The Record

Holder

There was another Olympian that I simply

had to talk to before I went any further with

the record attempt – Dave Le Grys.

AVE is a cycling legend. He

represented Britain at the Montreal

Olympics in 1976 and was back in

Canada for the Commonwealth Games in

Alberta in 1978, where he won silver along

with partner Trevor Gadd in the Men’s

Tandem event but also crashed spectacularly

when their front tyre blew at high speed.

D

Dave broke his back and had to be air-lifted

to hospital. Needless to say, he was back

cycling again as soon as he was able, turning

professional and going on to win a string of

national and world titles, as well as becoming

a hugely respected coach. He’s also run the

London Marathon five times and, at 57, is still

competing in veterans events. For me, however,

Dave’s most important achievement was that it

was him who rode the bike behind the Rover on

the M42 in 1986. Dave Le Grys was the British

and Commonwealth cycle speed record holder.

Fear can be fun? Of course it can!

It’s one of the things that gives you

a competitive edge and lets you

know that you’re still alive.

I was a bit nervous about going to meet Dave.

After all, he might not take kindly to someone

coming along determined to break his record. I

needn’t have worried – Dave couldn’t have been

more helpful. He explained how he had used

58  Britain’s Fastest Bike

Above: Dave Le Grys was full of encouragement

and didn’t mind me trying to break his record at all.

a bike that was more of a road racing machine

with skinny tyres but it used the same gearing

system that we were to use, with two bottom

brackets to multiply the real wheel rotations in

relation to the pedal rotations. His record run

was one of three that they made on the M42

the day before it opened, with them changing

the bike gears to go faster on each run and

altering the fairing that was fitted to the back

of the pace car. It was all done under pressure

as well, with the weather closing in, more wind

than they would have liked and rain on the

way. He made 110 mph on his third run, but on

the fourth run he was to be going for 135 mph!

Unfortunately for him, the rain came bucketing

down and he was never able to make his

fourth pass.

Dave is a man who deals with the facts, and
I like that, because he wasn’t afraid to admit
that hitting 110 mph behind a saloon racing car
‘scared the living hell out of me, but it was good
fun’. Fear can be fun? Of course it can! It’s one
of the things that gives you a competitive edge