Joe Cirone

I was recently contacted by Joe Cirone, (Left.) who lives in Visalia, CA. Joe is now 92 years old and raced bikes, with success back in the late 1940s early 1950s.

Joe Cirone has been corresponding with me since 2006, when he told me about a frame he had built in the winter of 1948. The builder’s name was Mike Moulton, same name as me, but not related as far as I know.

Mike Moulton, from Tujunga, California, was an engineer for the Lockheed Aircraft Company. He built bike frames as a hobby.in a little workshop at the back of his house.

I can imagine back in the late 1940s, early 1950s, cycle racing was somewhat a “Cinderella” sport in America, and one could not easily find a track frame in the US. So, to find someone locally with the necessary skill to build such a frame must have been rare.

More about Mike Moulton later, but getting back to Joe Cirone, he got into bike racing in 1946 and found that he was a pretty good at it when he won the Junior National Championship in 1947.

Joe Cirone leads in a 1000 m. Match Sprint. 1948 US Nat. Championship.Joe tried out for the Olympic Team in 1948 but fell short by a little over one second in the 1000 meter Time Trial, held in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He did however take 2nd in the Nationals Senior Championship that year held in Kenosha Wisc.

It was when Joe Cirone returned home to California in 1948,  he met Mike Moulton at one of the races held in Pasadena and Mike offered to build him a frame. Joe rode that bike to the end of his career, and still owns it to this day.

1948 US Nat. Championships. Joe Cirone center.In 1951 Joe was part of a "Special American Team" that went to Japan on a "Good Will" Tour for one month. He raced against Japanese Teams up and down Japan. The team averaged two races each week, ending in a Special Event in Tokyo Stadium.

Before he left Japan, a large Japanese Bike Manufacturer offered Joe $1,000 for his bike. A great deal of money back then, but Joe turned the offer down a kept his beloved bike. The same bike he holds in the picture at the top of thes article.

Joe Cirone with his collection of Trophies.Some links to previous articles:

I had written about Mike Moulton, first in 2007, when I thought his frames may have dated buck to the 1930s.

Later that same year, (2007) I wrote a follow up.

In 2013 I learned of another Mike Moulton track frame that had been nicely restored.

More pictures of Joe Cirone's buike built by Mike Moulton.

 

Foot note: Don’t confuse Mike Moulton with Mike Melton, another fine American builder.

John Patston, a cycling personality

John Patston (Front.) and John Woodburn during their RRA Place to Place Record Attempts.(1976)

Wherever there is an organized sport there is a governing body for that sport, it is what makes it “Organized.” Sports that have been around for many years have a World Governing Body, countries have National Governing Bodies, and within each country there are local officials running things.

One does not necessarily have to participate in organized sport, anyone can kick a football around, or shoot a few hoops, or go for a bike ride for that matter, alone or in the company of others. Such sport can still be competitive, but no one is necessarily keeping score anyway, and the level of competitiveness depends on those participating.

In an organized sport there are always those who will disagree with decisions made and way the sport is run. Last week I wrote about John Patston who in the 1970s was a leading rider in the West Midlands area, of England. A hot bed of the British cycling industry and the sport of cycle racing.

In 1976, John had spoken out about local cycling officials, on a Birmingham radio station, and referred to them as “Little Tin Gods.” As a result, JP was handed a six-month suspension, for “Bringing the sport into disrepute.”

At this time another leading British cyclist, John Woodburn was also under suspension, and the two decided to team and attempt British Place to Place tandem records. They rode under the auspices of the Road Records Association. (RRA.) An established organization that had been around since the late 1800s and was not affiliated with the Road Time Trials Council, or the British Cycling Federation, who governed the rest of cycling sport in the UK at that time.

Patston and Woodburn broke a total of five records in that six-month period. London to Cardiff [5:56:20], London to Pembroke [9:59:31]; London to Brighton and back [4:07:26]; London to Bath and back [8:40:57] and London to Portsmouth and back [5:43:59].

There was another incident involving John Patston during this six-month suspension period that I remember well as it happened during an early season road-race in the Callow end area of Worcestershire, where I lived at the time.

John was out on a long solo training ride, from Birmingham to the Cotswold area of Gloucestershire. It was a Sunday and John had already covered over 100 miles when he came across this road-race and stopped to watch them go by. A small break-away group of three or four riders passed by. JP looked at his watch and timed the lead the break had on the main bunch, at a minute and a half.

John was “Decked out like a tourist,” as he put it, with a saddlebag on his bike, and wearing long pants and a winter jacked. He chased and caught the main bunch, and as he passed them, he acted like an unofficial timekeeper telling them the break had one and a half minutes lead.

He then chased after the break-away group. John had expected a few riders from the main field to follow him, but as he told the story, when he looked around, he was alone. He caught the leading group and again acted as unofficial timekeeper telling them they had a minute and a half lead.

Race officials in following cars were going crazy, honking horns, and flashing headlights, trying to get JP to stop. He stayed with the lead group and unofficially “Won” the finishing sprint.

Officials tried to impose a further ban, but as John was already banned by the RTTC and the BCF, he was no longer affiliated with these or any club. The race was being held on open roads, and JP was simply a member of the public out for a bike ride.

The thing is, only John Patston could have pulled this off at the time. This was an early season Road Race of little importance, and most of the of the participants were probably not that fit. John always trained right through the winter, and because of these Place-to-Place Record attempts he was even fitter than he would have normally been.

He had managed to raise a middle finger to the officials he despised, to the amusement of local cyclists. No one was harmed, and all that witnessed what happened that day have an amusing tale to tell their grandchildren.

The best sports stars are “Personalities” who entertain not only by winning, but by unofficial exploits like this one.

Footnote: Correction, John Patston tells me he was suspended for falsifying an RTTC entry form, when he mistakenly wrote the wrong event name that he had done his best 50 mile TT time. The comments on the radio broadcast came later as a result of this suspension. Altogether JP was disqualified, banned, or suspended a total of 23 times over the years.

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John Patston

The Internet and social media can be a wonderful thing when it works as it is supposed to, bringing old friends and acquaintances together decades after losing touch. One recent contact I made was with John Patston.

If I could pick one bike that launched my framebuilding career into overdrive, it would be the bike pictured above. The person who rode it was John Patston.

Without John owning and riding this bike, it would have meant nothing. It was the second of two frames I built for him in 1975. In the 1970s there were strict rules governing amateur status. The Olympics were still strictly amateur, and in every sport a manufacturer could not advertise the fact that a specific athlete was using their equipment. To do so would jeopardize their amateur status.

However, there were ways around it, displaying my name prominently on the frame so it appeared in photos printed in various magazines, was one way. This particular bike, I had managed to get “Cycling Weekly” magazine write an article on the bike as it was a specialist time-trial bike.

There could be no mention of John Patston owning the bike, but I had painted the bike black, with gold pinstriping on the lugs, and had painted the initials “JP” in gold on the seatstay top-eyes, or caps. The article drew attention to the initials and drew a parallel to the “John Player” (Tobacco Company.) Formula-one motor race car, that was also painted black and gold.

Of course, with John Patston being the leading Time-Trialist in the UK at that time, it did not take much effort to connect the dots. That year, JP won the prestigious “Campagnolo Trophy” which was a competition run by “Cycling Magazine.” Six separate 25 mile time-trials run throughout the year. John won five of the six TTs, beating such prestigious riders as Alf Engers, Derrick Cottingham, and Eddie Atkins.

I got to thinking back to how our paths crossed, or met, whatever way one looks at it. JP was the first international class rider to ride my bikes, and this lead directly to other riders, like Paul Carbutt, Pete Hall and Steve Jones, riding my frames.

John Patston,leads Paul Carbutt, and Pete Hall with 4th man Grant Thomas hidden behind JP. West Midlands Team, competing in the National TTT Championship.

The thing I remember about John Patston was the tremendous weekly milage he would do by way of training. Around 400 or 500 miles a week, while holding down a day job. By day he worked as a bank manager in Birmingham, he would leave work at 4pm. Then ride the 25 miles down to Worcester and back. So, 50 miles or more, four nights a week, with 100 plus miles on Saturdays and Sundays. He did this year-round and though the winter.

I was introduced to John by a local bike mechanic and wheel builder, Andy Thompson. JP was the worlds worst bike mechanic. Working in a bank, he had zero mechanical skills. And he brought his bike to Andy Thompson one time with most of the nuts on the brakes and gears, rounded off. “Have you been using pliers on these nuts?” Andy asked. “No, nut-crackers, actually.” Was John’s response.

After that, on weekday evenings, if I was working late, John would sometimes ride and extra five miles to my shop in Deblins Green, take a short break and have a cup of tea before riding back home. The timing of our meeting was perfect. My framebuilding business was about to take off, just a John was about to have one of the best years of his long cycling career.

Finally, in case you are wondering, why JP in on a Ken Bird bike on the “Cycling “magazine cover? (Above.) I have it directly from John that this is the same frame that I built, repainted, and decaled as a “Ken Bird.” John had accepted sponsorship from Ken Bird, because he could offer him race support, when there was no way I could do that as a one man business.

I was fine with it, my business had got the kick-start it needed, and I never looked back.

And as a bonus the original “JP” black and gold bike was featured in the “Penguin Book of the Bicycle,” a few years later, just before I moved to the USA.

John Patston and I remain friends to this day. It is good to be back in touch again. I will write more JP stories next week, in the meantime here is a recent article about JP’s cycling career.

The same photo at the top of the article, used as a title page image in "The Penguin Book of the Bicycle."

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Rik Van Steenbergen: Road Sprinter Supreme

Rik Van Steenbergen wins the 1948 Paris-Roubaix.

Watching the Paris-Roubaix race this last weekend, I thought of Belgian rider Rik Van Steenbergen, who won the race in spectacular fashion in 1952, beating non other than Fausto Coppi (1952 was the year I started racing and Van Steenbergen was one of the heroes of my youth.) Van Steenbergen had previously won the Paris-Roubaix in 1948. (Picture  above.)

But it was his 1952 win on the same Roubaix track that was perhaps one of Rik Van Steenbergen’s greatest career victories. With 40 Km. to go the Belgian rider was in a group 50 seconds down on a three man break, consisting of Coppi, Kubler, and Jacques Dupont.

On a 5 Km cobble section of the course Van Steenbergen attacked solo out of the chasing group and miraculously bridged the gap.

Towards the finish, Coppi attacked again and again. Kubler was dropped, Dupont punctured, but Van Steenbergen managed to hang on and in the final sprint beat Coppi easily. 

When it comes to cycling champions, history tends to remember the great climbers like Fausto Coppi, Luison Bobet, and Ferdi Kubler, and others who won the Tour de France and other Grand Tours. But Rik Van Steenbergen was a sprinter who won many of the bunch sprints, in the Grand Tours and the Classics of that era.

A big man, 6’ 3” 183 lbs, (190.5 cm 83.18 Kgs.) he had a long professional career that began in war torn Belgium in 1943 and lasted until 1966, Van Steenbergen won 270 times on the road, including 3 World Road Championships, in 1949, 1956 and 1957, all taken in sprint finishes.

He won the Tour of Flanders in his first year as a professional at age 18. He won the same event in 1944 and 1946. The Paris-Roubaix in 1948 and 1952, the Flech-Wallone in 1949 and 1958, Paris-Brussels in 1950, and the Milan-San Remo in 1954.   

(Above.) Rik Van Steenbergen uses his explosive sprint to win the 1954 Milan-San Remo followed home by Anasti, Favero and Coppi.

Van Steenbergen like many great road sprinters was a prolific winner on the track, a total of 715 times including 40 six-day wins. He rode year round, road events spring and summer, and six-day events through the winter.

In spite of this non-specializing he took 15 stage wins in the Giro d’Italia in five appearances, and 4 TDF stage wins in three appearances.

His best Giro result was in 1951 when he finishes second overall behind Italy’s Fiorenzo Magni, beating no less than Ferdi Kubler and Fausto Coppi into 3rd and 4th places respectively. Pretty impressive for a sprinter who was not known for his climbing abilities. 

Rik Van Steenbergen in 1967

The world may never see such a versatile rider again. He was immensely popular. Born in 1924 he died in 2003 at age 78 after a long illness.

His funeral was attended by a veritable who’s who of cycling, including Eddy Merckx, Rik van Looy, Roger De Vlaeminck, Walter Godefroot, Johan De Muynck, Lucien van Impe, Freddy Maertens and Briek Schotte.

Also attending were the UCI president Hein Verbruggen and Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt

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Major Taylor 1878 - 1932

February being Black History Month, I wanted to remind everyone of this remarkable athlete.

Marshall Walter ("Major") Taylor born in Indianapolis, Indiana was an African American cyclist who won the World One-mile Track Cycling Championship in 1899, 1900, and 1901.

Major Taylor was the second black world champion in any sport, after Canadian boxer George Dixon. 

The Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis, Indiana and a bicycle trail in Chicago are named in his honor.

On July 24, 2006 the city of Worcester, MA changed the name of part of Worcester Center Boulevard to Major Taylor Boulevard

Memorial outside the Worcester Public Library in his adopted hometown of Worcester, MassachusettsMajor Taylor suffered as a result of racial prejudice throughout his career, banned from racing by some promoters, or treated roughly or unfairly by other competitors. The League of American Wheelmen banned black cyclists form membership in 1894.

(Left.) A caricature published in the edition of February 23, 1894 of The Bearings cycling magazine, illustrating the ban from membership of the League of American Wheelmen

However, by competing in an integrated sport, and even being part of an integrated team, Major Taylor paved the way for other black athletes in other sports.

Taylor shakes the hand of competitor Edmond Jacquelin at Paris' Parc des Princes Velodrome in 1901Taylor and Léon Hourlier at a standstill during a race at Paris' Vélodrome Buffalo in 1909Taylor with the Boston pursuit team of 1897; one of the first known photographs of an integrated American professional sports team.

Here are some links to more on Major Taylor:

MajorTaylor.com

The Major Taylor Association

Wikipedia

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