大象传媒

The year 1968 was a time of high achievement for the racing members of Clifton Cycling Club in York. Together that year they broke all the British time-trialling records. Three of them, Pete Smith, John Watson and Roy Cromick, capped their year off by being picked to make up three of the four-man British team to ride the team time-trials at the Olympics in Mexico.

Pete Smith on the cover of Sporting Cyclist

Pete Smith, who rode in the World Championship that year and won the 'King of the Mountains' jersey in the Tour of Morocco says, 鈥淚t was very unusual for three riders from the same club to be picked to represent their country.

"We thought we might have a chance to go to the Olympics, so we trained up and we succeeded. We went to trials against other teams, where we had to cycle 100 Kilometres in two hours and we were the fastest. I suppose we were quite outstanding at that time"

Clifton Cycling Club makes the headlines.

The three were picked for the Olympics in June and went to Mexico in September. Pete says, "We only had a few months to prepare and we were all amateurs and had proper jobs, I was a joiner, John was a builder and Roy was a teacher. We trained on evenings and weekends, riding 50 Kilometres each time, half the distance we鈥檇 ride in the Olympics.鈥�

There are parallels between the Mexico Olympics in 1968 and Beijing 40 years later. In the run up to the games in 1968 there were protests about Human rights issues.

Ten days before the opening of the Mexico games students demonstrated in Mexico City. Troops fired into the crowd, killing unarmed demonstrators.

Pete remembers protests taking place: 鈥淲e saw demonstrations whilst we were there. They weren鈥檛 demonstrating against us, the athletes, but were angry at the Olympics being held there; spending all the money, when really they couldn鈥檛 afford it and needed to feed the poor in their own country. They had a valid point.鈥�

Tommie Smith and John Carlos make their protest

As if all the political upheaval wasn鈥檛 enough, events on the field were causing controversy too. On the 200 metre podium, two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised black-gloved fists to protest against civil rights abuse in the United States.

Pete says he felt a lot of sympathy for them: 鈥淭hey were alright to run a hundred metres and win a medal in Mexico, but not alright to sit with whites on a bus in their own country.鈥�

Pete says, 鈥淭he thin atmosphere benefited the shorter distances. It wasn鈥檛 the case for the cycling unfortunately. Our event was the 100 kilometre team time-trials. Each team has four cyclists in a line, each sheltering the next man from the wind, changing positions riding at the front for a while taking the wind then switching to the back.

Pete (3rd from left) and exhausted team.

鈥淭he conditions took some getting used to because of the rarefied atmosphere. There were worries athletes would die. A lot of people took a lot of time to acclimatise to having less oxygen. But I was lucky, I got used to it quickly.鈥�

The three members of the Clifton Cycling club in York, who made up three quarters of the cycling time-trials team at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, came tenth out of over 30 teams. There鈥檚 a note of disappointment in Pete鈥檚 voice when he says, 鈥淚t was not as well as we expected to do, but there you go, we did alright - not too bad.鈥�

Pete Smith today

Forty years later Pete says he still cycles occasionally and was glued to the television during the Olympics, especially during the opening ceremony.听

鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing like the opening ceremony and actually being there when the 800 metre runner runs up and lights the flame. The whole arena goes absolutely silent. It鈥檚 a really moving atmosphere; you can鈥檛 relate what it鈥檚 like to anybody.鈥�