CyclistDifferent times: 75 years of cycling with Ramsay MackayThe exercise bike in the middle of the converted attic is flanked by a pair of comfortable armchairs and a table, on which sits a portable typewriter with a half-finished document poking out of it. Scattered about the room are a red rotary-dial telephone, a wooden sculpture of a golfer mid-swing and framed black and white photographs of cyclists in woollen jerseys and Coppi-style sunglasses astride thin machines replete with leather saddles, toeclips and an alarming absence of gears.A skylight in the sloping ceiling looks out on the back gardens and bungalows of a quiet neighbourhood of Edinburgh. The titles among a small shelf of cycling books give a clue to the personality of the owner of this unlikely pain cave: Racing Hard, We Might As Well Win and Every Second Counts. Related Posts Love, sweat and gears at the 1985 Tour de France Rebuilding the worlds first pedal bike In celebration of the yellow jersey The story that connects all these elements will unfold over the course of the next three hours as I listen to the memories of 94-year-old Ramsay Mackay, a former Scottish Hill Climb Champion and veteran of the Tours of Britain and Ireland who, at the age of 16, rode all the way from Edinburgh to Dublin just to buy a tin of pineapple.It was 1946 and we hadnt seen any since the start of the War, he offers matter-of-factly. I was with two mates who I assumed knew how to go a bike as we all rode Post Office bikes in our jobs. But halfway to Glasgow I realised we were getting slower and slower. The overnight ferry to Belfast cost two shillings and sixpence each for us and our bikes; thats 12 and a half pence today [about 1.50 with inflation].Mackay, it will become clear, retains a forensic recollection of prices, distances and timings.From Belfast to Dublin is exactly 108 miles and about halfway there I thought we were getting even slower so I suggested to Jack and Roddy that they get the train and wait for me at the station in Dublin. I think they were quite glad and it was a pleasure being left on my own. I could finally get my head down, and I ended up arriving at the station before them. Thats when I knew I wanted to race bikes. And yes, we did get our pineapple.Mackay came to the attention of Cyclist after writing to congratulate us for producing the best magazine on cycling that I have ever read. His letter two A4 sheets immaculately produced on the typewriter at his side now (he doesnt use computers or email) continued: I only wish that such a magazine had been available when I started my working life and my cycling career on 12th June 1944 as a telegraph messenger on a single-gear Post Office bike which weighed the proverbial ton.Getting the miles inPicking up the story now, Mackay remembers he was assigned to the longest and hilliest delivery area in the Lothians that included a three-and-a-half-mile climb. We wore heavy uniforms in all weathers that we never dared take off in case someone reported us.I got very fit and decided to join my first cycling club, the Edinburgh Road Club. But I soon found they were very much a touring club and I wanted to race, so I switched to another Edinburgh club, Comet Racing Club.You never got any training or coaching advice other than, Get the miles in! Theres more good coaching advice in one magazine these days than I got in my whole racing career. The one useful tip was to avoid anyone in races who was wearing a crash hat you knew theyd probably be the one taking all the chances.In early 1952, when Mackay was 21, he and clubmate Laurie Wood combined a fortnights holiday with getting the miles in by taking the train to Paris and cycling from there to Genoa and back. They stayed at guesthouses Seven shillings and sixpence for dinner, bed and breakfast and lived off cheese and tomato baguettes during the day.But you never got any butter; it was always dry bread. I never saw a touch of butter for ten days and I loved my butter, he says. But the upside was I was reaching a level of fitness Id never known before. I got to the top of the Simplon Pass 18-and-a-half minutes ahead of Laurie, who was more of a time-triallist. The longer the climb, the better it suited me.Just outside Genoa this character appeared on a beautiful Bianchi wearing kit plastered in adverts, and his manager or coach was on a moped beside him. The pair of us jumped on his wheel and I will always remember the disdainful look we got. We had racing bikes, but we had saddle bags on them and I think this really annoyed them.The more we hung on, the more annoyed the manager got and he was calling this poor bloke every name under the sun. I eventually went past him and the manager just about had kittens. Ten days without any butter in my system and I was going like a train.On returning home, Mackay took his newfound form to the Brighton-Glasgow Six-Day race and finished 11th overall, earning him a place in the Scotland team at the Daily Express Tour of Britain.There were 78 riders racing over 16 days I think it was the longest Tour of Britain ever and two-thirds of the field were professionals. But us amateurs were really looked after by the Daily Express. For example, if you wanted to have another dinner somewhere after youd eaten at your hotel, all you had to do was keep the receipt and give it to the Express treasurer the next morning and youd get your money back on the spot.On the second rest day in Scarborough they provided massages for us at an upmarket spa. I was in line behind Ken Russell [racing for Ellis Briggs Cycles], who was on his way to easily winning the whole bloody race on his own! The Sunderland football team were staying there and the coach called all his players in to look at Ken, who was so fit he had muscle groups no one had seen before. The coach said, This is what you should look like if youre really fit.But things turned sour for Mackay when the race crossed the border into Scotland.The stage from Dundee to Edinburgh almost finished me, and I had a major falling out with our manager, Jocky Allan, he says, pointing to one of the black and white photographs on the wall of a thickset character sporting a woollen jersey, sunglasses and Brylcreemed hair.Now Jock was a great guy. He was a commando whod been a prisoner of war and who later opened a bike shop in Edinburgh. And despite being only five foot one, he had more girlfriends than there were days in the year. But on this particular day Im sitting pretty in the bunch at the front of the race on the climb up to Glenfarg when Jock comes up and tells me I need to go back for Dennis [Houghton] whos crashed. What he didnt tell me was hed crashed right at the bottom.I cycled all the way back and then me and Dennis did bit-and-bit for the next 60 miles, picking up stragglers as we went. I never recovered from that; it left me shattered for the next few days. Jock had only chosen me to go back because me and Dennis were from the same Edinburgh club [Red Lion Couriers]. He knew none of the Glaswegians would have gone back for him.Broken glass and blizzardsMackays toughest race was the 1954 Tour of Ireland, which covered 1,600km over seven days. A combination of factors political, meteorological and tragic meant that Mackay was the last of only 14 riders from a field of 108 to complete the race.On the very first day the IRA had been breaking milk bottles in the road and that took out about ten riders who fell on the broken glass. There was graffiti on the walls saying, Go home Englishman. How those bottles were supposed to differentiate between English riders and Irish I dont know. I avoided the pile-up by cycling on the pavement.On the fifth day there were six of us chasing a group down the mountains. We came around a broad, sweeping bend and theres this horse and cart with the horse foaming at the mouth clobbering up the road towards us. There was a bit of kerfuffle behind me but you dont stop. I found out later a rider had got the shaft of the cart right through his guts and died.At the start of the next day in Cork we were given black ribbons for our bikes. After five days of brilliant weather the sky suddenly went pitch black and about ten miles outside Cork we had a blizzard, a literal snowstorm. I think this was April. It was freakish.I remember Jocky saying there was no one else behind me and handing me a bottle even though I already had one. It was rum and Ribena. By the time we finished I was the happiest bloke in the race.Resistance trainingAsked if he ever cycled socially, Mackay screws up his face as if hes been told theres no butter in the fridge. When I stopped racing in my late thirties, I rode to commute, but I never fancied cycling socially. I took up golf instead.When pushed, he does admit to taking his first wife, Mary, on weekly tandem rides. But she wasnt used to it so for the last 20 or 30 miles I was pushing the tandem myself. Try that with a passenger with her feet up on the back and its great resistance training.His now-wife Frances has no interest in cycling, so Mackay, a father of three, grandfather of seven and great-grandfather of two, keeps fit by riding his exercise bike for 15 minutes most days and playing golf twice a week. His name regularly appears on the honours board at Prestonfield Golf Club.I still have that competitive edge, he says. Thats why I liked racing. Put simply, I was either racing or not cycling.Bamboo, bathtubs and BondThe career highlights of Ramsay MackayMackays proudest achievements are setting the Edinburgh-to-Glasgow-and-back tandem record in 1953 he and Dennis Houghton completed the 89 miles [143km] in 3h 31min 23sec after swapping out their alloy wheels for laminated bamboo rims to cope with the cobbles and tramlines and becoming Scottish Hill Climb champion in 1955. He also rode 12 and 24-hour TTs, once finishing 11th in the British Best All Rounder competition, all while holding down his job at the Post Office (where he worked until retirement).The Dundee-Perth road was very popular for TTs in Scotland because it was so flat so I was often up there. Id work at the PO counter until 1pm, then cycle home, put on my saddle bag and cycle the 65 miles to Dundee.One time, my usual B&B was full so I had to try the sailors home. The manager put a mattress in a bath for me, gave me bed and breakfast and threw in half a pint of milk for my supper for five [shillings] and six [pence]. Then I was up at 5am to cycle the ten miles to the start of the 12-hour TT. I did 230 miles. At the end I had a cup of tea and a sandwich and then rode the 65 miles back home, and was back in work the next morning.He also once shared the stage of Edinburghs Palais de Danse with a future James Bond.They would hold roller races before the band came on, four of us racing in front of the crowd. The singer who regularly came on after us was called Tommy Connery. He wasnt very good but he later became famous as an actor after changing his name to Sean. This article originally appeared in issue 155 of Cyclist magazine. 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