Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Racing => Topic started by: Ray 6701 on 29 August, 2012, 08:01:20 pm
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Sad news :(
Ray Booty was a true legend & the 1st rider to break the 4hrs for a 100mile TT.
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CFcQqQIwBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyclingweekly.co.uk%2Fnews%2Flatest%2F534547%2Ftime-trialling-great-ray-booty-dies.html&ei=fmM-ULHuGY7KsgbR7oCoDQ&usg=AFQjCNGEAUNyoLLKCe8IA2rcvVmRUkjy1Q
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:( man he could go those pics put a lot of modern cyclists to shame
The following month he broke the Road Records Association straight out 100 in 3 hours 28 minutes 40 seconds. The record stood for 34 years
CHAPEAU and farewell to a legend may you suffer no more
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Sad news. A legend, and not just for his 100; but also a lifetime cyclist who just loved to ride, and an absolute gentleman.
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"One more KM and we're in the showers" has a great piece on him. Top man indeed.
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A marvellous rider. Pretty mealy-mouthed description from Ron Kitching on the wiki entry, I thought.
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I'm amazed the Grim Reaper was able to catch him.
An astonishing, and understated, rider.
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A marvellous rider. Pretty mealy-mouthed description from Ron Kitching on the wiki entry, I thought.
I've got the book that comes from. Everyone who rode the Audax at York Rally in 2004 got a copy. He's comparing Booty's career to Vin Denson's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Denson and wondering why Britain produced lots of Super Domestiques, but no team leaders. Kitching concludes by saying, 'But the Boot certainly had a lot going for him. He was a real champion. He could have had a very successful career as a professional road record-breaker if Raleigh had had the interest to formalise his relationship. Who knows why it didn't happen. But it was a shame.'
Page 267, if anyone else has the book.
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Thanks, Damon. That's much better. Wiki's brief quote looked so stark.
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Thanks, Damon. That's much better. Wiki's brief quote looked so stark.
He also says that being a champion in road racing require a nasty streak. He questioned whether Booty was nasty enough, and whether he had the internal drive to weather a run of bad results. An amateur time-triallist can choose their battleground, and even not start on the day if they so feel. The quote about modesty was about that. Kitching seemed to feel that Booty was motivated by winning, and that once he lost he dropped cycling. Kitching was a committed club rider as well as a businessman. So to him Booty's attitude was all wrong. He wanted a rider who had Booty's talent, but was steeped in cycling, and could weather a run of bad results. He'd have loved Wiggins, but would have wondered if he was nasty enough, certainly the Cavendish fiasco at the Olympics would raise that question.
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Good points, all.
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I guess that it's relevant to note that Ray (and his brother, who was also a good cyclist) developed very succesful careers and "did well for themselves". Some people like to do one thing as well as they can, and then move on to another challenge. Maybe Ron Kitching didn't relate to that so much.
Another Derby resident, Bernard Pusey, (one of Ray's contemporaries) also had a glittering career on the bike, but then decided that that was as far as that went, and then concentrated on building a succesful academic career.
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Ron Kitching is probably one of the few English people to only have a Wikipedia page in Welsh, as far as I can make out.
http://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Kitching
He was a successful importer of cycling accessories, an early promoter of road racing and a fairly forthright and abrasive Yorkshireman. His name lives on in the big ride from York CTC rally, it has been an Audax in the past, now it's a sportive.
http://www.ctcchallengerides.co.uk/CTC_york_sportive.php In the book he's musing on various characters he met in the Yorkshire cycling scene of the 1950s. Beryl Burton features largely. He was perhaps wondering why we didn't produce a male equivalent to Beryl. The social background of the top TT riders may have had a lot to do with it.
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Obit in the Grauniad: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/17/ray-booty
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Obit in the Grauniad: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/17/ray-booty
Thanks for posting that.
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author=spesh link=topic=62665.msg1316003#msg1316003 date=1347928816]
Obit in the Grauniad: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/17/ray-booty
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It's nice that he lived to see Bradley win the Tour. He was the same build as Brad was before he lost weight.
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His great 100-mile ride came in the Bath Road Classic on a hot August bank holiday Monday in 1956. Using an 84-inch gear, and with cold porridge in his drinks bottle...
Don't ask!
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His great 100-mile ride came in the Bath Road Classic on a hot August bank holiday Monday in 1956. Using an 84-inch gear, and with cold porridge in his drinks bottle...
Don't ask!
It got better...
The only drink available as he finished, exhausted and parched, was a bottle of sour milk, but he drank it anyway.
:sick:
They don't make 'em like they used to.
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The picture of Ray at the end of his record ride reminds me of the riders in the Olympic Time trial sitting with their legs out, leaning against the steel barriers at the finish, resting in the shade of the banners. There aren't any pictures of that on the net. The moment when Wiggins shook Martin's hand and sat next to him was pure TT history. It could have been any TT starting from any layby on a dual carriageway anywhere in Britain.
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/9/17/1347891180521/Ray-Booty-005.jpg)
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Here's a short video clip of Ray Booty climbing Stanford Bank in the 1961 Beacon RCC Mountain Time Trial - commentary by David Duffield...
http://youtu.be/VP5t2XEuzvk
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Rode the Beeston RC 100 in the late 50's. I came 10th in a gale with a 4.44, but was nearly 30 minutes slower than Ray's winning ride, which was probably one of his slowest. Met him many years later when out cycling and rode and chatted with him for an hour or so. Very unassuming but also a great jazz fan as many cyclists were in those days.