The BLRC began organising massed-start races on the public road, a form of the sport the NCU had banned in the 19th century because it feared it would bring problems for all cyclists.

After Steel's retirement from competitive cycling they combined their travels with running a bed and breakfast for six months of the year.

[11] Steel moved into first position on the eighth stage, held on a mountainous parcours to Chemnitz, where he finished nine minutes ahead of the previous leader, the Czech rider Jan Veselý.

[3] The British team won £2,000 of goods – there was no professional racing behind the Iron Curtain – including brief cases, watches, cameras, radios and shaving gear and toiletries.

[13] His famous result in 1952 had a direct influence on Britain's warring cycling bodies, forcing them to accept an uneasy truce before they eventually amalgamated seven years later.

When Steel's victory in the toughest amateur stage race in the world won the BLRC international recognition from the Union Cycliste Internationale, the NCU was outraged.

But the UCI, tired of the rift in British cycling, threatened the NCU with expulsion if it failed to work at a solution.

The writer William Fotheringham said: "The Scot was riding strongly but he was a member of the Viking team, Hercules' big domestic rival.

When Cozens ordered him to drop back from the main group to support a team-mate during a mountain stage, Steel protested that he was not willing to sacrifice his own chances.

His teammate Robinson had secured a contract to ride for a Swiss team, Cilo-St Raphaël[16] and Steel joined him with Hoar and a third Briton, Bernard Pusey.

But it was a poor team in which most riders, including Robinson, were given just a bike, jersey and expenses and a chance to win prizes.