John Borland Wadley (1914 – March 1981) was an English journalist whose magazines and reporting opened Continental
cycle racing
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in so ...
to fans in Britain.
Wadley covered 18
Tours de France from 1956. He worked for the British weekly, ''The Bicycle'' and then started and edited the monthlies ''Coureur'' (later ''
Sporting Cyclist'') and ''
International Cycle Sport''. He also wrote a number of books.
Cycling origins
Wadley began cycling with the
Colchester
Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.
Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...
Rovers club when he was 14. He and a friend, Alf Kettle, were between the towns of Kelvedon and Coggeshall when they took a wrong turning into a farm track by moonlight, riding by the light of
acetylene lamps. Kettle called Wadley "Willy", because it was what all new members were called. He said it was "like the
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
". It was the first time Wadley had heard of the race, which was still in the era of daily stages that started at dawn and rode on unsurfaced roads. He wanted to know more.
He went to the world track championships in Paris when he was 19 and came home starry-eyed over riders like Jeff Scherens and
Lucien Michard
Lucien Michard (born Épinay-sur-Seine, France, 17 November 1903, died 1 November 1985) was a French racing cyclist and Olympic track champion. He won four successive world championships and lost a fifth even though he crossed the l ...
. He ordered the daily paper ''
L'Auto'', which organised the Tour, from a newsagent in Colchester. The man warned him it cost 1½d (1p or about 3 US cents) and that the cost was extravagant.
Journalism
Wadley joined ''The Bicycle'' soon after it started, in February 1936, and became the magazine's foreign correspondent. The paper opened in opposition to ''
Cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...
'', to counter ''Cycling''s perceived establishment views, which included not covering massed racing on the open road after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
and giving what some readers saw as little attention to professional cycling, such as the
Tour de France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
. ''Cycling'' was originally dismissive of a breakaway organisation, the
British League of Racing Cyclists
The British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC) was an association formed in 1942 to promote road bicycle racing in Great Britain. It operated in competition with the National Cyclists' Union, a rivalry which lasted until the two merged in 1959 to ...
and campaigned against it and did little to cover its races; ''The Bicycle'' saw itself as neither for or against the BLRC but saw massed-start racing an exciting part of cycle-racing. ''The Bicycle'' appeared on Tuesday rather than the Friday of its rival.
Wadley translated reports in French and Belgian papers, and cuttings sent by the magazine's correspondent at
L'Auto and cycled around the Continent reporting the races he saw and writing accounts of the riders he had met. Adrian Bell, the British publisher who compiled a collection of Wadley's work, wrote:
And so began a pattern of working life and, with it, a unique style of writing about cycling that Wadley was to maintain, to a greater or lesser extent, for more than 20 years. When not required for race-reporting duties in England, he would load the panniers of his bicycle – spare clothes and maps in one, a portable typewriter in the other – and take to the roads of France, Belgium Holland. Whatever the route, it was of his choosing. And back would come the reports – of major Tours, French classics, frenetic kermesses over the Belgian pavé, or six-day dramas on the steep banking of indoor velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...
s – or interviews with current riders or with those whose exploits had once made cycling history, or simply touring features that depicted the appealing variety of the terrain through which he travelled. During one two-month tour in the spring of 1954, he submitted 3,000 words a week; there was simply nothing like it in the English cycling press.
Wadley left the magazine two years later and joined the press department of the bicycle maker,
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
, which was sponsoring prominent British riders to break long-distance records. From there he was conscripted into the services at the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
With the return of peace, he became one of three press officers for the sport's governing body, the
Union Cycliste Internationale
The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland.
The UCI issues raci ...
when the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
were held in London in 1948. He then rejoined ''The Bicycle'' and stayed until it closed in 1955. That year he started work on a monthly magazine, initially called ''Coureur'' but then, because a magazine with a similar title already existed, ''
Sporting Cyclist''.
''Sporting Cyclist''
Wadley recalled of his redundancy: "I saw more cycling... than in four far-from-dull years on ''The Bicycle''. As the programme included my first all-the-way Tour de France, I had enough material in hand to write a book... The dream, however, was to bring out a continental-style all-cycling magazine."
[''Sporting Cyclist'', vol 9, no 9, September 1965]
In late 1956, Wadley secured the backing of the publisher
Charles Buchan, former
football captain of
Arsenal and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, who wanted a companion to his magazine, ''Football Monthly''. Wadley told Buchan that he had a proposal which would never make him rich but wouldn't disgrace him, an approach so novel that Buchan was interested from the start. Issue number one was written by Wadley, who had also taken most of the photographs.
[Bell, Adrian (ed.) (2002) ''From the Pen of J. B. Wadley'', Mousehold Press, UK.] It was produced at the home of Peter Bryan, Wadley's editor at ''The Bicycle'', with help from a photographer, Bill Lovelace, and a designer, Glenn Steward. They too had worked at ''The Bicycle''.
''Sporting Cyclist'' introduced Continental racing through the Franco-American writer,
René de Latour. His role was "friend of the stars", providing insights into Continental racing at a time when ''Cycling'' concentrated on domestic issues.
The cycle parts importer and advertiser, Ron Kitching, wrote:
This was a real innovation and an instant success. It was filled with exciting stories of both home and overseas events, written not only by Jock himself but also by the top cycling writers of the day – like René de Latour, Harry Aspden, Charles Ruys and Dick Snowden, Geoffrey Nicholson and David Saunders.[''A wheel in two worlds'', written and published by Ron Kitching 1993, ed: Michael Breckon]
The last edition was in April 1968, volume 12, number 4. ''Sporting Cyclist'' was by then owned by Longacre Press, which had bought Buchan's publications. Longacre also published ''Cycling'' and the two merged. The assistant editor, Roy Green, who had joined in 1960, left ''Sporting Cyclist'' to join ''
Amateur Photographer
''Amateur Photographer'' is a British photography magazine, published weekly by Kelsey Media. The magazine provides articles on equipment reviews, photographic technique, and profiles of professional photographers.
About the magazine
''Am ...
''.
Wadley set up another magazine, ''
International Cycle Sport'', which after 199 issues in 17 years also failed, by which time Wadley's contract as editor had long since not been renewed.
''International Cycle Sport''
''International Cycle Sport'' was the idea of Kennedy Brothers, a printing company in
Keighley
Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish
in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford.
Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of ...
, Yorkshire owned by three brothers. It was the first English-language cycling magazine printed in colour, with a colour cover and several colour pages inside.
The contents were those which would have appeared in the next ''Sporting Cyclist''. Wadley's assistant editor, John Wilcockson, said: "We were thrilled with the first issue that came off the presses, even though the colour reproduction was pretty awful."
One of the pictures, of the Belgian rider
Patrick Sercu
Patrick Sercu (27 June 1944 – 19 April 2019) was a Belgian cyclist who was active on the road and track between 1961 and 1983. On track, he won the gold medal in the 1 km time trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, as well as three world titl ...
was printed the wrong way round.
Wadley wrote in his first leading article:
I had launched porting Cyclistbecause I knew the cycling world wanted it. There was never any suggestion that it would make a lot of money for anybody. Yet within a few years, after a series of mergers and takeovers, ''Sporting Cyclist'' found itself under the control of a giant publishing organisation whose business, understandably, was to make money. A small monthly magazine supported by what it considered to be a "dying industry" was obviously of little interest to such a concern, and its eventual merger with ''Cycling'' was simply a matter of time. When the decision was taken I and my most able assistant Roy Green were given the chance of carrying on with the combined publication, but neither accepted the offer.
The magazine was produced in a basement office in
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable ...
Surrey, rented from Maurice Cumberworth, race director of the
Milk Race. Kennedy Brothers, however, failed and a receiver passed its assets to another Yorkshire printer, Peter Fretwell. The magazine was among the assets. Fretwell's company was also struggling and the receiver hoped to make one strong company out of two weak ones.
Wilcockson said:
Peter Fretwell was a tough-minded businessman, the antithesis of the mild-mannered Wadley. The two men didn't get on... The arrangement worked for a while, but Fretwell soon decided that he could do without Wadley. I was prepared to go too, but my 'father' adleysaid no... Well, within a year, I was fired too.
Adrian Bell wrote:
So the saying goes, you can never walk the same road twice. ''ICS'' was not ''Sporting Cyclist'' in full-colour guise. In the first place it never had the same breadth of coverage. Secondly, not only was it more narrowly focused, it contained fewer articles, and they were mainly written by professional journalists. In its text and the use of full-page colour photography, it was closer to a contemporary monthly cycling journal; it was never a diary written by clubmen for clubmen.
Tour de France
Jock Wadley covered 18 Tours de France not only for his magazine but for the London
Daily Telegraph. The paper then decided to send its specialist cycling reporter, David Saunders. Until then Saunders had not wanted to spend a month of each summer away from home.
The new arrangement ended Wadley's newspaper career and halted the occasional contributions he made to BBC Radio, where he reported on noisy short-wave and telephone links from races such as the world championship and
Bordeaux–Paris
The Bordeaux–Paris professional cycle race was one of Europe's classic cycle races, and one of the longest in the professional calendar, covering approximately – more than twice most single-day races. It started in northern Bordeaux in sout ...
, a race from which he reported the victory of the British rider,
Tom Simpson
Thomas Simpson (30 November 1937 – 13 July 1967) was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He was born in Haswell, County Durham, and later moved to Harworth, Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road cycling as a teenager ...
.
It also ended Wadley's habit of following the Tour in the car of French journalist colleagues and he covered his 19th Tour by bike and wrote a book called ''My Nineteenth Tour de France''.
His years at the Tour de France earned him the race's medal. He received it from the organisers
Jacques Goddet
Jacques Goddet (21 June 1905 – 15 December 2000) was a French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France road cycling race from 1936 to 1986.
Goddet was born and died in Paris. His father, Victor Goddet, was co-founder and finance di ...
and
Félix Lévitan at
Carpentras
Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal Occitan: ''Carpentrà s'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; la, Carpentoracte) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. ...
in 1970. For many years he had been the only permanent English-speaking reporter on the Tour and the race press officer, Louis Lapeyre, who for many years refused to speak to any anglophone journalists let alone do it in English, finally negotiated with them through Wadley.
Tom Simpson
Few cyclists featured in Wadley's writing as much as
Tom Simpson
Thomas Simpson (30 November 1937 – 13 July 1967) was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He was born in Haswell, County Durham, and later moved to Harworth, Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road cycling as a teenager ...
, the first Briton to wear the
yellow jersey
The general classification is the most important classification, the one by which the winner of the Tour de France is determined. Since 1919, the leader of the general classification wears the yellow jersey (french: maillot jaune ).
History
Th ...
in the Tour de France. Wadley's first encounter with him was in 1955 while he was at a training camp in
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
sponsored by the
derailleur
Shimano 600 front derailleur (1980)
A derailleur is a variable-ratio bicycle gearing system consisting of a chain, multiple sprockets of different sizes, and a mechanism to move the chain from one sprocket to another.
Modern front and rear d ...
-maker,
Simplex. The camp was run by the former Tour rider,
Charles Pélissier
Charles Pélissier (20 February 1903 – 28 May 1959) was a French racing cyclist, between 1922 and 1939, winning 16 stages in the Tour de France. The number of eight stages won in the 1930 Tour de France is still a record, shared with Eddy M ...
. Wadley went there to report, specifically on a promising Irish rider called
Seamus Elliott
Seamus "Shay" Elliott (4 June 1934 – 4 May 1971) was an Irish road bicycle racer, Ireland's first major international rider, with a record comparable only to Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche. He was the first Irish person to ride the Tour de Fr ...
, who had won his place as a prize in the previous year's Tour of Ireland.
Many cyclists unable to attend the camp wrote to Pélissier, asking his advice. Wadley translated them into French for him. One said:
Dear Sir, I am writing to you hoping you will give me some advice on racing and training for the 1955 season. I am 16 years old, and have raced on the track and also massed start road races, competing in between, in time trials In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...
. In my first track event I gained 3rd place, in road races I have won 2 prizes and in time trials I have won 4 prizes. My positions in time trials were 11th, 8th, 15th, 7th. I have done 25 miles in 1hr 34 seconds, which is the fastest time for a 16-year-old in England this year.
I would like to know, if you think it is advisable to compete in so many different events, and also what greatest mileage I should race. I have been told that if I race often, I will burn myself out, and will be no good when I get older, do you think this is true. Yours in sport, Thomas Simpson, HARWORTH & DIST. C.C.
There is no evidence of a reply from Pélissier, who didn't speak English, although Wadley suggested in ''
Sporting Cyclist'' in 1965 that he may have done.
Writing style
Martin Ayres, one of several who wrote their first articles for
Sporting Cyclist and went on to edit cycling magazines of their own, said that Wadley's discursive, first-person style looked simple but "I tried to copy Jock's style once or twice when I was editor of ''Cycling'', but when I did it, it just seemed like name-dropping.'
Adrian Bell wrote:
This consistent use of the first person in his articles is crucial to understanding the appeal of his writing. Regardless of whether he was composing an account of a race, interviewing an old-time, retired cyclist, or describing a leisurely tour, he always used this technique. Events were not reported as if they were simple objective facts, nor were they sensationalised; always we saw them through his eyes and ears. He offered us his thoughts, his emotions and his immediate impressions at the moment of their happening, and if those impressions needed to be revised in the light of later revelations, he did that, too, and explained why... Good letter-writers, so they say, are basically good conversationalists and, by all accounts, J. B. Wadley was certainly that.
Long-distance riding
Wadley always rode in
Hush Puppy
A hush puppy (or hushpuppy) is a small, savory, deep-fried round ball made from cornmeal-based batter. Hushpuppies are frequently served as a side dish with seafood and other deep-fried foods.
History
The use of ground maize (corn) in cooking ...
shoes, which he said hurt his feet less than conventional cycling shoes. He rode long distances both in races such as 24-hour time-trials – he rode just short of 400 miles in the North Road event when he was 59 – and outside competition. His first book, ''My 19th Tour de France'', starts: "I had practised and thoroughly enjoyed what I had for so long been preaching. Instead of lazing 3,000 miles in a press car, I had pedalled 1,750 on a bike. Instead of scribbling 400 words a night and phoning them through to
Fleet Street, I have taken my time in writing 90,000 and sent them to the printers."
His fondness for France led him to join the Union Sportif at
Créteil
Créteil () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Créteil is the ''préfecture'' (capital) of the Val-de-Marne department as well as the seat of the Arrondissement of Crà ...
, in the Paris suburbs. That led to his riding the 1,200 km challenge,
Paris–Brest–Paris, which he recorded in another book, ''Old Roads and New''. His writing inspired riders around the world. In Britain it led to the creation of
Audax UK
Audax UK or AUK is a British cycling club that oversees randonneuring (long-distance cycling) in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1976 to help British riders complete the qualifying rides for entry to the Paris-Brest-Paris randonee. Audax ...
to provide a means for British riders to take part. In Canada said the long-distance enthusiast Eric Fergusson:
Here in British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, "Brestward Ho!" itle of the chapter recounting Paris–Brest–Parisdid indeed make its mark. After reading the story, local cycling legend John Hathaway committed to ride the Audax version of PBP in 1976. While in France, he met the randonneur PBP organiser Robert Lepertel and was persuaded to come back for the next randonneur PBP in 1979. Three years later Hathaway returned to France with fellow randonneur pioneers Dan McGuire, Gerry Pareja, and Wayne Phillips to participate in (and complete!) PBP '79 marking the birth of randonneur cycling in British Columbia, and indeed, in Canada.
There was a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of BC Randonneurs at the club's annual general meeting in September 2003. At this event Gerry Pareja... held up a copy of ''Old Roads and New''. With the "Brestward Ho!" chapter in mind Gerry suggested that: 'This book probably had more to do with getting English-speaking cyclists to become interested in PBP than anything else written about it.'
Wadley rode the Brevet des Randonneurs des Alpes, a mountain challenge, in 1973. It was run as a time-trial over the col de Glandon, the Croix de Fer, the
Telegraphe and the
Galibier. The race started in
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
at 2 am. Wadley had hoped to meet
Pierre Brambilla, who lost the Tour de France on the last day in 1947. He was attacked, against a tradition that the race leader would be left to ride to Paris in glory, by the Frenchman
Jean Robic
Jean Robic (; 10 June 1921 – 6 October 1980)L'Équipe, 9 July 2003 was a French road racing cyclist, who won the 1947 Tour de France. Robic was a professional cyclist from 1943 to 1961. His diminutive stature (1.61m, 60 kg) and appearance ...
. Wadley had met Brambilla but never remembered to ask the truth of the story that he was so upset by his defeat that he buried his bike in his garden.
Graeme Fife wrote:
"Brambilla caught Wadley on the approach to the Galibier. Wadley thought the Italian veteran (now 53 years old) would have been miles ahead, but he'd overslept and set out an hour late. He offered to give Wadley a tow up the Galibier; Wadley declined and Brambilla flew off. Wadley remembered the buried bicycle story and called out, but too late... the chance to confirm or scotch missed."
Death
Wadley remained disillusioned at the closure of ''Sporting Cyclist'' – "the only time I saw him angry", said Peter Bryan – and at being fired from ''International Cycle Sport'' and at the mixed success of his book-publishing venture. He died in March 1981 and his ashes were scattered on the
col du Glandon in the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
. His widow, Mary, had asked that his ashes be scattered on the route of the Tour.
They were taken by a group of readers led by the British enthusiast, Neville Chanin. They scattered them on
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...
during the Tour de France. Chanin wrote:
:We dined well that night
efore the scattering of ashesbut then we usually do. This meal was a special one: our table was laid for eight, yet fellow diners noted only seven lads present. They watched in silence as we drank a toast to the unoccupied chair at the head of our table... It seemed logical and fitting that Jock should attend his final Tour with a bunch of British clubmen... We – the seven of us – had each taken a turn in carrying the remains of our Sporting Cyclist over the mountain roads he knew so well and now Chris would carry him up the Glandon – two hours of real climbing.
:I'd chosen a special spot on the Glandon because, in 1973 on his 59th birthday, Jock had climbed that pass while riding the Brevet Randonneur des Alpes. Dave was first to the summit and had descended the 13km to locate the spot in the Défilé de Maupas where the Torrent des Sept Laux comes crashing down from seven lakes higher up the mountain, forming a spectacular waterfall. He had already gathered a selection of mountain flowers and arranged them in a plastic bottle and was making a simple cross as I arrived... Our intentions had been announced on
Radio Tour and the organisers had positioned a
gendarme
Wrong info! -->
A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...
nearby to ensure that our scattering of his ashes was not interrupted. It was sad and silent.
[Chanin, Neville, Bicycle Times, UK, cited From the Pen of J. B. Wadley, ed Adrian Bell, Mousehold Press, Norwich, UK]
Peter Bryan said: "Wadley's beautiful turn of phrase could be applied equally to a touring theme or race report, and he carried you, the reader, along with him as though you were riding and hearing his words borne from the front saddle."
Ron Kitching said:
He wasn't ruthless enough to be a businessman, he just floated through life absorbing the cycling scene and reflecting it in his articles and books. I don't think Jock ever worked as such, he just put down in words what his thoughts were. Jock was a real gentleman but he did tend to wander off. We were sponsoring the Tour of the North and ''International Cycle Sport'' was one of the sponsors. He turned up on his bike, just pottering about. He seemed more interested in riding his bike than covering the race. Which was his downfall, really.
An annual road race is held near Colchester each summer in Wadley's memory. Wadley had been president of the Colchester Rovers. A collection of his writing was published in 2002: ''From the pen of J. B. Wadley'', ed: Adrian Bell, Mousehold Press, Norwich.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wadley, Jock
1914 births
1981 deaths
English male journalists
British sports journalists
English sportswriters
Cycling in the United Kingdom
Cycling journalists
Cycling writers
English male cyclists