Twiddling

Two important passions in my life have been music and bicycles. Coming of age as I did in the early 1950s, musically, I came in at the end of the Big Band era.

I saw the American big bands like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Stan Kenton when they toured the UK. Later I witnessed the birth of Rock n' Roll in the mid 1950s and experienced first hand the emergence of the British music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

As for cycling I came in at the end of the fixed wheel era. In the early 1950s all the top time-trialists in the UK rode fixed gear. The picture above from 1948 shows a typical British time-trail scene.

Not a car in site; it is easy to see why this era is often referred to as “The Golden Age of Cycling.” Note the rider has a fixed gear, a single front brake, and the obligatory bell on the handlebars. (Picture from Classic Lightweights UK.)

Time Trialing in the UK during that period was predominantly a working class sport, and many working class people at that time did not own cars. Their bike was not only their recreation and sport, but also their mode of transport to get to work each day. Most had a bike with track dropouts making for easy adjustment of chain tension while switching differing size fixed rear sprockets.

The bike would have a brazed on lamp bracket boss on the front fork and have eyelets and clearance for mudguards. The mudguards would be put to good use; it rains a lot in the UK, and if your bike is your only means of transport, riding in the rain is your only option. A rider would wear a rain cape (Poncho) that was long enough at the front to reach over the handlebars thus keep their legs dry.

At the weekend, the mudguards would come off in readiness for a time trial and the cyclist would ride to the start of the event often carrying his best wheels with tubular tires on wheel carriers attached to the front of the bike.

These wheel carriers were simply two aluminum strips about 5 or 6 inches long with a hole drilled each end. The front wheel nuts were removed, the metal strips were then attached on either side of the front wheel spindle so they stood above and slightly forward of the front hub. The nuts were replaced and tightened.

The spare front and rear wheel spindle then attached to the hole in the top end of the metal strip, one on either side. Finally, the spare wheels were strapped to the handlebars using a toe-strap. Track nuts were always used, not quick-release. Everyone used a Brooks leather saddle that had bag loops on the rear; a saddle bag would be attached to carry racing clothes to change into, and food.

By today's standards riders used pretty low gears; distance events would be ridden on a 79 to 81 inch gear and the shorter events on about an 86 inch gear. The thinking of the day was that speed was achieved by pedaling fast, known as "twiddling."

I was like many of the younger riders and used gears, because I emulated the top European pro riders rather than the British time-trialists. However I did switch to fixed gear to ride through the winter months, and I would often strip my bike of its gears and convert to fixed to ride a 10 or 25 mile time-trial.

A very popular early season event was the 72 inch restricted gear 25 mile event. All competitors rode a 48 x 18 fixed gear, which was checked at the start by wheeling the bike between two chalk marks on the road, to ensure the crank did one complete revolution.

My very first time-trial was such an event, in March of 1952, one month after my 16th birthday. I had put in many miles on a 65 inch fixed gear all through the winter months and I could definitely twiddle. I had been riding seriously for over a year, but had to wait until my 16th birthday to be able to race.

I had been preparing for my début through the winter, whereas the more seasoned riders had been taking it easy and had not reached their full level of fitness at the start of the season.

I surprised myself and my fellow club members when I won the event with a time of 1hour-10min.-10sec. (See the press clipping, left.)

This meant I was pedaling at an average rate of over 100 RPM for the 25 miles. Top riders of that era could turn in times under the hour for 25 miles on a 72 inch gear; which is close to 120 RPM average. Two revs per second, that’s some serious twiddling.

The RPM rate was calculated as follows: 25 miles = 132,000 feet. Divide by my time for distance, 70 minutes = 1885.714 feet covered in one minute. Divide by feet covered per pedal revolution (18.67 ft.) = 101 RPM.

Calculated at a nominal wheel size of 26.75 inch diameter. (7.003 feet circumference.) 48 T chainring, divide by 18 T sprocket = 2.666 turns of the rear wheel per 1 turn of the chainring. 7.003 x 2.666 = 18.67 feet traveled per pedal rev.

History of British Cycle Racing: Part III. The Ban from my Perspective

That’s me, bottom right in the picture above, proudly wearing a British League of Racing Cyclists badge on my blazer. I was 18 years old and a guest at a local cycling club dinner and prize giving. This was my first season as a League member, before that I had experienced the other side of British cycling, and the road race ban.

I started cycling seriously in 1951 at age 15; I lived in Luton an industrial town some thirty miles north of London. I joined a local cycling club called the Luton Arrow, they were affiliated to the NCU and RTTC; I was not able to race until I was 16.

When I started racing the only events open to me were time trials; there was no velodrome nearby, and no circuit races either. My heroes of the day were the Tour de France riders, and I dreamed in the naiveté of my youth of one day being one of them. However, this was never going to happen on a training regimen of British time trials.

The BLRC was somewhat of a mystery to me; "Cycling" magazine, the main publication of the sport in the UK was very anti BLRC and published nothing about them or their events. The nearest League club was in the next town, and it was made clear that if I had anything to do with them I would be suspended from my present club.

My first season racing was all time trials; I had some success and at age 16 even beat local riders much older than myself. I realized if I was to advance I had to ride mass start events, and the following year at age 17 I entered the NCU sanctioned National Junior Mass Start Championship. It was held on an old WWII airfield at Church Lawford, near Rugby, in Warickshire.

I had to catch a train there, and then ride my bike to the event. There were 150 riders from all over the UK; most of them totally inexperienced at riding in a bunch like me. I was immediately amazed by the speed, I was riding faster than I had ever ridden in my life before. Of course the best riders were the ones who lived close to the course and rode it every week end.

We were riding on the old runways of the airfield; the surface was full of pot holes and grass growing in the cracks. There were glass domed landing lights along the edge each runway, 24 inch diameter, raised up 6 inches. If you found yourself on the inside of the pack you were forced onto these.

As we turned onto another runway the glass domes went across the intersection, and were hard to see in the middle of a 150 rider field. Needless to say there were numerous crashes; I was lucky enough not to fall, but was forced to stop behind a huge pile up and spent the rest of the race in a small group chasing the main pack.

I rode the train back home that day disgusted with myself and my performance. Looking back now, I realize I could not have expected to do any better. I had entered a National Championship Race with no prior experience of riding in this type of event on this type of course.

How was I to gain experience? My parents didn’t own a car, and it was not practical to catch a train to ride 80 miles to Church Lawford every weekend. So I returned to time trialing for the rest of the season.

The following year I was 18 and now classed as a senior rider. I started riding with two local racing cyclists who were in their mid twenties, good riders, and both had recently finished serving in the Royal Air Force. They were both former BLRC members.

They asked me if I would be interested in joining them as a three-man team and race in League events; one of them had a van, so traveling to races would not be a problem. We formed a new club called the “Luton Racing Club.” We recruited another two non-racing members as we needed a minimum of five members to form a club.

I discovered what real road racing was all about. League races back in the 1950s were long usually 100 miles or more, often as much as 150 miles. My two years spent riding long distance time trials was not entirely wasted; it gave me a lot of stamina.

I was never good at short distances, and I was not a sprinter, but I could climb hills, and road races were always over hilly terrain. Whereas, time trials where always run on the flattest course possible. I eventually reached category one status, but never achieved any international or professional success. I realize to reach the top as an athlete; one needs not only dedication, but also the right physical attributes and gene structure. The rest of us do the best we can with what we have.

There was camaraderie and an unwritten code of ethics among League riders, that carried on in later years after the BLRC and the NCU became the British Cycling Federation. Riding on the open road with normal traffic, we all looked out for each other. A parked car by the roadside, or an approaching vehicle, and the riders at the front would call out a warning, which was passed down through the bunch.

On occasions I have unshipped my chain while shifting gear, and two riders one either side would grab my jersey and push me along while I reached down and replaced the chain. These were complete strangers to me, and I have done the same for other riders. I would hate to see someone out of a race because of something as simple as a chain coming off.

In English road races there was always a lot of banter, conversation, and joking going on during a race. Of course, this would decrease when the pace got fast and serious, but it was always there. I missed that in the few races I rode when I first came to the US. Moreover, criteriums reminded me of the old NCU circuit races back in the early 1950s. Fast and furious, and a lot of crashes.

The BLRC always put a lot of work into publicizing events. The “Tour of Britain” race in the early 1950s was sponsored by a national newspaper and the daily coverage it received brought out spectators in their thousands. It was a tremendous boost for the sport of cycle racing.

After the merger in 1959 and the formation of the BCF, I noticed there was gradually less seeking of publicity for races, and the only spectators at events were local cyclists. Cycle racing in Britain had gone back to being a "Cinderella" sport.

To sum up the British road race ban, and why it went on for so long? People don’t like change; if a system appears to be working, unless there is a huge number of people against it, things tend to stay the same.

Back in the day, there was not the information network that we have now. With “Cycling,” a weekly magazine being the only source of information about the sport, and with that publication being pro NCU and RTTC, I really did not know what was going on at the top of these organizations. I don’t suppose other cyclists of that era knew either.

Officials of individual cycling clubs were pretty much of the same mindset as those running the NCU and RTTC. These were the delegates who went to the annual general meetings and voted the top officials back in each year.

It is easier to do nothing than to invoke change. Those who see that a change is needed, are often outnumbered and give up in frustration because of stonewalling by the other side that would rather remain with the status quo.

This is the last of a three part series of articles. Here is a link to Part I and Part II.

History of British Cycle Racing: Part II, The British League of Racing Cyclists

In Part I of this series, I explained how in Britain, a ban on mass start road racing that would last for fifty years or more, came about.

In 1942 during Britain’s darkest hours of WWII, a racing cyclist named Percy Stallard wrote to officials of the National Cyclists Union (NCU) and asked permission to run a massed start road race on public roads.

He pointed out that Britain’s roads were pretty much empty of traffic, due to petrol (Gasoline.) rationing, and road racing continued in certain parts of the continent of Europe, even though there was a war. His request was flatly turned down.

Percy Stallard (Right.) went ahead and organized the race anyway. He managed to obtain the cooperation of the police, and he got a newspaper from his home town to sponsor the event. He rode in the race himself, and recruited another forty riders. The 59 mile race was staged from Llangollen in Wales to Wolverhampton, Stallard's home town in the West Midlands of England.

The event was a hit with thousands of spectators, no doubt pleased to have a free sporting event in those tough wartime years. Percy Stallard and everyone who competed in the event were immediately suspended by the NCU and the RTTC. Later that year 24 people met at the Sherebrook Lodge Hotel, in Buxton, Derbyshire on Sunday, November 14, and the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC.) was formed.

From these early beginnings the BLRC grew throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the 1950s. New clubs affiliated to "The League" were formed throughout Britain. Cyclists had to choose between NCU, RTTC clubs, or BLRC clubs. Membership of a BLRC club meant an automatic ban from events run by the other two.

The League promoted some pretty impressive road races, including a Brighton to Glasgow stage race, which later grew to become the "Tour of Britain" race in 1951, with a sponsorship of the "Daily Express," a leading British newspaper.

In the early years the BLRC was not sanctioned by the UCI, the governing body of world cycling; this made competing in international events difficult. However, starting in 1948 the League sent a team, (Managed by Percy Stallard.) to the Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, stage race; otherwise known as the “Peace Race.” This was behind the Iron Curtain and no doubt, the promoters of this event were pleased to have a team from a Western Nation compete.

In 1952 the Peace Race was won by the BLRC’s Scottish rider Ian Steel; the League also won the team prize. In 1955 the BLRC sent a British team to the Tour de France.

This included Brian Robinson, who won a stage, and with Tony Hoar, together they became the first two British riders to finish the Tour de France. Brian Robinson’s success paved the way for other Britons such as Tom Simpson and Barry Hoban, and later Robert Millar, Chris Boardman and David Millar.

The NCU and the BLRC would finally put aside their differences and they amalgamated in 1959 to form the British Cycling Federation, (BCF) which is the governing body of cycle racing in the UK today. The ban on mass start road racing on public roads was finally and completely lifted.

Percy Stallard never forgave the NCU, or the BCF which he saw as a reincarnation of the NCU. He was snubbed by the BCF and was never invited to manage an international team; even though he had proved himself with success of his team in the Peace Race.

He also felt that the BLRC had sold out; maybe he was right. The League was negociating from a position of strength; I am not sure if the League had UCI membership by then, but they must have had some UCI regognition to enter a team in the Tour de France. They should have gone out for full UCI membership and left the NCU to continue with their piddling little curcuit races on diss-used airfields, and private parks.

The NCU was an organization with elected officials who were supposed to be acting in the interest of cyclists, the members. The question I have is why did they continue with the unnecessary ban on open road racing, even into the 1950s when the BLRC had proved that road races could be held with full police cooperation?

Percy Stallard died in 2001; British racing cyclists have a lot to thank him for, had it not been for him and those early pioneers, there would still be no road racing in the UK, and no British riders competing on equal terms in the Tour de France and other world events.

The timing of the formation of the BLRC was perfect. They started road racing during WWII when there was very little traffic on the roads, and by the 1950s they were established and accepted. Had they waited until the 1960s as traffic increased the concept of cycle races on the open road may never have been considered.

In the final Part III of this series I will talk about my own experiences and perspective of the British road race ban.

Here are some other BLRC related sites:
Old School Cycles
Independents. Bikeracers
Viking Cycles

History of British Cycle Racing: Part I, The Ban

My previous post mentioned the ban on bicycle road racing in the UK that existed from the late 1800s until the 1950s.

This is Part I of a three part series going into details of the situation.

Some of it is my own opinion based on first hand experience of coming into the sport in the early 1950s while the ban was still very much in place.

The rest is factual knowledge that I have gathered from various sources, and most of these are linked.

Cycle racing was banned on the public highways in Great Britain in 1890. What was peculiar about this ban was that it was not by the government or any law passed, but by the governing body of cycling in the UK, the National Cyclists Union. (NCU)

Even stranger was the fact that this ban would last until the 1950s, while the rest of Europe had always had road racing on its open roads, France had the Tour de France, and Italy its Giro d'Italia, Britain had nothing to compare.

To understand the mindset in which this ban came about, one has to understand the class system that existed in the British Isles at the turn of the nineteenth century. The upper classes, the wealthy, were the ruling class; they pretty much decided what the laws of the land would be.

By the 1890s the bicycle had become the transportation of the working classes, and cycle racing their sport. The bicycle had freed the working man, and he was able for the first time venture outside the city and explore the surrounding countryside.

The rural areas had always been, throughout history, the domain of Dukes, Earls, gentleman farmers, and other people of substantial wealth; in other words the upper class.

These people did not take kindly to a bunch of riff-raff working class people invading their space, and nothing will disrupt a quiet Sunday morning drive to church, like a bike race on country roads. It was not long before the police were out in force, bicycle races were constantly interrupted and cyclists harassed.

The NCU brought about the ban on road racing out of fear that cycling would be banned altogether. I can understand that the threat was very real at that time; no doubt officials of the NCU had been told so by the police or some government official.

The only racing allowed would be track racing on banked velodromes. This limited racing to the fortunate few who happened to live near a track, and even so not everyone is suited to track racing, many are long distance endurance athletes. In later years, the NCU would allow mass start circuit races in private parks.

In 1895 Frederick Thomas Bidlake, a racing cyclist, thought of a way to hold races on the open road without riders drawing attention to themselves, and thus avoiding police harassment. Riders would start at one minute intervals, and be timed over a set course; there would be no racing against each other, the winner would be the rider with the fastest time.

This was the beginning of the Road Racing Council that would later be known as the Road Time Trials Council; (RTTC.) at first banned by the NCU, but later cycling clubs would be allowed to affiliate to both the NCU and the RTTC.

The RTTC was run like a secret society even until the 1960s. Events were not publicized, so few spectators, and events started at daybreak when very few people were around.

Initially riders would dress in black from the neck to toe; black alpaca jacket, and black tights, no doubt to avoid drawing attention to themselves, and also not to offend public decency. (See picture at the top.)

When I started riding time trials in the 1950s, black shorts were allowed, and they did not insist on a black jersey, but a really bright, colorful jersey would result in the wearer not being allowed to start.

No numbers were worn by riders; we would call out our race number to marshals on the course, and to the timekeeper at the finish. I would enter an event and my start sheet would arrive in the mail marked "Private and Confidential."

What I cannot understand is why the NCU continued with this ban for so long. By the 1930s just about every working man owned a bicycle; it was the way he got to work each day. The bicycle manufacturing industry was a huge part of Britain’s economy; there was no way the government could, or would bring about a total ban on cycling.

In addition, why did the RTTC continue with its clandestine operation for so long? Did they really think for 60 years the police didn’t know what was going on? There were many police officers who were racing cyclists themselves and rode time trials.

British time trialing is in many ways a good thing; it is a sport that anyone can compete in at any level, and at any age from Junior to Veteran. There are many events that a person can compete most weekends throughout the spring and summer months, all within reasonable traveling distance. However, it is not conducive to producing racing cyclists who can compete at international level.

Today the RTTC encourages bright clothing in the interest of safety; but, I cannot understand why an organization with over a hundred years of history, has a website with records that only go back a few years, and no galleries of old photos, and history, etc. Maybe present day officials of the RTTC would rather forget the past.

In Part II, I write about a small group of British racing cyclists, and one man in particular, who brought about a change in the sport that eventually led to the ban being lifted.

Kubler and Koblet

Ferdi Kubler (Left.) and Hugo Koblet, two more cycling heroes from my youth.

It just doesn’t seem right to mention one without the other. Maybe because they were both from Zurich, Switzerland, maybe because they both have last names that have six letters and begin with the letter “K.” For whatever reason, to write about them separately somehow seems like breaking up a set.

In 1950 Hugo Koblet became the first non-Italian to win the Giro d’Italia; that same year Ferdinand Kubler was the first Swiss to win the Tour de France. The following year, 1951 Koblet would win the Tour de France, and Kubler the World Championship Road Race.

They were both true all round riders; at home on the track riding a pursuit race or a six-day event. They could ride alone against the clock in a time trial, and both were excellent climbers. Kubler could also out-sprint the best of his day.

Physically you could not find two people that were more unalike. Koblet (Pictured left.) had the good looks of a movie star, and would often sit up in the last kilometer of a race, and comb his hair. He would sometimes do this on a hard climb, as a psychological ploy to demoralize the other riders. He earned the nickname of "Pédaleur de Charme" for his beautiful smooth pedaling style. 

Kubler on the other hand had rugged, hollow cheeked features, and a huge nose. And, if Hugo Koblet looked pretty on a bike, Ferdi Kubler often looked like some demonic hunch-back when pictured in full flight.

Kubler (Below.) had more wins throughout his career, but Koblet often won in great style; for example on his way to his 1951 Tour win. It was Stage 11, the stage before the Pyrenees and the Alps. On such a stage, everyone would typically take things easy, saving themselves for the days that followed.

Koblet probably knew this was the way everyone would think, so he did the opposite. Some thirty or more kilometers from the start, in sweltering heat, he attacked on a small climb, followed only by French rider Louis Deprez.



The other contenders that year all chose to ignore this seemingly irrational move. After a few kilometers Deprez must have felt the same way and he dropped back to the peleton, leaving the Swiss rider on his own.

However, when Koblet’s lead increased to four minutes with seventy kilometers to go, the peloton woke up and began to chase back in earnest. Now, all the big guns were at the front; Bartali, Bobet, Coppi, Geminiani, Magni, Ockers, Robic, adding their weight to the chase but still could not make an impression on Koblet’s lead.

After riding one hundred and forty kilometers alone, (87 miles.) Hugo Koblet (Above.) reached the finish in the town of Agen. His face showed no stress at holding off the entire peloton. Koblet crossed the finishing line, then calmly dismounted and started a stopwatch to see what advantage he has gained over the rest of the field.

Two minutes and thirty-five seconds later the rest of the peloton crossed the line exhausted and astonished by Koblet’s great escape. With the best riders of that era, working together, and chasing hard, they had only managed to pull back less than a minute and a half on the flying Swiss rider.

Koblet gained the utmost respect of the World’s leading riders and French Press that day. Writing for the Parisien Libere, Jacques Grello coined the phrase "Pédaleur de Charme." A name that will stick with Koblet for all time.


Kubler and Koblet (Left.) always spoke highly of each other, and showed a mutual respect. They sometimes rode on the same team, most times they were rivals. However, they never declared it.

Hugo Koblet died tragically in a car crash in 1964, aged 39.

Ferdinand Kubler, a fitness fanatic throughout his life, is still living, and at aged 88 years is the oldest living Tour de France winner.