The full, original version of this article was published in the 26th June 2025 print edition of Cycling Weekly. Subscribe online and get the magazine delivered direct to your door every week.
Len Double dressed his youngest son Paul, just nine at the time, in a yellow jersey and red helmet, and plonked him on a £100 mountain bike. “We were in Cheddar Gorge and I told him to ride down the hill and then back up,” Len remembers. “I didn’t expect much, but he rode up it like a bloody rocket! I thought, Jesus, if he takes this up, he could be pretty useful.” The ride whetted young Paul’s appetite for cycling. “I felt very early on that if he persevered he could become a stage race rider,” his father continues.
