The Yorkshire Dales are a sparse windswept place, filled with heather, small towns, and ribbon-like roads that twist over hundreds of hills and valleys.
It was on these roads that Beryl Burton achieved many of her greatest accomplishments, trained for many more, and ultimately died at the age of 58.
The gravity of her achievements has become somewhat obscured in the years since her death but are now immortalised in a new biography by sports journalist Jeremy Wilson, simply titled Beryl: In Search of Britain’s Greatest Athlete (opens in new tab).
For more than twenty years, from 1957-1980, Burton remained at the pinnacle of her sport. In that time, she won seven world championship gold medals, 25 consecutive British Best All-Rounder titles – an annual competition that ranks riders by their average speeds in individual time trials over 25, 50 and 100 miles – and became the only woman ever to break an endurance men’s record when she broke the British men’s 12 hour time-trial record.
“I didn’t start out with anything more than the memory of this person who was extraordinary in my mind but I didn’t really know much more,” Wilson says. “I hadn’t quite pieced together how she had died, the early trauma, and all the other parts of her story.”
Burton’s achievements on the bike were intimately tied to, and often indistinguishable from, her life off it. Cycling was her sport, hobby, social life and means of transport. However, in an era when professional cycling did not really exist – especially for women – it was not a job.
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.
“I don’t think people who knew her outside of cycling necessarily knew she was a great cyclist…she wasn’t showy,” Wilson says.
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.
“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.
This…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…