{"id":174417,"date":"2019-06-27T11:14:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T11:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=174417"},"modified":"2019-06-27T11:14:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T11:14:03","slug":"the-mystery-of-evelyn-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/06\/27\/the-mystery-of-evelyn-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of Evelyn Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

As it goes with most legends, there are dozens of unanswered questions about the life of this remarkable lady. Was she a spy, a part of the French Resistance, or just a talented cyclist, bike-shop owner, and a very imaginative story-teller? We cannot be sure, but let\u2019s face it: myths are often much more appealing than plain facts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many accounts of how the British-born Eveline Alice Alexandra Bayliss, later known as Evelyn Hamilton, found her way to cycling. Some say it was her husband John Hamilton, a cycling enthusiast, who introduced her to the perks of riding. Some say her cousin, a Tour-de-France winner, sparked Evelyn\u2019s interest, but there is no record of who the cousin was. Whatever the truth is, in 1931 Evelyn made her breakthrough by winning the first women\u2019s half-mile sprint handicap and the Sporting Life trophy at the old Stamford Bridge cinder track.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

In 1934, Hamilton rode 1,000 miles in 7 days on a Claud Butler bike, which inspired the manufacturer to construct a women\u2019s specific light-weight racing frame named \u2018Miss Modern\u2019 a couple of years later. In 1935, Evelyn covered 700 miles from London to John O\u2019Groats in four and a half days. In 1938, she amazed the public with riding 10,000 miles in 100 days.<\/p>\n

The same year Hamilton and her husband John (aka Jack) opened a bike shop in London, and it turned out Evelyn had quite a talent for business. Aside from inspiring \u2018Miss Modern\u2019, she promoted bicycles from other manufacturers, as well as home trainers for housewives. Nothing as profitable as encouraging women to stay trim and fit, right?<\/p>\n

With the outbreak of WWII, things got a bit more tangled. For reasons unknown, Evelyn happened to be in Paris when the German army occupied France. At the time, she allegedly worked in a cafe often visited by Gestapo officers. But that didn\u2019t stop her from joining the French Resistance and secretly transporting the Resistance members across Paris on a tandem. Her bike shop in London became a headquarters of the Resistance militant spy network, as she recalled in post-war interviews. When and how, do you ask, if she spent most of the war in France? Good question! But the answer stays a mystery to all of us.<\/p>\n