Two-time British road race champion Steve Joughin, one of the best known and most popular British riders of the 1980s, has published his autobiography and will launch it this week at the annual Cycle Show at Earl’s Court, London. Manxman Joughin, known as ‘The Pocket Rocket’, courtesy of a nickname bestowed by commentator Phil Liggett, won stages of the Milk Race and the Kellogg’s Pro Tour of Britain and was twice national road race champion in 1984 and 1988, the former coming on Manx soil. Joughin was instrumental in smashing the Eastern Bloc supremacy of the Milk Race and leading British cycling into a golden age. However, after retiring in 1991, Joughin missed the buzz of the winner’s podium. In a bid to fill the gap, he turned to alcohol – and it nearly killed him. Joughin pulls no punches recounting his exploits, both during his career and afterwards, as he battled to get his life back on track. Now aged 51, Joughin is a successful businessman, with a cycling clothing company (Pro Vision Clothing) in Stoke-on-Trent, where he has been based for the best part of thirty years. Pocket Rocket was written by Joughin and Isle of Man-based journalist Richard Allen, a regular contributor to Cycling Weekly magazine and co-author of Elite Performance Cycling: Successful Sportives. Pocket Rocket has been published by Isle of Man-based Nemesis Publishing. At Joughin’s request, a percentage of the cover price will go towards the James Berry Fund, which was established in memory of the 13-year-old Isle of Man cyclist who died in 2005 while on a training ride after being struck by a wheel that came loose from a lorry. Nemesis owner John Quirk said: ‘While Pocket Rocket provides a fascinating insight into the recent history of British racing, it is essentially the story of Joughin’s journey from a tearaway in the back streets of Willaston to becoming one of the most popular riders of his generation. He was a winner, too, and on his day able to beat the likes of the fearsome sprinter Djamolidine Abdoujaparav. ‘Joughin is brutally honest about the struggles which followed when he stopped racing. He battled alcoholism, which almost cost him his life. However, despite his problems, Steve retains a joy for life and a real enthusiasm for racing and there are plenty of anecdotes that will raise many a smile from fans who remember the days when index shifters and clipless pedals were state-of-the-art technology.’ The foreword for Pocket Rocket was written by Phil Liggett and there are contributions from former pro riders Allan Peiper, Sid Barras and Mike Doyle. ‘As Joughin and current cycling superstar Mark Cavendish are both sprinters from the Isle of Man, it’s inevitable that comparisons will be made between the two,’ said Richard Allen. ‘Joughin himself is reluctant to make that comparison – for him, what Cavendish has achieved puts him in a league of his own. But in Pocket Rocket, Liggett and Barras, one of Joughin’s teammates in the 1980s, do compare them – Barras claims that Joughin was so fast in the sprint that if he was racing today he would be challenging Cavendish on the road. ‘We can only speculate about that – but it is fact that Joughin had a fearsome sprint which he used to carve out a career, which changed his life for the better and helped to make the 1980s one of the most exciting decades for British racing.’ We are now in the midst of a cycling boom in the UK. British Cycling has a world-leading development programme and has created the Sky pro team. British cyclists have never had it so good – but it’s easy to forget the state of British cycling in the 1980s when Joughin turned pro. While Channel 4 and Sport For Television created the Kellogg’s City Centre Cycling series – and coverage of the Tour de France created a new audience for cycle racing in Britain – the governing body of the sport failed to capitalise on this renewed interest in cycling in the 1980s. The sport in Britain was revolutionised in the 1990s when Peter Keen developed the World Class Performance Plan (WCPP), which ultimately led to success at World Championship and Olympic level. In the 1980s, Joughin and many other aspiring amateurs were on what Joughin describes as the ‘DHSS Performance Plan’ – signing on the dole to be able to train full-time in the hope of getting a pro contract. Joughin says this was the only way British riders could hope to compete against Eastern bloc riders, who were supposedly amateurs but were allowed to train full-time with support from Soviet and East German state-sponsored programmes. Ironically, while Joughin and his peers were criticised at the time for taking state handouts, today’s generation of Olympic and World champions are openly supported by the state via National Lottery funding. In a sense, Joughin’s DHSS Performance Plan was ahead of its time. Pocket Rocket is priced ?8.99 and should be available from all Island bookshops from Monday, October 11. ENDS