with everyone else, for some 

weeks I thought Dave would be with 

us but it became very clear from Dave 

that he should be given a ‘FREE 

TICKET’ for his efforts in putting the 

Milk Race on the Map, I understand 

the organisers/committee in 1957 and 

1958 did what they did and Dave was 

virtually shut out of the event that was 

what they did some ‘almost’ 50 years 

ago. I understand Dave was eventually 

recognised by the officials of that era 

and then by the BCF some 27 years 

later when he was presented with the 

David Saunders Trophy, from the Milk 

Race list of trophies. A number of 

‘FREE TICKETS’ were given to guests at 

our reunion, those tickets were paid for 

by an anonymous benefactor known 

only to himself and myself. Dave was 

not on that list, there were many 

organisers, officials, winners, professionals, 

internationals etc. etc who 

were also not on that list and they all 

paid for their tickets. Just look at the list 

of guests for verification. 

DAVE ORFORD said to me that he 

would not attend the event if he had to 

purchase a ticket that was Dave’s 

choice he decided not to attend and 

‘NOT THE FACT HE WAS NOT 

INVITED’ ask Dave Orford. 

I have no intention of getting involved 

in what people deserve for their 

service to cycling, that has nothing 

whatsoever to do with myself. 

I just wish to make it very clear that I 

decided to put on ‘THE MILK RACE 

REUNION’. No one from any ‘body’ 

approached me, asked me or offered 

any sponsorship to put on the event. I 

remember some 40 years ago as 

though it was yesterday when I officiated 

on that most wonderful race the 

pleasure of being with the top riders in 

the world and helping to put on one of 

the best events the Cycling world ever 

saw. 

The Jewson Sponsorship came 

through sheer hard graft as I have often 

done for cycling. I seek no cups, 

trophies or recognition other than to 

put on a good event and for everyone 

to have a great weekend, as we did ask 

anyone who attended. 

I trust this is the finish of th all the 

‘hoo-ha’ now that you have read how 

and why the ‘Milk Race’ plus all those 

riders and officials prior to 1958 made 

the 40+ years an era we should 

remember all of our lives. I am not a 

‘BLAZER’ I am an organiser. 

Incidentally, I will be sending £1500 

to be split between two charities, the 

McMillan Nurses and the David Rayner 

Fund. 

On behalf of all those who were 

invited and who attended I should 

like to thank John for organising the 

Reunion, which was, as I wrote at the 

time, a unique and splendid event. All 

of us who were there will always 

remember it. This correspondence is 

now closed. Editor 


For the dubious pleasure of getting a free frame and tubulars at cost you took out an Independent licence that 

entitled you to take cash prizes – if there were any. But you wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

That was then… 

Dennis Talbot 

THOUGHTS, MEMORIES AND reflections 

of Dennis Talbot and Derek Buttle, 

original members of the first team 

of professional racing cyclists in Great 

Britain enveloping massed start racing on 

British roads. Dave Bedwell and Clive 

Parker formed the quartet. We grew up 

together, club cycling in the Romford and 

Walthamstow area of Essex, all of very 

similar ages, competing as juniors during 

1946 – 48. Graduating through the senior 

ranks of the BLRC. All of us had very 

ambitious goals, were quite successful, 

winning on the circuits of Battersea and 

Finsbury Park, Paddington track, in 

massed starts on the road, and time-trials 

– which I used as training. We all had 

full-time jobs, but were eventually offered 

frames and equipment from the likes of 

Vechetti, Wearwell and Dayton. 

We all signed up as Independents. We 

received no wages, but might possibly 

earn bonuses for wins. The four of us 

were granted pro licences by the NCU, 

having agreed to race at all events run at 

Herne Hill, organised by the great Johnny 

Dennis. We joined about sixteen others. 

Derek and Dave were sponsored by 

Claud Butler, Clive and myself by Rivett 

cycles of Leytonstone. We earned our 

living mainly from bonuses for wins and 

advertising. Derek obtained sponsorship 

from Hercules Cycles for 1953. We 

competed as a team in Europe and 

Britain, against professionals and semiprofessionals. 

We were very successful 

at home, but found that European road 

racing was on a different level. As a team 

we shared everything, we were 

complete, but perhaps a little naïve, even 

dreamers, so competitive – but it wasn’t 

in our make-up to take the next step. 

We travelled and trained together all 

the time, and developed a style of racing 

where Clive and Dave (both of them 

exceptional sprinters) were led out in the 

sprints by Derek and myself. We even 

took it in turns to win. On the Continent 

it was very exciting, but winning was very 

difficult. We were accepted by the pros 

and were able to compete over most of 

the distances, even in extreme 

conditions, only to be thwarted 

somehow near the finish – very frustrating 

to find ourselves able to get placings only 

from about 5 th to 12 th . On returning to 

Britain we continued to win individually 

and as a team. Our press was covered 

by the great Jock Wadley, a wonderful 

guy.* 

The fourth Tour of Britain, sponsored 

by the Daily Express, was, in the eyes of 

the public, second only to the Tour de 

France. In 1954, full of anticipation, the 

BLRC had been building up the massed 

start style of racing on the public roads 

since 1942, a spectacle in colour, very 

well received by the British public. All 

the finest roadmen were gathered: 

Hercules, BSA, Wearwell, Viking, Ellis 

Briggs, Gnutti – and from France, Italy 

and Belgium came full teams of six riders. 

The whole made up a field of 50 riders. 

The first day was won by the French, and 

their grip never slackened for the whole 

of the race. Eugène Tamburlini won, 

strolling on a gear 10 – 20 inches higher 

than any other rider. I was convinced he 

would crack, but how wrong I was. He 

even won the time-trial, a very hilly 42 

miles. The French ended up taking 1 st , 

first team, and three stages. Hercules 

ended in 3 rd place, 2 nd team, and seven 

Derek Buttle, left, Dave Bedwell right, Ken Hurst between, at Herne Hill madison, 1953 

*A collection of Jock Wadley’s writing is published 

by Mousehold Press of Norwich, under 

the title From the Pen of J. B. Wadley, 

reviewed in the Veteran Leaguer for Autumn 

2002. 

stage wins. Wearwell were 3 rd team, with 

three stage wins. An excellent 

performance by the British riders: ten 

stages out of 13. The Italians and Belgians 

were out of the picture, apart from Henri 

Guldemont, who managed the King of 

the Mountains title. 

Brian Robinson, with only three teammates 

to support him, finished a 

magnificent second overall. He was then 

an Independent, but later turned 

Professional and had a very successful 

career on the Continent for many years. 

1954 was a great year for bunch riders: 

expectations were high, the BLRC 

was producing fine riders, and Hercules 

were sponsoring a team to race abroad, 

hopefully to be followed by other sponsors. 

Great days. V 

LVRC Public 

Liability Insurance 

For the over 40s this is without doubt the 

best value on the market. It covers 

members for both social and competitive 

cycling at all times in UK and all European 

countries except Switzerland. Limit of 

Indemnity: five million pounds. All free with 

LVRC membership! 



Cycling in 

Provence 

(South of France) 

We are an English couple living in a large, Provençal style country house with walled garden and large swimming pool. 

The house has been renovated to include 4 large, self-catering apartments in the village of ORGON, set in the Durance 

valley 25 km south of Avignon. 

We can offer superb cycling routes for training, touring and VTT, covering the Luberon National Park and The Alpilles. 

Secure parking and cycle storage is available. Individuals and groups are welcome. Open from March to end of 

October. Special price of £85 per person per week is offered to cyclists during October and from March to 

third week in May. 

For further information and brochure contact: 

Mike Grayson, Mas de Bazarde, 

6 Route de Bazardes, 13660 Orgon, France. 

Telephone & Fax: 00.33.4.90.73.09.73 

Website: www.masdebazarde.com 

e-mail: masdebazarde@aol.com 

Come to the beautiful département of the Aude 

Minervois Maisons 

Proprietors: Chris & Helen Remnant (ex. VC Meudon & LVRC) 

Self-catering holidays in village houses and gîtes. Quiet 

roads with varied terrain, suitable for all abilities, ideal 

for training or just pottering. 

Accommodation: each house sleeps up to 6 and has all the 

usual facilities. Linens included. 

We offer: 

Itineried routes Racing 

Guided rides Epreuves cyclo-sportives 

Rides with local Clubs 

La Tuilerie, Route de St Pons, Travers de Belveze, 

11120 Bize-Minervois, France 

Telephone: 00 33 (0)4 68 46 56 41 

or 00 33 (0)6 89 61 06 88 

E-mail: helen@minervoismaisons.com 

And when you’ve finished 

cycling for the day, why not 

sample the local wines from 

the producers. Wine-tasting 

trips can also be arranged. 

‘Thank you for showing me the quiet roads of this hilly area. 

Pity the roads in Surrey aren’t like that!’ Alex Atkins, Evans 

Cycles RT 


Another look at Ratings of Perceived Exertion 

Riding on feel 

NOWADAYS COACHES AND riders rou 

tinely use heart-rate monitors to 

measure the intensity of sessions 

and to keep an eye on recovery. HRMs 

are easy to use, but they only give us a 

set of figures: they tell us something about 

the body’s physiological response, in a 

particular condition, at a particular time, 

but they need interpreting. In order to 

get the full picture, we have to take into 

account other factors and measures, such 

as the rider’s psychological state, how he/ 

she perceives the work they are doing – 

in other words, how the rider feels. 

We all know that two rides, identical 

according to heart-rate, may feel quite 

different: one may feel much easier than 

the other to complete. Measuring feeling 

is difficult, but quantifying it can help 

us identify trends that could give us valuable 

information on how much training 

we should be prescribing. 

The Borg scale (Rating of Perceived 

Exertion – RPE) is probably the bestknown 

measure of how an effort feels to 

us. As soon as possible after a ride the 

rider gives uses the scale to score the session. 

There are several versions of the 

Borg Scale, but the original ranges from 

6 to 20: 6 is no effort at all and 20 is 

absolutely flat out. Some riders may prefer 

the alternative, rather simpler 10- 

point scale offered here. 

Original Borg Scale 

Rating 

Intensity 

6 

7 Very, Very Light 

8 

9 Very Light 

10 

11 Fairly Light 

12 

13 Somewhat Hard 

14 

15 Hard 

16 

17 Very Hard 

18 

19 Very, Very Hard 

20 

When making your assessment, 

take the following 

into account: 

Don’t allow localised 

pain (burning 

quadriceps) 

to dominate your 

perception. Include 

your whole 

perception of the 

session including 

muscular and 

cardiovascular 

demands. 

Be honest with 

yourself. Don’t allow 

pride to 

cloud your judgment. 

Don’t compare your scores to 

anyone else’s. Perception of effort 

is a very personal thing. 

There is no ‘correct rating’. Just 

as everyone’s heart rates are different, 

so is everyone’s RPE. 

One rider’s perception of ‘easy’ 

might kill some people. 

After a trial period, begin to compare the 

results from rides and act on them. If the 

RPE for a given heart rate and pace continues 

to fall over a period of time, this 

could indicate that the rider is getting fitter. 

It may be time to increase the training 

load, by increasing volume or raising 

the intensity of some rides. Conversely if 

the RPE starts to rise and at the same time 

the rider finds it increasingly 

difficult to reach target heart 

rates, this could be a sign of 

overtraining or stress. Reduce 

the programme to take 

account of this. Simply ignoring 

it will not make the 

problem go away. 

Honesty is essential: riders 

must understand that 

they have to be truthful 

about their perceptions. 

Some coaches find that 

young, inexperienced riders 

may be unwilling to admit 

that they found a particular 

Known as a technical innovator (clipless pedals), Bernard 

Hinault nevertheless rode primarily on feel. 

session hard, and they must be encouraged 

to be honest about using the tool 

for their own benefit. 

Riders usually find that it takes practice 

before they’re totally convinced that 

it works. Only through repeated use are 

they able to detect the subtle differences 

between sessions. Those who stick with 

it usually find that it is another useful tool 

that helps them to maximise their training. 

Regardless of rating system, it has been 

shown that experienced athletes have a 

well-developed sense of exertion. They 

have become so adept at monitoring the 

body’s many systems (breathing, muscle 

fatigue, lactate build-up) that most can 

pinpoint intensity almost as accurately as 

a scientist using instruments. V 

Simplified 10-point scale 

Scale Description Cycling 

1 Very light Admiring the countryside 

2 Light 

3 Moderate Continuous conversation 

4 

5 Heavy Few words 

6 

7 Very heavy 10-mile time-trial 

8 

9 

10 Extremely heavy All-out sprint

Vet Leaguer 12006 - LVRC

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