Is this Britain’s greatest cyclist no one’s heard of?

Twice World Road Race Champion, five times World Pursuit Champion, and a world record that stood for 50 years. Yet many people would struggle to name one of Britain’s best cyclists – especially those outside the cycling world.

I first heard about Beryl Burton when Maxine Peake’s critically acclaimed play, Beryl, came to a theatre nearby. The play was excellent, and I couldn’t understand why I knew nothing about this amazing woman and sporting hero.

Burton’s story is truly inspirational, but I wonder how many people outside of the cycling world have even heard of her. You don’t need to be a runner to know about Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile. I’ve not seen Chariots of Fire, yet I can still hum the theme tune. More recently, you don’t have to be an aficionado of cycling to know that Mark Cavendish is the record holder for most Tour de France stage wins.

Not a great start

So who was Beryl Burton? She was born Beryl Charnock on 12 May 1937 in Leeds. Young Beryl was something of an academic and believed that performing well in the 11-plus exam was her route to success. However, she collapsed as the exam started and was rushed to hospital.

She was diagnosed with Sydenham’s chorea, a neurological disorder characterised by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements, and rheumatic fever, a rare autoimmune disease that can affect the heart, joints, skin and brain. It took her more than two years to recover and she was told not to exercise vigorously. She put it down to the pressure she’d put herself under. With no opportunity to resit the 11-plus, her academic dreams were over.

Instead she went to work in a factory, where she met Charlie Burton, the man who would become her husband and introduce her to cycling. Charlie was a member of Morley Cycling Club and Beryl joined the club when they married in 1955.

The only woman in the club, at first she struggled to keep up, with Charlie pushing her up the hills. But soon she was keeping pace and then passing members on climbs. At the time Charlie was taking part in time trialling and in 1956 Beryl gave it a go.

Beginning to win

She won her first silver medal in 1957 in the national 100-mile individual time trial championship. She became the first British woman to win a world cycling title, the women’s world road race championship in 1960, and in 1963, the first woman to break the hour barrier for the 25-mile time trial.

In the individual pursuit, she won world championship medals almost every year across three decades, from the 1950s to the 70s. Charlie gave up his own competitive career to support Beryl in any way he could.

One of the most thrilling moments in the play and in Beryl’s life was in 1967 when she broke the world record for the 12-hour time trial, cycling a total of 277.25 miles. She set off with a handful of other women after the main event – the men – when most spectators had moved on.

She quickly made her way through the women, then the field of 99 men who were competing, including catching up with and passing the men’s champion Mike McNamara, who was on his way to setting a new men’s world record of 276.52 miles. Beryl beat him by 0.73 miles. It’s rumoured that she handed him a liquorice allsort as she passed him. It’s a wonderful image.

Her record stood for two years before a man beat it; it took 50 years to be beaten by woman. Beryl also set 50 national records, won 72 national individual time trial titles and 24 national titles in road racing and on the track. She won her last national titles in 1986.

Charlie was at all of her races, even if it meant riding on the back of a Morley CC clubmate’s scooter for the 1,000-mile trip from Leeds to Milan. They stopped at campsites along the way. Strapped to Charlie’s back was a spare bike for Beryl.

Proud amateur

She achieved all of this as an amateur, through sheer determination and talent. Women’s cycling was marginalised at the time, receiving very little support or interest. It wasn’t even featured in the Olympics until Beryl was 47 – a huge case of ‘what might have been’. Fiercely proud of her amateur status, Beryl turned down sponsorship offers from Raleigh. She was self-funded and had no formal coach, being dismissed as the ‘Yorkshire housewife’.

To take part in competitions in London she would use a phone box to call London-based cyclists to find a sofa to sleep on and cycle down from Leeds the day before. Tales of her and husband Charlie’s self-funded travels to international competitions are as remarkable as her cycling feats.

For much of this they were also bringing along a child – their daughter Denise was born in 1956. She (inevitably one feels) also became a cycling champion. In 1982, Beryl and Denise set a British 10-mile record for women riding a tandem bicycle: 21 minutes, 25 seconds.

Beryl died at 58, delivering invites to her 59th birthday party by bike. She isn’t completely unknown. She was recognised with an MBE and then an OBE. There’s 2022 biography, ‘Beryl: In search of Britain’s greatest athlete’, her own autobiography, ‘Personal Best’, and, of course, Maxine Peake’s play.

But her achievements deserve to be more widely recognised. She was a pioneer who paved the way for female cyclists who came after her. Her success and popularity on the world stage forced the British cycling powers that be to take women’s cycling seriously.

It’s hard not to wonder what Beryl would think of today’s cycling world, with its women’s Tour de France and international figures like Sarah Storey, Lizzie Deignan and Laura Kenny. And yet women make up less than a quarter of people riding on our roads, while the women’s teams are woefully underfunded compared to the men’s.

Celebrating women

This is why it’s still important to recognise the achievements of women in cycling – whether that’s in the world of professional sport or in local communities. Tomorrow (12 December) we launch the 2024 edition of 100 Women in Cycling, which has been running since 2017. Beryl was nominated in 2018; as was Maxine Peake.

This important list celebrates women in cycling and this year’s edition is full of inspiring stories from a 10-year-old using her YouTube channel to promote cycling to her peers to those overcoming disabilities to inspire others to women championing diversity in cycling.

We will continue to highlight all these amazing women in cycling.