Money doesn't matter

Reading your article ‘Skinflint or Spendthrift’ (CW, Feb 15) took me back a few years. Back in the late 1980s I had moved to the other side of Wolverhampton. After spending a couple of weeks getting used to new roads and surroundings a young bloke caught me up one day. He just rode along at my pace chatting away, telling me what he’d done in time trials and that he’d seen me in a few local events. After that we became good mates and spent many a day going out cycling (at my pace).

Being still at school, it was obvious that this lad cycled on a very tight budget. In fact, I don’t think a budget came into it; he just existed on being the best he could be on whatever he could afford.

Anyway, one Sunday I was off to ride a 25-mile time trial in Evesham, south of Birmingham. The young lad came with me. Off I went — it was a reasonable sort of course with a few drags and small hills on the way. One hour, a couple of seconds, a lot of sweat and I’d finished — in the top 10 as well.

When the young lad came back to the changing room after I’d finished, he told me how he’d followed me around the course at a distance and was quite impressed with how hard I’d tried. Deep down I was gutted — how on earth did he keep up with me on something that weighed in at 30 pounds with big balloon roadster tyres, plus I was in the top 10 on the day?

Just shows you what you can do if you’ve got the talent but no money. You can have the best equipment money can buy but it’s not going to win you races.

I haven’t seen the young lad for years but Stuart Dangerfield went on to much bigger things. Happy memories.

Bob Baddeley, email