Beesten In U.K. Tour

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31987, 14 May 1969, Page 19

Beesten In U.K. Tour

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.)

The. Whangarei Olympic cyclist, B. W. Beeston, is working hard on his build-up for the Tour of Britain race, which will start in two weeks. He arrived in Britain recently from fast, flat racing in the Netherlands and took part at the week-end in a two-day, two-part, 236mile race from Manchester to Rhyl, In North Wales. Beeston finished twentysecond on general classification in the GreenallWhitley International Grand Prix. He was sixteenth in the first stage and twentieth on the return stage in the race won by the Dutch Olympic gold medallist, J. Zoememelk. Beeston said he was quite pleased with his form and the week-end’s racing was his first on hills since the Olympic Games last October.

“Those hills hurt,” he said, “and this was what I wanted. The races I have been riding in the Nether-

lands have been flat and fast They hurt, too, but not the same as these.”

Beeston will be riding short criteriums during the week and a 52-mlle road race on Saturday. The other New Zealander on the Continent, J. A. Dean, is riding at a track meeting and the Olympia slx-day tour in the Netherlands, before coming to England immediately before the Tour of Britain, or “Milk Race” as It is called (it is sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board) starts in Worthing.