Put Me Back on My Bike_In Search of Tom Simpson by William Fotheringham

Author:William Fotheringham [Fotheringham, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography, adventure
ISBN: 9781446435878
Goodreads: 17122946
Publisher: Vintage Digital
Published: 2002-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

Sallanches, September 6, 1964

On the rain-soaked finish straight in the heart of the French Alps, three men are sprinting for the world championship. The Dutchman Jan Janssen is first, in his trademark dark sunglasses in spite of the near dark. As he raises his arms to the sky in celebration, the Italian Vittorio Adorni and Raymond Poulidor of France are a few bike lengths behind.

Tom Simpson is sprinting too, head down, back bent, 20 metres behind Poulidor. As so often, he is the moral winner. He has had cuts down his side and a bent pedal since his crash on the fourth lap, but was the only favourite who bestirred himself to chase what would have otherwise been the winning escape.

For 42 of the 165 miles he rode alone in the soaking wet, gradually closing the gap, but when he rode up to the last survivor, the Frenchman Henri Anglade, the other favourites were close behind. Janssen, Poulidor and Adorni had saved their energy while Simpson had exhausted himself, and they rode past him with ease.

The Englishman knew his only chance was to try again; painfully he escaped the bunch, and in the final straight he closed on the three leaders. If they had hesitated even for a moment, he would have overtaken them; instead they sprinted for the line, and he was left hanging. So near, but so far.

This frustration is painfully familiar: in 1959, with a mere three months’ professional racing under his belt, he managed fourth. In 1961, he was ninth. Last year, in the little Belgian town of Renaix, he could have won if the Irishman Seamus Elliott had cooperated when they escaped the field. Simpson had offered £1,000 to Elliott to help him but to no avail; today he would have given £4,000 to anyone who would help him win. There were no takers and, once again, no medal. Next year, he tells himself, it will be different.

1 Beurick’s links with English cycling pre-date this encounter; according to one cyclist, Malcolm Smith, cyclists from England were living at and racing from, the Café Den Engel as early as 1957, while Beurick acted as Great Britain team manager at a race in Bruges in August 1958, in between Belgian national service duties.

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