Dave Pitman, a life in sport a tribute
Dave
knew a lot of people, and a lot of people knew Dave or knew of him, but few of
us were fully aware of his outstanding athletic achievements over his life
time.
Fortunately, he meticulously recorded his ‘life
in sport’ in a number of journals. The following is taken from them and gives
an idea that ‘he was quite a good
cyclist’
I
first came across Dave in the 60s when he beat me in the Monsal Dale hill climb
by 2 secs!! I didn’t know this until a conversation we had, soon after he
started work at Yeovil College some 30 years later!
In 1966 as an 17 year old apprentice at
Rolls Royce he competed in his first time trial, recording 24 mins and 11
seconds in a club 10 mile event. In the remarks column of his journal he wrote “suffered all the way, what a start”.
His first road race win was in May 1968 the South Pennine RC road race, a
sum of £3.10s his prize money. This was the start of an illustrious career in
cycle racing.
Over
the next 30 years Dave won over 25 cycle races many of them top prestigious events
including
·
Runner up twice in the National Hill
climb championships,
·
The Gun Hill road race
·
Tour of the Peak,
·
Plymouth GP
·
Western Divisional champs
·
King of the mountains in the ‘Pernod
Star Trophy’
As
well as stage race wins in
·
The
Wicklow 3 day
·
Gabra 2 day
He
also came 17th in the
·
The Tour of Ireland
Locally,
Dave won both the Ham Hill road race and the John Andrews memorial Road race
based on Babylon hill.
Dave
was a keen and committed cyclist, racing 3 or 4 times a week often cycling long
distances to an event, riding the event and then cycling home again.
Several summers were spent racing on the
continent, recording a number of wins which enabled him to live on the proceeds! Including the 66
mile criterium at Liseux, as part of the twinning visit with Somerset Road
club.
In
the 70s Dave spent time at Mercian Cycles in Derby learning and developing his
frame building and wheel building skills, which he used to benefit others.
Apparently, on a tour of Nova Scotia in later years he spent a whole evening
rebuilding a rear wheel for a tour member, no easy feat in a hotel room!
1983 was the last year of
serious competition for Dave, but his time for the New Forest 25 mile TT
reflected how good a rider Dave was, achieving 56min 16seconds, but also
recording in his log that he “had to
stop for a pee”
July of that year Dave retired from
cycle racing (almost).
The thing
is you can't just stop someone as active as Dave!
Running was the answer, achieving victory or
high placings in hill events such as the
·
Grizzly,
·
the Wellington Monument race,
·
the Charmouth Challenge
·
Crewkerne Mini Marathon
·
Karrimor Mountain Marathon in Scotland
He was regularly running 10 miles under the
hour and a half marathon time of 1h 18 mins, a very good club standard.
In 1990 another
new activity emerged, Triathlon and once again he did well in events, taking 1st
or 2nd on several occasions.
Dave took part in an early ‘Etape du Tour’, across
the Alps, with several Chard Wheelers, memorable, as he completed it on a
mountain bike, on the frame he built himself in his lunch breaks at work.
The
new millennium brought a surge of activity, with Dave returning to bike racing
at the age of 51 with several top ten placings in Vets races.
2002 culminated in Dave's last ever race, at the
European Masters Championships on the Isle of Man, where he took the lead on a
hilly section of the TT course, only to be caught by the bunch and finally
coming in 10th.
Dave
continued riding, but not competitively, he regularly covered over 8000 miles a
year, including long distance Audax events. Dave loved the outdoors; I rode several
Polaris MTB challenges with him in the Lakes and Wales, where he was always a
good tent mate, although I can’t remember him ever washing up!!
He
also enjoyed walking and helped out with the Yeovil college Expedition group helping
train the Ten Tors teams. He walked the Coast to Coast from St Bees to Robin
Hoods Bay, backpacking, not the easy B&B way!!
He regularly walked on the
moors and mountains of Britain but his walking and cycling also took him to
exotic parts of the world
·
A trek to
Everest Base Camp
Cycling tours of
·
Mongolia
·
Morocco
·
Venezuela
·
India,
·
Newfoundland,
[Nova Scotia]
·
New Zealand,
the tour leader of that
tour had planned an end of tour highlight for the group to take the legendary
TranzAlpine train from Greymouth over the Southern Alps back to
Christchurch but, Dave and a friend decided to cycle. When the train stopped at
the one intermediate station, there was a hand written note at the station "See you in Christchurch - Dave"
a typical understated comment from Dave.
This
summer he had booked up to cycle the length of France from Cherbourg to Montpelier
on the med. I was to be his roommate!
In 2008 He
had a serious fall from his bike, which left him with life threatening injuries.
Dave's skull was badly fractured and he spent a long time on life support in
intensive care. It was a long recovery but recover he did, helped by being very
fit, a great driver in his will to recover was the determination to get back on
his bike.
Dave
was always happy to spend time to share his experience and knowledge of cycling
and bikes, he was a great believer in the ‘cycling club’, always being a club
member, supporting and encouraging where he could. Dave was a good frame builder
an expert mechanic and wheel builder. Some of us are fortunate to ride the
frames and wheels he built.
Dave
was a modest and private person, a talented cyclist particularly where hills
were concerned, he was always dependable, prepared to listen and help. Above
all he loved riding his bike and being in the outdoors.
He is already sadly missed by all in
the cycling world and we all hope that he is enjoying his ‘next great adventure,
he is probably building his new bike as I speak’
Many
thanks to Martin and Sandra and Dave Notley for sorting and pulling the
information together and to Carolene for helping to draw attention to his
achievements,
No comments:
Post a Comment