Barry Hoban obituary
Barry Hoban, who has died aged 85, was one of the first generation of British cyclists to make a mark in European professional cycling, a prolific sprint winner whose UK record of eight stage wins in the Tour de France stood for 34 years until the greatest sprinter of them all, Mark Cavendish, reached his peak.His record of 11 Tour finishes from 12 starts stood until 2024 when it was eclipsed by Geraint Thomas.Hoban’s life was intimately entwined with that of the British star Tom Simpson, who died on the Tour in 1967; like Simpson he was based in Ghent, in Belgium, he married Simpson’s widow Helen, and the complex resonances of Simpson’s tragic demise remained with the couple decades later.Hoban was more than just a sprinter when it came to racing.He was a clear-headed tactician – lucide, as the French cycling slang has it – and had a photographic memory for race locations.
He was a natural for cycling’s one-day classics, where tactical nous and knowledge of the race routes is a sine qua non.His best classic performance, a win in the 1974 Ghent-Wevelgem ahead of Roger de Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx, has never been equalled by a Briton, nor has his 1966 win in the GP Frankfurt.Barry was born into a mining family in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, one of five children, and followed his father Paddy – a bricklayer in the local colliery – down the pit, after leaving school aged 15.The family were Catholic, which, Hoban said later, set them apart somewhat.He used his father’s old kit to begin racing with the local Calder Clarion cycling club, and by the age of 17 he had begun to model himself on Simpson, his senior by two years; he raced for Great Britain at the 1960 Rome Olympics and then moved to northern France to race as an independent – the now defunct category halfway between professional and amateur.
Thirty five race wins in two years earned him a place in the Mercier team, led by Raymond Poulidor.In his first professional season, 1964, Hoban set himself a target: to make £1,000.He showed early promise, taking two stage wins in two days in the Tour of Spain and then came within a few yards of winning a Tour de France stage at Bordeaux.In a more enlightened team that might have earned him preferential treatment, but the Mercier manager Antonin Magne had eyes only for Poulidor.Hoban did not consider his first Tour stage win a real victory; it came the day after Simpson’s death on Mont Ventoux, when the senior riders in the peloton decreed that a British teammate of “Major Tom” should cross the line first.
The precise circumstances of the stage were still being argued over 40 years later; one of the “heads”, Jean Stablinski, told me the agreement had been for Vin Denson, Simpson’s closest friend, to take the win, but it was Hoban who rode away, and, as their team mate Arthur Metcalfe related before his death: “Vin wasn’t in a fit state [emotionally] to do it.Barry was a young, ambitious pro, and obviously a win is a win.”A year later, Hoban took the Tour stage he really wanted: a solo victory in the Alps at Sallanches after a 75-mile escape through the Alps; among the prizes was a cow named Estelle.His tactical cunning and lucidité won him back to back stages in 1969, after he had the nous to forge brief circumstantial alliances with other riders in breakaways, and his sprint did the rest.His tactical acumen contributed to his stage wins at Versailles in 1973, where he was the only sprinter to read a technical finish correctly, and at Montpellier in 1974, where he was the one who recalled a corner 350m from the line.
His final stage win, in 1975, at Bordeaux, came on one of the last occasions a Tour stage finished on a banked velodrome and relied on the track craft initially honed on cinder and grass tracks in Yorkshire 20 years earlier.If Hoban ended his career with any regrets, they centred on relations with the cycling establishment in the UK.He never saw eye to eye with the small group of racers who then made a living racing the domestic calendar; in 1979, he was involved in a controversial finish to the UK national championship, when he was disqualified after judges ruled he had sprinted improperly against the best domestic racer of the time, Sid Barras.Hoban’s application to become national coach was turned down, and he – rightly – felt he never achieved the recognition his achievements deserved.Hoban took his last European win in a stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk in 1978, beating the best sprinter of the time, Freddy Maertens after having the foresight to fit a larger gear than usual for a tailwind finish.
He completed his final Tour that year aged 38, and retired in 1980 after 19 seasons racing full-time, the last for the Falcon team in the UK; he later moved to Newton, Powys, to work for a bike-maker producing Barry Hoban bikes,To emphasise the Simpson connection, a portrait of his former friend and rival hung in the reception area,He is survived by Helen, their daughter Daniella, his stepdaughters Jane and Joanne Simpson, and a brother and sister,Barry Hoban, professional cyclist, born 5 February 1940; died 20 April 2025
The Vivienne’s sister speaks out about drug use ‘stigma’
The sister of The Vivienne has questioned whether the “stigma” around drug use stopped the drag queen from seeking help.James Lee Williams, 32, who won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, died at home in Chorlton-by-Backford, Cheshire on 5 January after taking ketamine.Chanel Williams told the BBC Two current affairs programme Newsnight that The Vivienne did not discuss their relapse, including a hospital stay, to “protect” their family, after “a really long period of sobriety”.“It’s hard for me because I think, if that stigma wasn’t there, would my brother have sought the help he needed?” she said.“To think that, if we’d known, or if he’d have felt able to talk and really reach out for the help that was needed, the outcome could’ve been different
GPs in poor parts of England are paid £5,500 less a year than in wealthy areas, study finds
GPs working in the most deprived areas in England are paid an average salary £5,525 less a year than their counterparts working in wealthier areas, according to a study.The report, by researchers at the University of Manchester and published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, analysed data from more than 8,500 GPs between 2015 and 2021 in the GP work life survey.Besides the difference in salary, the study found GPs working in the most deprived areas were more likely to face significantly higher pressures related to perceived problem patients, insufficient resources with the practice and finding locum cover.The study, which is the first quantitative analysis examining the relationship between population deprivation and the working lives of GPs in England, also said there was no difference in hours worked a week, job satisfaction and intention to quit between more deprived and less deprived areas.According to the report’s authors, the difference in earnings is down to a lack of funds in more deprived areas, as more is spent on resources
Patient satisfaction with GP services in England has collapsed, research finds
Patients’ satisfaction with GP services has collapsed in recent years as family doctors have switched to providing far fewer face-to-face appointments, new research has revealed.The proportion of patients seeing a GP in person has plummeted from more than four-fifths (80.7%) in 2019 to just under two-thirds (66.2%) last year.Telephone appointments have almost doubled over the same period from 13
Help to reduce high blood pressure lowers dementia risk, study finds
People given intensive help to reduce their high blood pressure such as medication and coaching have a lower risk of dementia, researchers have found.According to the World Health Organization, 57 million people around the world had dementia in 2021.However, experts have long stressed dementia is not an inevitable consequence of ageing. Researchers found about half of cases could be prevented or delayed by addressing 14 risk factors including hearing impairment, smoking, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption and social isolation – as well as high blood pressure.Now researchers say tackling the last of these could reduce the risk of dementia by 15%
Graham Sergeant obituary
The British doctor Graham Serjeant, who has died aged 86, lived and worked in Jamaica for more than 50 years, researching sickle cell disease and treating patients with the genetic condition. His long-running research study and publications helped transform doctors’ understanding of the disease, as demonstrated by two contrasting experiences.At the beginning of his career in 1968, Serjeant found it difficult to get a medical journal to publish an article about Jamaicans aged 30 with sickle cell. The journal editors were sceptical because the textbooks of the day said few people with the condition survived beyond childhood.In 2009, Serjeant again had difficulties getting a paper published
Concern over ‘asbis’ after report finds people jailed for sleeping rough and feeding birds
Almost 250 people have been imprisoned for breaching antisocial behaviour injunctions (asbis) since 2020, with people being jailed for sleeping rough, begging, feeding birds and making a noise.Analysis from academics at the universities of York and Coventry found that out of 242 cases examined from 2020-2024, there were 72 cases of imprisonment for general nuisance, 61 for abusive language and 51 for noise.They found that 57% of people did not have legal representation at the breach hearing that led to their imprisonment: out of 97 recorded cases, 55 defendants were not represented.“People are not getting proper representation and they get sent to prison for sometimes long periods, weeks and months. There’s no sentencing guidance for this,” said Prof Caroline Hunter from York Law School
Rachel Roddy’s homage to Anna del Conte and Vincenzo Corrado’s fennel with pistachio, lemon and anchovy sauce | A kitchen in Rome
‘It was very difficult to hold on to’: are Michelin stars a blessing - or a curse?
From kumquats to lime caviar: UK foodies embrace a whole new world of citrus
Notes on chocolate: elegant treats for when the Easter eggs are gone
Dove, London: ‘inventive, unusual, tantalising’ – restaurant review
Mediterranean producers unite in the face of dire adversity