News for May 8

Two Days Later

Beryl Burton's death may have been largely ignored by the UK's broadcasting media, but the four "heavy" daily newspapers -- The Times, Independent, Guardian and Daily Telegraph -- all published full obituaries with photographs from her career. The Times was able to get a report-cum-obituary into a late edition on Monday; the other papers had obituaries this morning (Tuesday).

Mrs Burton appears not have been involved in a collision with a motor vehicle. The Times report says the police "do not believe a car was involved in the accident".

The police call for the man in a green shirt who asked local residents to call the emergency services to contact them appears to be an attempt to find a witness to the accident or the first person to be on the scene after the accident occurred.

None of today's UK papers has anything to say on the cause of death. However, a single paragraph in L'Equipe signed by Adam Glasser says assuredly that Mrs Burton died as a result of a heart attack ("une crise cardiaque").

I don't know what the authority, if any, is for Glasser's report. There are certainly worse ways of meeting one's end than on a bike on the Skipton Road out of Harrogate, and the grief of British cyclists must be a fraction lightened by knowing that no car was involved. Sadly it meant, though, that Beryl Burton missed her 59th birthday by a few days -- it would have been on May 12.

More important, she won't be riding next Saturday's 10-mile time trial championship, as planned - she said she would never retire -- but doubtless many of the competitors will still be anxiously turning their heads to make sure that's she not behind, poised, smiling, to take a minute out of them. In spirit she doubtless will be.

Beryl Burton's last race appears to have been in a local time trial on Yorkshire roads eight days ago in which her daughter Denise also rode. Mother and daughter were part of the Morley CC (Beryl's career-long club) team-prize-winning line-up in this event. Asked in the 1980s why she continued to ride prodigious distances every week and race against women half her age, Mrs Burton bluntly replied: "Because I like cycling."

Beryl Burton, nee Charnock, born Leeds, Yorkshire, May 12, 1937, married 1954 Charlie Burton (one daughter, Denise), MBE 1964, OBE 1968, died Harrogate, Yorkshire, May 5, 1996

PART PALMARES

World Road Champion: 1960, 1967

World Pursuit Champion: 1959, 1960, 1962, 1966

British Road Champion:1959, 1960, 1963, 1965-68, 1970-74

British Pursuit Champion: 1960, 1961, 1963-68, 1970-74

British 10-Mile Time Trial Champion: 1978-81

British 25-Mile Time-Trial Champion: 1958-64, 1965-82, 1984, 1986

British 50-Mile Time Trial Champion: 1958-61, 1963-80, 1983, 1986

British 100-mile Time-Trial Champion: 1958-62, 1964-68, 1970, 1971, 
1973-75, 1978, 1980, 1981

British Best All Rounder (best total time over the season in combined 25-, 
50-, and 100-mile time trials): 1959--83

Still British Time Trial Record Holder at the following distances/time:
25 miles (1976): 53.21; 50 miles (1976): 1.51.30; 
100 miles (1968): 3.55.05; 12 hours (1967): 277.25

Festina Goes French

Individual riders of the Festina team have been signing contracts with the Federation Francaise de Cyclisme (FFC) over the past few weeks and now the team itself has officially affiliated. The change of registration springs from the fact that Festina directeur sportif Bruno Roussel has been in conflict with the Andorran federation -- the federation had insisted that the Andorran flag appear on the team's jerseys; Roussel resolutely refused to sanction this.

The team has thus been unaffiliated since the beginning of the season. Roussel then turned to the UCI which granted him the right to affiliate with either the French or Spanish federations. His choice gives France an additional Division 1 groupe sportif.