Racing Is Life - The Beryl Burton Story [DVD]

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I spoke to a journalist called Sue Mott who interviewed Beryl in the early 80s … and she said that she had never met a sportsperson who was so driven and focused as Beryl even having known those sorts of people as well [like Steve Redgrave and Andy Murray],” he says.

Women weren’t included in the Olympic cycling program until 1984, when one event, a road race, was introduced in Los Angeles. Beryl Burton was 47 when that happened, still racing but well past her best. The National Cyclists' Union was formed in 1883 – in a merger of the Bicycle Union and the Tricycle Association – ­and soon after, in 1890, they banned road racing out of fear of the reaction from the upper classes to the sudden increase in working class mobility – to become law in 1896 (H G Well’s novel of that year, Wheels of Chance, indicated the danger). A new body, The Road Racing Council – later to become the Road Time Trials Council (RTTC) - promoted time trial races, done in secrecy, instead. In 1942 a leading rider of the time, Percy Stallard, defied the ban and formed the rival, and dissident, British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC). This was to eventually merge with the NCU in 1959 to form the British Cycling Federation (BCL), who lifted the ban, although Stallard apparently remained disgruntled. Thus the ban on road racing had only recently been lifted when this was filmed in 1962; the year when Tommy Simpson became the first Briton to wear the yellow jersey on the Tour de France.

The camera is on a low section of a field looking up at a cyclist who rides down the hill, then gets off her bike, lifts it over a stone wall and runs down the rest of the hill carrying the bike. A couple of other cyclists do the same thing. Beryl used to work on a rhubarb farm, even when racing, which was run by cyclist Nim Carline. She worked 12 hour shifts every day during the winter. Ken Nichols and Maureen Nichols, Mud Sweat and Gears: A History of the British Cyclo-Cross Association, Mousehold Press, 2011. Many of the participants – such as Jean Smith, Barbara Conway and Pauline Hunter – have since been largely forgotten, although the Croucher sisters, Brenda, Maureen and Carol, of the East Bradford Cycling Club, are perhaps better remembered. Valerie Rushworth was national road race champion in 1964 and won 11 British Championships between 1959 and 1966, going on to represent Great Britain internationally, as a rider and later as coach and team manager.

She set a women’s world record for a 12 hour time trial in 1967 which has not yet been beaten at 277.25 miles. She set a 12-hour time-trial record in 1967, covering 277.25 miles, beating the men’s record by 0.73 miles.She won her first national medal in 1957. It was a silver in the national 100- mile individual time trial championship. Wilson’s book, along with a play written by Maxine Peake in 2012 and William Fotheringham’s 2019 biography, aims to relocate Burton from the relative wilderness to a place among the greatest British athletes of all time.

This humility belied a ruthless streak that marked Burton as a great competitor. The prizes and medals she won were relatively unimportant; it was the simple act of winning that seemed to motivate her. Wilson spends much of his book explaining the origins of that drive, delving into theories that link childhood trauma to exceptional athletic achievement.As her powers declined and her dominance waned, Burton refused to retire. In 1984, when Burton was 47-years-old, the first women’s Tour de France was held and women were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. She lobbied for a place in both teams but was ultimately not selected. Burton worked on a rhubarb farm, cleaned houses, and worked on the biscuit counter at the local Co-op supermarket alongside her record-breaking exploits. Beryl Burton’s cycling success reads like the script of a Hollywood film. Five times world pursuit champion, thirteen times national champion, twice road-racing world champion and twelve times national champion. Her accolades include time trials, former world record holder, former British record holder, numerous sports awards, an MBE and an OBE. I think a lot of these things get judged on Olympics and Tour de Frances and obviously women weren’t allowed in those events so it’s a bit harsh to judge her on two events she wasn’t allowed to ride in,” Wilson says. If you think the life of an obscure female cyclist from the 1960s sounds a bit niche, join the club. Forget your preconceptions; it’s an evening of relentless fun, committed to teaching its audience something, whilst simultaneously never taking itself too seriously and maintaining a fierce respect for its heroine.

Beryl Burton also holds the women’s bicycle tandem record for the 10-mile distance, set with her daughter Denise, it took them just 21 minutes, 25 seconds. Beryl Burton Play Beryl Burton won everything she could win in the restricted world of women’s cycling that existed when she raced. Women have had a bad deal in sport, but cycling has been one of the worst offenders. Dave Russell, ‘Mum’s the Word: the cycling career of Beryl Burton, 1956–1986’, Women’s History Review Beryl Burton with her daughter Denise in 1963 (Image credit: Getty Images Sport) ‘She just kept going and going’ Her career is well summed up in this extract from the Times obituary: “Determined in her aims, but modest in her claims of success, Beryl Burton reigned over women's cycling in this country and on the international stage for more than a quarter of a century. Indeed she could compete with men on more than equal terms as her beating the British men's record for a 12-hour time trial in 1967 testifies. This pre-eminence over such a long period in a field of activity which makes relentless demands on physique surely has no parallel in any other branch of sport.”Cycling was taken up as much by women as by men, providing a new found emancipation for late Victorian and Edwardian women by enabling greater freedom of bodily movement and mobility of travel. It became a social pastime, with local groups being formed to go out riding collectively. Before long, by the early 1890s, with the coming of the ‘safety’ cycle and pneumatic tyres, some women became involved in racing and time‐trialling, with a few even turning professional. Beryl Burton and her daughter Denise both set a record for a British 10- mile ride on a tandem bicycle which took them only 26 minutes and 25 seconds!