Graham Webb

Graham Paul Webb was an English racing cyclist who became the world amateur road race champion in 1967. In response to a journalist's shouted comment that the last British amateur world road champion had been Dave Marsh 45 years earlier, Webb retorted: "And they'll have to wait another 45 years before another British rider wins." Not only did no British man win a world road race championship in the following 45 years, but none can now win the amateur championship as the segregation between amateur and professional cycling no longer exists.

Biography Early days Graham Webb was born on 13 January 1944, as the youngest of five children brought up by a war widow in a slum in Birmingham, England. He was given the last rites twice as a child before gaining his health.

He got his first bike when he was eight and soon enjoyed going not only on long rides, but rides of such length that they were beyond him. He began riding from Birmingham to Gloucester and back, just because it was a magical round trip, and persisted until he could do it without literally falling into a ditch from exhaustion. He succeeded 'non-stop' only on his third attempt. "I just enjoyed doing it," he said. "I enjoyed suffering, I suppose. I still do."

Webb entered his first race aged 17, a time trial. Unaware of what he was supposed to do, shy and not understanding why competitors were starting individually as opposed to together in a bunch, Webb waited until he was called, by which point, he was late for his allocated start time; the time was calculated from the allocated start time instead of his actual start time as a penalty.

Wearing a T-shirt and pumps, Webb set off under the impression that he had to catch the riders that had started ahead of him in order to win. He was hampered initially as one of his pumps fell off and he had to wait for cars to pass before being able to return to collect his shoe and continue. Webb later commented that "I quickly caught someone and waited for him. And he was telling me 'clear off, clear off' – very unsociable, I thought. I rode on, went round the turn in the road, came back; and the chain jumped off between the block and the frame. So I had to get off the bike, and I'd got a whole tool kit with me, spanner, oil can, cloth for cleaning my hands and so on, and this was wrapped round my seat tube with a spare inner tube. I had to undo the back wheel, put the chain on, do up the wheel nuts, put everything behind the seat tube and carry on."

In 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.

Palmarès

1966 1st Individual Pursuit, British National Track Championships 1st Team Pursuit, British National Track Championships for division teams 1st Team Pursuit, British National Track Championships National track record – 10 miles, 25 miles & 1 hour

1967 1st World Amateur Road Race Championships, Heerlen 3rd GP d'Espéraza (FRA) 16th Omloop van de Baronie (NED) 1st Ghent Amateur Six Day Cycle Race (BEL)

1968 3rd Gavere (BEL) 1st Tienen (BEL) 1st Tessenderlo Criterium (BEL) 1st Kalmthout (BEL)