Road Racing Pictures •

Probably the last few. If I find any more (doubtful!) I can post them. I apologise that I feature in 4 of these so just pretend I'm Barry Hoban:rolleyes:.

BTW, the photos posted of Barry are excellent. I don't think I've seen them before.

The first three are from 1966. It did seem to rain a lot that year :)

DeesideRRMarch66.2.jpg

This was a Deeside Olympic RR March '66. John Bowling and Arnie Lloyd from Deeside Olympic and me. Fields in these events comprised a good selection of Merseyside 1st category riders (including probably Pete Matthews) many of whom had ridden for GB and in the Milk Race. Needless to say I wasn't placed very high at the finish!

Ellesmere RR 66.A.jpg

This was an Ellesmere St Raphael CC 3rd and Junior event a bit later in '66. No idea which one as the photo was given to me by an old friend from someone in the local paper. Lad behind was from Macclesfield Whs. Again no idea where I finished in the results.

NWDivChamps66.1.jpg

The rather wet 1966 North Wales Championship on the Llandegla course. Yours truly at the front with Dave Vose Deeside Olympic, Ken Evans Ystwyth CC and Reg Breckon Deeside behind. Dave Vose later joind Kirby CC and rode (I think ) for GB in some big events and Ken rode for Wales a few times. Reg was good in local events - better than me anyway!

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Time now moves on to April 1971 when we had moved to Oswestry. This event was a series of 3 round a circuit not far from town. Here we have from left, Ken Wheal Deeside Olympic, Alan Godding Wrekinsport CC, another Wrekinsport rider beside another Macclesfield lad and Bob James from Oswestry Paragon riding his immaculate Roy Swinnerton (probably Mercian built). Bob moved to Canada some years later and I had the sad news last year that he had passed away suddenly. He was a friend of Barry Hoban and often came out training wearing a Sonolor jersey.

I wonder where the baby is now?

OswestryCrit240471.jpg

Same event, different lap (these were local newspaper photos BTW). From the left John Bethel Macclesfield Whs (who won the event and the series overall), me on my Bob Jackson Olympus (that I never really got on with), Alan Godding Wrekinsport again and Ian Bellis Deeside Olympic (who passed away early a few years ago). Just noticed that John Bethel only has a single chainring. Perhaps he was riding his TT bike!

Well, that's all folk's! It's been an interesting exercise, trying to remember things and people that I would have known instantly once. A sign of old age I suppose. If I do find anything else - I'll be back!

Oh, BTW, I just remembered that at Het Volk (see above) as well as Thiery Marie we also picked up Mauro Gianetti who, these days, is a DS with Bahrain pro team. He spoke better English than Thiery so between us, with Pat's Spanish, My French and German and Paddy's cockney, we managed a reasonably decent conversation.
 
Thought I'd bring us into the early 2000's

Me (blue Pearson's kit) racing in evening Crits in London after work.

Hillingdon Cycle Circuit (West London) on a very grim evening. Was freezing cold, no one was willing to race, so I attacked off the front (not long after this photo I guess) and the race was x2 laps longer than my body could deal with. Blew up in spectacular style, but hung on to finish in the pack. Hated this circuit as it's just a wide flat power circuit, but good for training and suffering! I'm the rider on the far right.
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These are from Crystal Palace, South London, just below the big TV mast. Can't believe they used to race cars around this circuit, It's so narrow! Lots of twists and turns and a little bit of gradient which I like as I was a scrawny climber. Race use to get stopped if it rained as the bottom corner was lethal, each week there were numerous crashes regardless. Lots of very posh bikes got broken too! It was always a very chaotic race which I loved and always like to attack. I worked crazy hours at the time so racing was essential training along with commuting.
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Probably the last few. If I find any more (doubtful!) I can post them. I apologise that I feature in 4 of these so just pretend I'm Barry Hoban:rolleyes:.

BTW, the photos posted of Barry are excellent. I don't think I've seen them before.

The first three are from 1966. It did seem to rain a lot that year :)

View attachment 816475

This was a Deeside Olympic RR March '66. John Bowling and Arnie Lloyd from Deeside Olympic and me. Fields in these events comprised a good selection of Merseyside 1st category riders (including probably Pete Matthews) many of whom had ridden for GB and in the Milk Race. Needless to say I wasn't placed very high at the finish!

View attachment 816476

This was an Ellesmere St Raphael CC 3rd and Junior event a bit later in '66. No idea which one as the photo was given to me by an old friend from someone in the local paper. Lad behind was from Macclesfield Whs. Again no idea where I finished in the results.

View attachment 816477

The rather wet 1966 North Wales Championship on the Llandegla course. Yours truly at the front with Dave Vose Deeside Olympic, Ken Evans Ystwyth CC and Reg Breckon Deeside behind. Dave Vose later joind Kirby CC and rode (I think ) for GB in some big events and Ken rode for Wales a few times. Reg was good in local events - better than me anyway!

View attachment 816478
Time now moves on to April 1971 when we had moved to Oswestry. This event was a series of 3 round a circuit not far from town. Here we have from left, Ken Wheal Deeside Olympic, Alan Godding Wrekinsport CC, another Wrekinsport rider beside another Macclesfield lad and Bob James from Oswestry Paragon riding his immaculate Roy Swinnerton (probably Mercian built). Bob moved to Canada some years later and I had the sad news last year that he had passed away suddenly. He was a friend of Barry Hoban and often came out training wearing a Sonolor jersey.

I wonder where the baby is now?

View attachment 816479

Same event, different lap (these were local newspaper photos BTW). From the left John Bethel Macclesfield Whs (who won the event and the series overall), me on my Bob Jackson Olympus (that I never really got on with), Alan Godding Wrekinsport again and Ian Bellis Deeside Olympic (who passed away early a few years ago). Just noticed that John Bethel only has a single chainring. Perhaps he was riding his TT bike!

Well, that's all folk's! It's been an interesting exercise, trying to remember things and people that I would have known instantly once. A sign of old age I suppose. If I do find anything else - I'll be back!

Oh, BTW, I just remembered that at Het Volk (see above) as well as Thiery Marie we also picked up Mauro Gianetti who, these days, is a DS with Bahrain pro team. He spoke better English than Thiery so between us, with Pat's Spanish, My French and German and Paddy's cockney, we managed a reasonably decent conversation.
Great pics, I have some questions. When did crash hats become compulsory in the UK? Also how long were road races then? Did you ever race against the pros or was it separated totally? Was there prize money? If so how much? Were you allowed to use the whole width of the road or did you have to keep to the left hand side. I'm of 80s/90s vintage, Ireland. We got a good few UK lads over for 3 day stage races and they were always highly delighted that we were able to use the whole width of the road. Thanks in advance. 🙂
 
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