World
Tandem Hour Record By Bill Paul
When
I was asked to write about our trip to Milan in 1937 to attack
the World's one hour tandem record I had to ponder a while about how it all
started and also how different things were in those days compared to the
present..
In
those days we could not pop over to Heathrow or Gatwick, get a plane and touch
down in Milan a couple of hours later. The quickest way was by train and boat
from Victoria and twenty-four hours later one arrived in Milan. Unless one
could afford a 'sleeper' the only sleep possible was sitting upright in a
railway carriage. The problem of the travel time was work. A5˝ day week and
it was difficult to get time off. At the time it seemed as though all of the
Europeans were attacking the hour record except, that is, for Britain. We
simply did not have a professional rider good enough to even attempt it.
Although we had a number of amateur pursuit and short distance road riders
doing very fast times it was unheard of for an amateur to make a record
attempt of this nature. Of these riders two were Ernie
Mills and Harry Hill.
The
magazine 'CYCLING' started it all by inaugurating a fund to do the unthinkable
to send Harry and Ernie to Milan to attack the record. From its inception the
fund was a great success with donations pouring in from the trade, clubs and
individuals and it was not long before the target was reached. 'CYCLING' then
announced that if sufficient donations continued to be received they would in
addition to Ernie, Harry and a manager, send Bill Paul to partner Ernie and
attempt the hour tandem record.
You
can imagine what an anxious week I had waiting for the next copy of
'CYCLING’ to see if I would be going to Milan. As luck would have it
enough money was received for me to go.
On
the day we were due to depart the three of us were riding in the Comet 25 on
the Eastern Roads 32nd course. We all rode below our best form that day but
had other things on our minds, as we rushed back to London to catch the 2.30
p.m. train from Victoria. We did not arrive in Milan until 2.30 p.m. the
following day feeling very tired as we were forced to sleep sitting upright in
the train. In our carriage there were five of us: Ernie, Harry, Alex Josey
from Cycling, Frank Slemen the manager and myself.
It
was Alex's job to report and photograph the attempt, Frank had a few hotel
addresses but the difficulty was finding them or making the taxi drivers
understand. We eventually found one who seemed to understand us and we all
crammed into the back of his car. What a ride it was. A very fast drive over
cobblestones barely missing other vehicles brought us to a nice little hotel
just behind the Cathedral. The next day we went to have a look at the
Vigorelli Track and it took our breath away. Compared to Herne Hill Track with
its shallow bankings the Vigorelli was like the wall of death. The banking was
so steep it was impossible to walk up it.
We
managed to get
a few laps in after we had unpacked our machines and got them ready for
riding. We rode our singles and when I came off I thought to myself "What
is it going to be like on the Tandem”? It was going to take us a while to
get used to it. Next day we returned to the track and after riding our singles
for a few laps we got the tandem out to see how we were with it. At first we
were rather unsteady but after a few laps we got used to it. Even so we were
not riding like we usually did, we were ragged and not nicking together at
all. As we were rather worried about it we decided to get as much riding in as
possible the next day. This we did and by
the
afternoon we were getting back to our usual style of riding. We were riding
some very fast laps, fast enough to break the record but the nagging doubt at
the back of our minds was that we had to keep that speed up for ah hour.
unless we got back on to form we might not be successful. Frank Slemen
thought it would be a good idea if we made an attempt on records up to
20 Kilometres the next day, which was the Thursday of our first week. The next
day we were back at the track early and rode the Tandem for a few laps, and
were satisfied that we were fit enough to attempt going for some of the
records. We went back to the hotel and had a light meal and a rest before
returning to the track for the attempt. When we got back to the track
everything was ready for us to try and do our best. The track was measured by
a yellow line around the inside edge on which they periodically placed small
tightly packed sandbags. If you made the mistake of riding over one, which
Ernie did on one occasion, you certainly knew all about it.
We
followed on after Harry, after he had beaten the 2, 4 and 5 Mile records. We
were riding better than we had since arriving in Milan and we beat the
1,2,3,4,5,10,15 and 20 kilometre records.
It
was decided that we would make Sunday the big day and go for everything up to
the hour and the 50 kilometres. Some of the Officials would have preferred
another day, because on Sunday there was an important football game at the
stadium which they did not wish to miss, but as our time was very limited we
had to insist.
We
started our attempt at 2.30 p.m. Frank had prepared a schedule and arranged
for the lap bell to be struck and that a person would move to a certain spot
if we were beating the record on that lap. From the word go it was tough. For
a start we had a gear of 116 and the rules did not allow the slightest push
off and to get going from a dead start with a gear that size was hard. It was
not long before we got into our stride, and around the bankings Ernie was just
missing the sandbags, following the yellow line as closely as he could. We
soon got inside our schedule and were riding a lot better with the gear of 116
than we had previously with the gear of 105 which had been too low. We were
inside our schedule on every lap except one about half way through, when we
drifted back a couple of seconds. The next lap we were back beating the record
again, and we carried on for the hour and were only 1 second over the hour for
the 50 kilometers. We were over the moon when we had finished, not only
because we had beaten the records but also because we had justified the
support pf all the people who had subscribed to the fund and made the trip
possible. I have not mentioned Harry's ride as he is writing about that
himself but I would like to comment what a great ride he did. I think that if
we had only had more time available to get used to the track and get some road
work in. Harry would have done all that he wanted to. Well I think that is it.
A great effort made possible by an even greater crowd of people who donated
the money enabling us to make the trip.
POSTSCRIPT:
Ernie Mills’ widow Muriel, has sent me an extract from a letter
written to her two years ago by Harold Scott, President of the Southgate C.C.
He says. "When my wife and I were in Italy a few years ago and we visited
the Vigorelli Track to see where the World Record was established, we were
shown round by a caretaker who got quite excited when I mentioned Mills &
Paul and he remembered well seeing the record and has
never forgotten it. He took me into one of the dressing rooms and showed us
their picture on the wall taken during the great record ride”. (Harold Scott
arranged for the Tandem frame to be exhibited at National Cycle Museum, Belton
House, Grantham.
Bill
Wells
[Bill
Wells was our gazette editor for many years- Ed]
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