Top British Racing Cyclist of the 80's and 90's
This
site has been prepared as a record of the incredible achievements of Paul
Curran from Thornaby in Cleveland.
Paul's racing career was unfortunately cut short following a serious accident in 1996 whilst riding the Tour of the North Pennines. His back was broken, and the injuries he sustained were such that he will never ride a bike competitively again. I am pleased to confirm however, that Paul has made a good recovery and is even getting out on his mountain bike for some social rides. His wife Jacquie also gave birth to Paul's son 'Karl' - now 2 years old - to help keep him otherwise occupied!
As an introduction, I have highlighted below what I consider to be some of Paul's greatest achievements;
2 x Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist (+1 bronze)
28 x National Championship Gold Medallist
47 x National Championship Medallist
4 x Star Trophy Series (now Premier Calendar) Overall Winner
3 x World Masters Gold Medallist
21 x Star Trophy / Premier Calendar Victories
Over 300 wins in open competitions
Circuit des Mines Overall Winner (+ twice second)
Tour of Normandy Overall Winner
3rd - Hainaut Tour (against strongest ever East German team)
5 x Top 6 Overall in the Milk Race & Kellogg's Tour
Inevitably, in a sport as high risk and unpredictable
as cycling, there have been plenty of lows in Paul's career. A summary
of those which stand out in my memory are;
1987 - was forced to a halt with cramp (for the first ever time) in the World Road Race Championships in Austria whilst away in a 2 man break with just one lap to go - and looking strong favourite.
1988 - training accident just 3 months prior to the Seoul Olympics. Needed 67 stitches to his face, but still competed in the National Road Race just 1 week later.
1988 - front wheel collapsed with one lap to go in the Seoul Olympics whilst in the race winning move with Olaf Ludwig (winner).
1989 - was in a solid 3rd place overall in the Tour de Trump (now Tour DuPont) when caught out by a Panasonic team attack at a feeding station. Chased in vain for 25 miles with Greg LeMond and Viatcheslav Ekimov.
1990 - pro scene collapsed and was left without a sponsor. Reverted to amateur status in 1991.
1992 - went down with double pneumonia - missed first half of season.
1996 - suffered a broken back after being struck by a motorcyclist whilst 2 minutes clear with 10 miles to go in the Tour of the Pennines, thus ending Paul's cycling career.
For a career which lasted from the early 80's through until 1996, it has taken me many months of collating various articles from scrap books, magazines and papers to finally chart Paul's achievements across these years. This site is not intended as a biography - it is merely an electronic record of these articles indexed and organised for all to see.
Please note that nearly all photos and race articles presented on this site have been scanned in from various newspaper and magazine articles - most notably with thanks to Cycling Weekly. There will inevitably be a number of text conversion errors resulting from this, so please accept my apologies in advance for any inaccuracies which may exist.
If you have any further articles of photos which I have been unable to obtain which you would like to add to this site, please contact me by e-mail (douglas_driscoll@hotmail.com).
Regards,
Doug Driscoll (Paul's brother in-law)
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