47-718: The British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competition, organised by Cycling Time Trials , is an annual British cycle-racing competition. It ranks riders by the average of their average speeds in individual time trials , over 50 and 100 miles (160 km) and 12 hours for men, and over 25, 50 and 100 miles (160 km) for women. There are similar competitions for under-18s and teams of three. Qualifying races have to be ridden between April and September. Certificates are awarded to men with 22 mph (35.5 km/h) or faster and women averaging 20 mph (32.25 km/h) or more. The junior speeds are 23 mph (37 km/h) and 21 mph (37 and 33.9 km/h). Competitions modelled on
94-527: A liquorice allsort as she passed him. She also set about 50 new national records at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 100-mile distances; her final 10, 25 and 50-mile records each lasted 20 years before being broken, her 100-mile record lasted 28 years, and her 12-hour record stood for 50 years until 2017. Her prowess led to the rare distinction, for a woman, of an invitation to compete in the Grand Prix des Nations in 1967. In 1982, with her daughter Denise , Burton set
141-518: A British 10-mile record for women riding a tandem bicycle : 21 minutes, 25 seconds. Recognition of her sporting achievements came with her appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1964 Birthday Honours , and as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1968 Birthday Honours , in both cases for services to cycling. Burton won UK cycling's top accolade,
188-405: A bit. Slowly she got better. By the second year, she was 'one of the lads' and could ride with us. By the third year, she was going out in front and leading them all. By then it was 1956 and she decided to do a bit of time trialling because I was dabbling at it." In 1957, she took her first national medal, a silver in the national 100-mile individual time trial championship, and within a few years
235-406: A distance. Beryl Burton Beryl Burton OBE (12 May 1937 – 5 May 1996) was an English racing cyclist who dominated the women's sport , winning more than 90 domestic championships and seven world titles, and setting numerous national records. In 1967, she set a world record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men's record for two years . Burton was born Beryl Charnock in
282-401: A minute, and race against the clock. Riders meeting on the road were not allowed to race against each other. Unsure of the legal situation, riders dressed from neck to ankle in black to make themselves less conspicuous, never wore numbers but always carried a bell. Races started in the countryside at dawn on courses referred to only in code. Even the cycling press was asked not to say where a race
329-545: A race it could not report was happening. Compromise was reached when the newspaper, the NCU and the RTTC agreed to say that a time trial stage would be held from Folkestone to London but they and the cycling press were obliged to keep the start and finish lines secret. In 1951 the RTTC said, in a statement of around 3,500 words headed The Council's Statement on the Menace of Mass Start Racing on
376-459: A slave to create the new body on thoroughly democratic lines." Clubs in Yorkshire then broke away, dissatisfied with the RTTC's national control, and set up their own regional body. It lasted only briefly. In the RTTC's first year there were 429 races. In December the membership was 434 clubs, with a further 69 proposed. It sold 5,564 handbooks. Although started to thwart the NCU's ban on racing on
423-588: A time of 1m 27m 47s on a high ordinary. What the RRC did contribute was as great a measure as possible of uniformity in the conduct of road competitions. In 1922, Bidlake formed the Road Racing Council – membership of which was restricted to members of the North Road, Bath Road, Anfield, Polytechnic, Kingsdale, Etna, Anerley, North London, Century, Unity and Midland cycling clubs . Each was already organising events on
470-558: Is the fastest over the course, routed so it finishes close to the start to lessen the effect of hills and wind. Longer events, lasting 12 or 24 hours are also held, the winner covering the greatest distance. There are records at all distances, for riders on conventional bicycles, tandems and tricycles, plus for teams of individual riders, calculated on aggregate times or distances. There are championships for men, women, riders younger than 18, and competitions for veterans (riders aged 40 or more). The British Best All-Rounder competition, run by
517-552: The Bidlake Memorial Prize , a record three times, in 1959, 1960 and 1967. Despite receiving offers from sponsors , she remained an amateur throughout her career, working on a farm in the Rhubarb Triangle for much of her life. Her daughter, Denise Burton , was also a top cyclist, winning a bronze in the 1975 world individual pursuit championship. Mother and daughter were both selected to represent Great Britain in
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#1732868856094564-465: The Halton area of Leeds , West Yorkshire and lived in the nearby Morley area throughout her life, racing mainly for Morley Cycling Club and later Knaresborough CC. She was introduced to cycling through her husband, Charlie Burton, whom she married in 1955. He described her development as a cyclist as follows: "First of all, she was handy but wasn’t that competent: we used to have to push her round
611-796: The Road Time Trials Council ( RTTC ) in 2002. A time trial tests a rider not against other cyclists but the watch. Other than in team events , which are less numerous, competitors race individually, starting at intervals of a minute. Riders may not ride together when one catches another. The order of start is often organised so that the fastest riders are spaced apart. In that way they are less likely to catch each other, while when they catch lesser riders they will pass that much faster that neither will be helped or hindered. UK races can be organised over any distance but in practice they are most often run at standard distances of 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles, with occasional races at 15 and 30 miles. The winner
658-630: The Road Time Trials Council , RTTC. Its first recorded meeting was at the Devereau hotel in The Strand , London, on 16 November 1937. The first committee was Maurice Draisey (chairman), E. E. Stapley, E. F. Cash, W. S. Gibson, H. Parker, A. Shillito, Alec Glass, W. Frankum, A. Reeder, Bill Mills and Alex Josey . The rules were written by Glass, Josey, Mills and Draisey. The first general meeting, in spring 1938, resulted in its secretary, Stapley, being disqualified from re-election, even though "he had worked like
705-432: The 1972 world championship. In 1973 Beryl won the national road title ahead of Denise. Three years later their positions were reversed. Beryl refused to shake hands with Denise on the podium afterwards, later explaining the incident in her autobiography Personal Best : "I thought Denise had not done her whack in keeping the break away and once again I had 'made the race'… It was not a sporting thing to do… I can only plead I
752-735: The BBAR are organised within UK regions, and for over-40s. The BBAR was announced by the magazine Cycling on 4 April 1930. It offered an annual trophy valued at £26 and a shield to be held for a year by the winning team. Time-trialling had been the staple of British cycling since the National Cyclists' Union (NCU) had banned massed racing on the road in 1888 as a reaction to police objections it feared would threaten all cyclists. The NCU wanted clubs to promote races only on tracks, or velodromes , but they were too distant and local groups began organising not
799-623: The Highway : Bunched racing is an utterly selfish and irresponsible use of roads; the policy of the Council is that all such racing should be stopped; the ringleaders and their associates of the BLRC have only financial gain as their motive; unsuspecting commercial concerns and newspapers have been given a distorted story about road racing; BLRC road races violate every one of the principles of clean amateurism, authenticity, and regard for public safety. A leader in
846-426: The RTTC since 1944, combines performances across three longer distance events. In 1890, the National Cyclists' Union banned racing on UK public roads in fear of a ban not just on racing cyclists but all cycling. The legal position of cyclists was not secure. The cycling historian Bernard Thompson said: "Events organised by clubs in the 1880s, although taking place on quiet country roads, were constantly interrupted by
893-635: The RTTC, because it recognised the NCU's suspension, did the same. "Like the NCU, the RTTC feared that massed racing would endanger the position of all cyclists. The RTTC's position, however, was hindered by its decision to stop all racing at the outbreak of war - a decision quickly changed - and to stop elections to its national committee until the war ended. The committee re-elected itself for four successive years." The RTTC came to recognise that massed racing existed even if it did not approve, and other restrictions gradually relaxed: for example, clothing regulations became impracticable during fabric shortages in
940-416: The RTTC. Events are no longer secret; lists of riders in major events are frequently published in the cycling press and on websites. Far from wearing black, riders are now urged to wear bright clothing to make themselves visible on busy roads. Early morning starts remain common, however, but for the benefit of light traffic rather than secrecy. In 2002 Cycling Time Trials , a company limited by guarantee ,
987-523: The Second World War. But the RTTC continued to insist that races were run in secret. This led it to ban a proposed race from Paris to London in 1947. The NCU's ban on massed road racing meant the stage from Folkestone to London had to be a time trial, but the RTTC said advance reports about the race would be against its rules and refused to approve it. The sponsor, the News Chronicle , refused to back
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#17328688560941034-460: The average speeds over the three distances. This average is not an average speed, since the distances are not used to weight the average. The table below shows this simple average as ``average speed``. Cycling Time Trials Cycling Time Trials is the bicycle racing organisation which supervises individual and team time trials in England and Wales. It was formed out of predecessor body
1081-414: The clock. In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles – a mark that surpassed the men's record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969. While setting the record, she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder . She is reputed to have given him
1128-450: The competition more than twice are June Pitchford, who won three times in a row from 1984, and Julia Shaw who won a fourth title in 2010. Three BBAR winners have competed in the Tour de France : Charlie Holland (1937), Peter Hill (1967), and Arthur Metcalfe (1967 and 1968); Metcalfe is the only one to have completed the event. The winner of each competition is determined by a simple average of
1175-608: The following three years. After his fourth consecutive win, 7,000 cyclists watched at the Royal Albert Hall in London as Southall signed the Golden Book of Cycling during the BBAR prize-giving concert. The BBAR competition was suspended during the war. It restarted in 1944, promoted not by Cycling but by the time-trial administrative body, the Road Time Trials Council (RTTC), today known as Cycling Time Trials . British cycling
1222-594: The founder of time-trialling. Bernard Thompson, a historian of British time-trialling, wrote: Neither the Road Time Trials Council or the Road Racing Council before them can claim to have invented time-trialling. Without question, time-trials took place a century ago and the National Cyclists' Union national time-trial championship time-trials are recorded in 1878 when A. A. Weir was the victor with
1269-567: The hard way; there were no pocket calculators in his lifetime and it is doubtful that he would have changed his tried and trusted methods, his tables of average speeds combined with his outsized slide-rule... about three feet long." Barlow died aged 90 in 1982. The men's competition has been won eleven times by Kevin Dawson , two more than Ian Cammish (nine). The women's competition was for many years dominated by Beryl Burton , who won 25 times from 1959 to 1983 inclusive. The only other women to have won
1316-424: The massed races that the NCU banned but individual competitions against the clock: time trials. British cyclists came to see time-trialling as the purest form of competition, free as it was of the tactics of massed racing. But there was no reliable way of seeing who was the best all-rounder, over all distances and across a season, because difficulties with travel meant not all riders could take part. The BBAR overcame
1363-413: The police. Often horse-mounted policemen charged at racers and threw sticks into their wheels." The NCU asked clubs to run races on closed tracks, known now as velodromes. But few existed and so rebel races began, under the influence of men such as Frederick Thomas Bidlake , to continue racing on the road but in a way they believed need not bring police attention. Riders would start at intervals, usually
1410-533: The problems by allowing riders to compete where they chose and then register their performances. According to time-trialling historian, Bernard Thompson: "It was probably the best thing that has ever happened to British time-trial sport, even to this day." The first winner was the South Londoner , Frank Southall , riding for the Norwood Paragon club. He averaged 21.141 mph (34.023 km/h) and won again
1457-515: The road, time-trialling acquired a respectability which not only led the NCU to recognise it but for time-trialling to become a cornerstone of British racing. However, British cycling split during the Second World War when British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC) enthusiasts for massed racing on the open road organised a race from Llangollen to Wolverhampton against the rules of the NCU. The NCU banned those who organised and took part in it, and
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1504-469: The road. The first meeting was at the offices of the Cyclists' Touring Club at 280 Euston Road , London on 27 June. The Road Racing Council did not make rules, making only recommendations which, because of its "fundamental common-sense background" clubs followed. As the sport flourished during the 1930s, the council reviewed its constitution in 1937, opening membership to all clubs and changing its name to
1551-435: The war and it is doubtful that a sufficient number of marshals and feeders could have been mustered in those austere times." This shortened BBAR was won by Albert Derbyshire with 23.549 mph (37.898 km/h). In 1945 the competition returned to its full distance. Calculations of riders' averages were made from 1945 to 1976 by a Manchester enthusiast, Tom Barlow. Bernard Thompson related: "All Tom's calculations were done
1598-665: The weekly magazine, The Bicycle , called the statement "sheer balderdash and offensive writing" and "a disgusting attack on the constitution, officials and members of the British League of Racing Cyclists, and of course, the repeated assurance that the RTTC can do no wrong." The rivalry between the BLRC and the NCU continued until they merged in 1959 to form the British Cycling Federation (today British Cycling ). The BCF accepted road racing, and controlled all competitive cycling other than time-trialling, which remained with
1645-537: The workshop. Burton's career achievements were first celebrated in 1960 when Cycling Weekly awarded her a page in the Golden Book of Cycling . By 1991 her career had developed so far that she was accorded the unique honour of a second 'Golden Book' page. On 27 November 2012 a radio play , Beryl: A Love Story on Two Wheels was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 , written by and starring Maxine Peake . It included interview snippets with Burton's husband and daughter. This
1692-716: Was adapted by Peake for the stage to coincide with the start of the 2014 Tour de France in Leeds, and shown at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in June and July of that year, titled simply Beryl . The play returned for a second run at the same theatre the following summer, followed by an autumn 2015 tour around England. A production of the show is scheduled to take place at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton in September and October 2019. It
1739-612: Was added in 2014, unveiled by Maxine Peake who wrote a play about her (see below). In 2009, she was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame . In 2018 she was named as one of the first two inductees into the Rouleur Hall of Fame, alongside Eddy Merckx . Broken Spoke bike co-op in Oxford runs a Beryl's Night in honour of her, a free monthly evening for women and all trans and non-binary people to learn about bikes and use
1786-415: Was almost unbeatable. She won the Road Time Trials Council 's British Best All-Rounder Competition for 25 consecutive years from 1959 to 1983. In total, she won 72 national individual time trial titles; she won four at 10 miles (the championship was inaugurated in 1978), 26 at 25 miles, 24 at 50 miles and 18 at 100 miles. Her last national solo time trial titles were achieved in 1986 (at 25 and 50 miles; she
1833-767: Was by then in a civil war, with the NCU's ban on massed racing having been thwarted by a new organisation, the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC). Both the RTTC and Cycling had campaigned against the BLRC, still convinced massed racing threatened the sport as a whole. But the editor of Cycling , H. H. "Harry" England was so upset that the RTTC had taken over the BBAR that he changed sides and began reporting BLRC races. The 1944 BBAR recognised that few riders had been able to train as they had previously and averaged speeds over 25, 50 and 100 miles (160 km). Twelve-hour races would also have been hard to organise because, said Bernard Thompson: "Signposts had been taken down during
1880-483: Was competing internationally Burton won the women's world road race championship in 1960 and 1967 and was runner-up in 1961. On the track, she specialised in the individual pursuit , winning world championship medals almost every year across three decades. She was world champion five times (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1966), silver-medallist three times (1961, 1964 and 1968), and winner of bronze in 1967, 1970 and 1973. In domestic time trial (TT) competition, Burton
1927-399: Was established as a corporate body for the RTTC. Each course has a code, for example Q10/25. In this case, the letter represents the district, the first number the course number and the second number the course distance in miles. In other districts, after the district letter, the code may be just a course number - for example, V212. The abbreviation "HC" is used for Hillclimbing instead of
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1974-514: Was established in her home town of Morley and includes a large mural. Morley Cycling Club donated a trophy (previously won 20 times by Burton) to the RTTC for a Champion of Champions competition for women of all ages: the Beryl Burton trophy. The Beryl Burton Cycle Way allows cyclists to travel the 2.8 km between Harrogate and Knaresborough without using the A59 road. A Leeds Civic Trust plaque
2021-412: Was not myself at the time". Burton, who had always had a somewhat odd heart arrhythmia , died of heart failure during a social ride, when she was out delivering birthday invitations for her 59th birthday party. Her daughter also suggested that Burton's competitive spirit and drive eventually just wore her body out. Her widower, Charlie, survived until 2023. A memorial garden, Beryl Burton Gardens,
2068-401: Was part of the fastest team, Knaresborough CC, in the 50 mile event in 1969). She also won a further 24 national titles in road racing and on the track: 12 road race championships , and 12 pursuit titles . In 1963, Burton became the first woman to break the hour barrier for the 25-mile time trial, subsequently also going below two hours for the 50-mile TT and four hours for 100 miles against
2115-613: Was revived in September 2023 by Criterion Theatre , a members-run community venue in Coventry. A biography, Beryl: In search of Britain's greatest athlete by Jeremy Wilson , was published in 2022 (Pursuit Books, ISBN 978-1788162920 ). It won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for that year. The English folk music duo of Belinda O'Hooley and her wife Heidi Tidow, performing as O'Hooley & Tidow , created
2162-595: Was taking place and details to competitors were headed "private and confidential" up to the 1960s. There is dispute over which was the first race in this fashion but credit is usually given to the North Road Cycling Club of north London . It was held over 50 miles (approx 80 km) on 5 October 1895. Within two years, time trials had also been banned by the NCU, but events continued to be run secretly. Les Bowerman, who researched this and races that followed, said: What distinguished them from earlier unpaced races
2209-478: Was that the riders started at intervals of two or three minutes in reverse handicap order, the fastest first. Company riding was not forbidden but was unlikely to occur. This would then be very similar to a time-trial as we know it. The fact, as Bowerman says, that there were unpaced races against the clock before the North Road event in October 1895, means that the North Road club can not, as it often is, be described as
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