Q2 2008 - Reading Cycling Club

The Great Beryl Burtonby Paul TaylorTowards the end of last year, by accidentI stumbled across the name Beryl Burton.At the time I was reading about the preeminenttime triallist Michael Hutchinson,who since 1999 had amassed 28 nationalchampionships. One of the footnotes readthat the only rider to win more titles wasBeryl Burton, Beryl had won 97.Now I’m sure there are distinguishedmembers of the club that will be morethan aware of Beryl and her achievements,but at 33, I am perhaps a littleyoung to have known about her when shewas racing. So if I hadn’t heard of her, Ifigured that there would be others thathadn’t and you deserve to know about heramazing cycling achievements.Now and again there are sporting championsthat push their sports to previouslyunimaginable levels. Superstars that tearup the rules and move the goal posts sofar, that commentators believe they willnever be bettered. Names such as Fangioand Ali are classic examples of these “superchampions”. These are so much morethan winners, there is an otherworldlyaura around them, they are simply a classapart, they are “greats”. These greats areso interwoven into the rich tapestry oftheir respective sports that they actuallyhelped make their sport what it is today. Incycling we have Coppi and Merckx, legendsthat will never be forgotten as longas cycling exists, but where is Burton?Almost nowhere and fading fast. What anabsolute travesty this is, she was a great.So am I mad to consider a British amateurcyclist to rank alongside Eddy Merckx asa cycling great? Maybe I am, and for sureI didn’t start out thinking this way. Ok, 97national titles, eh? Without question thisis one hell of an achievement, but spenda bit of time thinking about it, apply a littlereason and hey presto you can somehowbreak this down and understand how itcould be done. So, it is a niche sport,women are the minority in the sport,and go back 40 years and these factorswere probably multiplied. So as mightilyimpressive as it is, I could just about seehow it could be done. Problem is I thenstarted reading how she did it.It all started in 1955 when a 17-year-oldBeryl was introduced to cycling by hernew husband. Two years later she wassecond in the 100 mile national time trialand by 1959 she was national championand almost unbeatable. Over the next 25years she dominated, amassing a winningtally that is beyond belief. 97 Nationaltitles, twice World Road race champion,five times world pursuit champion plus ahat full of placings. Beryl’s total winningtally was 122 in National and Internationalevents. Added to this she broke 50 cyclingrecords. She was record holder in 10m,25m, 30m, 50m, 100m and 12 hr timetrials, with all her final records lasting atleast 20 years.Man EaterThese are records of a champion, butgood enough to be a great? As impressiveas say, Sergei Bubka’s 35 polevault world records? Ed Moses remainingunbeaten for 122 400-metre hurdlesfinals? Or Michael Schumacher’s 91 F1victories? My initial view was no, butthen I started digging a little deeper intothe record books and I changed my viewcompletely. The reason? Well the measurementof Beryl’s success is incorrect.It is incorrect because the measurementis “women’s titles” and Beryl was notracing women, she was racing anybodyand everybody. She was 25 times (1959– 1983) Best British All Round women’stime trial champion (BBAR), or to put itanother way, she won it 22 times morethan the second most successful woman.But that is nothing compared to the factthat of these 25 wins, 13 of them werefaster than the fastest man. In fact in twoof the 13 she had a combined speed inall events that was 1.2mph faster thanthe next fastest person in the UK. By myreckoning, she would have cycled 8 milesfurther over the same given time as thefastest man in those years.And then there is the Beryl Burton folklore.In 1967 she was racing in a 12hrtest. The men’s record was set in thisevent at 276.52 miles by Mike McNamara.McNamara beat the then current men’srecord by an impressive 5 miles. McNamarawas also Beryl’s 2 minute man, andafter 10 hours in the saddle she caughthim. In doing so she shouted “LiquoriceAll Sort, Mac?” to which he replied “Ta,love” and promptly eat the sweet. Shewent on to win the event with a distanceof 277.25 miles, a record that still standstoday more than 40 years on.Chinks in the armourAlthough Beryl’s records may never bebeaten, she was not the perfect racer. Itis without question that she should havewon more world road race championships.The problem was she would leada race out with the competition stickingto her wheel until the sprint finish, similarto Paula Radcliff when she was runningon the track. Whether this was naivety,arrogance, or simply not the Burton wayis hard to say. But like Radcliff, over longdistances, when she could inflict maximumpain and suffering, the competitionwould be simply blown apart, such washer brutal strength.On top the poor tactics, her mentalstrength and “at all costs” winning focusmeant she only took 3 months off duringher pregnancy with daughter Denise andher will to win saw her refuse to shake thehand of the national road race championof 1976. She was pipped to the win andwas far from happy. You may think this isunderstandable, but when it is your owndaughter? Yes, the 1976 winner was oneDenise Burton.Whatever makes “greats”, great Beryl hadit in spades. In fact if the Olympics had includedwomen’s cycling in Beryl’s heydayI have no doubt that she would have beenmultiple Olympic champion, probablymade a Dame and be written into thehistory books for ever. That didn’t happen,but her records speak for themselves, andthe way they were achieved meant Berylwas a super champion, and in my viewshe was one of the greatest.