Extract: The Year, by Dave Barter

Marcel Planes had topped Cycling's charts at the end of 1911 with 34,366 miles. His record lay slumbering through to 1932 when Arthur Humbles woke it and pushed it out to 36,007 miles. The following year the record crossed the globe with Australia's Ossie Nicholson pushing it out to 43,996.75 miles in the face of challenges from other riders in the UK, the US and Italy. In 1936 Walter Greaves brought it back home to Blighty, reaching 45,383.6 miles by the year's end. The following year the record became a surrogate Ashes for cyclists, with Nicholson vying to regain his lost crown in Australia and two British challengers vying to stop him, Bernard Bennett and René Menzies. Bennet - the least prepared of the three - surpassed the old record, with a ride of 45,801.25 miles but was left in the shade somewhat by a tight race between Nicolson and Menzies, the Briton ultimately falling short with an admirable ride of 61,561 miles compared to the Australian's 62,657 miles.

Across the previous six years the British media had found a love for cycling's hardest endurance record and the men daring to take it on. In 1938 they were given a chance to appreciate the efforts of the first woman to take a tilt at it. Each of the riders profiled by Dave Barter in The Year had their own reasons for undertaking the challenge, they didn't just set out to beat a record. Dovey certainly didn't set out to try and approach the distances covered by any of the men who had tackled the record, she simply sought to promote cycling among other women, planning to ride 2,000 miles a month and use that achievement as a platform from which to spread her message. By the end of the year Dovey had well exceeded her initial target, and set a mark for female cyclists that still stands today: 29,603.7 miles.

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Billie Dovey - The 'Keep Fit' Girl

She [Billie] made it her mission to tell others, especially women, about cycling and as a result wrote to a large number of companies with her idea for cycling promotion. The rides of Bennett, Nicholson and Menzies had started a thought process in Dovey's mind and she wanted to set herself up as a showcase rider, riding her bike every day for a year. Each month she would ride at least 2,000 miles and aim to complete the year with 25,000 miles upon the clock. Billie had no particular ambition to set a women's record (although, as one had never previously been officially recorded, she would do just that). This was to be an altruistic mission to spread the word rather than a personal ambition to become the best.

In late 1935 Lilian Bartram became Lilian Dovey after meeting and marrying her husband Fredrick in Hendon. Fredrick, a keen cyclist who worked as a chartered accountant, clearly supported Billie's cycling ambitions and went on to manage her diary and engagements throughout her record year.

At the time Billie was a member of the North-Western Road Club and mixing in some esteemed female cycling company, including E. Rolph - a rider who'd spent the previous year fighting it out on various place-to-place records under the auspices of the recently formed Women's Road Record Association. Using her cycling knowledge, contacts and secretarial skills to good effect, Billie wrote to all of the major cycling companies and explained her mission. Eventually her tenacity paid off and, at the age of twenty-three, Billie received sponsorship from Rudge Whitworth, the sponsor of René Menzies, who agreed to provide her with a new bike and the requisite support to begin her ride. In return Billie was required to travel the country stopping at the Rudge Whitworth dealerships and giving talks along her way. Word then got out and Cadbury was brought on as an additional sponsor, with Billie appearing in an early set of adverts promoting its chocolate as an ‘ideal emergency meal for cyclists off the beaten track'. The company provided Billie with unlimited supplies of chocolate for her ride, a benefit that would be the envy of many a modern-day sweet-tooth.

Cycling magazine was approached and asked to verify Billie's ride using the process that had been tried and tested since 1911. This would require the submission of mileage cards and a regular visit to the offices of the magazine for a mileometer check. The magazine labelled her the ‘keep fit girl' and somewhat offhandedly labelled her task a ‘year's cycling propaganda ride'.

Not long after midnight on 1 January 1938 Billie left Claud Butler's party at the New Horticultural Hall in London, where Bennett and Menzies were still celebrating the end of their attempts, and began her ride. Giving up her job as a typist and leaving her husband at home to act as her manager and co-ordinator, she set out to tour Great Britain. Her mission: ‘to demonstrate that cycling is a simple and easy method to keep fit'.

Billie had no ambition at all to set a cycling record: ‘It was just an idea I had, I didn't set out to attempt a year record. At the time there was a lot of publicity about the Women's League of Health and Beauty, an organisation concerned with women's health and fitness. I was so besotted with cycling that I thought "well you could keep fit by riding a bicycle". I had this idea that I could do just that.'

Billie maintained this modesty throughout her year, clearly set on a mission in the service of cycling, rather than attempting to benefit from it. Billie's first week got off to a reasonable start, totalling 459 miles. This was slightly down on the average required to hit 25,000 but remember she, like all of the other British riders, began in winter, and the reduced daylight hours and inclement weather would have been a factor. She started riding locally and her routes and mileages were recorded as follows:

Interestingly, Billie was not alone out on the roads mile-munching. An amateur cyclist and Liverpudlian, R.A. Cheesbrough, had decided to take on Nicholson's record in the same year and, like Billie, set out on 1 January. Cheesbrough managed to clock up an impressive 1,166.5 miles in his first week, despite being hit by a car which had breasted a canal bridge too quickly. The accident was made worse by the fact that Cheesbrough wasn't even cycling at the time but was searching for a spanner that had dropped from his bag. For some inexplicable reason he grabbed the front bumper of the car and was dragged down the road for 80 yards. Fortunately he only suffered cuts and bruises, but the subsequent loss in mileage left him down on Nicholson's average by 5 miles a day. The plucky Liverpudlian continued to ride despite suffering back pain, but things got worse and on 9 February 1938, already several hundred miles behind Ossie Nicholson's pace, it was reported that he had a poisoned toe and had been ordered to rest by his doctor. He valiantly battled on through February, but things were getting worse and between 5 and 18 February 1938 he was forced to rest for five days. He finally packed in his attempt later that month as it was clear his foot was getting no better and Nicholson's mileage was moving ever further out of reach as he recuperated.

Three weeks into her ride, Billie was still going strong. She'd managed to maintain a daily average of 71 miles and was still riding around an area centred upon her home in Mill Hill. Then came a big day. On 6 February 1938 she rode her first century of the year. Setting off from Cobham she rode via Guildford, Elstead, Odiham, Bagshot and Windsor before finishing in Mill Hill with a grand total of 107 miles for the day. Clearly gaining a taste for the hundred-milers she knocked off another two weeks later, this time heading east from Mill Hill and riding 108 miles. It appeared that cycling agreed with the young rider, who reported that rather than wasting away, she was actually gaining weight. On 23 February she was 3 pounds heavier than when she started her ride (muscle we must assume, although it could also have been down to Cadbury's sponsorship of unlimited supplies of chocolate).

Billie's agreement with Rudge Whitworth was demanding from the off, with her sponsor requiring that she represent them at many engagements during her ride, often on a daily basis. The first documented occasion was when she was presented as a guest to the annual dinner of the Vegetarian Cycling and Athletic Club - the same club to which Walter Greaves had belonged. Other presentations were lower key, sometimes simply a meeting of local cyclists at a Rudge Whitworth dealership. Rudge Whitworth relished the early attention that Billie was receiving in the press and contacted its entire dealer network, urging them to get in touch and book an appointment with Billie for the purposes of ‘local publicity'.

March 1938 saw Billie's campaigning really hit her stride when she wrote a full-page article in Cycling magazine extolling the virtues of cycling and imploring more women to join her on the road. The article underpinned Billie's no-nonsense approach to life that clearly remained with her throughout her life. Her headline ran: ‘Wanted - 1,000,000 more women cyclists', and the article debunked the myth that women would find riding a bike difficult and made it clear that there were many female-specific bikes to be had from a variety of bicycle manufacturers. She went on to detail her straightforward logistics for cycling to work, such as storing clothing to change into, and highlighted the London bus strike as a clear example of female emancipation, with many women taking to their bikes to get to work. However, my favourite quote outlines the fact that in 1938 women were still very much seen as the fairer sex and little else:

Others still consider it ‘not becoming' or perhaps ‘unladylike' although generally these Victorian ideas are just about as dead as the proverbial doornail.

The appearance of we wheel-women matters more than we sometimes imagine. The ever critical public notice us as we pass through village, town and hamlet, so during 1938 we must do our best to look as clean and healthy as possible when riding, in order that we may attract more and more of our sex to pedal their way to fitness and social enjoyment.

Winter was clearly kind to Billie as 23 March 1938 found her ahead of her 25,000-mile schedule with a daily average of almost 73 miles. She was still riding locally, with most of her days reported as ending in Mill Hill and the same familiar towns frequently recorded upon her mileage cards - Wendover, Hornchurch and St Albans. Billie did not always ride circular routes and occasionally used public transport to return home. On 8 March she rode from Mill Hill to Wantage via Reading, recording her third century at a distance of 110.8 miles.

By the end of the month Billie's ride was starting to attract attention beyond the coasts of Great Britain. An invitation was received from Ireland inviting her over to spend time in the Dublin area, although the trip never happened and it is likely that Rudge Whitworth saw little benefit in her making the trip as the majority of its dealerships were located in Great Britain. The company was very much focused upon developing direct sales, particularly to the growing contingent of female cyclists. Its preference was for Billie to make appearances at venues where its bikes could be purchased there and then.

Billie - smiling, as ever - out on the road. Photo - Cycling, Fleming family archives

At the end of March Billie left the North-Western Road Club and announced her affiliation with the Southern Ladies' Road Club instead. This club had been recently formed by Florence ‘Flossie' Wren, a racing cyclist and wife of the well-known frame builder Cyril. Billie now represented female cyclists both in actions and affiliations.

April saw Billie spread her wings further and really ramp up her daily average. She started touring the West Country, visiting locations such as Swindon, Marlborough and Glastonbury, and as far afield as Taunton. On 15 and 16 April she rode her first back-to-back centuries, with a ride of 106.2 miles followed by one of 100.5. Her daily average was now up to 80 miles and she was starting to very definitely prove her point that women can easily adapt to regular cycling and gain fitness as a result in performance alone.

On 4 May 1938 Cycling magazine announced Billie's first national tour schedule. She was to give talks throughout early May in locations ranging from Guildford to Portsmouth. Each location would have been at a Rudge Whitworth dealer where Billie would present herself at 7 p.m. and give a talk concerning her ride. This clearly benefited her sponsors as the question of ‘which bike?' would ultimately come up during the evening. But Billie wanted to do much more than advertise bikes and, through a letter to Cycling magazine, asked that cycling club folk could attend so that she could spread her healthy living message further.

Around this time a Miss Evelyn Hamilton set out to ride 10,000 miles in 100 days and, from 7 to 13 May, had clocked up an impressive 763.5 miles. Billie's enthusiasm for female mile munching was clearly contagious. Hamilton was still going strong after twenty-one days with 2,259.9 miles in the bag. After forty-nine days the total was 5,218.1 and, after ninety-one days, 9,737.9. Hamilton reported her quest to be completed on 24 August when her letter saying thank you for all of the support she had received from the cycling community appeared in Cycling magazine. Hamilton had apparently far exceeded her original 10,000-mile target.

Billie had also hit 10,000 miles, on 12 May as Hamilton was starting her ride. In doing so she also moved 1,000 miles ahead of her initial schedule. Billie's ride gathered further press attention in June 1938 as, in a forthright interview in Bicycling magazine, she described her motivations for riding 75 miles each day. The interview gave an insight into the kind of determination and zest for life that Billie possessed:

I am now engaged in the most enjoyable occupation I have ever had, for instead of tapping a typewriter under a glass roof, I am now healthfully pedalling a bicycle around every day.

Clearly Billie was no shrinking violet content to bear the drudgery of an office job day in, day out. She went on to describe the challenges she had faced in her first five months of riding, including strong winds:

So far my ride has been generally blessed with fine weather, but there have been strong (aye, very strong) winds for several of the days.

She also detailed her diet, which was almost vegetarian with the staples of fruit, eggs, milk and brown bread responsible for powering her ride.

Billie's interview further underpinned her determination to spread the word about cycling. The fact that she was going to set a record was secondary; she saw great importance in engaging with non-cyclists to extol the benefits of moving to two wheels:

Every day I come into contact with all types and classes of people, and it is to these, in the course of conversation, that I advocate cycling, if necessary defend cyclists, and generally do my best to get the game appreciated a little more.

Billie reached her half-year target with three weeks to spare, hitting 12,500 miles on 9 June 1938. At the end of the month she had covered 14,516 miles and was now comfortably ahead of her planned 75-mile-a-day average. Her exploits were starting to make news in the national press, who had picked up her story and were reporting her progress in a positive manner:

[Billie's] pioneering effort should do much to encourage many more women to take to riding bicycles. Mrs Dovey's excellent health is exemplary of the good health obtainable by women who ride bicycles regularly.

[Reference] her idea that physical fitness in women is improved by daily cycling. Mrs Dovey is a strong recommendation for her theory.

Billie's ride was now gathering serious attention and her sponsor Cadbury took out a full-page advert in Cycling, with Billie praising chocolate as a ‘hunger-knock' remedy. Three pages later there she was again, advertising Ellimans Athletic Rub, just as Greaves and Menzies had done, the company always quick to associate itself with any of the successful endurance riders.

Billie in an advert for Cadbury'an emergency meal for all travellers, especially cyclists who are very often off the beaten track'

In an article in Cycling magazine published in July 1938, Billie gave further insight into her experiences out on the road. Her frustrations are all too familiar to the modern cyclist. She mentions incidents of poor parking by motorists that caused her a number of close shaves, and she talks of almost being ‘doored' and subsequently receiving abuse:

I dismounted and spoke to the car driver and almost immediately received a command from the same ‘gentleman' to go to that mythical place of torture. The car number I carefully noted but what could I do in this matter? This sort of thing I know happens every day. It is no doubt individuals of this type only who would have the public believe that cyclists are the biggest nuisance on the road.

Luckily, Billie's experiences weren't all bad, and she fondly recounts being serenaded by a line of twenty workmen, each uttering a cheery good morning as she passed down their line.

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RIDER STATISTICS

Nationality: British
Born: 13 April 1914
Place of birth: Camden, London, UK
Died: 12 May 2014

Age at start of ride: 23
Marital status at start of ride: Married
Sponsor: Rudge Whitworth and Cadbury
Base for ride: Mill Hill, London, UK

Date record passed: N/A
Location record passed: N/A

Bike
Make: Rudge Whitworth
Model: Unknown

Billie rode a Rudge Whitworth ladies model with a saddle made by Brooks that was apparently a miniature replica of their ladies' B16. The bike featured three-speed (60-66-74) Cyclo gears, Dunlop Silver Sprite tyres and a Bayliss-Wiley freewheel hub unit.

Base and locations reached

Monthly mileage - Billie Dovey, 1938

Cumulative monthly mileage - Billie Dovey, 1938

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Extract adapted from Chapter 9 of The Year - Reawakening the Legend of Cycling's Hardest Endurance Record by Dave Barter, published by Vertebrate Publishing on 19 October 2015.

(c) Dave Barter 2015

You can find Dave Barter on Twitter @CitizenFishy

You can find Vertebrate Publishing on Twitter @VertebratePub

You'll find a review of The Year - Reawakening the Legend of Cycling's Hardest Endurance Record on the the Café Bookshelf