Paul Anthony Carbutt (4 July 1950 – 1 May 2004) was an English professional racing

cyclist Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

. Carbutt has an exceptional range of achievements - from a silver medal in the short-distance national hill-climb championship in 1975 to breaking the near-1,000 miles of the

Land's End to John o' Groats Land's End to John o' Groats is the traversal of the length of the island of Great Britain between two List of extreme points of the United Kingdom#Extreme points within the UK, extremities, in the southwest and northeast. The traditional di ...

road record in 1979. He was an accomplished road rider and time triallist.

Amateur career

Carbutt rode for the Midlands-base
Saracen Road Club
early in his career. His programme mixed the top

road races Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily closed public ...

with a range of

time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

distances. He came to national prominence with a stage win and second overall in the 1974

Girvan Girvan (, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, and north of St ...

3-day stage race. In the same season he won the 100-mile time trial championship. In 1975 he won a bronze medal in the national road race championship and won both the 50-mile and 12-hour time trial championships. His time trialling led to selection for the British team for the

team time trial A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events). The winning team in a TTT is determined by the comparing the times of ...

at the

Montreal Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal w ...

. The team came sixth, 50 seconds away from a bronze medal. He competed in the

event at the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

. In 1977 he rode for the GS Strada team. He won the early-season Girvan 3-day, was third in The Milk Race and was national time trial champion at 100 miles. The GS Strada team (Carbutt, Dave Cuming, Phil Griffiths and Joe Waugh) won the national 100 km team trial championship. Carbutt also won the season-long

British Best All-Rounder The British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competition, organised by Cycling Time Trials, is an annual British cycle-racing competition. It ranks riders by the average of their average speeds in individual time trials, over 50 and and 12 hours fo ...

time trial competition.

Professional career

In 1978 Carbutt turned professional for Viking-Campagnolo. In his first year, he took a stage win at the Scottish Milk Race.

Lands End to John O'Groats record

In July 1979, during a busy professional season, Carbutt attempted Dick Poole's 1965 record from Lands End to John O'Groats. Carbutt made early inroads into Poole's schedule, struggled in a Scottish heat wave, and set a record time of 1 day, 23 hours, 23 minutes and 1 second - just inside Poole's mark. Bernard Thompson said: "Paul Carbutt is probably the one and only rider ever to have covered such a wide variety of unpaced distances with such success... Carbutt turned professional for a successful career which included the Land's End to John o'Groats record in 1d 23h 23m 1s, breaking Dick Poole's 14-year-old record by 23m 34s. In the process, Carbutt lost five minutes in Cornwall when police accused him of speeding!"

Another win

In 1980 Carbutt won the Yorkshire Classic road race at

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

. He also took third in the Tom Simpson Memorial road race in 1981..

Later life

Carbutt continued cycling after his professional career, riding with the Saracen Road Club again and later the

Solihull Solihull ( ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe in the Arden, Warwickshire, Forest of Arden ar ...

Cycling Club. In 1984 he rode the 24-hour championship, attempting a medal at yet another distance. He finished 22nd. Carbutt was a clay artist, designing transport solutions.''

Cycling Weekly ''Cycling Weekly'' is the world's oldest cycling publication. It is both a weekly cycling magazine and a news, features and buying advice website. It is published by Future plc, Future. It used to be affectionately referred to by British club c ...

'', 21 March 1992 He was later diagnosed with

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...

and died in 2004.

External links

Carbutt at cyclingwebsite.net

References

Bernard Thompson, "The true all-rounder" in Cycling Weekly, March 21, 1992, pp. 22–3 {{DEFAULTSORT:Carbutt, Paul 1950 births 2004 deaths English male cyclists British male cyclists Cyclists from Birmingham, West Midlands Olympic cyclists for Great Britain Cyclists at the 1976 Summer Olympics 20th-century English sportsmen