Tom Simpson was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists in the 1960s, until his career was tragically cut | dG1fM3FPcjFtZnh2Zmc
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00:00 And they're going for the line like mad.
00:02 And Simpson, I think, is going to do it.
00:05 Simpson has won!
00:07 Simpson has won the World Championship!
00:10 Tom Simpson, a British cyclist who raced fast and died young.
00:18 His heart just stopped.
00:19 The first British cyclist to make it right to the top of world cycling.
00:23 Tom Simpson was the be-all and end-all.
00:26 The first to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
00:28 Attack, attack, attack.
00:30 And I think that's why everybody loved him.
00:32 And the first British cyclist to win the Men's Elite World Road Race title.
00:36 Jord Altik, Ron Cotille, Tom,
00:39 they were the crème de la crème of riding.
00:43 He was completely different to most of the pros of the time,
00:46 completely different to most pros today.
00:48 It was so hard to win what he won.
00:52 If you can win the Tour de Flanders, it's the unofficial World Championship.
00:55 You are the best single-day rider in the world.
00:57 And Tom won that at 23 years of age.
00:59 1966 was a write-up for Tom.
01:01 He lost many lucrative contracts and thousands of pounds worth of earnings.
01:05 Tom, he was impulsive. It cost him a fortune.
01:08 I would definitely say that Tom Simpson is one of the greatest icons of the sport.
01:15 As an author and Tom's nephew, I've been given exclusive access
01:19 to a series of letters he wrote home while he was living and racing as a pro in France.
01:24 This is written in bed.
01:25 I'm trying to prepare for the mountains, but at the moment, I feel ****ed.
01:29 The way Tom died on the Giant of Provence may have eclipsed his incredible achievements,
01:34 but in his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest.
01:38 As a character and a personality, he's number one.
01:42 [Music]
01:48 [Music]
01:52 (whooshing)