"The light was fading and there were no floodlights for the evening racing... As I started the crowd was unbelievable... I had chosen to ride a 92.5'' gear."



A month or so ago I went to visit my parents up in the Midlands and while I was at it I went to a jumble sale that was going on. One of the DVD stalls had a bunch of postcards depicting Tommy Godwin in action at the '48 Olympics at Herne Hill; I asked how much they were and the geezer said, "50p - and if you ask that man over there nicely he'll sign them for you". Tommy Godwin was sitting behind the one of the stalls. He's 87.. I got a bit excited.

I bought four postcards and wondered if it was being too cheeky asking him to sign all of them.. I waited for him to finish talking with a seller and then the stallholder introduced me to him and we started chatting.

He's amazing. He has a zest for life that someone half his age struggles to muster, and he radiates vitality; his enthusiasm for talking bikes hasn't diminished a jot since he was a kid. He is in awe of the life cycling has brought him and feels truly honoured to have been lucky enough to have made a mark on British cycling history. But outside of cycling he's just a very happy, very chatty guy - an old-timer's eye for the ladies, a devoted husband, happy to talk the hind leg off a donkey. He doesn't look anything like 87, it's quite something.

I asked him if he still rode.. "No, I've got a mountain bike and up to a few years ago I still rode it to the shops, but my wife won't let me any more! oh well.." ... it's undertandable at his age I guess.

He's enjoying being part of the preparations for the 2012 Olympics, travelling round sites as an ambassador and doing interviews - he's really enthusiastic about the venues and facilities. We chatted about Herne Hill and I told him a bunch of us still ride there; he was really taken that people were still using it week in week out and hoped it was going to continue on surviving.

It's well known about his toad in the hole and spam fritters before his Olympic bid - as he has said before, you ate what you could get.. but rationing wasn't the only influence World War Two had on the '48 Olympics.. I like what he said in an interview with Emine Saner for the Guardian:

"It didn’t have the hype that it does now, but after the war and with the whole world still in turmoil, to take the Olympic Games on was a wonderful thing. It was the youth of the world getting together and you just enjoyed yourself - if you got a medal, you were very proud but you knew it wouldn’t make a very big difference to your life. I came back and people at work were, ‘Ooh, you’ve won a medal’.”

This down-to-earth quality is still everything Tommy is about. But his natural ability to engage with people - immediately and enthusiastically - is a quality that is rare. He's a proper charmer. What a guy.