On the 13 July 1967, one of Britain’s most successful professional cyclists, Thomas Simpson (1937-1967), died.

Born in Haswell, County Durham, he was the youngest of six children of a coal miner.  Later the family moved to Harworth in Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road racing as a teenager before taking up track cycling,  specialising in pursuit races.

He won a bronze medal for track cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games,

In 1959, at the age of 21, Simpson was signed by the French professional road-racing team Saint- Raphaël – R. Geminiani-Dunlop. He advanced to their first team, Rapha-Gitane-Dunlop the following year, and won the 1961 Tour of Flanders. Simpson then joined Gitane-Leroux-Dunlop-R Geminiani.

In the 1962 Tour de France he became the first British rider to wear the yellow jersey, finishing sixth overall.

In 1963 Simpson moved to Peugeot-BP-Englebert, winning Bordeaux-Paris that year and the 1964 Milan-San Remo.

In 1965 he became Britain’s first world road race championand won the Giro di Lombardia, and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first cyclist to win the award.

Injuries hampered much of Simpson’s 1966 season, and in the thirteenth stage of the 1967 Tour de France , Simpson collapsed and died during the ascent of Mont Ventoux. He was 29 years old. He won two stages of the 1967 Veulta a España before he won the general classification of Paris-Nice that year.

Simpson was known to have taken performance-enhancing drugs during his career, when no doping controls existed. The post-mortem examination found that he had mixed amphetamines and alcohol, this diuretic combination when combined with the heat ,and the hard climb of the Ventoux and a stomach complaint would prove fatal.

A memorial near where he died has become a place of pilgimage for many cyclists. He is held in high esteem by many cyclists for his character and will to win.

13 July, 2019