Arthur Metcalfe
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Arthur Metcalfe |
| Born |
27 September 1938 Leeds, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 11 December 2002 (aged 64) Harrogate, England, United Kingdom |
| Team information | |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1967–1968 | Carlton - B.M.B. |
| 1969–1970 | Carlton - Truwel |
Arthur Metcalfe (27 September 1938–11 December 2002) was a British racing cyclist who twice rode the Tour de France and, as an amateur remains the only male rider to win the British road race championship and the British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) time trial competition in the same year.
Born in Leeds, Yorkshire on 27 September 1938, Arthur Metcalfe was the second of three brothers born to a cycling family. His father was a cycle-tourist. The family moved to Hartlepool when Arthur was 14. He was described then as a weak child. There he joined Hartlepool Cycling Club. On his second day as a member he rode the club's 25-mile (40 km) time trial, "leaving many of his contemporaries trailing."
Metcalfe - known among fellow professionals as "the snake" for his talent in wriggling into the winning break of a race - was handicapped at first by two years' compulsory national service with the army. He, like his brother Ken, was a military policeman in Cyprus. He soon made a name on leaving the army at 21 and in 1962 came 23rd in his first ride in the Tour of Britain, known then as the Milk Race. In 1964 he took the race yellow jersey after winning alone in the stage to Cardiff and he held the lead to the finish in Blackpool. He was celebrated for the long, lone attacks he often made through hilly countryside.
His obituary in the Daily Telegraph described him as "always physically tough and tactically astute."
In the same year, he also won two stages of the Tour du St Laurent in Canada. The British enthusiast, Mike Breckon, who saw Metcalfe in that race, said:
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