It's hill climb season and one of the main attractions on the calendar is the Monsal Hill Climb at Monsal Head, Derbyshire.

First run in 1930, this has been a fixture in the diary of those who enjoy the pain-cave for an amazing 89 years! 

Malcolm Elliott holds the current record that has stood since 1981 ~ 1:14.2

Will it ever be broken? Not this year! 

All photos by Thom Barnett

There is sometimes something new to be found in something old. I have always enjoyed the camaraderie and tales that come with riding with a cycling club - we all love a good story and if it involves the bike then even better! 

Whilst out riding with the famous Sheffield club Rutland CC I've heard numerous stories during cafe-stops including fights in fancy dress, drunken shenanigans and the odd 'epic' ride.

One story that kept popping up was the round the world trip of four Rutland members back in 1980, so I got in touch with one of these men, Malcolm Pearce to see if he could shed anymore light on it for me. 

What transpired during this trip, along with Malcolms photos are now published below. Enjoy! 

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You had your bikes full loaded, what did you take with you? I've heard stories of Minty taking "load of "dancing" clothes?!" Is there any truth to this tale? If so, can you shed anymore light on it?

What you need to know Thom is that none of us had done any bike touring ever before apart from the odd weekend rides in winter with a saddle bag.  The first time I test rode my bike fully loaded was on the morning that I left my home in Wisewood and rode to the Town Hall where we had a civic send off with the Lord and Lady Mayor.  I didn’t finish loading my panniers till about 2.00am!!

I set off riding and could not stop the bike from wobbling.  The back end of my bike was so heavy that I could barely lift it.  We had spare tyres each, spokes, chains, clusters, tools, a camera tripod, tents etc. etc. I even carried a spare wheel rim!!  My bike was wobbling on the front end so bad that I could hardly control it.  Going through Holland and Germany we were each breaking rear wheel spokes every few hours, this came to a head in a youth hostel one evening in Germany. We came to a decision that we had to get rid of some weight so we threw all of our gear onto a table and started biffing stuff out.  We shed heaps of stuff in the hostel that night and set off next morning much lighter and less spokes broken.

Yes the story of Minty is correct – he had boot polish, after shaves but no gloves, hat or good warm clothing.  We all had a decent pair of “dancing shoes” and going out clothes!!  We got snowed in one night at the top of a mountain pass in Germany and had to stay in a hotel that night.  Next morning the snow ploughs had cleared the pass although it was bloody freezing.  We set off down the pass and almost got to the bottom when we realized Minty wasn’t with us – I rode back up and found him huddled beside the road behind some rocks blowing onto his hands, he was freezing and had no gloves!!  Later in Yugoslavia we had to ride through a blizzard and finally arrived in a village where we checked into a hotel – we literally had to prize Minty’s fingers off his handle bars, he was frozen and in a pretty bad way.  We carried him into the hotel and got him into a hot bath, it was first initial signs of hypothermia.  He never really got over that and when we bought tickets fro the rest of the trip in Athens he bought a return ticket back to London with Eric Smith.

Poor old Minty –R.I.P. He regretted that decision so badly! 

     

      

      

Can I ask you about "The Ramp" in Hull?

 

Images provided by Malcolm Pearce 

Gary Speight was a road racing cyclist from Doncaster, South Yorkshire. He started riding at the age of 13 years old after his Dad bought him a bike from a local auction for £15 - A 25" Puch frame, which enabled Gary to ride to his (then) girlfriends house, instead of catching the bus!

Soon after he joined the Rotherham Wheelers in 1982 and began to take bike riding more seriously after riding from Doncaster to Castleton at the age of 15. He described this as "a great feeling". He then joined the Chesterfield Couriers the next year. 

In 1985 he went with a local friend Steve Goff (Rutland.CC) to Belgium for a week and rode a race in Heist Op Den Berg.

He placed in the top 10 regularly as a junior and came 2nd in the regional devision champs to Glyn Shirley. 

'Speighty' represented Great Britain as a junior at the Tour of Austria in 1985, chosen after placing at the Peter Buckley events in the Peak District. 

He rode for the GB team in the Peace Race (Berlin ~ Warsaw ~ Prague) twice, the second time in 1995 with with John Tanner, Chris Lillywhite, Matt Stephens, Wayne Randall and Mark Walsham. 

As a racing cyclist, which results are you most proud of and why?

My win in the Triptique Ardannais in Belgium (1990) and a kermesse race i won in Ooedelem, West Flanders. It was in the home town of a family who looked after me while I was racing over there. I gave the winning bouquet of flowers to Aline Versluys and Johan Teerlinke for all the hard work they did for me while I was trying to chase my dream. Also the Boone family from Gent and a pro rider Werner Wieme who also helped as I stayed with him a lot! 

Which are your favourite stretches of road to ride on and what is it that you like about them?

Cape Town, South Africa from Bellville to Capetown. About 10km roughly. It is called Voortreker Road. It isn’t the nicest view around but down that road you see all sorts of life, from wealthy people to poor people living rough and the famous crazy taxi drivers. A very interesting place! 

What is your most memorable moment on the bike or involved with cycling

Watching Stephen Roche win the triple. His 1987 win at Villach, Austria has got to be one of the best world championships to watch.

Do you agree with Mickey Goldmill's advice to Rocky that 'women weaken legs'?

I’d say women make mens legs stronger!

All cyclists, whether they race or not, seem to obsess over the weight of their bikes. Why do you think this is

Because they are trying to stay lean! I was one of them. Watching what i ate, cutting back on things.

What is your favorite piece of cycling kit (either something you currently own or have in the past)?

My pride and joy bike that my Mum and Dad bought me from Tony Butterworths in Sheffield. It was a blue Gureciotti with Campagnolo Super Record components on for £450, back in 1983 or 84 i think. 

Until my best friend Martin Maltby (Mojo) ran a red light after the Chesterfield Grand-Prix and bent the forks right back. He’s still my friend by the way!  

Cotton cap or helmet?

I never liked wearing a helmet. I preferred to get my hair blonde from the heat of the sun, or these days just my shaved head! 

White, black or coloured socks?

I always liked white socks, until i raced on the cobbles in Europe then I switched to  black or coloured. 

Who would be/is your perfect tandem partner? 

Wayne ‘The Train’ Randall.

Chris Sidwells is an author and editor who’s writing has featured in many magazines and websites including Cycle Sport, Cycling Weekly, The Guardian, The BBC and The Sunday Times. He has written best-selling books about cycling and contributed to many others. 

Chris’s latest offering is his own publishing brand - Cycling Legends (www.cyclinglegends.co.uk) a website with free-to-read exclusive content. In November 2018 Cycling Legends published 01 Tom Simpson the first book of a series of beautiful illustrated publications which were are proud to stock at Mamnick HQ Sheffield. 

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Which are your favourite stretches of road to ride on locally and what is it that you like about them?

I love the network of lanes north and east of Doncaster, there's a tranquility there, places like Owston Ferry and Sykehouse seem unchanged for decades. I think it's a bit like cycling in the 1950s and 60s must have been. I love the hills too, especially the country just west of Sheffield around The Strines, although since I came back to this area to live about five years ago I haven't had enough time to get over there much. Hopefully I'll put that right soon.

I do more off-road riding now. I had a book out last year called Wild Cycling, and the publishers have just commissioned another called Really Wild Cycling, so I've got to get myself fit quick for that- there's a lot to explore and write about. 

The same question for roads anywhere in the world?

Flanders, the Flemish Ardennes. Provence, Tuscany, the Massif Central and the Pyrenees are my favourite cycling destinations abroad. 

What is your most memorable moment on the bike or involved with cycling

There have been a lot. Doing a long and very deep interview with Eddy Merckx stands out. But meeting all those guys and talking to them, and writing about them, has been pretty special. 

Do you have any cycling pet hates?

Rules! It's a bike, ride it. Wear what you like, but try to have a bit of style- be smart. It can be your unique style, but a well thought out style.  

Are there any cycling traditions that you think have been, or are being, lost as a result of changing attitudes and behaviour? And are we better off or worse off as a consequence?

I think cycling is poorer because of losing traditional clubs, good clubs- there were some bad ones. There's a lot to be learned from older members, and friends you make on the bike tend to be friends forever. There are still some around, and some are thriving. I'm not sure they all attract younger cyclists like they used to though.

When were/are you most happy?

Difficult to answer that. I tend to keep on an even keel. I'm an optimistic person, mostly happy most of the time. Riding my bike makes me happy, so does writing. I love telling stories. Even more so telling them in words and photos, which my Cycling Legends series of books is doing.

See ~ www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

I'm glad you mentioned your Cycling Legends books, where did that come from and what made you start that project? 

I've written 19 other books and lost count of the number of magazine and newspaper articles I've done, but there is always somebody else inputting ideas or target markets when you do something for other publishers. I want to produce something that is just my vision, books that tell stories without any extra agenda or through somebody else's filter. I also want to tell stories where the words and photos work together, and do it in real depth, telling stories that are less known or haven't been told at all. That's what the Cycling Legends book series is, it's passion for cycling on pages of paper.   

The first issue (Tom Simpson) is fantastic, have you always had a interest in Tom's life? 

Tom was my uncle. I was 7 when he died but he was a massive presence in my life, maybe even more so after he died and I grew up realising what he'd done. He and my mum, his sister, were very close. With their brother Harry they were the three youngest Simpson kids who moved with my grandparents from County Durham to Harworth when my grandad couldn't get work in the coal mines up there. A lot of north-easterners moved to work in the newer pits in North Notts and South Yorkshire. 

So they grew up together and Harry, my mum and Tom all joined the Harworth and District cycling club, where my mum met my dad, also called Harry, and Tom started racing. Later on, because we lived in Harworth, Tom was always at ours when he was in the UK. I can remember him from those visits. One that stands out was after he won the BBC Sports Personality in 1965, although I was very young then. My mum was watching TV on her own, Dad was at work, and when Tom won I was the only person she could tell, so she ran up stairs and woke me up at about 9 or 10 o'clock. Next day, or it might have been the day after, Tom turned up at our house with fish and chips for everybody.

One time, and I don't remember this one because it was before 1965, Tom turned up at our house wearing a chauffeur's uniform and he stuck me and my mum in the back seat of a big white Mercedes and drove us up to the north-east to see the rest of the Simpson clan who lived up there. He was always doing stuff like that. 

What kind of character was Tom? Can you tell you us anything about him that people might not know?

Tom is well known for his cycling talent, his charisma, wearing Saville Row suits and hand-made Italian shoes and owning fast cars like the Aston Martin he bought himself at 21, when he started earning good money. But the real reason so many people who knew him remember him with love and affection, and they all say this, is that when you spoke to Tom he made you feel like you were the only person in the room, the most important person in the world to him at that moment. He always remembered names, always remembered what people did and where he'd met them. It was second nature to him. That side of Tom isn't well known at all.  

Tom mentions Fox House (near Hathersage) in his book 'Cycling Is My Life'. I've always wondered, did Tom do much riding in the Peak District?

Tom rode in the Peaks a lot, both on club runs and rides he did with mates like George Shaw.

He also won a lot of road races in the Peak District, there were circuits all over the Peak in those days.

And he won the BLRC national hill climb championships on Mam Nick in 1957, of course.

Tom winning on Mam Nick, 1957

Big thanks to Chris for his time and for providing all these images above. 

See more at ~ www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

A night out in Barnsley. All image by Thom Barnett. 

John Herety is a former British racing cyclists who is currently the manager of the JLT-Condor cycling team. Born in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, John joined Cheshire Road Club as a teenager and had some success as a junior. 

He became British Professional Road Race Champion in 1982 after a spell of riding for French amateur team, Athletic Club Boulogne-Billancourt (ACBB) in Paris with fellow british rider Sean Yates before turning Pro in 1982 for the French Coop Mercier team riding alongside Joop Zoetemelk. 

Other notable results from an impressive palmares include 1st Manx Trophy (1980), Stage 9 of the Peace Race in East Germany (1980), 16th at Gent-Wevelgem (1982) and 1st at Stage 10 of the Milk Race, Ipswich (1987). 

As a racing cyclist, which results are you most proud of and why?

Winning a stage of the 1980 Peace Race at the height of the Eastern Bloc domination of most sports. It was Olympic year and the win virtually guaranteed my place at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 

Which are your favourite stretches of road to ride on locally and what is it that you like about them?

I don’t ride these days but there used to be a couple, they were both climbs, ironic really as I was no climber. Swiss Hill in Alderney Edge, a short 500 meter cobbled climb which we used to use to get rid of a few riders if the Saturday and Sunday rides we did had too many riders on them. We only waited for boys that came out during the week for us. It comes out near the top of the Wizard Climb in Alderley Edge. The Wizard climb was allegedly where the great British Track Sprinter Reg Harris used to practice his strength work,using it for repeated efforts.

The other one I know you know well. It's the Strines Road from the Langsett side, 3 x 25% climbs in quick succession,  I remember one winter going over them with it snowing on 72inch fixed wheel, coming out onto the open moorland section at the end, with the snow coming down at right angles and just thinking we were so hard, completely stupid looking back, but there you go, that's what we did in those days.

The same question for roads anywhere in the world?

I spent 3 years living in France in a place called Joue-Les Tour, there’s a road we used to ride along from Joué lès Tours the D88 if you want look it up, it's right on the Loire river, its a completely flat road but with the river on your right there are small unclassified roads to your left that climb up some short climbs to a top road and you could do these really hard sessions using the 2 roads as a form of interval training literally zig zagging along the banks of the Loire river never actually being more than 45 mins away from where we lived.

What is your most memorable moment on the bike or involved with cycling

Difficult to choose just one, here’s a couple I got choked up on, that sort of choked up on that people ask if your crying and you deny it, because you’ve not really realised you were and you get all defensive.

First one was when Chris Newton won the Worlds Points Race title in Ballerup Denmark in 2002. I was in charge of logistics for the GB team but had worked with Chris on his road program during the build up. I stood on a chair in the track centre watching and he completely and utterly smashed the field to pieces. 

I distinctly remember having tears in my eyes and was trying desperately to hide it.

The other one is Kristian House winning the National Road Race Championships in Abergavenny in 2009, the team car obviously has race radio where a running commentary is given by radio tour, however it has an annoying habit, especially in the UK of stopping just as the sprint of a race is starting, words along the lines of such and such a person launches the sprint…………then deadly silence. 

The same thing happened in Abergavenny, I was praying for just a medal, which for a team like ours at the time would of been massive. 

Anticipating the radio race silence I put the windows down so I could hear Hugh Porter on the the finish line PA system he was commentating to a very large crowd along the finish straight, sure enough on the radio they announced the launch of the sprint, but then radio silence, but with the windows down we picked up the PA and when we heard he won it we couldn’t believe it. I immediately got on the phone to our sponsors of the time and was telling answer phone machines they had the new National Champion, half way through the message I realised I was actually blubbing away as I was telling them, hopefully those messages got deleted.

Has racing affected your relationship with the bike? If so, how?

Only in so much I don’t ride these days, which is a shame. The couple of times I have tried to ride again I just never persevered for long enough to get past that level of fitness to actually enjoy the ride. It was just too much like hard work, which coupled with knowing how easy it used to be and still getting all the camaraderie the bike can give from running a team I gave up pretty easy.

Do you agree with Mickey Goldmill's advice to Rocky that 'women weaken legs’?

Ha Ha ! The short answer is yes, I do a pretty good impression of him saying it as well.

The longer answer is to do with human psychology that I won’t go into here, but for sake of being likened to Mickey  a short answer would be they can, but not in the blunt way Mickey said it.

All cyclists, whether they race or not, seem to obsess over the weight of their bikes. Why do you think this is?

That and trying other peoples brakes I find they get someones bike and pick it up as though they have an in built Salter Weighing Scale, then as they put it down they pull the break levers testing how smooth the brakes are. Bonkers.

With some people obviously the new methods of training with power meters means the weight element is one of the factors used to calculate training loads, efforts, etc.

Lot easier to shave 500grams of the bike than say no to that dessert. 

Do you approach riding, or ride your bike, differently now to when you first got into cycling?

Like I said above I don’t really ride now, but I don’t think I would if I ever got back into into it. I’d like to think I would approach it the same. Not a lot was wrong with what we were doing to be honest we just didn’t know why it worked. The sports science side of things now has just given us a load of names for what we were doing back then.

Who has been your favourite pro riders over the years and why?

Sid Barras when I was younger, no internet in those days so you waited in for your weekly copy of Cycling to arrive and he was always winning, it was that time of my life that I just read as gospel everything cycling printed, you were starved of information, so when you got it, you soaked it up like some kind of weekly fix. These days we are almost numb to the amount of coverage we get, there is so much of it it now.

I kinda liked Merckx but Freddy Maertens was my big hero, closely followed by Roger de Vlaminck, De Vlaminck because of how it looked on a bike and his superb bike handling skills, Freddy because of his underdog kinda status to Eddy plus my strongest asset was like Freddy’s, his sprint. I was fortunate to race with both of them and luckily it disproved the theory of never meeting your heros, both were absolute class personified. Freddy actually introduced himself to me, I was first year neo pro and here was this legend welcoming me to the peloton.

De Vlaminck was in a Paris Nice, where I remember getting dropped on a climb with him, the weather was terrible, cold rain at the bottom of the climb , sleet further up, followed by heavy snow towards the top, we were using the tracks the cars had made in the snow. Anyway we were dropped from the bunch and there was a further breakaway 2 mins up the road in front of the bunch. De Vlaminck took of on the descent like a man possessed. He caught and passed the bunch on the snow covered descent and was in the break by the bottom of the climb unbelievable skills.

What was you favourite era of professional bike racing?

1975-1980

Mudguards, mudguards and mudflaps or racing bike with clip on guards through winter?

Back in the day very strict, November through to December winter bike mudguards optional mudflap.  January 1st it was acceptable for race bike and no mudguards.

Do you enjoy a cafe stop or do you prefer to ride straight round?

November to December 2 coffee stops a ride, normally Knutsford Bus station where they made these things called milky coffees, think there called Lattes these days ! First 2 weeks of January 1 coffee stop, 2nd week of January no coffee stop, time to get serious

Assos, Rapha or neither?

I actually had the first pair of skin shorts in the UK, they were brought in by Descente who still are  a Swiss Ski wear company, I got the piss taken out of me to start with, as the only things made out of lycra at the time was ladies underwear.

Anyway a guy at Descente left and started Assos, my first year as a pro we had some french made clothing which was crap, so our team leader Joop Zoetemelk who had ridden the year before for TI Raleigh had a load of Assos kit made for us. My connection with Rapha and the team we had means whilst I like Assos, my heart will always be with Rapha.

What is your favorite piece of cycling kit (either something you currently own or have in the past)?

Adidas Merckx cycling shoes, as classic as the adidas gazelle trainer.

I also still have a fully functioning track pump from about 1978 its had a few valve rubber changes and I couldn’t vouch for the accuracy of the pressure gauge, but I’m impressed its lasted as long it has.

Do you prefer to get your head down on main roads, keep a good tempo going on the ‘B’ roads or get onto the back-wacks? What about the rough stuff on your road bike?

No main roads ever, B roads for sure, we used to tack around the B roads like a yachtsman would to avoid headwinds. Rough stuff both winter and summer. not sure what all this gravel bike hype is, we were doing that in 1978 ,before the mountain bike craze hit we were riding the tacks of Delamere Forest, especially in the winter if it had snowed, it was safer to ride steady to there and then blast round the forest for 2 hours. Same bikes, we used wider tyres in the winter anyway, we also used a trail called Whitegate Way which was disused railway line that had been turned into a bridle way, that was used similar to Swiss Hill, If we had too many riders on the Saturday and Sunday rides we used to hit that trail flat out to thin the group out a bit.

What do you think about Strava?

Not a big fan, but you have to move with the times and if it encourages more people to stay in the sport then I don’t suppose it can be all bad. However you wouldn’t catch me on it if i ever came back.

What do you think about Sportive rides?

Similar to above really, they have encouraged more people to ride bikes and helped them have goals and targets, but they are not races and it winds me up when people write about them as though they are.

Do you have any cycling pet hates?

See Below.

Are there any cycling traditions that you think have been, or are being, lost as a result of changing attitudes and behaviour? And are we better off or worse off as a consequence?

Proper Club runs where people were taught the basic skills of riding on the wheel, we are with out doubt worse of as a result of that and the emergence of the heart rate monitors and power meters. Too many  young riders are obsessed with power when they haven’t even mastered the skills of riding on the wheel.

Cotton cap or helmet?

Cotton Cap 100%

The benefits of spinning a low gear compared to mashing a high gear is often discussed. Putting aside the serious, physiological and mechanical aspects, what cadence you think looks right?

90 Revs a minute

White, black or coloured socks?

WHITE WHITE WHITE. I can forgive Armstrong for everything apart from him legitimising the black sock. Its my biggest pet hate, I will never change my view on this. They should be banned.

Frame pump or mini pump?

Frame pump, even better if you can find one with the original screw in campag chrome plated quick release connector, no problem with wayward dogs with one of those.

What did you like to talk about when you are on a ride with friends/team/club mates? Do you prefer to keep the subjects lightweight or get your teeth into something contentious or controversial?

For the most part it was lightweight but it got contentious sometimes, but never enough that anyone was banned from the ride.

Who would be/is your perfect tandem partner? Would you ride captain or stoker?

I rode a tandem a couple of times, both times as a stoker and I didn’t like it, so if i had the choice I’d go captain. If we were racing it would be Sean Yates as stoker if it was touring I would pick a comedian, maybe John Bishop I reckon he’d be a good choice or if he was still alive maybe Groucho Marx.

A night to remember at Sheffield GP. 

All images by Thom Barnett.