Sporting Bygones: Why Olympic heroes still take second place behind Yorkshire's queen of cycling

But even without Olympic kudos – women's cycling did not gain recognition until the road-race was incorporated into Los Angeles Games of 1984 with the 3,000m pursuit following in 1992 – Beryl Burton remains a cycling legend.

Her record of world titles was impressive enough, five World Championship golds plus three silver and three bronze medals at her favourite event, the 3,000m pursuit, as well as two golds and a silver against the world's best in the road-race.

Factor in 72 individual national time-trial titles and success as British Best All-rounder for 25 consecutive years from 1959 to 1983 and the enormity of her talent begins to sink in.

But perhaps most impressive of all was her feat in setting a new 12-hour time-trial record of 277.25 miles in an event organised by Otley Cycling Club in 1967.

In doing so, she set a distance which exceeded the men's record – and which a man would not surpass for another two years – and added to cycling folklore by overtaking Mike McNamara, who was on his way to setting a national men's record. As she powered past, she famously handed him a liquorice all-sort, saying later: "The poor dear seemed to be suffering a bit".

The boys had to get used to Beryl overtaking them and, as she did, there was always a quip or a word of encouragement.

She set over 50 national records at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 100 miles, some of which lasted for 20 years and her 12-hour record remains the best by a woman to this day.

Beryl Burton died while on a training ride near Harrogate just before her 59th birthday in May, 1996, still in love with cycling. For her, a club time-trial was as important as any international event and she was at her happiest among the members of Morley Cycling Club, where she spent most of her racing career, and later Knaresborough CC.

Born Beryl Charnock in Morley on May 12, 1937, the future Mrs Burton was a sickly child, suffering from St Vitus Dance and rheumatic fever which confined her to a convalescent home for 15 months and left her temporarily paralysed down one side of her body.

She was able to start work at the age of 15, finding a job in a tailoring company in Leeds where she noticed one of her colleagues, Charlie Burton, made strange clicking noise with his feet as he walked about the building; he was wearing cycling shoes and it was he who introduced the future world champion to the world of bikes.

Beryl and Charlie married when she was 17 and he soon gave up his promising career in the saddle to become his wife's mentor, mechanic and soulmate.

Their daughter, Denise, followed her parents into competitive cycling, riding with her mother in the Great Britain team at the 1972 World Championships in Barcelona and winning a bronze medal in the 1975 pursuit. Mother-and-daughter combined in 1982 to set a national 10-mile record of 21 min 25 sec on their tandem.

Beryl's first success came with a silver medal in the 1957 100-mile individual time-trial – within two more years she was riding on the international stage: an era of Burton domination had begun.

At her best in time-trials, the ultimate test of mind and body and a discipline which breaks all but the hardiest of souls, Burton had a resolve which was remarkable but which sometimes gave her a flinty demeanour.

After being out-sprinted by Denise at the climax of the 1975 national road-race she refused to shake hands with her daughter on the podium and later wrote: "This is not a story for some romantic magazine; it is a real-life narrative about basically ordinary people with jangled nerves and emotions, a bitter conflict played out in almost gladiatorial fashion."

That was a reaction in marked contrast to her relations with club colleagues on an every-day basis, where she was content to be among those who shared her passion for her sport, even though their performance in competition could not begin to compare with her own.

Asked why she continued to compete in major races when most of her rivals were half her age she confessed: "because I like cycling".

In company with her husband, she followed her own training routines, entered only the races she specifically wanted to ride, had little association with officialdom and was never afraid to speak her mind.

In 1984 – at the age of 47 – she was determined to ride in the first women's Tour de France but because she had not competed in road-races, preferring to stick to her beloved time-trialling, she was denied a place in the British team.

When one of the selected riders dropped out just before the race she was asked to join the team but responded simply and effectively in the negative.

In 1978, she was knocked from her bike and suffered a broken leg and shoulder blade as well as serious cuts to her face which required 56 stitches but she refused to consider retirement, continuing to ride in club time-trials to the time of her last training spin.

She was made an MBE in 1964 and an OBE in 1968 and is remembered not only in her records and world titles but also by a memorial garden in Morley, where she lived for most of her life, and the Beryl Burton Memorial Way, a route which allows cyclists to travel between Knaresborough and Harrogate without having to venture on to the dangerous A59.

She was one of 50 inducted in the British Cycling Hall of Fame at its inauguration in 2009, suitable recognition for a rider who had been so dominant on national and world stages for so long.