22 Facts About Graham Webb

Graham Paul Webb was an English racing cyclist who became the world amateur road race champion in 1967.

Graham Webb was born on 13 January 1944, as the youngest of five children brought up by a war widow in a slum in Birmingham, England.

Graham Webb was given the last rites twice as a child before gaining his health.

Graham Webb got his first bike when he was eight and soon enjoyed going not only on long rides, but rides of such length that they were beyond him.

Graham Webb began riding from Birmingham to Gloucester and back, just because it was a magical 100-mile round trip, and persisted until he could do it without literally falling into a ditch from exhaustion.

Graham Webb entered his first race aged 17, a 25-mile time trial.

Unaware of what he was supposed to do, shy and not understanding why competitors were starting individually as opposed to together in a bunch, Graham Webb waited until he was called, by which point, he was late for his allocated start time; the time was calculated from the allocated start time instead of his actual start time as a penalty.

Graham Webb was hampered initially as one of his pumps fell off and he had to wait for cars to pass before being able to return to collect his shoe and continue.

Graham Webb had ridden the 25 miles in 1 hour 1 minute and 31 seconds.

Graham Webb spent the next years competing in several time trials and often won mass-start events on the road.

Attempts to ride well in the British national track team, according to Graham Webb, were hindered by the team's persistent lack of morale and ambition.

Graham Webb took no notice and went on to beat the old hour record by approximately 400 metres.

Graham Webb trained between 200 and 300 kilometres a day for the World Road Race Championship which followed a week later.

Graham Webb got into the important breakaway in this race but dropped back to help a fellow British rider, Peter Buckley, up to the front, on his return to the front of the race Graham Webb discovered that a handful of riders had broken away.

Graham Webb led the chase, dropping Buckley in the process, and took the lead in a corner late in the race, accelerating clear to win alone.

Graham Webb turned professional in 1968 for the Mercier team which included Raymond Poulidor and another French star, Jean Stablinski, although things started going wrong from the moment a shipping strike stranded him in Sardinia, where he had been training, forcing him to miss the team's first race.

Graham Webb rode a further year as a professional but without success.

Graham Webb opened a bar and had his world champion's rainbow jersey on display; when it became dirty from cigarette smoke, and as depression rose over what could have been, Webb took it down and threw it in the fire.

Graham Webb was later employed at a steel works in Ghent, as a crane operator.

Graham Webb never lived in Britain again, saying he was glad to leave as it had too many memories of abuse and poverty.

Graham Webb raced successfully as an amateur, especially on the track, but became seriously unwell when he suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm whilst riding in Ghent.

In 2007, Graham Webb was acknowledged by his home town, Birmingham, on the birmingham.