Booty's record quest

Previously unseen CW photographs of time trialling great Ray Booty are a reminder of his astonishing 100-mile record attempts, writes Vern Pitt

- Vern Pitt

It was a “damp and dismal” November morning just outside Foxton, South Cambridgeshire, as the best tester Britain had ever known climbed off his bike. He’d given his best for several hours but with the wind against him, heavy traffic and being forced to run with his bike after taking a chance in storming past a road closed sign just outside Foxton he’d had to call it quits. Ray Booty would not go to bed on that night in 1955 as the new RR A 100-mile record holder as he’d hoped.

We don’t know what was said but we suspect Ted Gerrard, who himself had failed in his attempt a few weeks earlier and was a member of Booty’s support crew, had some words of consolation.

That day, unseen until the photos on these pages were found (see box), would prove a turning point for Booty. He was already a hugely respected time triallist, national champion and the Best British All-Rounder in 1955, the year of these pictures. Prior to the National 100 in August 1955 the chances of anyone, but principally Booty, becoming the first man to ride 100 miles (out and back) in under four hours had fixated the cycling world.

It had, as Cycling reported at the time become “public aim number one” among the nation’s time triallists, for the 100mile distance was “the most glamorous and certainly the most exacting” of tests.

He won the 1955 100-mile title with a record time of 4.04.30, smashing the record by two minutes and one second in the process. No one was close; second place floundering 15.30 down. The following weekend a 4.06.28, stoked talk of an epoch setting ride.