Bygones: Daring ride in San Sebastian provides Doncaster’s Simpson with his finest hour

The popular British cyclist, who followed fellow Yorkshireman Brian Robinson in crossing the Channel and taking on central Europeans at their own game, owns one of the most fabled careers in the history of the sport.

Bronze on the track at the 1956 Olympics; first Briton to wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey in 1962; victory in the Milan-San Remo one-day classic two years later; and his tragic death on the climb up Mont Ventoux on the 13th stage of the 1967 Tour.

His death remains shrouded in controversy; a cocktail of amphetamines and alcohol found in his system at the post-mortem.

But there is no debating his finest hour, that ride into the world champion’s rainbow jersey in San Sebastian, Spain, in 1965.

Fifty years before the current incumbents of the professional peloton raced in Richmond, Virginia last night in the latest instalment of the road race world championship, Simpson flew the flag with a daring ride that was indebted to the support of his British team-mates.

“This was an easy race for me, really easy – I never felt anywhere that it was hard,” recalled Simpson in a later interview, of his win over the 267.4km, 14-lap circuit of the Spanish city.

“It was not that I disregarded the others, or believed that the race was not important, but I never felt in better condition than when I started this championship.

“For one thing, we professionals, we British pros, had decided that we had had enough of losing championships and that this time we were all working together – it was to be the best men to the front and all work together, like the continentals do, instead of each going out, one by one.

“We’ve proved that we can beat anyone when we set our minds to it, and now I want to see some moves towards having a real British sponsor – one who can support a complete team on the continent and show them what we can do when we really go to town.”

Little did he know that such a premonition would take another 45 years to come true, in the shape of Team Sky.

Wakefield’s Barry Hoban, a future Tour de France stage winner, did a stellar job on the front before Simpson and Germany’s Rudi Altig broke clear with two-and-a-half laps remaining.

Both men took turns on the front but it was a split second which decided the outcome of the race.

“What happened was quite simple – I heard Rudi change gear, and I thought his chain was slipping,” said Simpson, who pounced and won by three bike lengths.

“You only get opportunities like that once in a lifetime, and I jumped at it. I dared not look round, that is fatal, but I knew he had not passed me, and I had achieved my lifelong ambition – I was champion of the world.”