If it has to do with England, History and cycling, well, I'm there!
And there I went when someone sent me this link, from Total Women's Cycling, with an infographic about the history of British cycling.
In it, I found some things I'd never known before. For example, from 1890 until the 1950's, the National Cyclists' Union banned racing on open roads. And the Tour de France was first televised in the UK in 1980.
The infographic also mentions a cyclist whom I regard as one of the greatest of all time, perhaps the greatest besides Eddy Mercx: Beryl Burton. She won several road and pursuit titles and broke records previously held by men. It might be said that she dominated the sport in a way that Jeanne Longo loomed over the rest of the female peloton two decades later or Missy Giove ruled the then-nascent sport of downhill mountain bike racing a few years later.
And the graphic ends with some of Britain's favorite bike rides. Enjoy!
