Wednesday February 15 2023 | the times Register page 52
Eileen Sheridan

Diminutive cyclist, known as the Mighty Atom, who in 1954 cycled from Land’s End to John o’ Groats in less than three days

Eileen Sheridan cycled triumphantly into John o’ Groats late on Sunday July 11, 1954, having ridden the 870 miles from Land’s End in two days, 11 hours and seven minutes, breaking the previous record by 11 hours and 45 minutes.
She had set off from Cornwall accompanied by a carload of helpers and officials. “I romped along the narrow, twisting, undulating lane to Penzance, as though on a training spin,” she wrote. “But with the wind more southerly than southwest, the climb over the very long slopes of Bodmin Moor was very tough at times.”
At Exeter she was half an hour behind schedule and riding through cold rain, but the weather cleared by Bristol. She continued through the night and on into a rainy dawn, stopping only at Carlisle (470 miles) for a break. Resuming her journey, she climbed the 1,000ft Beattock Bank in Dumfries and Galloway in a torrential downpour. “Would I be able to go on, I asked myself as I battled against the wind and rain up the cruel climb,” she recalled.
By Lanark she was half an hour ahead; at Perth she stopped to fit new lights and change into warmer clothing for a second night on the road; and on the downward run to Dalwhinnie “the continuous vibration of the handlebar raised a huge blister on each palm, forcing me to grip with my thumbs only”. A new pair of gloves and she was off again. “No one will ever know what the sight of the John o’ Groats Hotel meant to me,” she said of her arrival. “Everyone was jubilant.”
Sheridan, the greatest female cyclist of her generation, was known as the Mighty Atom because she stood only 4ft 11in. She recalled grim tales of previous attempts on the “End-to-End” route. “I heard of unbearably painful feet through continuous rubbing of the toe-clips; of riders who could hardly bear to sit in the saddle; others whose legs swelled so much they rubbed on the pedals,” she wrote in Wonder Wheels (1956), her autobiography.
Her own preparations were meticulous and had taken six months: “For weeks I had been toughening my skin with surgical spirit. I had broken in six pairs of racing shoes. Quantities of spare wool vests, sweaters and socks were assembled — and some cool shirts in case we had sunshine in July.”
At John o’ Groats she grabbed a couple of hours’ sleep and ate a meal of two eggs and four rashers of bacon before getting back in the saddle. She was determined to ride through a third night to cover an additional 130 miles and break the 1,000-mile record. She completed that feat in three days and one hour, pushing herself to the limit. “I was seeing animals,” she said. “Cars driving towards me. I kept swerving into the verge at the side of the road. I was hallucinating.”

At her bike club she made the tea but could outride all the men

Constance Eileen Shaw was born in Cheylesmore, Coventry, in 1923 and took her first ride as a schoolgirl on an old-fashioned “sit-up-and-beg” bicycle given by an aunt. Swimming was her favourite pastime but for her 14th birthday she received a lighter bicycle and cycling became her passion.
During the Coventry Blitz of November 1940 the city was badly bombed, the cathedral destroyed and hundreds of civilians killed. She recalled hiding under the stairs and carrying her bike over red-hot rubble. “Bikes and cycling were our blessing,” she said.
She met Ken Sheridan, an engineer from London, while swimming at the city’s open-air pool. They were married in December 1942 and joined the local cycling club. As the only woman on the club rides, she was often “chief pourer- outer of tea” during café stops. “And they used to eat all the cake,” she added.
Back on their bikes, she could outride all the men. “It was a bit of a surprise to find that I had a talent for cycling,” she told the Coventry Telegraph. “The club secretary was desperate to sign me up to compete in the Midlands Counties 25. That competition’s star girl was Muriel Maitland, and I beat her in my first race. In the same year, I won the National Women’s Championship. I was just surprised. I mean, I had a very ordinary bike.”
In the postwar years Sheridan worked in the office of a garage and enjoyed cycling for pleasure. She undertook a 130-mile expedition to the Wrekin in Shropshire, taking cover from a torrential downpour in a random old cottage where an elderly lady made her tea. She also stayed in youth hostels, often in Arctic conditions with ten blankets on her bed.
Before long she was breaking almost every women’s cycling record, including setting a new time of five hours 22 minutes for the London-Birmingham run in 1950 followed by a London- Oxford record. A year later she turned professional and signed a three-year contract with Hercules, the cycle manufacturer, which featured her in advertisements as “Britain’s greatest cyclist”. The Hercules support vehicle was a caravan strapped to a Bedford low-loader with a large lavatory on the front. Access was via a ladder, which meant the whole world knew when she needed a break.
In 1952 Sheridan improved the Land’s End-London record by 23 minutes only to be disqualified by the Women’s Road Records Association because the Daily Mirror had published a story announcing her attempt, a contravention of rules banning advance publicity. That year she moved to Isleworth in Middlesex, where for many years she was involved in the local community and enjoyed glass engraving, designing trophies for cycling clubs across the country.
Sheridan was the subject of a short film, Come on Eileen (2014), directed by Anthony Collins, a BBC producer who had spotted her bike at Coventry Transport Museum. Her husband, who supported her training, died in 2012; they had a son, Clive, who in 1959 cycled with his mother from London to Paris, and a daughter, Louise.
By the time her career was over she had transformed perceptions of women’s cycling, paving the way for future Olympians such as Victoria Pendleton and Laura Trott. Yet in her heyday there were no women’s cycling races in the Olympics. “That was a real shame,” she said. “But you just had to accept it. That was that.”
Her Land’s End to John o’ Groats record stood for 36 years until it was beaten in 1990 by Pauline Strong, who completed the journey in two days, six hours, 49 minutes and 45 seconds. Sheridan was the first to congratulate her, with a message that read: “I knew you could do it but it’s a long way, isn’t it?”

Eileen Sheridan, cyclist, was born on October 18, 1923. She died on February 12, 2023, aged 99