Alf Engers

Cyclist infobox
ridername = Alf Engers


fullname = Alfred Robert Engers
nickname = The King
dateofbirth = c. April-June 1940
country = GBR
height =
weight =
currentteam = Retired
discipline = Road
role = Rider
ridertype = Time Triallist
protourrank =
amateurteams =
amateuryears = 1959-
proyears =
proteams =
majorwins = 6 times National 25 mi TT
1969 National 1 km TT
updated = April 23, 2007

Alfred 'Alf' Robert Engers (born about April-June 1940) was an English racing cyclist who set national records and won national individual time trial championships from 1959 to the late 1970s. He established a British 25-mile record of 49 minutes and 24 seconds in 1978, averaging 30.364mph (49.190km/h). He was the first rider to beat 50 minutes and thus the first to average more than 30 mph.

Background

Engers is from Southgate in north London. He worked night shifts as a pastry cook in Whitechapel while pursuing his cycling career. He first got a bike at 10. It weighed 45lb on his bakery scales. He was a runner and swimmer at school but could do neither well after an operation to his kneecap after a fall from his bike when he was 14. The operation removed his right kneecap and tied the ligaments together.

He was expelled from school for "misbehaving on every level" and received his first Road Time Trials Council (RTTC) official written warning at 16 [Hilton, T. (2004), "One More Kilometre And We're In the Showers", London: Harper, p. 347] .

He started club cycling, joining the Barnet CC, in 1952. In 1961 he was offered and took up an independent contract with Ted Gerrard Cycles for the 1962 season - independent status was a halfway stage between amateur and professional. Work and family commitments meant he rode only two races that season. He applied to be reinstated as an amateur in 1963 but was refused. He applied and was rejected every year, hampering his cycling career [cite news | url=http://www.bikebrothers.co.uk/engers.htm | title=Alf Engers | publisher=Nic and Andy Henderson | date=2007 |accessdate=2007-03-30] , until being reinstated as an amateur for 1968.

Engers' career included track racing - he raced against Tom Simpson and Barry Hoban at Herne Hill velodrome in 1963 and he won medals in the national pursuit championship. In July 1969 he won the national kilometre time trial on the track. His 1959 25-mile time-trial record of 55m 11s, set when he was 19, was ridden on an 84-inch fixed wheel.

Early racing

Engers rode his first 25-mile time-trial on a course starting at Bignall's Corner, at the junction of the A1 and A6 between London and Hatfield. He finished in 1h 12m, riding on a bicycle with derailleur gears, which he was told by older riders added two minutes to his time. Thinking at the time was that it was faster to ride a lighter bike with a single gear and no freewheel.

He also trained by the dictum of the day, which was that every extra mile counted. He said in a spech to the Pedal Club in London:

:I can remember when I started it was the norm to do long steady miles. I had it drummed into me: 'You've got to get the miles in' and accordingly I used to do say 50 or 60 miles a night, whereas today a quarter of that will suffice. The basic difference is the speed. To just ride 50 or 60 miles is comparatively easy. To do 10 miles flat out is really hard. [www.bikebrothers.co.uk/engers_files/alfscan_text_01.jpg]

At first Engers had no preference for either time-trialling or road racing. Then he saw two leading brothers, the Higginson twins [Stan and Bernard Higginson, members of the Halesowen club in the English Midlands] , riding a national championship.

:Their whole-hearted approach to cycling was my first turn-on to any branch of the sport. Their preparation, appearance, style of riding, the line they took on the road - if you can remember the Higginsons, they used to ride in a dead straight line, no messing, straight corners. Anyway, they became my number one heroes... I studied their positions, tried to emuate their style, which of course was later to get me into a lot of trouble with the governing body. [www.bikebrothers.co.uk/engers_files/alfscan_text_01.jpg]

In 1953 he rode his first 25-mile race in less than an hour, riding a 78-inch fixed wheel, the highest gear he had ridden. In 1959 he beat the record for the distance with 55m 11s.

emi-professionalism

Engers became an independent - a category between amateur and professional that existed until the mid-1960s - in 1960. His sponsor was Ted Gerrard, a bicycle dealer and one of the first to sell by mail-order. The independent category was intended to be a stepping stone to professionalism. Independents could ride in both amateur and professional races but were expected to decide after two years which they wanted to be.

Engers said:

:The sponsor arranged a meeting between myself and the two of my team-mates who were also turning independent. I can recall the meeting very clearly. I was taken to meet the others in the sponsor's Jaguar, the first time I had ever been in one. He took this car up to 100mph and I felt really important by this time. I had dreams of being the next Fausto Coppi. Anyway, due to my domestic situation - I had bought a small bakery business in the East End - I rode only two races that year as an independent. What with work and my family responsibilities, I couldn't race seriously and decided to apply for reinstatement as an amateur thay year. That was the end of 1960.

The cycling bodies - the British Cycling Federation and the Road Time Trials Council - turned him down. He applied and was turned down again annually for the next seven years.

Records as an amateur

Engers succeeded in regaining his amateur status in 1968 and dominated 25-mile time-triallling for ten years. He frequently clashed with the sport's governing body, the Road Time Trials Council (RTTC) over interpretations of the rules and the laws of the road. His technique of riding near the centre of the road was controversial.

Engers' reputation in the British time-trial community rose through the 1970s. He gained the nickname of "The King" because of his dominance. He won the national championship in 1969 (at 29, then the oldest winner) and every year from 1972 to 1976. Between 1959 and 1978 he broke the 25-mile record four times and captured the 30-mile in 1975.

In July 1976 he was heading for a 48-minute ride when he was stopped by a police patrol while doing 50mph on a descent of the A2 near Swanscombe, in Kent. He was banned from racing for two years, reduced to 12 months on appeal. This suspension might have ended of his career, but he came back in 1978 to achieve his best result.

His August 5 1978 25-mile record of 49m 24s was ridden on a course based on the A12 road near Chelmsford (the course is no longer used because of increasing traffic). Conditions were slightly damp and windy. Engers' old record of 51m 00s was beaten by an earlier starter, Eddie Adkins, with 50m 50s (the only person, apart from Engers, to hold the record between 1969 and 1990). He held the record for only a few minutes until Engers finished. Engers said that he had been in a state of grace that day, and that he had an out-of-body experience during the last part of the ride [Hilton, T. (2004), "One More Kilometre And We're In the Showers", London: Harper, p. 349] . The record stood until 1990 when a new era of cyclists and cycling technology came along.

The time-trialling historian Bernard Thompson wrote:

:On 30 August 1969, Engers clocked 51m 00s to win the Ferryhill Wheelers '25, breaking his own competition record and a step nearer the 25-mile barrier of all time, 50 minutes. To achieve that ambitious goal Engers had to wait nine years until August 1978 when he clocked 49m 24s in the Unity CC '25' on the E72 course (London East), the best of five competition records that were broken on that historic Saturday morning. It was a glorious moment but overshadowed somewhat by subsequent complaints about Engers' riding in the centre of the road [Some riders believed they gained from the slipstream of cars and trucks if they rode down the middle of the road and let traffic pass on both sides of them.] . There was an inquiry and eventually the record was ratified, and today the merit of his record can be appreciated, having stood unbroken for nine years... Alf Engers must rank among the greatest of the British time-triallists. [Thompson, Bernard (1988), Alpaca to Skinsuit, Geerings of Ashford, UK]

Equipment

The bikes Engers rode pioneered lightweight techniques, frequently featuring drilled out brakes, chainwheels and other components. The bikes were often designed and built by his friend and mentor Alan Shorter. It was not uncommon for Engers to arrive at a morning event with a Shorter bicycle frame built the previous night and thus unpainted

Engers also used large gears, creating a fashion that led to increasingly higher gears being used by many competitors, often inappropriately. For all this technical innovation, Engers' records were set in the days before low profile bikes, tri-bars, disc wheels and skin suits.

Golden Book of Cycling

Engers was added to the "Golden Book of Cycling", established by the magazine "Cycling", on 23 November 1991. His entry reads:

:For twenty years the name of Alf Engers was synonymous with 25 miles time-trials. He dominated the short-distance scene in such a fashion that he was known as King Alf. Engers' name on a start card was sure to guarantee a big crowd at the finish in a shower of nervous anticipation of what he would achieve. Engers could have been a first-class road or trackman. Indeed, he dabbled with success at both, but it was his talent, dedication and showmanship that saw him take 25-miling into unknown territory.

:He first broke competition record in 1959, recording 55 minutes 11 seconds. In 1969 he took the first of his six national championships, winning in 54 minutes 42 seconds, and later breaking competition record first with a time of 51 minutes 59 seconds and then improving his own figures to 51 minutes to raise speculation about an inside 50 minutes time for the distance.

:Engers claimed his second national title in 1972 and then followed an unbeaten sequence to 1976. Yet the best was still to come.

:In the first week in August 1978, a startled clubworld heard the news that on E72... ["cycling courses in Britain are referred to by numbers"] ...first Eddie Adkins, then Engers, had broken competition record in the Unity CC 25. Adkins recorded 50 minutes 50 seconds and then eight minutes later, Engers finished with an incredible 49 minutes 24 seconds. The seemingly unattainable had been achieved.

:The record stood for 13 years, such was the measure of the man and his ride.

Later career

In later years Engers spent more time on fishing. He also competed in triathlons.

UK time trial competition records

*1959 - 25 miles - riding for Barnet CC - 55m 11s
*1969 - 25 miles - Polytechnic CC - 51:59
*1969 - 25 miles - Polytechnic CC - 51:00
*1975 - 30 miles - Woolwich CC - 1:02:27
*1978 - 25 miles - Unity CC - 49:24

UK 25 mile time trial national championships

*1969 - riding for Polytechnic CC - 54:42
*1972 - Luton Wheelers - 53:40
*1973 - Luton Wheelers - 54:58
*1974 - Archer Road Club - 54:50
*1975 - Woolwich CC - 54:01
*1976 - Woolwich CC - 54:37

Bibliography

*Whitfield, P. (2005), "The Condor Years: A Panorama of British Cycling", Wychwood, ISBN 0-9514838-9-7

References