Cycle Race - anyone know where?

[arthurk]

Thanks for raising the question of the team strip. I'd been meaning to ask if anyone recognised it, but I've been busy with other things recently.

Another question for the cycling aficionados: would the route/circuit for time trials be fixed, and would every club have one, or just a select few? And where might the results have been reported?

On to a couple more things...

I am wondering about the street lights , they look electric. I remember here we still had gas lamps in the 60's and the lamp lighter.

I mentioned the street lights in Reply #8, but the discussion didn't develop much. They struck me as being quite an unusual design, and I'd hoped to spot something like them as I trawled through old photos, but no luck so far. I agree that they're electric, but my memory of the 60s is that by then gas ones were restricted to side roads.

I've also been trying to locate Dewhursts shops and as far as possible compare the locations with Google street view, but again, no luck. I got the addresses from the phone books at Ancestry (I picked 1962-63), and the areas I've checked are these: Blackburn, Bradford, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Peterborough, Preston, Sheffield, Stoke and York. If anyone wants to carry on in other areas, or recheck any of those, feel free.

[Ray T]

Cycling clubs hold time trials on a regular basis - quite often weekly - but the scene we have been presented with is clearly not a local time trial given the public attention and that it involves a “team”.

Personally, I think we should avoid thinking of the cyclists that everyone has heard of. There are more historic names in cycling than Beryl Burton, Reg Harris and Édouard Louis Joseph Merckx and I’m sure there have been many teams with orange kit.

I can’t speak for earlier, but I remember concrete, electric, lamp posts back in the 1950s. The gas ones were cast iron.

[Flattybasher9]

I wonder if this was an early "Aprilia" team.

Malky

[arthurk]

I've been delving a little into cycling clubs and time trials, and there were far more of both than I ever imagined. I came across a couple of clubs with colours that are similar to the ones here:

Stafford Road Club - http://www.staffordrc.org/

Or, if the orange in the photo is a faded red or a characteristic of the film used, Rockingham Cycling Club - http://www.rockinghamcc.org.uk/

[BumbleB]

Sorry folks, but I don't believe that this is an inter-club event, it is much more likely to be a national or international event.  Reason - far too many spectators around for starters, plus the road is obviously closed to other traffic and so it has to be a major event.  I do speak from experience, having been married to an ex-racing cyclist for the last 55 years, and having attended many, many events both large and small in that timescale.

To my mind it might be helpful if we knew where the OP's father had lived.

[arthurk]

To my mind it might be helpful if we knew where the OP's father had lived.

The OP may not be aware that this discussion has started again, so I've just sent her a PM to let her know, and to say that there are some things we hope she'll be able to tell us.

[BumbleB]

Many thanks 

[Trish1908]

Hi arthurk
Many thanks for reminding me this picture is still out there!
my father was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire and never lived anywhere else. He did, however, go on walking/ cycling holidays all over the UK throughout the 1940s, 50s and early 60s, usually staying in Youth Hostels. As part of my detective work I have looked through his YHA cards (which were stamped at each hostel) to see if there might have been a time trial/ race in locations that corresponded with where he was, but no luck.

With regards to the photo, its actually one of my dads slides - I'm going to take it out of the frame and see if there's any more to the image that might give us a clue.

Also, I believe the bus in the photo to be a Samuel Ledgard bus but not sure if that helps anyone

So glad this is still piquing interest - its the longest unidentified picture of my dads so far, and I'm starting to think this one might never be solved.

Trish

[jcmac]

Trish,
Was this slide in place to suggest those on either side might be of same race / location?
Another slide might have a different angle / view.
jcmac