WHAT WOULD BERYL DO?

When writing his book Beryl: In Search of Britain's Greatest Athlete, Jeremy Wilson replicated Beryl Burton in a wind tunnel to see just how fast she'd be if riding today's equipment

- Jeremy Wilson

As Beryl Burton's sparkling old handmade steel TIRaleigh bike was released and then carefully lifted from a mount, a series of engraved letters and numbers - 'BB.1.81' - briefly became visible on the bottom bracket. The exact machine on which Beryl raced during much of the 1980s, and which is photographed on the front cover of her autobiography, had just completed its most vigorous workout for more than 30 years. "People will struggle to believe this," muttered Dr. Xavier Disley, one of the world's leading experts on aerodynamics, as he clicked through various tables, graphs, and spreadsheets and began to mentally compute the information in front of him.

We were inside a wind tunnel at the Silverstone motor-racing circuit, and the objective for the day had been to finally resolve one of British cycling's classic cafe stop debates.

Just how fast would Beryl Burton be today? Her record times might have been finally broken, but would modern aerodynamic kit put her straight back on top of the pile? Or would improvements in training and sports science inevitably still leave her behind? When you really stop to think about it, the idea that any athlete could overcome a handicap of more than 50 years is outlandish. Imagine plonking Sir Gareth Edwards, all 5ft 8in and 13 stone of him, from the 1970s into an international rugby union match today. Or placing Billie Jean King in a time machine, letting her adjust to a modern tennis racket for a few weeks, and then expecting her to hold her own on Centre Court at Wimbledon against Serena Williams. And just consider other endurance sports like athletics and swimming.