130 PEOPLE WHO CHANGED CYCLING
“Wow.” That was the response we most often received when we asked those across the sport to contribute to our 130th anniversary issue. It’s no mean feat for any publication to survive even half of that and we here at Cycling Weekly are proud to be custodians of the world’s longest-running cycling magazine.
We’re even prouder as journalists and riders to be part of a wider, wonderful sport, so we didn’t want to celebrate alone. That is why we’ve enlisted Tour de France winners, world champions, British champions, UCI presidents, WorldTour managers, titans of broadcasting, and many fantastic journalists to help us compile this list of those that have shaped the sport over the last 130 years.
We’ve had a blast putting it together and in some cases discovering stories of figures less heralded in the cycling canon. We haven’t ranked them, that’d be too hard, but have numbered them just so you can find your way around.
As with any list, there were a few notables we decided to leave out because we felt they didn’t quite fit here or they overlapped too closely with others. Hearteningly, several people we asked for nominations used it as a moment to shout out the behind-the-scenes figures that work tirelessly to make the sport what it is both at pro and grassroots level. They might not have a global impact but they make everything possible so we gave them their own section (see p61).
We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. Here’s to another 130 years.
1 Brian Robinson
NOMINATED BY BARRY HOBAN, EX-PRO AND BRITISH LEGEND
“He was the first one. Others had been before but not been successful. He was the first British rider to ever do anything, and get recognised by the Continental teams.
“The recognised governing body [in Britain] was the NCU, but they didn’t want road racing… so Brian came along at a difficult time.
“And there was no Eurosport – when the Tour de France came around there’d be a little snippet from Ron White in the Daily Express, or Sidney Saltmarsh that would just say, oh, ‘Brian Robinson is in the first 20’ type of thing.
“Well, in Yorkshire we used to ride over to Harrogate to Ron Kitching’s shop. He had all the Continental magazines - Miroir du Cyclisme, But et Club, you name it. We couldn’t read anything, but we used to look at the pictures, we’d see the names – Ockers, Bobet, Kübler… it was a magic time. And that, combined with what Brian was doing, you know… wow. I think Brian, and that era, put the germ, if you want, into my body to be a Continental cyclist.
“Brian, had it a lot harder I think, than Tom [Simpson] or even myself. Because when Brian went over, there were just national teams. And he did the Tour a number of times for the international team.
“So he didn’t have a leg up to go and do what he did. So what he did was a hell of a lot harder than what I had to put up with.”
2 Prof Aldo Sassi
NOMINATED BY CADEL EVANS, EX-PRO RACER AND TOUR DE FRANCE WINNER
“Unfortunately no longer with us, Professor Aldo Sassi was a strong-minded individual whose ideas were often criticised and even completely dismissed by his peers, mostly because Aldo was some 10-20 years ahead of his time. For training plans, periodisation, specificities, laboratory testing, biomechanics analysis of rider position, and bringing all of this to realisation with the Mapei team. Now, 20 years later, seeing all of the top teams structured and functioning [as Mapei did] we realise just how visionary Aldo was.”
3 Charles Holland
It’s no understatement to say that what Charles Holland and Bill Burl did pave the way for Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome today. They were the first British riders to ride the Tour de France in 1937. It nearly didn’t happen but the staff at Cycling helped send a telegram to the race organiser to get them in the race. Their participation didn’t last long. Burl crashed out on stage two while Holland had a nightmare day of punctures on stage 14 in the Pyrenees and had to throw in the towel. But the groundwork had been laid.
4 Ron Kitching
NOMINATED BY SEAN YATES, EX-PRO AND BRITISH CHAMPION
“Ron Kitching (born 1916) was a hugely influential cycle industry figure. A keen cyclist himself, he went into retail as a young man, establishing his legendary Cycle Centre in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate. As well as helping to establish the CTC York Rally, he sponsored teams and riders and his Everything Cycling catalogue became a cyclists’ bible – copies of which are among the literature he entrusted to Otley Cycling Club and can now be viewed as the ‘Ron Kitching library’. He died in 2001.”
“EVERYTHING CYCLING BECAME A CYCLISTS’ BIBLE”
5 John Dunlop
All bike riders need to give thanks to John Dunlop. The veterinary surgeon and inventor wasn’t the first to develop pneumatic tyres but the company that bore his name was certainly the first to make them practical and popular (you know how resistant cyclists can be to change). He’d begun inventing them to make his son’s tricycle ride more comfortable and in doing so made almost every bike ride ever taken in the last 100 years more enjoyable. Not a bad legacy.
6 Marianne Vos
NOMINATED BY ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN, PRO RIDER AT MOVISTAR
“She was my team-mate from 2009 till 2014, and especially in the first three years (at the Nederland Bloeit team) she showed me the most important lesson I still like to share with young athletes: enjoying time on your bike is fundamental to performing in the long run (and to have a long and healthy career).
“I learned from her to play in training rides… sprinting for the town signs, for example, was always a big game (and I always lost but this did not matter… we still had fun). I could only win when I tried to get her into a very deep conversation or something. I think if I go to Majorca I still know where every sign is!
“She showed me to train long and hard (also, remember we were racing each other on some climbs in 2009 and pushing each other to the limits, and that was a spontaneous thing… we just did it to have fun and play a bit).
“For me this way of training is still the fundamental and most important thing why I still like to train. My coach also knows that (and funny enough Marianne asked him two years ago if he would coach her too!).
“Even now in Movistar I like to introduce the play element to start to sprint for the town signs… so 12 years later the playing element is still there!”
7 Tullio Campagnolo
NOMINATED BY MAURICE BURTON, MULTIPLE-TIME BRITISH TRACK CHAMPION
“I have to nominate Tullio Campagnolo, for inventing the quick-release wheel locking mechanism in 1927, which is still in use today. This was the first of his many inventions from his father’s Vicenza workshop for which he is known.”
You definitely know the name, you’ve certainly operated a quick-release lever (first invented by
