Like many amateur cyclists, I am fascinated with the history of our sport - the good, the bad, the ugly - all fascinate me. Stories of the golden age of cycling, the days before gears when cyclists had to ride a single speed bike up mountains, the days when the Tour de France consisted of stages over 400 km, when riders were labourers who could make a years salary and escape from constant poverty, cyclists wore tweed and leather, bikes were fashioned of heavy steel, and of course, roads were rudimentary with gravel, cobbles and dust. It makes my 60km Sunday ride to Versailles with a stop for a cup of tea and a pain au chocolat seem frankly ridiculous.
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| Hippolyte Aucoutrier |
I listen to a podcast from the guys at The Velocast (http://www.velocast.cc) where they detail events that have fallen into cycling folklore. This week they detailed stories of Mick Murphy who sadly passed away on 11th September 2015. In these days of diving footballers faking injuries, cyclists stand out as hardmen of the sporting world. Geraint Thomas from Team Sky is one current British hardman - this year he finished on the podium of the Gent-Wevelgem despite crashing hard during the race, and also took an enormous crash during this year's Tour de France, crashing head first into a post during stage 16.
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| Geraint Thomas Gent-Wevelgem 2015 |
These stories were eclipsed by what I heard this week about Mick Murphy. Famous for being a certified oddball and absolute hardnut, he won one of the hardest races in the sport - The Ras in 1958 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A1s_Tailteann). He had broken his collarbone earlier in the race, and had to jump out the window of hospital to be able to continue racing. He broke the freewheel on his bike one day, borrowed a "normal" bike from a farmer and chased hard to get back to the leading group. He worked in the circus and had picked up unorthodox training methods from the Russian circus colleagues - including rustic weight training (unheard of at the time) with weights made from stone, and ate a raw diet. Whilst riding he would drink water topped up with blood taken directly from cows in the fields - he perfected a method of tapping the vein from a cow to add the blood into his water bottle, which he would then stop by pinching the skin.
Another story mentioned in the podcast was regarding the first winner of the Tour de France - Maurice Garin, the winner of the first Tour de France in 1903. Known as the White Bulldog, he was famously sold by his father to a chimney sweep in return for a bucket of cheese. These were different times indeed.
I'll raise a glass to the sadly departed Mick Murphy, a true hard man, the iron man, and one of the convicts of the road.
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| Mick Murphy |
