Everybody’s Friend - by Peter Cossins

£10.00

Everybody’s Friend is the story of Dave’s life and career, the astounding success of the Dave Rayner Fund and of the riders who have benefitted from it. Some of those riders have become Olympic champions, stars of cycling’s Grand Tours and One-Day Classics. Others didn’t reach the top of their cycling ambitions but made the most of their chance to do so.

SKU: evr-book1 Category:

Description

‘I’ll be in one of them one of these days,’ nine-year-old David Rayner told his mum when he saw the riders and team vehicles as the 1976 Milk Race stopped in Bradford. Eleven years later, Dave finished his first Milk Race as the best under-22 rider and well on his way to becoming one of Britain’s leading professional cyclists. In 1991, when the hugely popular Yorkshireman joined the powerful Buckler team, his career took off. Racing regularly in cycling’s biggest events, he looked set to become one of Britain’s cycling greats.

Tragically, in November 1994, just five weeks after getting married, Dave Rayner died following an assault in a Bradford nightclub. He was 27. Almost immediately, Dave’s friends decided that something positive should come from that tragedy. Over the past 25 years, the Dave Rayner Fund has backed many riders to chase their dream of a professional career by racing on the continent just as Dave did in the mid-1980s.

Everybody’s Friend is the story of Dave’s life and career, the astounding success of the Dave Rayner Fund and of the riders who have benefitted from it. Some of those riders have become Olympic champions, stars of cycling’s Grand Tours and One-Day Classics. Others didn’t reach the top of their cycling ambitions but made the most of their chance to do so. Written by Peter Cossins.