Clucking Bell wrote:It's rather looking like five grand tours on the bounce for the Brits It's just amazing how much progress we've made in the sport in the last thirty years: when I was riding our top riders were thought to be doing well if they got their first year pro contract renewed.
When I first started watching the half hour Channel 4 TdF coverage in the mid-eighties - the days of Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, etc, it was a big deal if one single British rider was taking part to cheer on - Robert Millar, Malcolm Elliot, and a bit later Sean Yates & Chris Boardman. It's amazing how much it's moved on.
Very sad news about Paul Sherwen. As you say, he and Phil Ligget really were the voice of cycling in the UK. Always came over as a proper top bloke. Pasted David Millar tweets about Paul Sherwen below.
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
1. Found out last night @PaulSherwen died. Didn’t want to believe the Twitter so waited till this morning, seeing @PhilLiggett confirm it meant it was real, I’m sorry Phil, I know you guys were like family to each other. Bear with me, bit of a thread here...
10:44 PM - 2 Dec 2018
2. When I left Hong Kong in 1995 I wanted to become a pro bike racer. I knew I had to race on the continent but no team would take a kid with barely no results who’d just landed from China. Mike Taylor, a mentor of mine, knew @PaulSherwen and asked if he’d help me.
1 reply 13 retweets 258 likes
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
14h14 hours ago
3. @PaulSherwen called up his old friends from his pro days in France and asked around, Alain Bondue managed to get me a place in a northern French amateur team called VC St.Quentin, I arrived there in my banger car in February 1995. Paul followed my results from afar.
2 replies 12 retweets 271 likes
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
14h14 hours ago
4. I was offered contracts over the summer, @PaulSherwen was one of the few people to advise me, he came over and sat next to me in some random little village in the most French dive cafe I’ve ever known when I signed for Cofidis in September 1996. He didn’t need to do that.
1 reply 13 retweets 293 likes
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
14h14 hours ago
5. Every time I’d see @PaulSherwen he’d reminisce about the day I signed my first pro contract, he remembered every detail; I can’t even remember the name of the village, I never tried as I knew Paul always would. His memory was like a steel trap & I relied on him for mine.
1 reply 12 retweets 295 likes
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
14h14 hours ago
6. When @nedboulting and I took over from @PhilLiggett and @PaulSherwen - The Voices of Cycling, we were **** scared. Paul just made me more uncomfortable by always considering me to be a junior, and speaking ex pro French to me. It was deliberate, it helped. He was kind to me.
2 replies 15 retweets 312 likes
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
14h14 hours ago
7. I won’t bump into @PaulSherwen anymore @LeTour - all the details of me signing my first pro contract are gone forever. I’m going to miss him. Thank you Paul for helping me so much, and forcing me not to be sentimental about it by annyoing me constantly like only you could.
2 replies 20 retweets 456 likes
David Millar
Verified account @millarmind
14h14 hours ago
For those who don't know, Paul Sherwen was pretty instrumental at getting loads of English-speaking riders gigs at the top French amateur clubs. Robert Millar and Stephen Roche at ACBB who, to be fair, did well ...... and little ol' me at CC Wasquehal, who didn't.
Lovely bloke and, after whoever decided to introduce the National Lottery, probably the guy who could take an awful lot of the credit for the success of British cycling today. One of those guys who just liked to help others. RIP
It's just amazing how much progress we've made in the sport in the last thirty years: when I was riding our top riders were thought to be doing well if they got their first year pro contract renewed.
