Magpie Tales#105

The picture prompt from Tess reminded me of a cycling story my Dad used to tell.

It Takes Allsorts . . .

Beryl Burton (1937 - 1996) should never have straddled a bike if her doctors were to be believed. She suffered a serious attack of rheumatic fever as a young girl and was advised to avoid strenuous activity - like cycle racing. She went on to hold British records for cycle time-trials  at 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles and the 12 and 24 hour distance trials. She won World Championships on the road  and track on bikes that look quite old fashioned compared with today's aerodynamic machines costing up to £80,000!

Dad was a keen cyclist himself and would sometimes go the extra mile to see the "greats" of the era at work.  His "Beryl the Peril" story concerns the British 12 hour endurance trial of 1967, in which Beryl set a new record of 277.25 miles . . a doddle at an average speed of over 23 miles per hour. (On yer bikes, ladies and gents, and try it for one hour or even one mile!)   Near the end of the 12 hours Beryl caught and passed the leading male rider , Mike McNamara, who turned in a new mens' record of just over 276 miles in the same event. Beryl held this all-comers record for nearly two years, and today 40 years on, it is still the womens' record.

Endurance competitors would fuel themselves with dried fruit and sweets and such high energy snacks and as Beryl stormed past the flagging Mike she handed him a liquorice allsort which he acknowledged with a wave and munched as Beryl disappeared into the distance.  Dad would get quite misty-eyed telling this tale, pointing out how it exemplified the sportsmanship and cameraderie enjoyed by cycle racers in those days, adding "Of course, our Beryl was a Yorkshire lass," as if this explained everything.

The incident was commemorated in a little ceremony shown below when the Rockingham Forest Wheelers presented Beryl (by now retired) with a giant liquorice allsort.

Her story ends sadly when the Docs' advice caught up with her. She died of a heart attack, on her beloved bike, while out delivering invitations to her upcoming birthday party.