I enjoyed this, having been in organised cycling and racing since the mid 1960s. I wish I'd been out and about on two wheels when the roads were as quiet as depicted, but I know from reading cycling history that it must have been as shown.
It's mainly for fun of course, and please don't think I'm nit-picking, but the plot of the racing part is slightly implausible in that on the start line of a championship race, when the police arrest Bert Gardner, David Howarth, steps up in his place as a reserve rider, That's legal of course, but he also uses Bert's race number which certainly is against regulations. Furthermore, despite having had only a few short weeks of riding, the rookie not only avoids getting dropped (left behind) in the first few miles of this hilly race - he even completes the distance to finish in fourth place!
One of the racers from a rival cycling club, who I spotted riding at the head of the race in it's final stages, was none other than "he whose name should not be mentioned," the infamous sex offender, Jimmy Savile. His name didn't appear in the credits.
Savile was one of the leading Yorkshire bike racers of the period and later competed in the two week long 'Tour of Britain' race.
Apologies folks if the details of Savile's infamy may not be widely known outside the UK, but after his competitive cycling career was over he became a radio DJ, then an extremely famous celebrity, culminating in him creating and hosting the very popular Saturday evening TV show, "Jim'll Fix it." He took advantage of his celebrity status to inveigle himself into positions of trust in various hospitals and institutions where he sexually abused vulnerable young people.
I met him twice when I was a young teenager and suffered no consequences - I consider myself fortunate for that.
Review of A Boy, a Girl and a Bike
