A new museum entirely dedicated to British bike racing is being planned for a town in Nottinghamshire where one of the greatest professional bike racers Britain has ever produced spent his formative years.
As youngster, Tom Simpson delivered groceries around the houses of Harworth and the Bassetlaw district, but he would go on to become a road-racing world champion, Olympic and Commonwealth medallist and, in 1962, the first British rider to ever wear the leader’s yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
Tragically, during the 13th stage of the 1967 Tour de France, 29-year-old Simpson collapsed and died during the climb of Mont Ventoux, having suffered heart failure, which was officially recorded as having been caused by exhaustion, but has also been blamed on the use of alcohol and amphetamines, a practise prevalent at the time. A monument is now located on the spot where he fell.
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The new museum won’t be named after Simpson, but the location has been chosen specifically to honour him, as came to light this week, after Bassetlaw Labour MP Jo White revealed in an interview printed in the Doncaster Free Press that she had been involved in talks with the curators of the proposed British Cycle Racing Museum.
“There are cycling museums in the UK, but nothing dedicated to this telling the story of British racing,” says Chris Sidwell, who says he came up with the concept of the museum, and also just happens to be Tom Simpson’s nephew.
“Cycle racing is our most successful Olympic sport, our highest funded Olympic sport. It’s the pinnacle. British men and women have won all the grand tours. And it’s not celebrated anywhere [apart from] a little bit in Manchester.
“I thought that Harworth, the place where Thompson comes from, was the ideal place for it to be. This is where the British men’s yellow jerseys story started.”
The plans have evolved to go beyond simply a museum, as Sidwell explains. “It will also be a community centre that will encourage cycling. We’ve got all sorts of little bolt-ons. We trying to connect up to the national cycle network as well from the site. We’ve built a green wheel cycleway around Harworth.
“We’re trying to make it a destination. It’s going to become a cycling town. It was a coal mining town. We haven’t got coal anymore, we’ve got cycling – so we’re selling cycling.”
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