Eileen Sheridan
‘THE MIGHTY ATOM’
Coventry-born Eileen Sheridan, now aged 98, was one of the greatest competitive cyclists of the 20th century, earning herself the nickname the Mighty Atom due to her immense power, speed and diminutive stature. After some astounding race results - including her first 12-hour where she ran out of course and had to go onto the men’s – like Marguerite Wilson she was also signed up by Hercules in 1951. She then proceeded to dismantle all of her predecessor Marguerite’s 21 place-to-place records.
Her End to End and 1000-mile attempt in June 1954 was blighted by unseasonal cold, wind and rain, but she rode the first 12 hours without taking her feet o the pedals. Eileen really su ered in her battle against the elements, enduring painfully frozen and blistered hands, but reached John O’Groats in 2 days 11 hours and 7 minutes, smashing Marguerite’s record by 11 hours 45 minutes.
She too then went for the 1000-mile record, with extreme exhaustion causing her to hallucinate in the final stages. Nevertheless, she finished with 3 days 1 hour on the clock, over 10 hours quicker than Marguerite. Only one man at that point had recorded a faster time, and it was another 48 years before Eileen’s record was broken. Despite all this, the narrator of a Pathé film in 1956 said of her winning races: “She has to [win] in order to get back to catch up with the housework.” A lame joke even for the time. What is true is the extent to which she helped establish women’s professional cycling in the UK.