An Interview with Bev May

Today cycling is a popular sport for women and we take it for granted that we can compete. However, as always, someone was the first woman to break into the sport and in New Zealand, that woman was Bev May. Bev started cycling 50 years ago and is still actively involved in the sport organising club events and the longest running women’s tour in New Zealand, the KDRE Harcourts Bev May Women’s Tour. Femme asked Bev what it was like being the first.

Why did you decide to ride?
I was always into sports and was an A grade swimmer and playing A grade netball when my brother took up cycling with the Waipa Wheelers in Te Awamutu. They held a novelty event where the riders organised the race and women and officials rode. I was fifteen and I beat the boys U17 time. I was hooked and gave up my other sports to ride.

Arthur Ricketts was the club President and he took me under his wing. He organised permission from the organising body for me to be registered and lent me a bike. Once I started beating the boys they sent around a petition to have my license revoked, but Arthur persuaded them to drop it, saying I would be a 5 minute wonder. It’s been a long five minutes.

What was the gear like?
Obviously there were no girls' frames and I was petite as a 15 year old, so Arthur took my measurements and wrote to Mercian in the UK asking them to send over a special frame for me which they sent free of charge. It was a boys 10 speed and the total cost including componentry was £82:10. I was still at school then, but the average weekly wage was £25 or $50 in 1960 compared with $960 now, so it was really expensive and I was very lucky.

We used to wear woollen shorts that came down to our knees and they didn’t have chamois or any other padding. We had woollen jerseys too, they still had pockets like today.

Helmets weren’t compulsory but I always wore a leather one and the boys used to tease me about it saying that I didn’t want to get my face hurt. Years later I had a serious accident and I never regretted wearing the helmet.

How did you manage your training regime?
We didn’t have computers on our bikes of course, we just learnt to judge distances, speed and cadence. We still did interval work then and worked on the Lydiard principles of endurance because we would normally race 80km on both Saturday and Sunday and had to have stamina.

Our normal training rides were about 80km and longer on Sunday when we weren’t racing. We always had one day a week off.

My brother and I would go out for a couple of hours at 4am every morning, rain, hail or shine, with our lights on our bikes. We lived in the countryside and there was a lot more cow dung on the roads then than today, we just had to ride through it, and through the stock on the roads.

Who gave you the support you must have needed to be able to compete and what was the nature of that support?
Arthur Ricketts was the first person to encourage me to take the sport seriously and I was forever grateful for his support. He helped by smoothing the way with Cycling NZ and getting me started with the right gear.

Early on in my career I also met Neil Geraghty who was the top national coach of the time and he offered to train me. We just had a natural fit in our coaching relationship and he taught me to be really tough and not to be intimidated by the men when I was racing.

Obviously my parents were supportive, both in the start and throughout my cycling career. Not only did they take us all over the place racing, but after I was married they looked after the babies every day when I was training.

What were your major achievements?
The first year raced in the Waikato Championships I was 15 and finished 4th in the Juniors, 2 minutes behind the winner. I was upset that I was not selected to ride at the nationals because I was a female.

In 1966 I was the first woman to race the 160 kms around Mt Taranaki/Egmont in 4 hours 54 minutes and in the same year I was second overall in the Napier to Wairoa race. That year I did a solo ride from the Auckland Post Office to Hamilton Post Office and broke the record for the distance.

Racing with men is much more aggressive than racing with women and I was often the only woman racing. I won the Morrinsville Open one year – there were 88 men in the sprint and I was the only woman.

The first Elite Women’s Nationals was in Mataura (Southland) in 1981 after I had been riding for 23 years. There were about 8 women riding and they had come from Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson and I was the only one from north of Wellington. On the day I wasn’t well and shouldn’t have ridden, but we had travelled so far and I couldn’t resist the challenge. I was accustomed to training over 80 kms and the entire Nationals was race of only 22 km, so it was over before I had really got underway and I came second.

How did you cope with the blokes who didn’t want you riding with them?
Once when I was racing some bloke and I both went to jump on the back of a wheel and he threatened to push me off. I did as Neil Geraghty had trained me, I grabbed his shirt and told him that if I went he would go with me, so he backed off.

After I had dated a few of the boys I got a lot more acceptance, but really I just had to show them that I was as good as them and I was not going to give up.

What was your proudest moment?
When my son announced he wanted to race at age 7. He was absolutely determined so we agreed and his sister decided to start at the same age. Mark went on to represent New Zealand and became a semi professional in USA and Sandra represented New Zealand and won the NZ Sprint title. Now our 7 year old grandson wants to start.

Julian Dean started racing at age 14 and I trained him from then until he was 19. We also a special coaching relationship and I get huge joy to watch his success.

What words of advice do you have for the girls starting their cycling career now?
Women are not so aggressive as men in their racing these days, they need to back themselves and truly race the whole distance.
But the most important message is to get out there and enjoy competing. Have fun and the winning will come.

Image:
2010 Ben pictured with Sonia Waddell, Kevin Deane and Club A Grade Winners 

Supplied by Morrinsville Wheelers