Former pro cyclist and National Champion, Maurice Burton, was assaulted while out riding his bike yesterday. A bank holiday Monday ride through picturesque Kent villages ended up with the De Ver Cycles owner in hospital after a motorist pulled 60-year old Burton off his bike in an unprovoked attack.
The pretty village of Downe, home to Charles Darwin, is on a popular route for club rides and tensions often arise between motorists and road cyclists but the police rarely have to intervene.
Read MoreMany successful sportsmen have struggled with their personal lives at the end of their sporting careers. Who can forget the images of a washed out Paul Gascoigne, overweight and dependent on alcohol, struggling with his demons as he tried to make some sense of his life after a glittering, but not entirely fulfilled, career as a footballer? Of course the cycling world is no different: Marco Pantani suffered a terrible decline into drug addiction that tragically destroyed him. Even the apparently unshakeable Eddy Merckx floundered after retirement for a while, as he sought out a life in business as a prefabricated building salesman before being persuaded to go into the bike building business!
Read MoreWhat is it that makes a champion? What transcends someone from being simply a strong rider to one that has the killer instinct that means it’s their wheel, not their rival’s, that crosses the line of the track first?
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