Worcester
St Johns CC
CAYN THEAKSTON
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Cayn Jac Theakston was born in Birmingham on 7th May 1965. The family home was destroyed by a fire before Cayn was a year old but the family were rescued without injury. Cayn does not recall much about the places he lived until as a teenager the family moved to Evesbatch in Worcestershire and Cayn went to Chantry School in Martley.
Cayn enjoyed running and excelled at the longer races. He won all the 1500-meter races he entered, lapping runners, even in the Inter-House sports day events. He turned to Cycling after meeting Trevor Rigby his brother's classmate.
Trevor talked about long cycle rides around the lanes of Worcestershire. The stories fascinated Cayn, the idea that you could ride 50 or 60 miles grabbed his imagination. He persuaded his parents to buy him his first bike for Christmas 1979 when he was fourteen. The bike was Red and came from Halfords. Cayn and his bike went everywhere from then on.
In 1980 Cayn and the family moved to Upton-on-Severn and Cayn continued to ride his bike. While out for a ride one evening he came across the Worcester St Johns preparing to hold their evening time trial. It was a 20-mile time-trial on the A46 from Spetchley near Worcester with a “dead turn” just outside Evesham. Cayn entered and wearing plimsoll shoes and combat trousers he shot off down the course to return with the best time of the night. Alec Davis, the timekeeper, thought Cayn may have misunderstood the course instructions and turned early thereby not completing the distance, but when Joe Farmer, the turn marshal, came back he confirmed that Cayn had turned at the correct point and won the event. Later that week Cayn joined the Worcester St Johns and has remained a member ever since.
On one occasion Cayn was visiting “Foggys Bikes” in Worcester and remembering Trevor Rigby's stories he elaborated on his own exploits. He was telling Foggy he had ridden some very long rides into Wales and Herefordshire when in walked one of the top local riders. Foggy, smelling a rat in the story, told the other rider about the training Cayn said he did. Cayn had to recount his lie to the new comer while trying to remember all the places he had said he had been too. It struck Cayn that neither man thought the distances were unreal, just the story, so Cayn went off and completed the rides he had said he had done, covering 700 miles in little over a week.
Towards the end of 1980, still only 15, Cayn rode his first Open 10-mile time trial in 22 minutes 34 seconds. At the start of 1981 he won his first Open event, a 25-mile time trial on the A449 north of Worcester, beating notable riders such as Roger Iddles in the process. Cayn began to concentrate on Road racing and had a number of good results. In 1982 he returned to time trials and rode the National Junior Championship “25”, despite being ill for two days before the event he finished in 5th place.
Cayn was short listed to ride the Junior World Championships in New Zealand but the BCF could not afford to send track and road teams so the riders had to double up. Cayn had never ridden on the track so did not perform particularly well in the trails on the first day. He improved on the second day but not by enough to be in the final selection for the national team.
Cayn like many young riders at the time received no help with training or riding style so everything he achieved was by trial and error. It was not until Cayn turned professional in 1986 that anyone told him his saddle position was wrong! These days there are several facilities to help young riders such as the Dave Raynor Fund and the WCPP, but in the 1980s the BCF and other cycling organisations were not well prepared to help young riders, they just had to sink or swim.
Cayn preferred road races to time trials and entered as many as he could. He arrived at one Hereford Wheelers event without having had breakfast and with no money to buy food. He persuaded the helpers to give him some food for the race promising to pay at the end. Cayn is a formidable climber and 86 miles later he romped up the last hill to finish in the first five. He headed right to the tea tent with his winnings to pay for the food.
In 1983 Doug Sollers was managing the Hull Thursday CC and rang Cayn to offer him some travelling expenses and a bike if he rode for them, Cayn jumped at the chance. But more important than the sponsorship this would lead to Cayn meeting his first wife Lynn, they married in 1988 and had one son.
After joining the senior ranks Cayn continued to have some success and was occasionally selected for the GB squad. He rode the Tour of Trinidad, which he won, and the Tour of the EEC in 1986, the year Miguel Indurain won the event.
His career really took of in 1985 when the ANC team asked Cayn to join them for the Tour of the Algarve. Unfortunately on the first day of racing one of the ANC riders was involved in a fight and thrown off the race. The ANC team withdrew from the race in protest but not before Cayn had been noticed by a Portuguese regional team manager.
Cayn was invited to ride the 1985 Tour of Portugal for Louletano-Vale de Lobo. The race started well but on stage two Cayn punctured and had to chase to catch the main field. In doing so someone complained he had taken pace from a team car and he was penalised 26 minutes on overall time. The roads used for that tour were very bad and there were many punctures and mechanical problems. During one stage a second lead car joined the front of the race and the original car turned down a lane. The front group followed the original car, not realising that this lane was not the race course, they soon found themselves in a farmyard where the driver was going to visit some of his family. The group returned to the main road and chased the rest of the race which had now got ahead of them. Despite his earlier time penalty he finish the Tour in 11th place.
Cayn raced in Portugal in 1986 for Louletano-Vale de Lobo and again rode the Tour of Portugal. He took the race lead at the end of the first week and held the yellow jersey for eleven days. Starting the final day he had a lead of five minutes but during the early part of the race a dog ran into the main group. Riders swerved to avoid the dog and Cayn crashed into a ditch. He was taken to hospital with an injury, unable to finish the Tour.
At the end of 1986 Cayn signed for Steven Roach's Fagor team in Spain. His first major race for the team was Paris Bruxelles, Cayn was in a long break with a number of other riders. He was riding very strongly and worked hard in the break, but other riders could not hold the pace and the break failed after 90 miles being caught by the peloton. Cayn finished with the main group but his manager was pleased by the ride. He rode the Nissan Classic in Ireland and on the first day a Dutch rider built up a big lead. Cayn was told to attack, it took 20 miles to catch the Dutchman but when the junction was made Cayn went right past. He remained in the lead, over the only mountain of the day and into a strong head wind, he was caught in the last mile of the stage by the rest of the race. It was disappointing to lose the stage but he did enough to take the first Mountain jersey. Steven Roach moved to Carrera for the 1987 season, the Fagor team folded and Cayn returned to Portugal.
Back at Louletano-Vale de Lobo and with a stronger team to back him in 1987 Cayn felt he had a good chance of winning the Tour of Portugal at his third attempt, it was not to be. Cayn held the Yellow Jersey for six days but a crash put an end to his race.
The 1988 Tour of Portugal started with Cayn as joint team leader with Joaquim Gomes. Cayn held the yellow jersey on the penultimate stage but a break was aloud to escape and a Portuguese rider who lived close to the stage finish took the Yellow Jersey. There was controversy about the result with the press and several teams saying the break had not gained enough time to effect the leaders position. However the result stood and Cayn was in second place at two seconds. With the last days split stage to go Cayn was still confident he could win the Tour. He rode the morning time trial well enough to regain the Yellow Jersey but Gomes also rode well to close the gap on Cayn and move into second place overall. Despite being on the same team Gomes set about attacking Cayn during the afternoon stage into Lisbon. The stage was fast and furious with attacks all afternoon which Cayn described as “at least it made the last stage interesting”. Cayn came out on top to become the only British rider in history to win a three-week professional Tour.
In 1989 Cayn signed for Greg Lemonds ADR squad. During a winter visit to Australia with the squad Cayn won a stage in the Sun Tour but in 1990 there was a change of sponsor to Tulip computers and Lemond left the team. The team raced all over Europe but money was in short supply and the they often travelled overnight by car instead of flying as other teams did.
After winning a Stage and the Mountains Jersey in the Dauphine Libere Cayn and the Tulip team drove to Italy to race. After 23 consecutive days racing the team drove to the UK for the start of the Milk Race. Travelling for 18 hours the team arrived in the UK the evening before the Tour started, despite this Cayn won the Prologue and first Yellow Jersey. The Tulip team were tired from travelling and unable to defend the jersey which passed to another rider at the end of stage one.
One of his accidents had caused damage to his knee and Cayn had to where a plaster-cast for two months to correct the problem and was then forced to take several months off the bike to recover. The “World Cup Points” system for selecting riders and teams was introduced at this time and because of his injury and subsequent recovery period Cayn had no points and was unable to get a contract. He returned to Cheltenham, sold his bike and did not ride again for eight years.
By 2002 Cayn had another bike and after a few rides near his home he rode a Cheltenham club 10-mile time trial, he won it in 21 minutes. Cayn now rides occasionally for fun and he runs over the hills near Cheltenham.
Cayn became a Jehovah Witness in May 1993 and married his second wife Sheena in March 1997 they have two lovely children. He runs a successful window cleaning business in Cheltenham and is very content with his life. When I visited them in March 2004 they were packing to move house and had recently been to Portugal where they regularly return at the invitation of past team members and managers.