Andrew Ritchie 1943-2021
Born in Edinburgh in 1943, but raised in South London, Andrew matriculated at Fitzwilliam in 1962, and graduated in the History of Art in 1965 before launching into a career in journalism and photojournalism. He co-authored a book on Czechoslovakia’s 1968 uprising known as the Prague Spring before turning to cycle history where his assiduous research at Colindale led to his 1975 book, King of the Road, which to this day remains one of the most accurate sources for cycle historians. He then moved to California’s Bay Area from where he undertook news assignments in Latin America and the Sudan. He was also a talented cellist and played in a string quartet in Berkeley. Meanwhile he authored an influential biography on the African American racing cyclist, Major Taylor, which ran to two editions, and books on The Origins of Bicycle Racing in England (2007), and the authoritative Quest for Speed (2011).
At the age of 66 he completed a PhD in Sport History at the University of Strathclyde, returning to California until 2 years ago when he came back to Truro in Cornwall and took up the editorship of a leading cycle history journal. One night in August 2021 during the Pleiades meteor shower Andrew drove up into the moors outside Truro to see them better away from the ambient light of the city. He was found dead in his car on the moors the following morning after suffering a heart attack.
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