How long will you continue cycling?

I take inspiration from the likes of clubman on here.

He can still lay down a decent pace and keep going with people 30 years younger than himself. He has great form on a bike, and an a great economy of energy. Plus when sitting down for tea and cake he has as deviant a sense of humour as anyone else.

Chapeau to Chris, if I can be half the cyclist he is at that age I will be a very happy man.

Well thank you, I feel very flattered and generally in a better mood than I was a few moments ago before I read this.

However, I'm not sure I'm really old enough to be held out as an example. For the moment I will post an obituary I have just written for a clubmate which I hope you will find worth reading. I will have some photographs to add to this in the next day or two.
Obituary

**Ethel Brambleby 1917-2010. **

A Life in Cycling.

Ethel’s first time trial was a club 30 in November 1933 and her final appearance was in August 2000 in the Rosslyn Ladies 12 mile event. In the intervening two thirds of a century it seems that cycle sport and cycling generally were rarely far from her mind.

That 30 was ridden just a few days after joining her first club, The Aldershot C.C. As is so often the case in our sport there had been at least one cyclist in the family before her, in this instance it was her dad who had ridden for the Charlotteville before the Great War. He had suggested that his young daughter should join his old club, but here perhaps we first see a feature of Ethel’s personality – a determination to be her own woman and fully in charge of her own destiny. It was she who decided which club to join.

Determination is an invaluable quality for any athlete and Ethel was never short of it. Apart from the difficulties we are all familiar with she had to overcome the strong prejudice which still existed in the nineteen thirties against women riding competitively. The start of her time trial career was in men’s events with the Border C.A. The Road Racing Council (forerunner of CTT) quickly stepped in and banned this practice. Women were only to ride against women. 

Perhaps this opposition was the spur to her undying enthusiasm, and it was probably the cause of her early involvement with the Women’s Road Record Association: it is believed that she was present at the inaugural meeting in October 1934. This youthful entry into sports politics arose because the Road Records Association, which had its origins in a rebellion against the NCU, refused to acknowledge women’s records and consequently spawned its own rebel organisation – The WRRA.

Ethel’s connection here led to one of the high points in her career when she took the London – Birmingham record with a time of 6 hours 17 minutes. She also took the tandem London – Birmingham (5hours 23mins.) and London – Bath and back (11 hours 51 mins.), both partnered by Flossie Wren. All these were in 1937.

Ethel’s talents were not restricted to the saddle: she wrote lucidly and often amusingly, publishing a number of articles in Cycling (the weekly) and elsewhere. Here is a quotation from the Hounslow club magazine.

   “I have ridden every distance, massed start, track and tandem, I have held four national records and currently hold 28 VTTA group records. I have ridden about forty 12 hour events and three 24’s. I was at my best from 1936at the age of nineteen to the outbreak of war, and then again between the ages of 60 and 65, but my best ever year ever was when I was 68. I then rode a 25 faster than Eileen Sheridan did as an amateur, and did a better 50 than Marguerite Wilson, so why didn’t I do it when I was young? Girls seldom realise their potential; I didn’t know how to try then, and now I’m too old. Don’t make the same mistake – make the most of every ride”

Although she identifies the years of her age from sixty to sixty five as her best, it’s worth mentioning here that she won the Merseyside Ladies CA 24 in 1973, ‘74 and ’75, her best mileage being in the third year – 354.85, which is still the Hounslow’s ladies record. The ‘fast’ 25 she refers to having ridden at the age of 68 was 1.6.08, slow by modern standards but she records elsewhere that her first ever 25 in 1934 was won with a 1 hour 9 minute ride. The winner, still wearing the plus fours in which he had ridden crossed the road to congratulate for her 1 hour 19 minute debut saying “one day you too will do a nine.” She says she “went home on cloud nine.” The year of this short six was 1985 and this was her final appearance in the 3 distance BBAR table. The CTT website only goes back to 1965, but in the annual record of those two decades Ethel’s name appears fourteen times.

Apart from racing Ethel organised events, including national championships, held many committee positions and was chair of the VTTA from 1970-75. With her husband Les she donated the trophy for the CTT Ladies BAR. In her own words she toured, with Les, “from Norway to Israel, and from Eastern Turkey to California.”

Ethel Rolph, as she then was, met her husband Les through her tandem partner Flossie Wren and they married in 1939. From then on her profession would have been described as ‘housewife’, although Ken Ryall jokingly suggested it should have been ‘professional cyclist’. They had two sons, Richard and Paul; sadly Paul predeceased his parents in 1996, and Les followed in 1998, Richard survives.

It is evident that a full appreciation of Ethel’s life would almost amount to a history of cycling, particularly as reflected by women’s time trialling. As a branch of cycle sport time trialling is remarkable for its persistence – it currently has little publicity and virtually no external finance, yet it is still with us and shows little sign of going away. The sport only continues because of the devotion of individuals like Ethel and Les who, without any incentive in terms of fame or money, carry on with their support year in, year out.

Ethel’s departure is a great loss to the club and to cycling generally.

January 2011.