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Steve Joughin - the little big man
Steve Joughin is one of the best known figures in Manx sport.
The cycling champion may have lacked height but he more than made up for it in determination and ability on the bike.
He was known as The Pocket Rocket and he recently returned to the Island to catch up with relatives and his old cycling buddies.
Richard Allen talks to Joughin about his career and of plans for a book about his life.
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STEVE Joughin was educated in the school of hard knocks.
Right from the start of his racing career he had to overcome many barriers just to get on the start line in races.
The Isle of Man may be a great place to train but that stretch of water between here and the UK meant an extra effort had to be made.
To progress on the road to a pro career Joughin, now 48, knew he had to race in the UK, and when money was tight he had to find any way he could to make the trip.
There were times in his late teens when he had to play hide and seek on boats bound for England to get to the races he needed to win in order to make a career as a pro.
'I used to work for a fruit and veg firm and had to drive a van full of produce onto the boat going to England,' says Steve.
'I used hide my bike in the back of the van and drive on to the ferry.
'What I was supposed to do was leave the keys in the van for the driver in Liverpool to collect.
'I used to do all that but instead of going back ashore I used to sit in the toilet until the ferry left port then drive ashore and get my bike out and head off to race.
'There was no money and it was the only way that I could compete nationally and achieve what I wanted to achieve.'
It's these kind of stories that have led to author Peter Whitfield writing a book with Steve about his life and career.
The title is down to two choices, The Pocket Rocket or Little Big Man.
Steve and Phil are still working on the project but hope to have the book on the shelves in the next year or so.
It will be an interesting read as Joughin is one of Manx sport's most colourful characters.
In the 1990s talented British riders benefited from the Lottery-funded World Class Performance Plan (WCPP) but there was no such support when Joughin began racing.
Steve says he was on the 'DHSS Performance Plan' as when contracts or prizemoney dried up he had to sign on to make ends meet.
But make it he did and for the best part of a decade The Pocket Rocket fired on all cylinders as he proved himself to be one of the fastest men on two wheels.
Joughin began racing in junior circuit races organised by cycling enthusiasts Geoff Quine and Ron Killey.
Steve is full of praise for them and always makes a point of going on the regular 'soup run' to Geoff Quine's house whenever he returns to the Island.
'We used to have junior road races around King George's Park in Douglas and I just turned up one day and had a go racing round in jeans and trainers,' says Steve talking about how he got into cycling.
'I got battered first time out but I carried on and began to enjoy the camaraderie of racing.'
In the early days Joughin was a bit of Jack the lad character and there are stories of him being caught having a crafty smoke before races!
But he got the cycling bug and joined the Manx Road Club and it was there that he began to take the sport more seriously.
By the age of 16 he realised that he had talent and won the Merseyside divisional road race championships in 1976 and 1977.
He then became the first Manx rider to win the national junior road race series and had his sights set on a pro career.
In 1983, aged 23, he got a contract with the Staffordshire based Moducel team and he never looked back.
Look back on videos of the Kellogg's Start crits, the Milk Race or the Tour of Britain and you will see the diminutive Manxman mixing it with the best, and often beating them.
But there was a lot more to Joughin than just a catchy nickname and a fast sprint.
He twice won the British national road race champion including his 1984 win on a mountainous Isle of Man course ans set a time-trial record on the same circuit.
But what he lacked in physical stature he more than made up for in personality and bravado in the dangerous world of the road sprinter.
Crashes were plenty and back then there was not a hard shell helmet to be seen.
Take a look at the picture of Joughin winning a stage of the Kellogg's Pro Tour of Britain in Birmingham in 1987 when he was with the Percy Bilton team.
All he had for protection was a an old-fashioned crash hat made of foam padding covered with a bit of vinyl.
He wasn't even wearing track mitts to project his hands in a crash.
For many, including this writer, Joughin is best remembered as a star of Channel 4's City Centre Cycling series which brought cycling to a whole new audience.
The fast and furious races in the Kellogg's Start series saw the UK's top pros take on the best riders from Europe.
TV viewers became used to seeing the smallest guy in the race firing himself out of the peloton like a cork from a Champagne bottle and it was this that led to commentator Phil Liggett giving Joughin his Pocket Rocket nickname.
For Joughin those crits provided him with some of the most exciting times of his life with thousands turning out to watch making for an atmosphere more akin to a football match than a bike race.
'They were the fastest town centre races in the world and the British professionals were the best around at that type of racing,' he says.
'We could match anyone from on the Continent.
'The public loved it because it was easier for them to understand than a stage race.
'Those crits were the only races where the next day my eyes were more sore than my thighs.
'The pace of the race meant that you strained your eyes because you had to concentrate so hard.'
Joughin particularly remembers winning one Kellogg's crit in Manchester.
'The crowds were ten deep and the voice of Hugh Porter on the PA system was drowned out by the noise,' says Steve.
'The hairs on the back of your neck used to stand up because the adrenalin was racing through you.'
Due to business commitments Steve, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent where he runs his ProVision cycle clothing business with son Ben, doesn't get much chance to ride his bike these days, but he still turns out in past masters events occasionally.
Last autumn he was in action at the Newport Nocturne in Shropshire for one of the UK's most popular road events.
All the old stars were there.
It took Steve back to a time when he would do battle with a colourful array of cycling pros.
Back in the 80s the UK scene had Keith 'Legs' Lambert, 'Super' Sid Barras and Phil 'Staffordshire Engine' Bayton in the peloton.
And in there too was The Pocket Rocket or Little Big Man.
A little man from a small Island who made it in the big time.
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Steve Joughin was known as the Pocket Rocket, but there are many cyclists who've had equally catchy nicknames over the years. Here's Richard Allen's Top 10.
1 - The Cannibal - Eddy Merckx. The greatest rider of all time was given his nickname by his rivals who were crushed by his strength and speed for the best part of a decade. It was a name given to him not out of respect, but out of fear. He won half of all the races he started as a professional giving him a record unparalleled in the sport. On any given day, whether it was on the track or the road, if Merckx had decided it was his day to win, then he would win. He once launched an 80-mile solo attack across the Pyrenees in the Tour de France just to teach a lesson to a team mate who had threatened to leave Merckx' team the following season. The attack robbed Merkcx team mate of the King of the Mountains jersey.
2 - The Lion King. Mario 'Cipo' Cipollini, Italian superstar, one of the most successful sprinters in the history of road racing and a heartthrob to thousands of female fans. He was a Godsend for journalists too. When asked what he would have like to have been if not a cyclist he replied 'Porn star'. Reputed to be an equally accomplished athlete in the bedroom as he was in bike races Cipo said that if he could choose a way to die it would be in an orgy. He was continually fined by race organisers for turning up in non-regulation outfits ranging from a Julius Caesar costume (he was pulled around a Tour de France start village in a Roman chariot accompanied by a stripper called Cleopatra) to a tiger skin design time-trial skinsuit. He had his own private zoo and a walk in wardrobe with more than 400 designer suits - which even for an Italian is a tad excessive. Cipollini once said that the most difficult thing about riding the Tour of Italy was going without sex for three weeks. When asked after the race what he would do first on returning home to his wife Cipo said: 'Well put it this way, the second thing I'll do is put down my suitcases!'
3 - Il Campionissimo - The Champion of Champions. Fausto Coppi, the Italian star who won every major race going in the 1940s and 1950s. During the second world war spent time in a PoW camp in England. After the war he resumed racing and had epic battles with his main rival Gino Bartali. Bartali was known as Gino The Pious for his devout beliefs in Catholicism. In the 50s Italy was a deeply religious country and the Tour of Italy race was blessed by The Pope every year it passed near The Vatican. Coppi caused a scandal when he had an affair with a married woman. The Woman In White scandal divided the nation and in the Tour of Italy The Pope turned his back on the race when Coppi rode by. Coppi died from malaria in Africa aged 40 after the financial ramifications of the scandal had forced him to continue racing when he really should have retired.
4 - The Eagle of Toledo - Federico Bahamontes. Super climber who won the Tour de France King of the Mountains prize six times. Won the Tour outright in 1959. Also has the distinction of making a brief appearance in the movie Amelie, which starred Audrey Tautou. In one scene a cycling fan rediscovers some of his childhood memorabilia which includes a model of his hero Bahamontes.
5 - Il Diablo - The Little Devil. Italian climber Claudio Chiappucci, Tour de France King of the Mountains winner, even had a little devil design on his crash helmet and saddle.
6 - Le Blaireau (The Badger) - Bernard Hinault, five times Tour de France winner and a man who was incredibly bad tempered, even for a Frenchman. He made Mike Tyson look like a choir boy. The fearsome Breton got his nickname because of his fighting spirit, apparently badger's gnaw the bones of their prey to a pulp. When a Tour de France stage was halted by a road block set up by farmers on strike Hinault reacted by wading into the crowd of pickets with both fists even though he was no giant at around five foot six and around 10 stone. Definite Napoleon syndrome, and evidence to the adage that small guys have more to prove.
7 - The Professor - Laurent Fignon, the Frenchman for whom the phrase enigmatic was invented. Given to him on the basis that he studied for a degree (a rarity in the pro peloton in the 80s) and because he wore gold rimmed, oval shaped, Cartier spectacles. Fignon was hated by the French media, possibly because he often spat at camera crews who dared to film him after races. Often awarded the Maillot Citron (Lemon Jersey), a prize presented by French journalists to the most bad tempered Tour de France rider.
8 - Pou Pou or The Eternal Second - Raymond Poulidor, hero and hearthrob to thousands of French housewives in the 60s and 70s. Difficult to know which nickname is worse really, the first causes sniggers from anyone this side of the Channel, the second marks him out as the biggest loser in the Tour de France. He finished second in the Tour more times than any other rider, but his nearly man status earned him public affection way beyond that of any Tour champion.
9 - The Tashkent Tornado - Sprinter (he had to be a sprinter with a name like that, didn't he) Djamolidine Abdujaparov who flew in from the heart of the old USSR and won the green jersey in the Tour de France despite crashing into a Coca Cola sign at nearly 50mph on the Champs Elysees. Most dramatic crash in cycling history, you can check it out on YouTube.
10 - The Manx Express - The nickname given to Mark Cavendish by BBC cycling commentator Hugh Porter during last year's Tour of Britain seems to have stuck. Much catchier than Cannonball Cav, a name suggested by his team manager Bob Stapleton prior to the 2007 Tour de France. The Manx Express also gives headline writers plenty of scope for railway related puns - Manx Express Steams In/On The Right Track/Wins on points etc, etc
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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