Cycling 2 March, 1938
Rough stuff – an early form of cyclo-cross or was it just gravel riding?
In this issue Olympian Stan Butler puts pen to paper to give his advice on “rough stuff riding”. The question is, what is rough stuff riding? When talking about his preparation for a race he talks about riding the course at least twice “before the great day”, which makes it sound like a cyclo-cross race run off on multiple laps.
However, ‘cyclo-cross’ isn’t mentioned once in the piece, and neither is there any talk of riding laps. In line with Britain’s time trialling race scene the races were instead defined by distance, Butler being a five-time winner of the “Balham Rough Stuff ‘25’”. However, it’s hard to imagine a 25-mile out-and-back semi off-road course starting and finishing in Balham, just six miles south of central London. At this time cyclo-cross racing was taking place in northern Europe, but it’s quite possible it hadn’t made it over the channel.
Butler’s advice for tackling rough stuff riding was: “Steady riding through the week, then at least twice round the course before the great day. A three-speed gear is essential to make the best of the conditions. 62 for bottom gear and don’t worry about going too high for the top gear. Touring shorts and sweater are the things to wear on these rides,” and above all it, “should not be taken too seriously. A lot of fun can be had by listening to the wise-crackers who are always out in full force.”
Elsewhere, another Norwood Paragon Olympian Frank Southall wrote about “How to make the paced ‘50’ fair”. The problem was riders in the event could have up to six tandems to pace them, meaning each competitor needed to find 12 riders capable of riding, and six tandems for them to use.
Meanwhile, Billie Dovey was part-way through her aim of riding 25,000 miles in the year as part of a campaign to get one million more women on bikes. Riding her three-speed Rudge-whitworth: “You don’t want more than three gears, do you?” she later told Cycling Weekly. She eventually managed 29,603.7 miles, a record that attracted a huge amount of interest at the time, perhaps in part thanks to sponsorship from Cadbury.
She appeared in adverts and they sent her five-pound slabs of chocolate every month. How many women she inspired to take up riding, we’ll never know, but Dovey’s passion for cycling never dimmed. After the Second World War she married prolific racer George Fleming to become Billie Fleming. She died in 2014, aged 100 and was a passionate advocate for cycling until the end.