[CR] Brief Overview of British Road Racing

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Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 17:56:53 +0100 (BST)
From: "Michael Butler" <pariscycles@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [CR] Brief Overview of British Road Racing
To: CR Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


Some of this will be out of the CR time limit and for this I apologise but it necessary to illustrate the basic history of British racing. In the 1880's many clubs organised road races mainly for their respective club members only. These often took place just outside their towns. If these took place on a Sunday on roads used by churchgoers the public not unnaturally to such activities. There were also many "Anti's" within the cycling fraternity and there argument was that it gave an unfavourable public image to the pastime. Strangely tow of the most notable "Anti's" were G.Lacy Hillier and H.J.Swanley (London Editor of The Cyclist) who could be found on the Portsmouth Road most Sundays indulging in unofficial scorching! During this period the police seemed to turn a blind eye to cycle racing on the road. There were adequate laws and bye-laws in place to enable the Chief Constable's to take action against road racers if public opinion so wished. Before I go any further these were paced events. In 1891 road racing went mad in England due to the outstanding success of the English riders in the first ever Bordeaux to Paris race. Winner G.P.Mills in 26h. 34m. 57s. one hour and fourteen minutes ahead of Montague Holbein, S.F.Edge(later famous motorist) and J.E.L.bates tying for third place, the first two were North Road C.C. while Shorland was one of the pacers. Move on to 1894 to the North Road 50 held on the 21st.July when Bidlake collided with a pony and trap this led the Chief Constable of Huntingdonshire (my home county) gave notice to suppress road racing in his county. This type of racing still took place in some parts of England and of course flourished on the continent but by 1895/96 the North Road and other road clubs in the London area had took up track racing and promoting it. In a N.R. Committee meeting on 16th.September 1895 it was proposed that an unpaced 50 mile road race be promoted for members only this event took place on Saturday 5th.October. This was the probably the start ( although another club also claims this) of British time trialing and most of the rules used for this first event were the standard for many years. Thus British and Continental road racing seperated ours becoming unpaced time trials and theirs massed start. Move onto to 1933 The Charlotville CC hold a 100k trial at Brooklands motor racing circuit the aim is to select a team for the forthcoming World Championships at Montlhéry this eveent was a huge crowd puller. Britain is now begining to come out of the depression British cycling is fascinated by all things continental bikes, equipment, clothing and massed start racing especially the Tour de France. The track continued as a regular venue for cycle races throughout the 1930s. In 1939 alone 19 races were held between April and August, but the war clouds looming over Europe put pay to this. Next in 1942 The British League of Racing Cyclists was an association formed to promote road bicycle racing in Great Britain.

It was established and was in direct competition with the National Cyclists' Union (which had banned all cycle racing on public roads in 1890).

The impetus for the BLRC came from West Midlands cyclist Percy Stallard who organised a 59-mile massed-start road race from Llangollen to Wolverhampton on Sunday 2 June 1942. Stallard and all those who rode in the event were immediately banned from the NCU and responded by establishing the League (formed at a meeting of 24 people at the Sherebrook Lodge Hotel, Buxton, Derbyshire on Sunday 14 November 1942). In 1943, the League promoted the first British National Road Race Championship, in Harrogate and later the Brighton-Glasgow stage race - a forerunner to the Daily Express Tour of Britain first run in 1951.

The BLRC also organised representative teams to attend races in other countries; for example, from 1948 it sent a team each year to the Peace Race (winning the event's individual - through Ian Steel - and team classifications in 1952), and it backed the first British team - including Brian Robinson - sent to the Tour de France in 1955 (as the BLRC was not recognised by the sport's international governing body, the UCI, and the NCU would not select BLRC members, the team was selected by a panel of British newspaper cycling correspondents).

Many other road racing cyclists joined the BLRC. British cycle racing became quite polarised; cycling clubs could not affiliate to both the NCU and the BLRC, cyclists who raced in League races were subsequently banned from NCU events and from time trials run by the Road Time Trials Council, and BLRC achievements were not recognised by those responsible for the Bidlake Memorial Prize.

The rivalry with the NCU only ended in 1959 when the two organisations merged to form the UCI-recognised British Cycling Federation.

That's it folks if you want more get hold of the books "Up The League" and a history of the North Road Cycling C.lub

Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.