'If it were nowadays, I would have been Pippa probably from the age of five or six,’ says Pippa York. ‘I would be one of those kids everyone is arguing about now. Would I have been a cyclist? I have no idea as I would have had a totally different life.’
Born in Glasgow in 1958, York began life as Robert Millar and went on to blaze a trail for cyclists in Britain by winning the King of the Mountains jersey in the 1984 Tour de France, becoming the first ever Brit to win a classification in cycling’s most prestigious race. And it was the Tour, York says, that first inspired her to become a pro cyclist.
‘When I was really young we used to cycle out to Glasgow airport and watch the planes take off. I wanted to go further, and at about the same time I noticed a magazine in a newsagent called International Cycle Sport and it was a Tour de France edition. World Of Sport was also on TV so I saw snippets of the Tour. It looked really interesting, and I wanted to try it so I joined a club, started racing and it grew from there.
‘My first year as a junior I got competitive; by the next year I was really competitive and could win races. Then I moved up to senior level and realised it would be a better life than working in a factory or a shoe shop. The clubs I joined encouraged me to keep progressing and by the end of my first year as a senior I thought I wanted to be a professional cyclist. In my environment that was unheard of. Nobody was a pro cyclist.’
The only real option for a Brit looking to turn pro at the end of the 1970s was to pack up and head abroad.
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Best of both worlds
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This Olympic Road Race might actually be worth watching
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Beryl Burton wins her first road Worlds
Beryl Burton claimed the first of two World Championships Road Race titles in 1960, becoming the first rider to win pursuit and road world titles in the same year
