Beryl Burton's 12 hour record

[iannai]

A question about Beryl Burton's 1967 12-hour record where she was the first ever sportswoman to beat a male record. I cannot establish for certain if the record was a world record or a British record. Can anyone help? Thank you

[Paulatic]

In July 2014 total women’s cycling wrote

She set a women’s world record for a 12 hour time trial in 1967 which has not yet been beaten at 277.25 miles.

https://totalwomenscycling.com/lifestyl ... ryl-burton

Beaten by Alice Lethbridge in August 2017
https://road.cc/content/news/228024-ber ... lf-century

[fastpedaller]

I'm unsure, but suggest it may have been both a British and World record on the basis that cycle time trials on the road were at that time (maybe still) unique to Britain?

[Paulatic]

UCI only recognise 1hour and 24hour.

[fastpedaller]

UCI only recognise 1hour and 24hour.

That seems (to me anyway) weird........ I can understand 1 hour (if it's track), but is there a 24Hr track record? if (as I suspect) there isn't, why don't the UCI recognise records of other distances/durations?

[LWaB]

The UCI has always been a very blinkered organisation. Recumbents were excluded before WW2. There have always been other records, particularly long distance records, that were only recognised by other organisations. The 24hr and 1000 miles road records are recognised by RRA in the UK and WUCA (formerly UMCA) internationally.

Don’t think of the UCI as being everything about cycling. If it isn’t in the Olympics, the UCI has little interest in it.

[pjclinch]

Don’t think of the UCI as being everything about cycling. If it isn’t in the Olympics, the UCI has little interest in it.

I'm not what most people would call a Big Fan of the Luddites of Lausanne, but I don't think it's fair to say they're only interested in Olympic cycling.

Road stage racing, downhill MTB, 'cross are some starter examples of non-Olympic cycling events that have quite a high profile within cycling itself (road stage racing in the form of the Tour de France is easily the biggest race in cycling, much better known and more prestigious than anything in the Olympics) and can't be found at the Olympics.
I'd say maybe only in track cycling does the Olympics really have significant influence on how cycle sport is otherwise conducted.

Pete.

[andrew_s]

I'm unsure, but suggest it may have been both a British and World record on the basis that cycle time trials on the road were at that time (maybe still) unique to Britain?

It wasn't do much that time trials as such were a British thing, but that set distances & times were, and still are, largely.
Everywhere else is mostly think of a course, then measure it, and the distance is what it is, with results being about who you've beaten rather than a time over 10/25/50/100 miles.

[KM2]

Beryl rode the classic GP des Nations, in the south of France, won by Felice Gimondi, so must have received permission for such a ride. She acquitted herself well, the time keepers having to readjust their ideas of what women were capable of.

[pete75]

Beryl rode the classic GP des Nations, in the south of France, won by Felice Gimondi, so must have received permission for such a ride. She acquitted herself well, the time keepers having to readjust their ideas of what women were capable of.

She was invited by the organisers, but rode it in the Chevreuse valley near Paris.

[TrevA]

Fixed distance (or time) time trials are a very British thing, dating from the National Cycling Union banning bunched racing on the open roads in Britain in 1890, fearing it would jeopardise the position of other cyclists on the road. The Road Time Trials Council (RTTC) was formed to promote individual racing against the clock. The NCU concentrated on track racing and bunched racing on closed circuits such as Brooklands and Donington Park. So the sport of time trialling became popular with cyclists in Britain, as the only quasi-legal form of racing on the road, with races over 25, 50, 100 miles, 12 hours and 24 hours. Hence, why records at these distances are only really recognised as British records.

Time trials do take place in Europe and elsewhere, but they tend not to be over these standard distances.

[NickJP]

Beryl rode the classic GP des Nations, in the south of France, won by Felice Gimondi, so must have received permission for such a ride. She acquitted herself well, the time keepers having to readjust their ideas of what women were capable of.

She was invited by the organisers, but rode it in the Chevreuse valley near Paris.

In those days the GP des Nations was regarded as the unofficial world TT championship - it wasn't until the 1990s that an individual TT event appeared at the world championships. Before that the team TT was only the TT event at the worlds. The most successful exponents of that were the four Pettersson brothers from Sweden, who won the team TT event three years running (1967-69), after which they all turned professional, though only Gösta Pettersson had much success, finishing third at the 1970 Tour de France, and winning the 1971 Giro d'Italia.

[yostumpy]

Just been reading how she was a member of the National Clarion Cycling Club, and how, on her ‘67 12 hour record ride, she offered a liquorice allsort to a male rider that she passed on the way.

[Grandad]

She passed lots of male riders throughout the 12 hours. The significance of the legendary sweet was that she
gave it to the top male rider when she caught and passed him.

[TrevA]

Just been reading how she was a member of the National Clarion Cycling Club, and how, on her ‘67 12 hour record ride, she offered a liquorice allsort to a male rider that she passed on the way.

Yes, the male rider was Mike MacNamara (known as Mac), he broke the men’s 12 hour record that day, but Beryl caught him for 2 minutes and offered the liquorice allsort as she passed him, and she stayed ahead until the finish, beating him by 3/4 of a mile. Mike did 276.52 miles, Beryl did 277.25 miles. Thus Beryl became the only woman ever to beat a men’s record as well as the women’s.