Cyclopedia (24 page)

GOULLET, Alf
(b. Australia, 1891, d. 1995)

An Australian-born, US-NATURALIZED track racer, the record-breaking “King” of the SIX-DAY RACES held at Madison Square Gardens who earned more than Babe Ruth in his heyday. Goullet began racing in Australia, where he created his own track to train on by rolling a grass circuit using a log dragged behind a horse. He arrived in New York at the age of 19 and set a hat-trick of world records at Salt Lake City in 1912: two-thirds of a mile, three-quarters of a mile, and one mile. In 1914 he and his Australian partner, Alfred Grenda, set a record distance of 2,759.2 miles en route to victory in the Madison Square Gardens six-day, riding the final hour solo as Grenda had appendicitis. In 1916 he took American nationality; by the 1920s he was being paid $1,000 a day to race at a time when a single NFL franchise could be bought for a mere $100. He was hailed the “King of the Sixes” by the writer Damon Runyon. In 1921 firemen had to be called to the Garden to prevent gatecrashers from joining the 15,000-strong crowd; on the final night, he and the Tour de France star Maurice Brocco picked up $50,000 in prize money. By 1925 he had won the New York six-day eight times and won a total of about 400 races. He retired in 1934 and subsequently ran a skating rink. He was inducted into halls of fame in both the USA and Australia.

 

(SEE
MARSHALL WALTER TAYLOR
AND
A. A. ZIMMERMAN
TO READ ABOUT OTHER PIONEERING US STARS OF THE EARLY DAYS; SEE
HEROIC ERA
FOR MORE ON THE FORMATIVE YEARS OF CYCLE RACING.)

 

GREAT BRITAIN
At the end of the naughts the nation that invented the safety bike and won the first ever road races looked set to become a world cycling superpower. The British were everywhere, thanks to MARK CAVENDISH, BRADLEY WIGGINS, Nicole Cooke, Emma Pooley, and others linked to the all-conquering Olympic team.

Cycling became popular early in Great Britain. The first recorded informal bike race took place in 1868 and Britain was at the forefront of boneshaker manufacturing. Abroad, JAMES MOORE won the first recorded road race in Paris and the first place-to-place event, Paris–Rouen. After that, it was downhill most of the way; the trouble began in the 1890s, even as cycling became massively popular. Tens of thousands were riding bikes, but racing on the road was made unlawful after a notorious incident in which a horse and cart collided with a race on the North Road (now the A1) during which cyclists were being paced by tricycles.

TIME TRIALLING thus came into being, as a way cyclists could compete on British roads without attracting the attention of the police. The governing body, the NCU, became paranoid about road racing, initially refusing to recognize time trialling, and turned to supervising the track events that remained popular into the 1950s. As a result, cycle racing in Britain was in a backwater for almost a century.

There were track champions such as Leon Meredith, who won the world motorpaced title seven
times between 1904 and 1913, but this was not uncommon. In 1922, the world championships were organized by the NCU, but were run as a time trial. In the 1930s, there was no road racing as such, but “massed start” races were run on circuits closed to traffic, such as the Brooklands motor racing track. In 1937, Britons Bill Burl and Charles Holland started the Tour de France; although Holland was physically up to the task, he was defeated by the lack of support for riders outside the major teams.

In 1942 Percy Stallard began organizing road races on European streets, taking advantage of the lack of traffic due to fuel rationing. Stallard was banned, opening the schism between the NCU and those who wanted racing continental style, grouped under the banner of the BLRC, British League of Racing Cyclists, who brought British cycling into the mainstream; road racing mushroomed at the grassroots level, various Tours of Britain came and went, and, suddenly, British cyclists began competing at the European level.

From 1960, TOM SIMPSON acted as a role model by winning Classics and the world title in 1965. The presence of British teams in the Tour de France in 1960 and 1961 gave top British cyclists a point of entry to the largest race in the world. At home, the conflict between the NCU and BLRC ended in 1959 when the bodies merged to form the British Cycling Federation; in that year, the newly founded MILK RACE created a focus for the entire domestic calendar. Simultaneously, however, the rising popularity of cars resulted in all of cycling becoming increasingly marginalized. Running the world championships in the Midlands in 1970 and the Tour's first stage on British soil, at Plymouth in 1974, did nothing to stem the decline.

The 1982 world championships, run at Goodwood, made little impact on the media, but change was under way. A series of city-center races sponsored by Kellogg's in 1983 proved popular and was followed by a Tour of Britain in 1987. Critically, nightly television coverage of the Tour de France began in 1986 with commentary by PHIL LIGGETT. There was plenty to report on, with ROBERT MILLAR's ability to challenge for honors in the Tour and Vuelta, and the rise of English-speaking stars like SEAN KELLY, STEPHEN ROCHE, GREG LEMOND, and PHIL ANDERSON.

Although cycling remained marginalized at the highest level in Britain, events such as London to BRIGHTON made it clear that people wanted to ride bikes. An important turning point came when CHRIS BOARDMAN made headlines by winning the Olympic pursuit in Barcelona on a futuristic bike designed by legendary carmaker Lotus, and the Tour enjoyed two sunny days on the British south coast, in front of massive crowds, in 1994. Finally, at the end of 1996, the foundation of a British national lottery resulted in an influx of cash into
Olympic sports. Boardman's trainer Peter Keen drew up one of the first plans for how to use lottery funding, based on Boardman's Olympic and world title results, and the World Class Performance Plan began in 1997, with the aim of making Britain the world cycling champions.

By happy coincidence, a world-class facility was waiting for their use: the velodrome in Manchester had been constructed in the early 1990s and was the only tangible element of Manchester's Olympic bid, but it too was nearly bankrupt until the revamped GB team began paying to train there. Results were almost immediate with three medals, including one gold, in the 2000 Olympic Games, and the momentum didn't cease under Keen's successor as performance director, Dave Brailsford, who took over in 2003. By 2007 the team was firmly established as the number one in the world for track racing. The track racers' success led to the revival of the Tour of Britain, while in the Manchester velodrome, the long-running Revolution events bred a track culture of their own. Meanwhile, the huge increase in cyclists riding CYCLOSPORTIVES, which were inspired by the Tour de France's spectacular Grand Depart in the capital in 2007, gave the cycle trade new buoyancy. Dominance in the 2008 world track championship and Beijing Olympics drew backing from the satellite company Sky, whose sponsorship included the running of Skyrides, group events for leisure cyclists on closed roads in major cities and a ProTour team run by Brailsford.

GREWAL, Alexi
(b. Aspen, Colorado, 1960)

A talented climber from Colorado who became Olympic road race champion in the 1984 Summer Games at Los Angeles, but whose professional career never really got off the ground. Born into an Indian American family with two brothers who also raced, as did his father, a bike shop owner, Grewal dropped out of high school to train. Grewal was close to being deprived of
a start in the 1984 Olympics after testing positive for the stimulant phenylethylamine. He protested the ban and was reinstated six days before the race. He has since spoken out against drug-taking in cycling. He described his 1984 L.A. win as his “smartest” victory, adding in an interview with PezCyclingNews, “I got the others working against each other and profited from that.” On the 190 km course, Grewal was in the lead until he was caught by Steve Bauer with only 10 km remaining, but Grewal outsprinted the Canadian. The bicycle he rode to victory is now in the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History. Grewal raced successive years in Europe for Panasonic, 7-Eleven, and RMO, all teams who were interested in his obvious climbing talents, but he had trouble coming to terms with European cycling; he was dropped by 7-Eleven after spitting at a television cameraman during the Tour de France, and he had effectively quit by mid-1987. He raced in the US until retirement in 1993, later working in construction making hand-built wooden homes; he also worked with the homeless in his hometown of Loveland. “For the last decade I've been one step away from the street,” he said in a 2010 interview after announcing his comeback to racing. Grewal's brother Rishi raced successfully as a MOUNTAIN BIKING pro.

Born:
Bury, England, March 1, 1920

 

Died:
Macclesfield, England, June 22, 1992

 

Major wins:
World professional sprint champion 1949, 1950, 1951, 1954; amateur world sprint champion 1947; seven British national titles; Olympic silver medallist sprint and tandem sprint, London 1948

 

Catchphrase:
“Reg rides a Raleigh”

 

Further viewing:
DVD:
Maestro
, 1985

 

In the 1950s and 1960s any cyclist seen pedaling at speed in a British town might draw the sarcastic comment: Who do you think you are, Reg Harris? That reflected the public profile of the man who was the country's best-known cyclist in the postwar years. Harris achieved national fame for taking four world professional sprint titles between 1949 and 1954 after managing a brace of silver medals at the London Olympics in 1948 in spite of a series of injuries in the buildup.

He was voted British sportsman of the year in 1950 and was involved in one of cycling's most curious comebacks in his 50s. His notoriety at home surpassed even world road
champion TOM SIMPSON, who was actually more famous in FRANCE and Belgium than in the UK. There is even a story that the sprinter himself was once stopped for running a red light and asked by police whether he thought he was Reg Harris: his reply is not recorded.

Harris began his working life at 14 as a motor mechanic in his native Lancashire and raced as an amateur in the prewar years, working in a paper mill in winter, supporting himself from prize money over the summer. In 1939 he traveled to the world track championship in Milan, only to be recalled on the outbreak of war. A tank driver in North Africa for the 10th Hussars, he was wounded in a German attack that wiped out all the rest of his tank crew and was deemed unfit to fight in 1943 due to his burns. He got back on his bike to rehabilitate after his injuries and a year later won three national championships on the track. He turned professional after the London Games and his battles with the Dutchman Arie Van Vliet on the indoor velodromes of Europe were legendary (see RIVALRIES). The late 1940s and early 1950s were one of track racing's boom times, with vast crowds flocking to venues such as the VÉLODROME D'HIVER in Paris, Fallowfield in Manchester, and Milan's Velodromo Vigorelli: Van Vliet and Harris were always at the top of the bill. He retired in 1957 but returned to racing in 1971 and took a bronze medal in the British championships. The story goes that Harris went to prepare at the Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh and was asked by a young official “Have you ridden on a track before?” Harris replied that he had, but the blazer would not give up: “Have you ridden on a proper track like this?” Finally, someone asked Harris who he was. He followed up with gold in 1974 when he was 54 years old.

Like many successful cyclists, he was unable to match his sporting prowess in business: a bike-making venture failed, and he ended up as a salesman. He is now remembered with a fine statue in the Manchester velodrome in bronze by the sculptor James Butler.

 

(SEE ALSO
TRACK RACING
)

 

HELMETS
Helmets became compulsory in professional racing from May 2003, although initially riders were allowed to remove them at the start of the final climb to a mountain top finish—where the climb was more than five kilometers long—which led to the bizarre sight of the entire field bunging their hats at team helpers as they sped onto mountains like l'Alpe d'Huez. That short-lived exception ended in 2005.

The initial resistance was partly cultural, partly macho. Helmets had been rapidly made mandatory for MOUNTAIN-BIKE racing in the late 1980s because of the risks involved and because they had been part of the sport from the beginning.

European road cyclists had used “skid-lids” made of leather strips since the early days; they were of no use whatsoever in a direct impact but might prevent abrasions. FAUSTO COPPI was ridiculed for wearing one on the orders of his wife after the death from head injuries of his brother Serse in 1951. They were obligatory in Belgium and GREAT BRITAIN; in many other countries such as FRANCE you raced bareheaded.

Polystyrene shell helmets came from America in the 1970s. They acted as an outer “crumple zone” to protect the skull in an impact, with either a stiff
outer polycarbonate layer or thin netting to protect the shell. Europeans mistrusted these initial models from companies like Bell, even though they were used by sensible types like GREG LEMOND and PHIL ANDERSON and teams such as 7-Eleven. They were seen as a cultural imposition rather than common sense.

About 1990, helmets began to use a thinner shell due to improvements in the molding process; recent years have seen improvements in straps and fitting and the introduction of carbon fiber. Thickness pads were used early on; today's helmets have cradles that can be precisely adjusted. They were made compulsory in British racing from 1992.

It seems incredible now, but in 1991 professional cyclists went on strike in protest against a new rule that stipulated they must wear shell helmets in all races. It was early March, the Paris–Nice race, and temperatures were still cool; they were worried about how it would feel wearing “big heavy things” on their heads come the heat of summer.

There were calls for helmets to be made obligatory four years later, after the events of July 18, 1995. As the TOUR DE FRANCE peloton descended the narrow, twisting road from the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenées, the Olympic champion Fabio Casartelli fell and hit his head on one of the concrete blocks by the roadside. He died from his injuries. His MEMORIAL now stands on the mountainside.

The final decision to make helmet use compulsory came after the Kazakh pro Andrei Kivilev had a fatal accident in March 2003. Now no one has a second thought about wearing them, partly because technology means that helmets have become lighter and better ventilated, partly because two fatal accidents in eight years of pro racing was a strong message.

Helmets have to meet national safety standards. To meet the criteria, helmets are tested by being dropped onto an anvil to imitate what would happen
if a cyclist fell off and hit his or her head on the curb. The level set by the independent Snell Memorial Foundation is generally a little more strict than national standards.

Debate is ongoing over whether helmets should be made compulsory for all cyclists. A 1996 study published in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine
found that while doing this might save cyclists' lives, there was an equally strong case for making helmets obligatory for motorists and pedestrians and that there was “no justification for compelling cyclists to wear helmets without taking steps to improve the safety of all road users.”

Opponents contend that compulsion would discourage cycling by overstating its dangers, and that the overall benefit to health by any reduction in head injuries would be countered by the negative impact on health of people giving up cycling due to the perception that it is dangerous.

Regardless of the law, the arguments for their use are convincing. As British Cycling Federation doctor Chris Jarvis pointed out: while they might not prevent death in the event of a direct collision with a motor vehicle, they are likely to downgrade head damage by one step in most impacts, turning what may have been concussion into a severe headache and what may have been a cracked skull into concussion, and so on.

HEROIC ERA
The term used to describe the pre–Second World War period of road racing, before improved bikes, road surfaces, and sophisticated team tactics made cycling more subtle, less purely physical, and less subject to the vagaries of fortune and the weather. Racing was strongly influenced by TOUR DE FRANCE
organizer HENRI DESGRANGE, who believed the ideal race was one in which no cyclist was able to finish. One reason why the PARIS–ROUBAIX classic remains fascinating to this day is because it is professional cycling's last throwback to this time.

To create “the most courageous champions since antiquity,” Desgrange banned derailleurs, slowed down technical development, and ran the Tour over inhuman distances culminating in the 5,745 km-long race of 1927. He imposed rules that now seem trivial and that outraged champions such as HENRI PÉLISSIER.

The era is only just outside living memory, but it seems remote, because few color photographs and sparse television footage remain: the image is one of mud-spattered cyclists carrying spare tires on their shoulders, gravelly roads, ill-fitting shorts, clunky-tubed bikes, stoic faces in goggles, rickety cars, and spectators who always seem to be in their Sunday best. The champion who best epitomizes that time is Eugène Christophe of France, known as the “Old Gaul,” who was the first rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour (see 180).

As if the demands of the roads of the time were not sufficient, there was no medical backup on the race until 1925, journalists complained about injured riders being left by the roadside after crashes, and officials were implacable. Christophe was not the only victim. The Pelissier brothers' disputes with Desgrange were typical of the frustrations felt by leading cyclists, captured in the celebrated article by Albert Londres in 1924 that led to the Tourmen being nicknamed “Convicts of the Road.”

Mechanical troubles were a universal problem: in the 1919 Tour, one rider, Jean Alavoine, was estimated to have punctured 46 times. He completed his first Tour, in 1910, by carrying his broken bike six miles to the finish line, while the 1928 overall win by Nicolas Frantz of Luxembourg included 55 miles spent on a borrowed lady's bike after his own broke between Metz and Charleville. Saddle boils were common due to woolen clothing and muddy roads; raw steaks might be applied to ease the pain while as late as the 1920s the Tour's ration bags included a dose of neat spirits.