Ray Booty

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Raymond 'Ray' Charles Booty, sometimes nicknamed The Boot, is a former English road bicycle racer. In 1956 he was the first man to beat four hours for the 100-miles individual time trial - a feat that was reported around the world and compared to the beating of the four-minute barrier in mile-running two years earlier.

Booty rode for Ericsson Wheelers CC, a Nottinghamshire-based cycling club (now disbanded) and the Army Cycling Union. He won the national 100-mile time trial championship every year from 1955 to 1959.

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[edit] The first sub-four hour 100

Booty broke the record in the 1956 national championship with a time of 4h 1m 52s. The next big event was the Bath Road '100' on Bank Holiday Monday 6 August 1956. The course was west of Reading, running between Theale, Pangbourne, Wallingford, Shillingford, Abingdon and then back down the A4 to finish near where it had started. The conditions were damp but Booty rode well throughout the race. He rode a Raleigh bicycle with an 84-inch fixed gear to a time of 3h 58m 28s. The second man, future professional Stan Brittain was beaten by 12 minutes.

Booty had ridden from Nottingham to the start of the race the day the day before - 100 miles. For his ride he was awarded a medal by Cycling magazine and a certificate from the RTTC.

The Daily Herald reported the record, speaking of 'Booty the incomparable', and the News Chronicle said: 'Rider crashes four-hour barrier'[1]

He was awarded the F. T. Bidlake Memorial Prize in 1956. The citation read:

Raymond Charles Booty For his superlative ride of 3 hrs. 58 mins. 28 secs. in the Bath Road Hundred of 1956, this being the first time one hundred miles had ever been ridden on a bicycle, out and home, inside four hours.[2]

[edit] The straight-out record

In September Booty attempted the 100-mile record under Road Records Association(RRA) rules. These allowed a rider to take advantage of tailwinds and gradient drop (time trials in the UK must be on out-and-back courses). He recorded 3h 28m 40s. For this event he used a Sturmey-Archer hub gear. The record stood for 34 years. It was eventually beaten by Ian Cammish.

[edit] More time trial success

Booty won the season-long British Best All-Rounder competition three times from 1955 to 1957. The BBAR is based on averaged speeds over 50 and 100 miles and for 12 hours. He was 100-mile champion from 1955 to 1959 and 12-hour champion from 1954 to 1958.

He first broke the 100-miles record in 1955, lowering it to 4:04:30. He broke it three times in all. He twice broke the 12-hour record: 265.66 miles in 1956 and 266.00 miles the following year.

[edit] Road racing

Booty won the gold medal in the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games road race in Cardiff. He won a bronze medal in the national championship road race in the same year. He also won the Manx International road race in 1954.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Woodland, L. (2005), This Island Race, Mousehold Press, ISBN 1-874739-36-6, p. 130
  2. ^ Recipients
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