Outside the world of club cycling the name Johnny Helms means very little. But with the rank and file cyclists who spend every spare hour in the saddle, the name Helms is legendary. (Taken from BBC Radio 5 Website) view article

The Grand Prix des Gentlemen was held on October 10th 2010 (Starting from Marthall Village Hall near Knutsford) in honour of the late great cartoonist and passionate cyclist.

The race featured some of the biggest names from the history of British cycling including former world hour record holder Graeme Obree, seven-times Tour de France stage winner Barry Hoban, twice Tour of Britain winner Les West, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Yvonne McGregor and our own Tour de France legend Stan Britton. Stan riding for the Phoenix prepared himself for the race of truth with nothing more than an extra shredded wheat. This giant of cycling has plenty of power left in those historic legs and the whole of the Phoenix turned up to see him show the competition a thing or two about class. Partnering Matt Middleton, Stan's plan was to go from the gun.

Meanwhile out on the course the support was getting restless. Having ridden out into the Cheshire wilderness they were hungry, where was Pete with the sarnies? After a few frantic calls and no joy we positioned ourselves on the sunny side of a grassy corner and waited for the action to begin. Stan and Matt thundered past, clearly the shredded wheat was kicking in. After the excitment of the first pass we made our move and located Pete in a lay-by on the other side of the course. The kettle was on and as promised he produced several trays of delicious sarnies. Massen was straight in there and as the feeding frenzy gathered pace Stan and Matt powered through on lap two as did the rest of the field. On the final pass the noise reached a crescendo and after thanking Pete for the catering we set off for the finish to see how they got on.

According to Stan the plan was executed to perfection and they finished with a brilliant time of 01:02:07, not quite on the podium but this was just a warm up for next year.