The Beacon Message Board

Just had a message from a friend in the Solihull, confirming that Graham Webb, passed away in his adopted Country of Belgium. He had been ill for some time I believe. He was World Amateur Road Champion in 1967 when the event was held in The Netherlands.

Sad news indeed.

For those who do not know, Graham was a past winner of our Mountain Time Trial, in the early 1960's, when the course was 62 miles and included a climb of Clee Hill. Graham won it with a 2hr 46 min ride, which remained as the record for that course.

Sad news indeed.

I have many memories of Graham but one stands out.

It was the Ivy Wheelers "30" many years ago. GW was my minute man and as we waited to start I said to Graham "When I catch you I don't want you hanging on to my back wheel"
To which he replied "You'll not XXXXXXX catch me"
Do you know what?.... he was right !

A few weeks later he was World Road Champion.

He turned pro for Mercier but was very badly treated by the management and never reached anything like his potential.

Another Graham Webb anecdote.

It involves another Webb, Tony this time.

At this point I will say that Tony can tell the story much better than I but the gist of it is the time that Tony signed on at a race in Belgium or Holland. This was shortly after GW had become world road champion.
After appending his moniker to the signing on sheet the word quickly went around that the Englishman Vepp was riding. I believe that this caused a certain amount of consternation in the bunch...... sorry we call them the peleton now.
I would like to say that this tale had a happy ending, maybe Tony will enlighten us.