About this design
Beryl Burton's palmares are too overwhelming to list, the details cannot be taken in. And in any case it is probably only half of what might have been given that during her career there were no Olympic cycling competitions for women. Domestically she was completely dominant. And for those who think this might have been because there was little competition it is the case that she often beat the leading men of the day. Including notably passing the man, Mike McNamara, (she beat him by about a mile) who was on his way to setting the men's 12 hr record, set in the same race as the one in which she established the woman's record, 277.25 miles, that still stands to this day. She was also notably invited to the Grand Prix de Nations (the worlds premier time trialling competition) in 1967, perhaps the first women to be so invited. You could not make it up. By any standard the absolute times and distances she posted in time trials are exceptional. It was all achieved sans: carbon fibre; disc wheels; aero bars; aero helmets; skin suits; wind tunnels; heart rate monitors; extraordinary tyre technology; ceramic bearings; not to mention EPO and HGH etc etc. Had proper road races been available to her there is no doubt she would have won them.
Similarly extraordinary is the fact she had poor health as a child and probably had a heart condition for the whole of her career.
Beryl Burton died prematurely of a heart attack while out on her bike on the 8th May 1996 a few days shy of her 59th Birthday. Celebrate Britain's most extraordinary athlete certainly of the last century, wear our Beryl Burton t shirt. The picture on our t shirt is taken from the Bernard Thompson Photo Archive