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skinny
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@clubman
Just heard that John Woodburn died today
Requiescat in pace.
This was not altogether unexpected.
I'm not going to attempt an obituary here - I'm sure others are better qualified.
Woody had a great career as a time triallist starting in the fifties and continuing until recently. I think the one thing that really finished him was the revision of the vets' standards, which meant he had only a limited chance of winning. And talking of winning, he won our (Hounslow) open 25 on scratch when he was into his sixties.
There is one detail of Woody's career which is especially relevant to this forum, and that is his victory in the 25 championship of 1961. It was the first time this most competitive championship had been won on gears and it was generally believed that this marked the end of time trialling on fixed.
Naturally, we would say that was only for the time being. However the fact is that before '61 fixed was normal, especially at the shorter distances-subsequently there was a rapid decline.
We didn't always follow Woody's lead in choice of kit: his Cardiff-London RRA record on a Moulton produced zero imitators.
Still, however you look at it, his passing is a great loss to the world of cycling and particularly to time trialling.