Page 17 - PBCOctober2019

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 16 No.2 October 2019 !17
and I realised that the thunder box was actually perched over a running stream. And so to
bed, was it cold or was the bed damp? I am not sure.
Following a breakfast in the morning of cornflakes, we went to the start of the race. The
only sound was the familiar 54321 punctuated by the tinier of shoe plates on the road and
the distant mewing of cattle. In those days a poor performance was often attributed to
being held up by a herd of cows. The actual race for us this day was unspectacular but as
my companion Bartali said something to talk about when the glasses are full on the table.

As Bartali and I started to ride back home, there, riding in the opposite direction towards
us was the Vicar. We booed and whistled loudly, the poor man must have been confused by
such a reaction and proceeded to go head first into the hedgerow. As we rode further
along towards home, club riders riding in the other direction shouted encouragement and
inquired about the result of the race.

This would not happen today – where has the spirit gone?
Tom Roker (aka Alf Engers)

____________________________________________

Many Thanks Tom for this excellent trip back in time.

For those of you who may not know (hardly likely), this baker’s boy from Whitechapel
became the fastest man on the road in the 60’s & 70’s, known as The King of 25’s. Having
won the National Championship 25mTT in 1959, he won it again 10years later, before
winning it for 5 consecutive years between 1972 & 76. The scourge of the RTTC - they
consistently tried to challenge his riding style, be it position on the road or allegedly using
vehicles for pace, including suspending him.

They couldn’t accept that he was simply
ultra-fit and extremely fast. I know from
experience that if I was ever in the same
event, he always went past me as if I was
stationary - which I guess I probably was by
comparison! In August 1978, on his even
more ultra lightweight all-chrome bike, he
became the first person to break the
50minute barrier for 25miles with an
extraordinary ride of 49m.24s on the A12 in
Essex. Another Pickwickian living legend.
The King at Speed