Cycling 16 February, 1985
Graham Webb revisited as season is anticipated
Athree-page interview with Graham Webb was the stand-out feature in this week’s magazine. Winner of the 1967 amateur World Championship, Webb quit the sport midway through the 1969 season after injury, misfortune and contract wrangles conspired against him.
It was editor Martin Ayres who had tracked Webb down in Belgium, where he lived, and met him at the Hotel Sofitel in
Brussels where Panasonic Raleigh were holding their team presentation.
After Panasonic boss Peter Post and French journalist Jean-marie Leblanc (who later became technical director of the Tour de France) had greeted Webb, Aryes sat down with the often forgotten British champion. Webb explained why he’d quit his pro team one day and gone to work as a crane driver in a steelworks the next week. “I’d had enough of banging my head against a brick wall,” he said.
He went on to explain that his first marriage fell victim to cycling and he had debts piling up. “It hurt me deeply to cut myself off, but I feel it was the right decision. It’s better to work for a living.” Webb would never race again after he quit the Belgian Novy team when they told him there was no money to pay his wages.
Elsewhere, Glenn Longland’s win at the Perfs is reported, as is Tour champion Laurent Fignon’s winning return to racing at the Etoile de Bessèges. It was clearly thought that lucrative six-day racing through the winter had kept Fignon – one of the few riders to successfully defend a maiden Tour win – in shape, although the picture used shows a rather uncomfortable Fignon handslinging partner Charly Mottet mid-madison.
The out of focus podium picture on the cover is an interesting choice. With no main cover line and the two small cover lines not relating to it, you’re left wondering why a picture of Steve Douce (centre), Steve Barnes (l) and Chris Young (r) from the cyclo-cross championship was used.