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Cycling Book Reviews: Personal Best, by Beryl Burton

Heerlen, September 1967: Burton (centre) in her seventh rainbow jersey, with silver and bronze medallists Lyubov Zadorozhnaya (left) and Anna Konkina (right)

Title: Personal Best – The Autobiography of Beryl Burton, OBE
Author: Beryl Burton (with Colin Kirby)
Publisher: Springfield Books
Year: 1986
Pages: 182
Order: Mercian Manuals
What it is: The autobiography of Beryl Burton, seven-time World Champion
Strengths: It’s Burton’s own story and covers the full extent of her career
Weaknesses: There’s an awful lot of British time trials reported and at times it’s easy to lose sight of what wins were actually important, and to lose sight of Burton’s international successes

On a Thursday afternoon in August, 1959, a 22-year-old Beryl Burton won her first rainbow jersey, triumphing in the individual pursuit World Championships in Belgium, riding on the Rocourt track in Liège. Apart from a holiday in Ireland the previous year it was her first time out of the UK, her first taste of international competition.

On another Thursday in another August, eight years later, she won her last rainbow jersey, in the road race World Championships in Heerlen in the Netherlands. At 30, Burton became the oldest winner of the rainbow jersey in the then brief history of the women’s World Championships and, having now won the individual pursuit title five times and the road race twice, she had matched the record of her great rival, Belgium’s Yvonne Reynders, who was just three months Burton’s junior.

Heerlen, September 1967: Burton (centre) in her seventh rainbow jersey, with silver and bronze medallists Lyubov Zadorozhnaya (left) and Anna Konkina (right)
Keystone-France / Gamma-Rapho / Getty

Those seven rainbow jerseys, they gave Burton international fame. Off the back of them, she received invitations to race on the continent, on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Off the back of them, she was invited to race in South Africa, in America, in Australia. Off the back of them, she was twice part of the undercard for the Ghent Six and raced at the Grand Prix des Nations, the unofficial time trial World Championships.

For many, though, Burton’s international successes, her international fame and glory, they take second place to what she achieved on the British domestic racing scene in a career that saw her win her first national title aged 21 in 1958 and her last aged 49 in 1986. Those World Championship gold medals, they play second fiddle to the national titles and the British records she set, most…

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