Angela Mills-Bannon
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genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Angela Mills-Bannon
@genkigalcycling.bsky.social
73 followers 140 following 180 posts
The Bicycle nerd
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genkigalcycling.bsky.social
A stab at relaunching my Substack after getting a bit distracted over the summer! thebicycle.substack.com/p/the-beginn...
October 4, 2026 at 5:25 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Another eBay find and another step closer to piecing together my great-uncle Bill’s story. In 1939 Bill commissioned the design of a new power assisted bicycle - and they were launched at the 1939 Good Friday races.
October 2, 2026 at 8:25 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
My Paris-London 1947 collection is almost complete!! I had a bad photocopy of this but now have the original Cycling issue - includes my great uncle’s last article. A man of vision, greatly missed in his day, but now buried in time and overlooked by cycling history…my attempt to change that
Front cover of Cycling April 17 1965 Paris-London Bill Mills’ last story Farewell to Bill Mills Man of Vision Paris-London - the race that made a profit men who eld_racing Graham ff Cross. es. Right: s Graham s unwittingly, elers' " hilly nti- and pro- oncerned with rivals, Webb, . he had to in the second me trial, and ng miles in ew in recent ange in his oused round ped course, tfordshire. Seauchamp cent and Wheelers, rith such things Jon —all three on their current win. FAREWELL TO BILL MILLS goodbye to Bill Mills, doyen of Britain's cycling journalists. WEin the manner he would have wished, plenty of flowers and not much sentiment. The address in the West Norwood crematorium chapel, left nothing to be desired. "The man is gone before his Man of vision time, but. we have left the precious gift of memory." It is fitting that this should be the way we remember Bill-a gathering of cyclists and colleagues clustered together on a bright spring morning, to see him off. Present Terrry were his wife W. J and Billie: daughter Sonya: his his son father, Mills senior; sister, Mrs. W. G. his brother Len; his man; Mr. Bayman and Mr. Bay- and Mrs. E. Chippendale De Laune CC: Ted Beavis, V.T.T.A : W.J Bailey, former sprint champion of the world; J. B. Wadley, editor of SPORTING CYCLIST; Alan Gayfer, editor of CYCLING: Green, SPORTING Roy CYCLIST; Mike Duffield and Roger St. Pierre, CycLINg; Peter Bryan, managing editor Go Magazine Ltd. and former editor of the BICYCLE; John Dennis and Jim Wallace, both formerly of the BICYCLE; Rex Coley, former editor of the BICYCLE: Les Jones, editor. Express News Services; Ken Pragnell, B.B.C.; Sidney Salt-marsh, the SUN; Ron and Kath White, Highgate CC and DAILY ExpResS; Norman Sheil, B.C.F. national coach: Stan Butler and Alan Gordon, Norwood Paragon; Chas Messenger, British road team manager; Peter Middlesex Clarion; Ken Hill, Clifford De Laune: Eddie Wingrave, Old Kent CC; Brian Fogg, formerly with CYcLe SPORT: Frank Armond, North Road CC: Jack and Olive Carrick, Catford CC; F. S. Johnson, Balham CC and VTTA : A Dobson, Priory Wheelers; Mr. and Mrs. H. Greenwood; Mr. H. C. H. Stacey. Tribu…
September 28, 2026 at 3:02 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Turns out I had the image in my possession all along!!

Sunday Quiz: How long did it take carpenters to build Olympia’s Six-Day cycling track in 1934? #trackracing #vintagecycling #cyclinghistory
The 1934 Sux Days Race Track Under Construction- Taken from an article in The Bicycle, 1936
September 27, 2026 at 9:17 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Digging into 1930s six day track construction- this image from France - no place or date though.
September 26, 2026 at 8:20 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Possibly a shot from the 1934 Olympia Six Day race - the dates are a month out. The photo press mark is dated 17/6/34 but the race took place a month later in July. I can’t explain the anomaly and as the track didn’t exist in June this date can’t be right. Human error or not the Olympia event?
September 25, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Angela Mills-Bannon
cycologies.com
The Tour de France Femmes rolls off today + @clodaghfinn.bsky.social in the @irishexaminer.bsky.social has the story of Mayo's Millie Robinson 🇮🇪, 'The Greatest Woman Cyclist of Them All', who won a precursor of today's #TdFF2026, 1955's Tour Féminin aka 'the First Tour de France Femmes'.

#SpeirGorm
Clodagh Finn: The Mayo woman who won the first Tour de France for women
The memory of the last time the Sam Maguire went west, 75 years ago, is etched in local consciousness, yet a remarkable international win by a Ballina cyclist just a few years later remains little-kno...
www.irishexaminer.com
August 1, 2026 at 7:06 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Delighted to share some of my great uncle Bill’s story in this article for Cycling Weekly. 🙏🏼 @cycologies.com for the lead-out! And to @dbfreelance.co.uk for the opportunity www.cyclingweekly.com/news/think-n...
Think next year's UK Tour de France Grand Départ is historic? Discover the radical cross-Channel race that time forgot
A post-WW2 Paris-London stage race promised to revolutionise British cycling. Its founder risked everything to make it happen – only for bureaucracy, and history, to leave it behind
www.cyclingweekly.com
July 30, 2026 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Angela Mills-Bannon
timbonvilleginn.bsky.social
Decathlon-CMA CGM announce that they will launch a women's team next season!

The team will start out in the ProTeam division of teams with 12 riders on the roster.

Seen as a key part of all the sponsor's strategies going forward, this is a big step.
decathloncmacgmteam.com/en/decathlon...
DECATHLON CMA CGM LAUNCHES ITS WOMEN'S TEAM
decathloncmacgmteam.com
July 29, 2026 at 8:48 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
I got hooked on the World Cup. Now that’s over it’s back to the pages of The Bicycle - flashback to 20/7/1937 when the paper reported Charles Holland’s retirement from #tdf @letour.stadio.top - so close yet so far - a bit like the England football team
July 21, 2026 at 8:35 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Heartbreak again 😢
June 29, 2026 at 7:31 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
Invited by Desgrange to follow the 1939 #tdf - my great uncle Bill ended up timing a stage - and nearly botched it! I’d like to think he clocked the tour’s first mountain time trial up l’Iseran - his article doesn’t confirm which stage it was #TheBicycle
I HAVE done more than follow the Tour. .... the I have timed it! On one of the time trial stages a breakdown to an official car left the promoters short of a timekeeper. Having only that morning been displaying my Henderson timepiece I was promptly roped in to assist, although I protested strongly that I had no qualifi-cations, not even R.T.T.C, approval, apart from possession of the wateh! My figures seemed to meet with approval (I didn't hear of any rider protesting afterwards!), although at one time some confusion was caused because I had written out the result sheet using the English " 7," which to the French looks like a one, their figure seven having a short stroke across the middle when written. Bill’s Henderson watch
June 26, 2026 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Angela Mills-Bannon
cycologies.com
Augusta Fornasari, who won the second edition of the Corsa al Mare, was a member of the Italian resistance - a partigiano, a partisan - during the war.

Take that, Gino Bartali.

A long shot, @footymac.bsky.social but has she crossed your radar?
June 7, 2026 at 7:59 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
As the frenzy builds for the Grand Départ - a nod to my great uncle who made a British entry into the #tdf possible - and declared by Jean Leulliot to be the first English journalist to have followed the Tour in 1939: L’Auto 1/8/1939
Mills, first English journalist to have followed the Tour, advocates for 200 km time trials.Our English colleague Mills, editor-in-chief of The Bicycle, has been following the Tour de France since Marseille. We asked him what he thought of the Tour, which he was following for the first time."I cannot find the adjectives, even in English," he told us, "to express what I felt. It is more than magnificent, it is more than everything. What I found most beautiful was the passage of S. Maes through the Casse Déserte, at the summit of the Izoard.This goes beyond anything one can experience."But Mills is more qualified than anyone to talk about time trial races, since all races in England are held in this manner:"We don't like that very much, apparently, in France," he told us, "but I stopped today in a small village, halfway through the time trial, and several people came to chat with me. They all told me they preferred this to a mass-start race. The spectacle lasts longer for the spectators.
June 24, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Angela Mills-Bannon
cyclozparis.bsky.social
Ferdinand Charron, 1893 🚲🚴🏼‍♀️ #bikesky #bike
June 24, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Angela Mills-Bannon
ksmikey.eurosky.social
Message from @raynerfoundation.bsky.social

Please repost

And any help

“Hi all, looking for help! We are short of volunteers for the Etape du Dales charity event on Sunday 5th July. We are looking for drivers for the sweep vehicle and at the Moorcock feed station.

1/
June 16, 2026 at 6:25 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
The dangers of using AI for research but I love that I called Gemini out and it admitted it completely made up the existence of a so called article that Bill wrote 🤣
June 14, 2026 at 10:30 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
I’m just back from Paris crisscrossing Bill’s 1947 Paris-London route. I feel like I’ve done enough (for now at least) to revive the race’s legacy and was wondering where to take my research next. Then this popped up in my inbox from a @cyclingweekly.com reader. Linking Bill to Stallard’s BLRC.
The Brighton Stanley Wanderers Cycling Club, which has produced many national as well as local cycling champions, has as a member W. J. (BIll) Mills. He started racing for the club in 1924, and eventually became the club's road champton, dominating Sussex long-distance road sport for several years. Among his successes….were the One Hour record at Preston Park (which he held for many years, the 50 and 100 miles Southern R.R.A. tandem records (ir partnership with Eric Smith), and his many wins in Bussex 12-hour events. But, in 1931, Bill Mills decided to turn professional and try his luck in the International events abroad. Here he found a totally different type of racing,the technique so different, and the opposition so formidable, that he had to start " learning to ride all over agaln." But the Brighton boy stuck to It, riding a in such classic events as the Paris to Roubaix, Circuit of Parls, Parls to Angers, and Paris to Tours. Bit by bit he improved…But he knew that he had started too late at this difficult sport ever to reach the front rank internatlonally. Returning home, Mills determined to provide opportunitles for British riders to try, in their own country, the thrills of "massed start " racing, in the hopes that one day a team of British riders would be able to go abroad with every confidence of bringing back international honours. In partnership with Vic Jenner, of the Charlotteville C.C., he promoted, in 1933, the first massed start race In this country. Held on the famous Brooklands Motor Track, It was won by Jack Salt, of Liverpool, from Bill Burl, of London… Racing on the Isle of Man T.T. course and Donnington Motor Circuit followed, but the British riders had & lot to learn, and the time was not yet ripe for them to venture, racing, on the public roads. Prominent among the riders at the early Brooklands Trials was Percy Stallard, When war broke out, Mills had to divert his energles elsewhere, and Stallard took over where Mills left off.
June 9, 2026 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Angela Mills-Bannon
barbisblue.bsky.social
"Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." --Walter Cronkite The Retired School Librarian.com
June 2, 2026 at 3:54 PM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
A good read - I rode the 9 stages of TdFFaZ 2025 (obvs not in the pro race) - Stage 8 was aptly the Queen. I was a bit broken after Col de la Madeleine! The translation may lose some French historical meaning but to me, the endurance it demands mirrors the historic reigns of Elizabeth I and II.
May 29, 2026 at 8:22 AM
genkigalcycling.bsky.social
The logistics of crossing the channel during the 1947 Paris-London stage race. Border control had never stamped so many bikes. It’s not any smoother 79 years on post-Brexit!! 1974 #tdf saw customs chaos when riders were detained in immigration- hope there’s a plan for #tdffaz & #tdf 2027!!
May 28, 2026 at 8:49 AM