whoismarkbell
Reged: 24/08/2008
Posts: 2
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In the summer of 1990 I bought a white Cougar frame off one of my Liverpool Centurion clubmates. It had the name 'Mark Bell' stamped on the left side rear drop out. I built it up with what ever I could get from the remains of my student grant and it became my one and only bike from then until this year when I finally bought a new one.
I've tried finding out a bit about Mark Bell since then but never got a real picture of who he was, what success he enjoyed and (more importantly) was my bike / frame involved in any significant races.
Inspired by the book 'In search of Robert Millar' I'd like to learn a bit more about this cyclist.
A Google search established the following....
Born 21 June 1960
British Cycling Road Race Champs - Amateur
- 1981 1st
British Cycling Road Race Champs - Professional
- 1984 1st
Los Angeles Olympics 1984
- Track Cycling
- Road Race Team
He is also mentioned on the Robert Millar fan site 'the washing machine post' as being at the ACBB in Paris at the same time as Millar.
Also a post on this Forum by 'Waltons' mentioned he was in the Milk Race in 1982/83
Has anyone got any more information on this rider. Is he on this forum? I've got a picture of the bike if anyone is intested. Your help would be appreciated.
Thanks K.D.
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Smokin_Joe
Reged: 09/06/2006
Posts: 1677
Loc: Fishguard
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He is the brother of Tony Bell, former writer of "Off The Back" in CW.
Tony sometimes posts here, but can more often be found on Veloriders.
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Nobody ever got laid because they rode Shimano.
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Dazzricles
Reged: 24/08/2008
Posts: 153
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I rode a few races with Mark Bell when we were both members of the Manchester Wheelers Club in he 80`s.
The frame your describing sounds vaguely like it may have been the one he used in the 82 Commenwealth Games were he rode the road race. I was a track squad rider there. We also both climbed of in the Olympic road race in 84 after a little debate about it being rather early...we were both out the back before half way.
Mark and I never realy hit it of as team mates but i have to say i found him wonderfully humerous..sarcastic in the exstreme. One legendry story , i believe from the Lincoln Gp, has him turning to a fellow commpeter that wasnt pulling his turn mid race and asking " do you like Fish?"....cus theres a Place at the front for ya" Who am I? Darryl Webster.
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wuverley
Reged: 16/05/2008
Posts: 1490
Loc: Man of Kent
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Mark Bell rode the Milk race in 82 and 83. He was 21, from Birkenhead and road for Great Britain in 82. Team mates included Malcolm Elliot, Joe Waugh and Pete Longbottom. The race was dominated by the USSR but Elliot did well.
In 83 he was in the G.B. Amateurs team, run by J. Hendry. Pat McQuaid was running the Irish team. Malcolm Elliott was in the same team, and did well again. (The GB Pro team included a young Sean Yates and several older well known riders.)
I'm just reading this stuff from the programmes Waltons sent me. Apparently 20,000 package holiday makers visited Bradford in 1983 (presumably to catch a plane out of there)
Apart from the British riders there are a few well known cyclists taking part: they include: Andy Hampston(sic) and Chris Carmichael (USA),Peter Loosli (Ch), Paul Kimmage (Ire), Evgeny Ivanov (USSR). I've mixed up the years there.
Maybe that helps a bit.
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Invicta
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winegoblin
Reged: 31/03/2007
Posts: 1058
Loc: down yur me anzum
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Quote:
Darryl Webster.
A few more stories like that and you could write a book; but I'd seriously consider using the spell checker - El_Cid is right on that account 
Excellent ride in the Isle of Man, I'd just started reading the comic when you did that one; and for me it's one of the abiding memories from the eighties.
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"Wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile."
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El_Cid
Reged: 02/08/2007
Posts: 871
Loc: Ilkley, Yorks
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Darryl - you beat me by (I think) around 13mins in the Manx TT one year. But I can spell better than you.
Chapeau , sir.
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"TODAY, WE RIDE"
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Dazzricles
Reged: 24/08/2008
Posts: 153
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Mild Dislexia`s a bit of a bugger peeps, could do with a spell checker!. Hello to you winegoblin and to you sir, El, Cid.
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brummiedave
Reged: 13/06/2008
Posts: 15
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Hey Darryl. I remember going to ride a midweek evening crit in a park in the Black Country (might have been Warley) sometime in the 80's. I was there with a few other guys waiting to have my bike checked and you come riding up (with someone else who was a class rider at the time at national level. Trying hard to remember who but it's gone).
Anyway, you got spotted and this collective groan went up! Last thing I remember was seeing that Wheelers jersey on the front and almost immediately going off the back. So belated thanks for that mate. :-)
You always seemed to be described in the comic as 'prickly' or 'awkward' or 'anti-authority' or something like that. What was that all about then???
Cool to hear from you though. What you up to these day? Riding much?
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Dazzricles
Reged: 24/08/2008
Posts: 153
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Hi brummiedave, no, i dont ride anymore...bikes gathering dust and is still the same spec it was back then!..any museum want it?.lol
Yes i was prickly with establishment...i still am. Libal laws dont allow me tell the truth but if i could then there`d be some very red faces.
I do remmeber the event you talk about...i think the other fella may have been Gary Sadler...we can thank him for the nic name Dazzricles...was his idea, he gave it me in 81 while we were competing in the NewZealand Summer games.
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rover1971
Reged: 09/06/2008
Posts: 261
Loc: Aberdeen, Scotland
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What made you stop riding? I don't mean racing, just cycling for the pleasure of it?
Edited by rover1971 (25/08/2008 17:55)
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Dazzricles
Reged: 24/08/2008
Posts: 153
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A Decade of training kinda spoilt the fun. Having children and seeing so many fellow commpetitors killed or maimed including several i knew personaly kind of changes ones perspective. I havnt given up the posibility i may one day enjoy it again but i doupt it could ever be the way of life it was for me. "Sport" has long lost its sheen, seeing it from the inside and being of the humanistic pursuasion that i am we were never good bedmates..it was no accident i never attended an opening or closing ceremony at iether Commenwealth or Olympic games that i took part in.
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brummiedave
Reged: 13/06/2008
Posts: 15
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Quote:
...I do remmeber the event you talk about...i think the other fella may have been Gary Sadler...
Ah yes Gary Sadler. Used to ride for GS Strada with Keith Reynolds. Wow, what a blast from the past.
I always liked Pete Longbottom. Great gutsy rider. I recently read Allan Peiper's 'A Peiper's Tale'... good to see a chapter about him in there.
Oh go on, tell us some juicy gossip... no actually on second thoughts probably best not to ;-D
I never really had much to do with the establishment back then (luckily) but they did seem like a self-serving bunch.
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whoismarkbell
Reged: 24/08/2008
Posts: 2
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Thanks for the quick response.
Special thanks to Dazzricles and Wuverley. Will throw a post onto the veloriders forum to see if I can get a bit more info.
I thought the comments about 'seeing Sport from the inside' were pretty insightful. Having never competed at anything other than a very mediocre amateur level I can't quite understand why you wouldn't want to attend an opening or closing ceremony, but us mere mortals perhaps don't get a glimpse behind the curtain of the 'glamourous' lifestyle of pro cycling.
Hope your love of the bike is keeping you fit and healthy dazzricles!
Thanks again. Anymore info from other forumites would be very welcome.
Cheers
KD
PS 20,000 package holiday vistors to Bradford! Have these people never heard of Blackpool?
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wuverley
Reged: 16/05/2008
Posts: 1490
Loc: Man of Kent
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PS 20,000 package holiday vistors to Bradford! Have these people never heard of Blackpool?
I think they were catching planes from the airport! But the Visit Bradford ad didn't make it clear.
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Invicta
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Black_Enamel_B
Reged: 21/10/2008
Posts: 1
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Ha the white cougar frame bought in 1990 I think is the frame built for the Olympic Games at Los Angeles in 1984, back then it was cobalta blue with chrome forks and rear chain seat stays. If this is the frame it should have Olympic rings on the front fork crown. I returned the bike to Cougar Cycles which was then on County Road, Liverpool. I cannot remember the frame builders name although searching my memory I think it may have been William (Billy) Whitcombe. As far as I know Tony Crotty a Liverpool Centurion bought the frame the following year and that was the last I heard of it.
I did win a few races on this bike, the Manchester Division Championships May 1984 and a circuit race at Velbent, Nr Dusseldorf in the then West Germany.
1984 was my last year as an amateur cyclist representing GB about 200 times between 1978 and 1984 notching up about 200 race wins the most being approximately 32 in 1981 including British Championships. After a brief Professional career between 1984 - 1988 in which time whilst racing for Raleigh I won the British title again back in 1986.
After stopping racing, I was dogged with alcoholism which at present I am on top of, but I am partially temporarily disabled with DVT damage to my lower right leg and foot and also have osteomyelistis damage to my left shoulder requiring a replacement shoulder operation. Both of these operations are due to take place in the New Year, so hopefully I will be able to race again on my fabulous Pinarello F313, campag equipped of course, loaned to me by my erstwhile friend Phil Griffith of Yellow Ltd.
As for Daryl Webster, yes we were both team mates in the Manchester Wheelers and we did not hit it off, but of course that was all 25years+ ago. Er the "Do you like fish - cos theres a place (plaice) at the front" was during the Archer Pernod GP which I happened to win back in Spring 1983. I heard that quote while waiting outside the Hamilton Club, Birkenhead when someone tried to jump the queue that New Years Eve 1982, a lifetime ago. As for the Olympic Road Roace, well we all got whacked and were all out of the race by half way. I then enjoyed 2 - 3 months of debauchery up and down the west coast of North America while the rest of the suckers went home to sunny England.
For more 80's tales please ask!
Black Enamel B - AKA Mark Bell.
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TonyBell
Reged: 27/10/2008
Posts: 6
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Blimey Mark, there was some stuff in there even I didn't know!
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wuverley
Reged: 16/05/2008
Posts: 1490
Loc: Man of Kent
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I missed that post originally, thanks for drawing attention to it.
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Invicta
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aphextwin
Reged: 13/06/2006
Posts: 830
Loc: pH 0.1
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I also missed it, so thanks for highlighting it. Great to hear from you Mark. Good luck with the op.
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The drukqs don't work
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TonyBell
Reged: 27/10/2008
Posts: 6
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I just want to say that, when I wrote 'there's stuff there even I didn't know', I was referring to Mark's memories from LA in 1984.
Tony
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