On their bikes

CYCLING has been a life-long love for me. i have a photograph of me on my three-wheeler, taken in a local park. i got it for my third Christmas in 1950.

in 1955, i got my first twowheeler and it wasn’t long before i was hankering for a racer. On the two-mile walk from school, i would press my nose against the Bert lomax bike shop window and wish for a reg harris with ten gears: far too expensive. i built one from bits i found around my estate.

Aged ten, i toured Scotland with my grandad. having moved to radcliffe, (lancashire then), i rode ‘home’ to Edinburgh to impress him.

i started racing under British Cycling Federation (BCF) rules when i was 17. the same year, i was knocked off my bike by a careless driver. Eleven more such incidents followed — from uncontrolled dogs to opening car doors, i’ve suffered them all. i recall the deaths of Commonwealth games gold medallist, Peter Buckley (uncontrolled dog) and silver medallist Pete longbottom, struck from behind by a speeding car, just moments after competing in a BCF road race.

i, too, was struck from behind — by a metal pole protruding from a passing wagon. to say i was disturbed that the driver was merely fined £100 and received three points would be a gross understatement. i waited 11 years for compensation.

i was even more disturbed by the rhyl CC tragedy, which claimed the lives of four cyclists (including thomas harland, 14, and Maurice Broadbent, who i raced and trained with). the driver received a £180 fine.

British Cycling, the road safety minister, the Ministry of Justice and the Crown Prosecution Service need to get their act together. We need safe cycling — every driver should be made to ride a bike before getting their licence. allan RaMsay, Radcliffe,

Manchester.