Ian Steel

The drivers of the 1952 Peace Tour before the start of the eighth stage in Leipzig . In the crowd: Ian Steel (# 5)

Ian Steel (born December 28, 1928 in Glasgow , † October 20, 2015 ) was a British cyclist .

Ian Steel began cycling in 1946. In 1951 he became a semi- professional with the British team Viking Cycles . In his first year he won a. a. the Paris-Lens races , the Tour of Britain (which he set foot on English soil for the first time in his life) and became Scottish road racing champion. In 1952 he started with a British national team in the International Peace Tour and won the overall standings without having won a single stage; the British team won the team championship . In the same year he was British road racing champion and British runner-up the following year. In 1955 he competed in the Vuelta a España and the Tour de France . Steel returned to the peace drive in 1965 as team leader of an international team consisting of drivers from Lebanon, Great Britain and Luxembourg.

Steel ended the tour early after the eighth stage in protest because he, who was considered the strongest and most experienced driver of the British team, was supposed to take over helper services for Brian Robinson . In general, the first start of a British team on the tour was not a good star, as the drivers who belonged to different professional teams and associations were at odds with one another. The team manager, Syd Cozens , as a former track cyclist, also lacked experience with such a difficult road race; it turned out that both the wheels and the tires were unsuitable. In 1956 Steel ended his cycling career.

In the 1990s, Ian Steel received a page in the Golden Book of Cycling . He was a brother-in-law of racing cyclist Bob Thom , who became British road champion in 1949.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Former Tour of Britain winner Ian Steel dies, aged 86
2. ^ New Germany (ed.): That was the XVIII. Peace ride . Berlin 1965, p. 24 .
3. ↑ cyclingnews.com: "The rise and fall of Hercules"
4. ↑ thepedalclub.org ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Bob Thom on localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Ian Steel in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Ian Steel in the Tour de France database(French / English )
• Scottish cyclist: Ian Steel at www.owenphilipson.com