Percy Stallard
Encyclopedia
Percy Thornley Stallard (19 July 1909 – 11 August 2001) was an English
racing cyclist
who reintroduced massed-start road racing on British roads in the 1940s.
Born in Wolverhampton
, at his father's bicycle shop in Broad Street, Stallard became a member of the Wolverhampton Wheelers Cycling Club
and a keen competitor in cycle races, competing for Great Britain in international races during the 1930s, including three consecutive world championships (1933–1935). He was also a successful cycling coach and team captain.
on a course described as "the Cannock road". By the end of the season he progressed to riding 50-mile (80 km) events and the following year to a 12-hour endurance race
He rode only time-trials until 1932, when his papers suggest he may have ridden in local grass-track meetings or perhaps on a hard velodrome
. He could also have tried cyclo-cross
because that year he also took part in a race between cyclists and runners, traditionally held on cross-country courses. Track races became more common from 1933.
came sixth in the Olympic Games
cycling road race in Los Angeles
when it was run that way. But then came an announcement that henceforth the Olympics would be run as a massed-start event, a form of racing which (see below) the British cycling authorities had banned since the 19th century and at which British riders therefore had no experience.
The magazine Cycling
wrote:
Confronted by a decision it could not get reversed, the British governing body, the National Cyclists' Union
(NCU), allowed the Charlotteville Cycling Club in Guildford
, Surrey
, to organise a series of races on the Brooklands
car circuit. The largest, on 17 June 1933, was billed as the 100-Kilometre Massed-Start World Cycling Championship Trial and the NCU said it would choose its next team for the world championship based on the outcome. The organiser was Vic Jenner and the business manager Bill Mills, two international riders. Mills went on to start the weekly magazine The Bicycle as a rival to Cycling. A crowd put at 10,000 watched a "race like kick-and-rush football, tactics limited to random and eccentric attacking by the best, hanging on for the rest."
Stallard recalled:
Stallard was chosen for the 1933 UCI Road World Championships
team and finished 11th, the best of the British entry. The British favourite had been Frank Southall
, but although his speed got him into the group of 38 leading riders, his inability to change pace on the shallow rises of the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry near Montlhéry
, gave him difficulties. The writer and race organiser, Chas Messenger
, wrote:
Southall eventually abandoned and the other rider, Jack Salt, who had won at Brooklands, came 21st and last. Stallard and the team created interest in France. Stallard said: "The trip to France was a real education to me, and during my short stay I learnt more about bike racing than I had done during my six years as a time-triallist. I went equipped with a 20-inch 'contraption' that may well have been the latest design 20 years earlier, but certainly not later. My handlebars were really the things that fascinated most. They were a lovely pair of 19½-inch Highgates, and when referring to the antediluvian equipment of the English team, the French Press likened my bars to a pair of 'cow's horns.'"
Next year, in the 1934 UCI Road World Championships
at Leipzig
, Stallard was selected to ride with Charles Holland
and Fred Ghilks. Their accompanying official from the National Cyclists' Union
was from Herne Hill
velodrome
in south London
and knew little of road-racing. The circuit was nearly six miles round, to be covered 12 times. The marshalling was by Brownshirts. The race averaged 26 mph with one lap at nearly 30. Holland rode 60 of the 70 miles with three broken spokes and came fourth. Stallard and Ghilks finished over two minutes later, Stallard seventh and Ghilks 26th. The race was won by Kees Pellenaars of Holland, who went on to manage the Dutch team in the Tour de France
.
, the governing body, demanded races be held only on tracks and, later, on circuits such as airfields that were closed to traffic. Although time trial
s (races between individuals competing against the clock) had started as a revolt against the NCU's ban - the races were held at dawn on courses kept secret from the public with riders dressed from head to toe in black to complete the secrecy - there were no races on open roads between riders starting together.
In June 1936, though, the Isle of Man
allowed a race over one lap of the motorcycling Snaefell mountain course
. The island is a separate jurisdiction from the United Kingdom and did not fall under British police control. The island also saw the race as a potential tourist attraction. In time the race, expanded to three laps and known as the Manx International, became the main event within a week of cycling festivities that followed the motorcycling week.
The 1936 race was spectacular for the crashes that it produced, because for the first time riders were required to negotiate everyday winding streets rather than the smooth bends of a motor-racing course. Stallard finished 17th and inspired by what he had ridden. There were more races on car circuits and airfields - Stallard won the last race at Brooklands, in 1939 - but to Stallard they were just a shadow of the real thing.
Chamberlin was not impressed. Stallard protested that the airfields and car circuits which were the only place that the NCU would allow massed racing had been taken by the army and RAF. On Easter Monday 1942 he called a meeting at the foot of Long Mynd
, a hill in Shropshire
that was popular with cyclists, and announced his plan for a 59-mile race from Llangollen
to Wolverhampton
on June 7.
He obtained sponsorship from the Wolverhampton Express and Star newspaper, offered any profits to the newspaper's Forces Comfort Fund, and recruited 40 riders to take part.
. His fear, and that of the NCU, was that asking the police for permission to hold a race ended the freedom of cyclists to hold races, or at any rate lone races against the clock, without interference.
Under the headline A hopeless revolt, George Herbert Stancer wrote:
Stancer's words influenced the NCU and it banned Stallard before the race had started. An agreement with the Road Time Trials Council meant that it too banned him. Stallard argued later that the race was not against the NCU's rules, which said: "Massed start races will be permitted only under the most exceptional circumstances, e.g. if the police and/or other authorities either close the roads or give in writing their official approval of the race being run." The police, he said, had approved his race and would help on the day. The NCU, on the other hand, pointed out that Stallard's letters to chief constables had referred not to a massed-start race but to a "cycling event."
Stallard went ahead with the event on 7 June 1942 and it finished, without incident, in front of a crowd at West Park. Cycling reported:
The report - in which the frequent mention of the police reflected the magazine's concerns as expressed by Stancer - went on to explain that the race had been banned by the NCU and by the time-trialling body, the Road Time Trials Council, but that there had been no incidents other than a lorry backing on to the course. Fifteen riders finished and all those involved in the race were suspended by the NCU. Stallard was banned indefinitely for refusing to account for himself to the NCU's management. The suspension, often referred to as "for life" was in fact sine die, meaning without defined end but allowing Stallard to appeal. The weekly magazine, The Bicycle, apologised to the NCU on 20 May 1942 for misreporting the penalty as a life suspension, although the consequence proved the same because Stallard did not appeal and the ban was never lifted.
. It was formed in November that year, bringing together regional groups already forming in the Midlands and the North. Stallard won the 1944 BLRC championship, and served as events organiser for a time, before being expelled for criticising the standard of events. He was also a moving force behind organisation of the fledgling Tour of Britain
.
Stallard remained bitter about the NCU and even his own invention, the BLRC, for the rest of his life.
His criticism of the BLRC and its standards of race organisation led to his being briefly suspended from the organisation he had helped to found.
In 1959, the NCU and the BLRC agreed to merge, by which time both had become mentally and financially exhausted by their civil war. Stallard saw the merger as treason by "just three people [who] were allowed the freedom to destroy the BLRC" and until his death saw the new British Cycling Federation
(BCF) as a reincarnation of the NCU.
His assistant at his cycle shop, Ralph Jones, was the BLRC delegate at an international meeting Spain which recognised the BCF as Britain's national body. Stallard sacked him the next day he came into work. Jones had finished sixth in Stallard's race from Llangollen to Wolverhampton.
to Holyhead
. It started from Marble Arch
at 5am and finished 267 miles later in Holyhead. Thirty-five riders were listed at the start, all professionals or semi-professionals (known as independents - the BLRC, contrary to the other cycling bodies in Britain, had promoted the idea of independent riders, who were intended to be trying their hand in professional racing while not yet committing themselves to leaving the amateur
class). The BLRC official and historian Chas Messenger wrote:
At the finish at Holyhead:
The race continued until the 1960s, organised by Stan Kite, until it fell foul of traffic on the main A5 road - riders sometimes had to stop at traffic lights - and international limits on race distances.
. Racing as he grew older became difficult because the British Cycling Federation's rules classed all riders as veterans when they passed 40. Stallard argued that veterans' races should be organised in age-groups and he clashed again with cycling authorities by forming an organisation to make that possible.
He drew up the rules from a hospital bed in 1985, when he was having a hip replaced, and the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) began in 1986. This time, the rest of cycling left him to it.
Stallard fell out with the organisation he had founded, saying in his private papers that the LVRC was not "up to expectation" and adding:
In June 1989 he wrote to the journalist Les Woodland: "I regret very much my endeavour on behalf of age-related [racing]. While there is a definite call for this type of riding, a big majority of the LVRC membership look upon the organisation as a means of providing them with a few extra races, nothing more, and have no allegiance to it whatever."
wrote:
"Are we being over-optimistic in believing that the bitterness caused by the rift of the Forties and Fifties has now faded away?" Cycling was indeed being overoptimistic: Stallard refused the medal. Cycling reported:
Stallard believed that he had never been asked to manage a British team or take a national position in the sport because former NCU officials ran the BCF and resented what he had done. Just before his death on 11 August 2001, Stallard wrote:
between Zermatt
in Switzerland
and Italy
. The Rough Stuff Fellowship, an organisation for enthusiasts of cross-country cycling, acknowledged that it was probably the first time a cyclist had done it. The pass is 10,976 feet high and Stallard made it in less than 15 hours, sometimes through deep snow.
He also walked over Mount Whitney
, at 14,496 feet, in the USA, but came close to dying after running out of water while walking down into the Grand Canyon
and back out again along mule tracks. He also crossed the Sierra Nevada in four days of 1973.
He travelled 25,000 miles across America
by Greyhound bus and organised more than 100 coach trips for fellow walking enthusiasts.
His life ended riddled with regret. He wrote:
He died leaving three children, Mick
, Olive and Olwyn. He divorced in the 1960s. His brothern Dennis, lived in Perth, Western Australia.
Percy Stallard was a bright and energetic man with a vision for his sport. But he was not a man to tolerate argument or those with other views. Having achieved what he wanted, with the NCU's final acceptance of massed racing on the road, Stallard placed the continuity of the BLRC over the end of the civil war that the BLRC and the NCU had conducted.
Critics said Stallard had lost sight of the intention of the BLRC, which had been to bring racing to the open road and that, once achieved, there was no further point in rival cycling administrations. Peter Bryan, editor of The Bicycle, associate of Sporting Cyclist
and managing editor of Cycling, said:
. They created a division in the sport that outlasted the foundation of the British Cycling Federation
and they established an organisation, the BLRC, which is still fondly remembered by the few cyclists old enough to have competed with it.
Stallard reintroduced massed racing to British roads for the first time since the 19th century. To the question of whether Britain would have moved to massed racing anyway, without the BLRC, Peter Bryan says not, saying that the established cycling authorities had become entrenched in their positions, their own rivalry overshadowed by their joint fears and interests.
Stallard's success was that he alerted the UCI to a problem in British cycling which led the UCI to threaten Britain with exclusion from world cycling unless it sorted out the conflict between the NCU and the BLRC. Seeing the BLRC as closer to the UCI's interests, it suggested it would recognise the BLRC and not the NCU as the representative body. It was because of that that the NCU relented and agreed to license the massed races it had hitherto opposed.
The League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) holds a competition named in Stallard's memory.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
racing cyclist
Road bicycle racing
Road bicycle racing is a bicycle racing sport held on roads, using racing bicycles. The term "road racing" is usually applied to events where competing riders start simultaneously with the winner being the first to the line at the end of the course .Historically, the most...
who reintroduced massed-start road racing on British roads in the 1940s.
Born in Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, at his father's bicycle shop in Broad Street, Stallard became a member of the Wolverhampton Wheelers Cycling Club
Cycling club
A cycling club is a society for cyclists. It can be local or national, general or specialised. The Cyclists' Touring Club, CTC) in the United Kingdom is a national association; i-Team and are internet clubs; the Tricycle Association, Tandem Club and the Veterans Time Trial Association, for those...
and a keen competitor in cycle races, competing for Great Britain in international races during the 1930s, including three consecutive world championships (1933–1935). He was also a successful cycling coach and team captain.
Racing career
Percy Stallard joined Wolverhampton Wheelers and rode his first race on 8 May 1927, when he was 17. The competition was a 10-mile individual time trialIndividual time trial
An individual time trial is a road bicycle race in which cyclists race alone against the clock . There are also track-based time trials where riders compete in velodromes, and team time trials...
on a course described as "the Cannock road". By the end of the season he progressed to riding 50-mile (80 km) events and the following year to a 12-hour endurance race
He rode only time-trials until 1932, when his papers suggest he may have ridden in local grass-track meetings or perhaps on a hard velodrome
Velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
. He could also have tried cyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter , and consists of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and...
because that year he also took part in a race between cyclists and runners, traditionally held on cross-country courses. Track races became more common from 1933.
Brooklands and the world championship
Lone racing against the clock was a British speciality and in 1932 Frank SouthallFrank Southall
William Frank Southall was an English racing cyclist who won silver medals for Great Britain in the individual road race at the 1928 Summer Olympics and a track cycling medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles...
came sixth in the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
cycling road race in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
when it was run that way. But then came an announcement that henceforth the Olympics would be run as a massed-start event, a form of racing which (see below) the British cycling authorities had banned since the 19th century and at which British riders therefore had no experience.
The magazine Cycling
Cycling Weekly
Cycling Weekly is a British cycling magazine. It is published by IPC Media and is devoted to the sport and past-time of cycling. It is affectionately referred to by British club cyclists as "The Comic".-History:...
wrote:
"The strongest possible protest ought to be made by the English delegates both to the UCI (Union Cycliste InternationaleUnion Cycliste InternationaleUnion Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland....
) and the Olympic committees against the recent decision by the UCI that the Olympic road-race for 1936 is to be a massed-start affair. The Olympic Games were the last stronghold of the genuine international trial of road-riding, free from tactics or bunching."Bunching" was the term for riders sitting in the slipstream of others while riding in a bunch or pack of riders. British opinion held that it distorted the race because riders fresh from never having taken the lead could sprint by at the finish.
Confronted by a decision it could not get reversed, the British governing body, the National Cyclists' Union
National Cyclists' Union
The National Cyclists' Union was an association established in the Guildhall Tavern, London, on 16 February 1878 as the Bicycle Union. Its purpose was to defend cyclists and to organise and regulate bicycle racing in Great Britain...
(NCU), allowed the Charlotteville Cycling Club in Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, to organise a series of races on the Brooklands
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...
car circuit. The largest, on 17 June 1933, was billed as the 100-Kilometre Massed-Start World Cycling Championship Trial and the NCU said it would choose its next team for the world championship based on the outcome. The organiser was Vic Jenner and the business manager Bill Mills, two international riders. Mills went on to start the weekly magazine The Bicycle as a rival to Cycling. A crowd put at 10,000 watched a "race like kick-and-rush football, tactics limited to random and eccentric attacking by the best, hanging on for the rest."
Stallard recalled:
Stallard was chosen for the 1933 UCI Road World Championships
UCI Road World Championships
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale...
team and finished 11th, the best of the British entry. The British favourite had been Frank Southall
Frank Southall
William Frank Southall was an English racing cyclist who won silver medals for Great Britain in the individual road race at the 1928 Summer Olympics and a track cycling medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles...
, but although his speed got him into the group of 38 leading riders, his inability to change pace on the shallow rises of the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry near Montlhéry
Montlhéry
Montlhéry is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located from Paris.Inhabitants of Montlhéry are known as Montlhériens.-History:...
, gave him difficulties. The writer and race organiser, Chas Messenger
Chas Messenger
Charles William "Chas" Messenger was a British cyclist, a former Milk Race organiser and British road team manager.Messenger was born in London...
, wrote:
Southall eventually abandoned and the other rider, Jack Salt, who had won at Brooklands, came 21st and last. Stallard and the team created interest in France. Stallard said: "The trip to France was a real education to me, and during my short stay I learnt more about bike racing than I had done during my six years as a time-triallist. I went equipped with a 20-inch 'contraption' that may well have been the latest design 20 years earlier, but certainly not later. My handlebars were really the things that fascinated most. They were a lovely pair of 19½-inch Highgates, and when referring to the antediluvian equipment of the English team, the French Press likened my bars to a pair of 'cow's horns.'"
Next year, in the 1934 UCI Road World Championships
UCI Road World Championships
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale...
at Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Stallard was selected to ride with Charles Holland
Charles Holland (cyclist)
Charles Holland was a British road bicycle racer. He was one of the first two Britons to ride the Tour de France.-The early years:...
and Fred Ghilks. Their accompanying official from the National Cyclists' Union
National Cyclists' Union
The National Cyclists' Union was an association established in the Guildhall Tavern, London, on 16 February 1878 as the Bicycle Union. Its purpose was to defend cyclists and to organise and regulate bicycle racing in Great Britain...
was from Herne Hill
Herne Hill
Herne Hill is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. There is a road of the same name which continues the A215 north of Norwood Road and was called Herne Hill Road.-History:...
velodrome
Velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
in south London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and knew little of road-racing. The circuit was nearly six miles round, to be covered 12 times. The marshalling was by Brownshirts. The race averaged 26 mph with one lap at nearly 30. Holland rode 60 of the 70 miles with three broken spokes and came fourth. Stallard and Ghilks finished over two minutes later, Stallard seventh and Ghilks 26th. The race was won by Kees Pellenaars of Holland, who went on to manage the Dutch team in the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
.
First road race
Stallard had never ridden a massed event on the open road in Britain. The English cycle-racing authorities had, since the end of the 19th century, banned racing on the roads, fearing the police would ban all cycling as a result. The National Cyclists' UnionNational Cyclists' Union
The National Cyclists' Union was an association established in the Guildhall Tavern, London, on 16 February 1878 as the Bicycle Union. Its purpose was to defend cyclists and to organise and regulate bicycle racing in Great Britain...
, the governing body, demanded races be held only on tracks and, later, on circuits such as airfields that were closed to traffic. Although time trial
Time trial
In many racing sports an athlete will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. In cycling, for example, a time trial can be a single track cycling event, or an individual or team time trial on the road, and either or both of the latter may form components of...
s (races between individuals competing against the clock) had started as a revolt against the NCU's ban - the races were held at dawn on courses kept secret from the public with riders dressed from head to toe in black to complete the secrecy - there were no races on open roads between riders starting together.
In June 1936, though, the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
allowed a race over one lap of the motorcycling Snaefell mountain course
Snaefell mountain course
Snaefell Mountain Course or Mountain Course is a road-racing circuit used for the Isle of Man TT and Manx Grand Prix Races held in the Isle of Man from 1911 and 1923 respectively. The racing is held on public roads closed for racing by an Act of Tynwald...
. The island is a separate jurisdiction from the United Kingdom and did not fall under British police control. The island also saw the race as a potential tourist attraction. In time the race, expanded to three laps and known as the Manx International, became the main event within a week of cycling festivities that followed the motorcycling week.
The 1936 race was spectacular for the crashes that it produced, because for the first time riders were required to negotiate everyday winding streets rather than the smooth bends of a motor-racing course. Stallard finished 17th and inspired by what he had ridden. There were more races on car circuits and airfields - Stallard won the last race at Brooklands, in 1939 - but to Stallard they were just a shadow of the real thing.
Campaign for road racing
When war came later that year, the roads emptied because of petrol rationing. Stallard insisted that if there were few or no other road-users, massed racing on the road was unlikely to bring objections. He wrote in December 1941 to A. P. Chamberlin of the NCU:Chamberlin was not impressed. Stallard protested that the airfields and car circuits which were the only place that the NCU would allow massed racing had been taken by the army and RAF. On Easter Monday 1942 he called a meeting at the foot of Long Mynd
Long Mynd
The Long Mynd in Shropshire, England, is a part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is south of the county town Shrewsbury, and has an area of over 22 square kilometres , most of which takes the form of a heathland plateau. Most of the land on the Long Mynd is owned by...
, a hill in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
that was popular with cyclists, and announced his plan for a 59-mile race from Llangollen
Llangollen
Llangollen is a small town and community in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, situated on the River Dee and on the edge of the Berwyn mountains. It has a population of 3,412.-History:...
to Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
on June 7.
He obtained sponsorship from the Wolverhampton Express and Star newspaper, offered any profits to the newspaper's Forces Comfort Fund, and recruited 40 riders to take part.
Opposition and suspension
His plan brought strong opposition from the cycling establishment, particularly from the veteran administrator and writer George Herbert StancerGeorge Herbert Stancer
George Herbert Stancer OBE was a notable English racing cyclist of the late 19th century who became one of the most notable administrators of the British Cyclists' Touring Club after World War I...
. His fear, and that of the NCU, was that asking the police for permission to hold a race ended the freedom of cyclists to hold races, or at any rate lone races against the clock, without interference.
Under the headline A hopeless revolt, George Herbert Stancer wrote:
"They have plunged into their dangerous experiment without regard for the consequences... I understand that the 'rebels' want to go on holding races by police permit and under police protection; and when this is withdrawn they are apparently content to put up the shutters and go out of business as promoters.... If we voluntarily place road-racing under police control, we sign its death warrant.... If we are to race on the road, for heaven's sake let us do it as free citizens, and not by permission of the police."
Stancer's words influenced the NCU and it banned Stallard before the race had started. An agreement with the Road Time Trials Council meant that it too banned him. Stallard argued later that the race was not against the NCU's rules, which said: "Massed start races will be permitted only under the most exceptional circumstances, e.g. if the police and/or other authorities either close the roads or give in writing their official approval of the race being run." The police, he said, had approved his race and would help on the day. The NCU, on the other hand, pointed out that Stallard's letters to chief constables had referred not to a massed-start race but to a "cycling event."
Stallard went ahead with the event on 7 June 1942 and it finished, without incident, in front of a crowd at West Park. Cycling reported:
"More than a thousand people watched the finish of the massed-start race organised by Percy Stalland, from Llangollen to Wolverhampton, on Sunday afternoon. The Chief Constable of Wolverhampton, an inspector, a sergeant and 15 uniformed policemen kept the crowd back. Police cars and police motorcyclists patrolled portions of the course. A police motorcyclist led the racing men through the streets to the finish. E. A. Price, of Wolverhampton, won the sprint from his clubmate, C. J. Anslow"
The report - in which the frequent mention of the police reflected the magazine's concerns as expressed by Stancer - went on to explain that the race had been banned by the NCU and by the time-trialling body, the Road Time Trials Council, but that there had been no incidents other than a lorry backing on to the course. Fifteen riders finished and all those involved in the race were suspended by the NCU. Stallard was banned indefinitely for refusing to account for himself to the NCU's management. The suspension, often referred to as "for life" was in fact sine die, meaning without defined end but allowing Stallard to appeal. The weekly magazine, The Bicycle, apologised to the NCU on 20 May 1942 for misreporting the penalty as a life suspension, although the consequence proved the same because Stallard did not appeal and the ban was never lifted.
British League of Racing Cyclists
With nowhere to go but insistent that massed racing was the future, Stallard was instrumental in creating a breakaway organisation, the British League of Racing CyclistsBritish League of Racing Cyclists
The British League of Racing Cyclists was an association formed in 1942 to promote road bicycle racing in Great Britain. It operated in competition with the National Cyclists' Union, a rivalry which lasted until the two merged in 1959 to form the British Cycling Federation.-Background:The National...
. It was formed in November that year, bringing together regional groups already forming in the Midlands and the North. Stallard won the 1944 BLRC championship, and served as events organiser for a time, before being expelled for criticising the standard of events. He was also a moving force behind organisation of the fledgling Tour of Britain
Tour of Britain
The Tour of Britain is a cycle race, conducted over several stages, in which participants race from place to place across parts of Great Britain....
.
Stallard remained bitter about the NCU and even his own invention, the BLRC, for the rest of his life.
His criticism of the BLRC and its standards of race organisation led to his being briefly suspended from the organisation he had helped to found.
In 1959, the NCU and the BLRC agreed to merge, by which time both had become mentally and financially exhausted by their civil war. Stallard saw the merger as treason by "just three people [who] were allowed the freedom to destroy the BLRC" and until his death saw the new British Cycling Federation
British Cycling
British Cycling is the national governing body for cycle racing in Great Britain. It administers most competitive cycling in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man...
(BCF) as a reincarnation of the NCU.
His assistant at his cycle shop, Ralph Jones, was the BLRC delegate at an international meeting Spain which recognised the BCF as Britain's national body. Stallard sacked him the next day he came into work. Jones had finished sixth in Stallard's race from Llangollen to Wolverhampton.
London-Holyhead
Percy Stallard believed not only that Britain could have racing and a race like the Tour de France but he was inspired by the distance of events such as Bordeaux–Paris and on Saturday 9 June 1951 organised a race from LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
. It started from Marble Arch
Marble Arch
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane, and Edgware Road, almost directly opposite Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London, England...
at 5am and finished 267 miles later in Holyhead. Thirty-five riders were listed at the start, all professionals or semi-professionals (known as independents - the BLRC, contrary to the other cycling bodies in Britain, had promoted the idea of independent riders, who were intended to be trying their hand in professional racing while not yet committing themselves to leaving the amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
class). The BLRC official and historian Chas Messenger wrote:
Twenty-eight started out of the 35 listed at the crack of dawn from Marble Arch, sent on their way by Lord Donegal, who was later to become president of the League [BLRC]. In a sea of mist, they wafted up the Edgware Road and on the other side of DunstableDunstableDunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
came the first attack which split the field in three..."
At the finish at Holyhead:
"No quarter asked, no quarter given as they tore on to the Promenade... [Les] Scales sprinted 'like the clappers' and took the race by two lengths from [Geoff] Clark and [Fred] Nicholls at a length. Bravo Percy!"
The race continued until the 1960s, organised by Stan Kite, until it fell foul of traffic on the main A5 road - riders sometimes had to stop at traffic lights - and international limits on race distances.
League of Veteran Racing Cyclists
Stallard rode his last race when he was 56, in DoncasterDoncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
. Racing as he grew older became difficult because the British Cycling Federation's rules classed all riders as veterans when they passed 40. Stallard argued that veterans' races should be organised in age-groups and he clashed again with cycling authorities by forming an organisation to make that possible.
He drew up the rules from a hospital bed in 1985, when he was having a hip replaced, and the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) began in 1986. This time, the rest of cycling left him to it.
Stallard fell out with the organisation he had founded, saying in his private papers that the LVRC was not "up to expectation" and adding:
In June 1989 he wrote to the journalist Les Woodland: "I regret very much my endeavour on behalf of age-related [racing]. While there is a definite call for this type of riding, a big majority of the LVRC membership look upon the organisation as a means of providing them with a few extra races, nothing more, and have no allegiance to it whatever."
Refusal of honour
In 1988, the BCF offered Stallard its gold medal for services to the sport. The magazine CyclingCycling Weekly
Cycling Weekly is a British cycling magazine. It is published by IPC Media and is devoted to the sport and past-time of cycling. It is affectionately referred to by British club cyclists as "The Comic".-History:...
wrote:
"Are we being over-optimistic in believing that the bitterness caused by the rift of the Forties and Fifties has now faded away?" Cycling was indeed being overoptimistic: Stallard refused the medal. Cycling reported:
"His initial response was favourable, but now he has written to federation secretary Len Unwin, declining the nomination and an invitation to the annual dinner in December. He [Stallard] wrote: 'Whatever the award is intended for, whether it is my activities of 48 years ago, or my present struggle on behalf of age-related racing, the significance of the award is nil as it does not open the locked doors of the BCF to me or to anyone else with progressive ideas.'"
Stallard believed that he had never been asked to manage a British team or take a national position in the sport because former NCU officials ran the BCF and resented what he had done. Just before his death on 11 August 2001, Stallard wrote:
Later life
Stallard continued cycling into his eighties. In 1965, he rode alone over the Theodul PassTheodul Pass
The Theodul Pass is a high mountain pass across the eastern Pennine Alps, connecting Zermatt in the Swiss canton of Valais and Breuil-Cervinia in the Italian region of Aosta Valley.The pass lies between the Matterhorn on the west and the Breithorn on...
between Zermatt
Zermatt
Zermatt is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a population of about 5,800 inhabitants....
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The Rough Stuff Fellowship, an organisation for enthusiasts of cross-country cycling, acknowledged that it was probably the first time a cyclist had done it. The pass is 10,976 feet high and Stallard made it in less than 15 hours, sometimes through deep snow.
He also walked over Mount Whitney
Mount Whitney
Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...
, at 14,496 feet, in the USA, but came close to dying after running out of water while walking down into the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
and back out again along mule tracks. He also crossed the Sierra Nevada in four days of 1973.
He travelled 25,000 miles across America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by Greyhound bus and organised more than 100 coach trips for fellow walking enthusiasts.
His life ended riddled with regret. He wrote:
He died leaving three children, Mick
Mick Stallard
Mick Stallard - son of Percy Stallard - was a highly successful competitor in cyclo-cross races, winning the British National Cyclo-cross Championship three times in a row , and then had a brief career as a professional road-racer with Falcon.After retiring from racing Mick had his own bike shop...
, Olive and Olwyn. He divorced in the 1960s. His brothern Dennis, lived in Perth, Western Australia.
Personality
The journalist William Fotheringham remembered: "He never lost his cantankerousness or gained any respect for authority. While walking up Scafell Pike one day, he and his group were told by a warden to turn back due to thick mist; the group returned, and later met Stallard at the bus, only to be told, 'I came to climb the bloody mountain, so I went to the top.'"Percy Stallard was a bright and energetic man with a vision for his sport. But he was not a man to tolerate argument or those with other views. Having achieved what he wanted, with the NCU's final acceptance of massed racing on the road, Stallard placed the continuity of the BLRC over the end of the civil war that the BLRC and the NCU had conducted.
Critics said Stallard had lost sight of the intention of the BLRC, which had been to bring racing to the open road and that, once achieved, there was no further point in rival cycling administrations. Peter Bryan, editor of The Bicycle, associate of Sporting Cyclist
Sporting Cyclist
Sporting Cyclist was a British cycling A4-sized magazine originally called Coureur. It began in 1957 and closed after 131 issues in October 1968.-Coureur:...
and managing editor of Cycling, said:
"The BLRC was originally a gang of enthusiasts. Then along came what I'd call the parliamentarians of pedal power, men who saw a runaway organisation and decided they'd take it over." Stallard was influenced by those who agreed with him but in the end he and others became too much for the BLRC's other administrators and the BLRC magazine, The Leaguer, reported in 1954: "There is a malignant ulcer prevalent in the cycling world common to all three racing bodies in this country. It is the taint of vanity and culminates in the clash of personality."
Inheritance
Stallard's actions cast British cycling into a civil war that lasted longer than World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They created a division in the sport that outlasted the foundation of the British Cycling Federation
British Cycling
British Cycling is the national governing body for cycle racing in Great Britain. It administers most competitive cycling in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man...
and they established an organisation, the BLRC, which is still fondly remembered by the few cyclists old enough to have competed with it.
Stallard reintroduced massed racing to British roads for the first time since the 19th century. To the question of whether Britain would have moved to massed racing anyway, without the BLRC, Peter Bryan says not, saying that the established cycling authorities had become entrenched in their positions, their own rivalry overshadowed by their joint fears and interests.
"The NCU and the RTTC were never friends. The RTTC were particular bastards and they had so many clever men in the top echelon, many more than the NCU. They were steeped in the tradition of time-trialling and what it stood for and they wouldn't budge a jot or tickle."
Stallard's success was that he alerted the UCI to a problem in British cycling which led the UCI to threaten Britain with exclusion from world cycling unless it sorted out the conflict between the NCU and the BLRC. Seeing the BLRC as closer to the UCI's interests, it suggested it would recognise the BLRC and not the NCU as the representative body. It was because of that that the NCU relented and agreed to license the massed races it had hitherto opposed.
The League of Veteran Racing Cyclists (LVRC) holds a competition named in Stallard's memory.