On May 20th 1979 a classic bike race took place in the UK; the 260 mile London-Bradford pro race….riders included Paul Sherwen, Sean Kelly and National pro road race champ Geoff Wiles who is still giving us vets a hard time today as well as a number of French and Belgian pros and most of the UK pros at that time. The race was won by multiple Tour de France stage winner Barry Hoban riding for the famous Miko-Mercier team.
Gs Vecchi rider Steve Barnsley was in the field that day and here are some of his memories;
The race was something like 265 miles if I remember correctly, and as a new pro and basically a trackie I decided that it was pointless doing the 10 hour+ training rides that friends of mine like Steve Heffernan were doing, I’d just do my usual thing and see how far I could get – I was getting belted in every race, although going ok on the track. There were no pro – am races in those days, so it wasn’t easy to re-build my confidence.
Two friends of mine were going to follow the race in my car (I had a sponsored car in those days) and feed Steve Heffernan and me, and we agreed that I might, if they started steady at 5am in the morning, get to the first feed at 70 miles, but after that they should keep with Heff as he had a chance of winning.
At 3am we were all up for breakfast, and Heff and I were feeling smug! While Sid Barras and the other ‘traditionalists’ tried to force down steak and rice, we’d been out for a vegetarian nut cutlet the evening before, and just went for a bowl of cereal at 3am and some toast!
The race didn’t start steadily, Paul Sherwen attacked from the flag and we were lined out at 5am!! This is when I started to realise that physically I was the same as the others, it was my confidence that was the problem – because it was place to place we only hit every hill, every corner, once, so I was much more positive...and basically didn’t get dropped in that initial purge!! The race then settled into a bit of a pattern, which was full on for about half an hour, then a bit steadier for the next half hour, broken up by the occasional primes which were something like £1000 each, which in 1979 was a lot!
I remember us riding near to Wolverhampton and Hugh Porter, who had only retired the year before, joining the peleton for a few miles. He was my hero when I was growing up!
My friends cheered me on at the first feed, and at the second feed, I think after about 130 miles, they were jumping up and down when they saw I was still comfortably in the bunch. At the third feed, I can’t really remember when but I think about 200 miles, they just handed my mussette up gob-smacked, as I was still there!! I didn’t have the heart, or the breath, to tell them that I was never going to get over the next manhole cover, never mind any hills, we were really racing by then and the lack of miles was always going to come back and bite me!
I went off on the next climb. I remember one of the Belgium team cars coming alongside me and handing me food – and I was so out of my head that I was just stuffing it all into my pockets rather than eat any of it!! I eventually sat down on a kerb in Oldham...I had had it!! It was ‘only’ 40 odd miles to go, and looking back people ask why I didn’t finish, but that 40 miles included some major climbs like the Snake Pass or Cat and Fiddle or something like that, and I was done for!
Driving back down south after the race, neither Heff nor I could walk down the steps at the motorway services, we had to slide down on our backsides....really!
What I really found amazing was that this was on the Sunday...on the Tuesday I won pretty much everything at Paddington track, I was flying!! How does that work!
I was offered a contract on one of the big teams of the time based on that ride and that year’s Champagne 10 at Herne Hill when I was also flying, the MAN – VW team, but it was scuppered at the last moment by politics.
Since then I’ve always found that I go well in the long place to place rides – I’ve done the Milan San Remo Gran Fondo twice, the first time finishing right up there in top 100, and even last year I went ok for an old git in the Picardie!
Two friends of mine were going to follow the race in my car (I had a sponsored car in those days) and feed Steve Heffernan and me, and we agreed that I might, if they started steady at 5am in the morning, get to the first feed at 70 miles, but after that they should keep with Heff as he had a chance of winning.
At 3am we were all up for breakfast, and Heff and I were feeling smug! While Sid Barras and the other ‘traditionalists’ tried to force down steak and rice, we’d been out for a vegetarian nut cutlet the evening before, and just went for a bowl of cereal at 3am and some toast!
The race didn’t start steadily, Paul Sherwen attacked from the flag and we were lined out at 5am!! This is when I started to realise that physically I was the same as the others, it was my confidence that was the problem – because it was place to place we only hit every hill, every corner, once, so I was much more positive...and basically didn’t get dropped in that initial purge!! The race then settled into a bit of a pattern, which was full on for about half an hour, then a bit steadier for the next half hour, broken up by the occasional primes which were something like £1000 each, which in 1979 was a lot!
I remember us riding near to Wolverhampton and Hugh Porter, who had only retired the year before, joining the peleton for a few miles. He was my hero when I was growing up!
My friends cheered me on at the first feed, and at the second feed, I think after about 130 miles, they were jumping up and down when they saw I was still comfortably in the bunch. At the third feed, I can’t really remember when but I think about 200 miles, they just handed my mussette up gob-smacked, as I was still there!! I didn’t have the heart, or the breath, to tell them that I was never going to get over the next manhole cover, never mind any hills, we were really racing by then and the lack of miles was always going to come back and bite me!
I went off on the next climb. I remember one of the Belgium team cars coming alongside me and handing me food – and I was so out of my head that I was just stuffing it all into my pockets rather than eat any of it!! I eventually sat down on a kerb in Oldham...I had had it!! It was ‘only’ 40 odd miles to go, and looking back people ask why I didn’t finish, but that 40 miles included some major climbs like the Snake Pass or Cat and Fiddle or something like that, and I was done for!
Driving back down south after the race, neither Heff nor I could walk down the steps at the motorway services, we had to slide down on our backsides....really!
What I really found amazing was that this was on the Sunday...on the Tuesday I won pretty much everything at Paddington track, I was flying!! How does that work!
I was offered a contract on one of the big teams of the time based on that ride and that year’s Champagne 10 at Herne Hill when I was also flying, the MAN – VW team, but it was scuppered at the last moment by politics.
Since then I’ve always found that I go well in the long place to place rides – I’ve done the Milan San Remo Gran Fondo twice, the first time finishing right up there in top 100, and even last year I went ok for an old git in the Picardie!
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