The avvesome Beryl Burton killing it.
@RobSandy has done us a real favor with this article. The old gits among us remember Ms. Burton as a force-of-nature cyclist. She loved her bikes, she loved keeping her bikes working perfectly and she loved hauling ass on her bike. What’s not to love?
VLVV, Gianni
There is a lot talked on this website about being pro, being a badass, the permutations of Rule #5 and Rule #10, but if one small anecdote can encompass all of these things, I like to think it would go something like this:
It’s the 17th of September 1967, and the National Champion Mike MacNamara is riding in the British National 12-hour time trial. He is in great form and puts in what would be a new record distance of 276 miles.
Out on the course, however, he is surprised to find himself being overtaken, even though his next competitor started 2 minutes behind him. He is probably slightly more astonished when the cyclist passing him turns out to be a woman. As she passes, she digs into a bag in her jersey pocket and offers him a liquorice allsort.
“Ta, love,” he mutters as she cruises past and away into the distance.
The rider was Beryl Burton, on her way to setting a new record of her own, 277.25 miles in 12 hours riding at an average of 23 miles an hour, or 37.18 kph. As Mike MacNamara became aware at the finish, this was not only a women’s record, it was a national record (beating his own superb effort that day). Moreover, it is a record that still stands to this day.
“Poor Mac,” Burton later wrote. “His glory, richly deserved, was going to be overshadowed by a woman.”
Beryl Burton is probably one the greatest British cyclists in history, whether or not you make the distinction of her having been a woman, and allowing for the fact that virtually no one has heard of her. In the era before professionalism (which was offered to her during her career and refused repeatedly), when road races were banned on UK roads she was dominant in time trials. Her record for 10 miles (21 minutes, 25 seconds) stood from 1967 to 1993 – Twenty years. Her record over 25 miles (53:21) stood for the same amount of time. She also held records over 30, 50 and 100 miles which all stood for over 10 years. She was a different breed.
Yet even during her peak she was pretty much unknown by the British public and wider world. During her stellar year of 1967 she came 2nd in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year to the boxer Henry Cooper, which along with an OBE was her only public accolade, despite seven world titles, 96 national titles and being the best British all-rounder for 25 consecutive years.
Phil Ligget commented on Beryl’s achievement that year and the lack of acclaim which resulted;
“It was a coveted record, [and] had it been any other sport other than cycling, say it being a football icon scoring three goals against Brazil, it would have been front-page news. It almost slipped under the doormat, apart from the cycling magazines who knew the enormity of what she’d done. And as far as I know, it has never been done anywhere in the world either, where a woman has got up and beaten a man’s record in the sport.”
So, this is my case for Beryl Burton to be recognised as a total badass, and made an honourary Velominata. She was awesome.
But there is a sad epilogue to Beryl’s story, which perhaps epitomises Rule #5. Beryl suffered a childhood illness which left her with a scar on her heart, and one day in 1996 while she was out riding, delivering party invitations for her 59th birthday, her heart failed, and she died. On the bike.
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How amazing is that - to be at the top of your game for TWENTY FIVE years?!
Clearly Beryl dished out Rule #5 in spades!
Lesson 2: How To Ride A Big Gear
@RobSandy
Thank you. BB was a boss and a class act, the Cogmother whose likeness will be carved into Mt Velomis.
@Buck Rogers
Might just be slit scan distortion from a Graflex roller shutter, but I'm going with pure unadulterated V buckling her wheel.
One other biographical note of interest...
The sort of competitive urge that drives someone like Beryl Burton is not without a down side.
When her daughter Denise won the national championship in 1976, beating her mother, Beryl refused to shake her hand because she didn't like the way she had raced.
I guess they made it up because they continued to ride and race together but her daughter said she rarely spoke about her riding and even she learnt things about her mother from her autobiography.
Determination and effort at that level often comes with a personal cost. The guy who just broke Tommy Godwin's annual mileage record is another example.
@RobSandy
Great piece about an absolutely peerless rider.
I'll whisper this, but isn't there a case for her being not only recognised as a total badass but also as the greatest the sport has known? If she dominated for 25 years then 525 wouldn't appear to be a very big number.
I'd best be off now, I've got a garage to clear out. There's a bike in the somewhere and hopefully some form.
@ChrisO
There was a kinda sorta relevant article posted re: Lindsey Vonn after she'd knocked off her 37th WC downhill win. Indeed it's not out of question that kinda laser focused dedication, determination, and commitment can come with sacrifices elsewhere.
@Nik_L
A cyclist writes: "Fuck me, that's a V to the power of awesome gear."
Fantastic write-up, @RobSandy. Cheers!
Thank you. That is all.
:D
Thanks for the kind comments all. Glad you liked the article. The VMW has to take some credit for making me aware of Beryl, and I recall reading her palmares for the first time and being dumbfounded at how much she achieved, and also how little she was known.
@ChrisO
Thanks Chris - I knew I could rely on Velominati to add some colour to the black & white picture that Beryl's racing achievements provide. The dedication and competitive spirit that makes a drives a champion great often seems to make them ill-suited to 'normal' life.
But it's often the case that the most interesting sporting stories are those that reveal something of the character of the people involved, a light shining on who they were, rather than what they were capable of. The best example I can think of this is finding the stories associated with Hinault and Lemond more compelling that Merckx. Through Mercxk's racing we find out what he could do, the rivalry between Hinault and LeMond tells us a lot about who they were.
Or maybe I'm over thinking it. Cheers anyway.