"And that beats the hour" – five words that danced momentarily in the air on 11 June, 1939, tripping off the tongue of an astonished timekeeper as rider number 14 flashed across the line. For the first time in history, a cyclist had covered 25 miles in less than 60 minutes in the UK.
It marked a watershed moment for UK cycling, comparable to Roger Bannister's exploits on the athletics track 15 years later. So why is Ralph Dougherty, the rider who achieved that first sub-hour ‘25’, not a household name?
