Ian was our Bradley Wiggins of 1951

After a torturous two week schedule cycling through Poland, Germany and Czechoslovia, Ian emerged victorious in the Eastern bloc 'Peace Race' at the tender age of 23, and is hailed one of Scottish cycling's first greats.

Participating in the race were world class athletes, top class cyclists, and sportmen from the Soviet Bloc believed to be using performance-enhancing drugs. Future world road race champions were also competing in a race through dilapidated streets amid extreme weather conditions including heavy rainstorms and freezing temperatures.

Remembered as 'The Man of Iron', Ian had to overcome a number of barriers to reach his ultimate dream behind the 'Iron Curtain'.

While British cycling officials argued over the merits of road racing, the unassuming Scot made the journey to Poland in 1952 to rise in the Warsaw-Berlin-Prague peace race.

Britain participated in the event and was represented by the semi-professional Viking Cycles team, for whom Ian had won the 1951 Tour of Britain. The father or two met his wife Peggy through Wolverhampton Wheelers CC when Ian was working as a salesman for Viking Cycles.

Ian underwent rigorous preparation for the Peace Race, cycling along the worst cobbled streets in Glasgow through the cold, dark nights of February and March.

The beginning of the race took place in war-ravaged Warsaw. Ian said: "We were taken to see many sights of devastation and also buildings being resurrected. People gave their time on a voluntary basis to clean old cement from bricks to aid the rebuilding. The roads were bad: cobbles, dirt and dust. And then there were the crowds - it was incredible.

"Factories stopped work to see the spectacle. People lined the streets in their tens of thousands. Others were up on their roofs, walls and trees. We soon found out it was no ordinary race when the field of 120 got under way proper. The race was to last for 14 days.. Team instructions were not to go with any break but to stay well up the field and out of trouble. The rest of the British team assisted me greatly in my victory and they were a superb group of lads."

Riders were also forced to wear goggles to stop clouds of dust irritating their eyes.

Following an arduous 57 hours and six minutes, Steel triumphed following the most adverse of circumstances.

"It was 60 years ago and thousands of people who constantly lined the streets to watch the race. It was an amazing sight and at the beginning of the race in Warsaw they set free hundreds of white doves which was supposed to symbolise peace after the war. The start of the race took place in a big stadium which was packed out.

"We were doing an average of about 120 miles a day and quite a few cyclists used to come down to breakfast the next day and would walk down the stairs backwards because their limbs were so painful."

Special moments included meeting up with the first man to climb out of a spacecraft in space, Aleksey Arkhipovich Leonov.

Ian recalled: "It was a celebration dinner of past winners during the 1960s. There was a rumour going around that Leonov was coming and then it suddenly went quiet.

There was a hush and all you could hear was 'Leonov, Leonov, Leonov'! He then arrived with dignitaries and went round everyone in the room, coming to each table to talk to us all and he signed one of my napkins. He then went to a big stage and said it was an honour for him to be there - my goodness!

"He took a litre mug of beer and said 'to your health and good luck' and proceeded to drink the whole glass. The reception he got was absolutely ear-splitting."

In 1986, Ian was diagnosed with throat cancer - despite being a non-smoker. Doctors needed to remove his larynx to cut out the killer disease. He believes that the cancer could have resulted from the poisonous fumes from the motorcycles which led the race and he now has to speak with the aid of a voice box.

Ian, who lives in Glen Grove, is a former founder member of Largs and District Round Table. Ian, and his team of Les Scales, Bev Wood, Ian Greenfield, Frank Seel and Ken Jowett, returned to the UK after the historic victory briefcases. watches, cameras, radios and shaving and toilet goods.

He also won a bike which he gave to a fellow Scot in Prague. In 1955 he rode the Tour de France in the first team Britain had entered.

A family friend, Kim Foster, said: "The surfaces that Ian had to cycle on would have been through cobble stone streets and not like the smooth tarred surfaces you have today. But to me, and with the Round Britain Race which Ian also won, there was still rationing, so it was even a struggle with whatever food was available. And the thing you've got to remember as well was there was no team support like you have today with Sky. The practicalities were totally different. I'd describe him as Scotland's 'Bradley Wiggins', The following paragraph appeared in June 1952 in The Leaguer (The official publication of The British League of Racing Cyclists): "Ian Steel, 6 feet, V2 cycling rocket from Glasgow, won the 2135 km 12-stage Warsaw-Berlin-Prague race which ended on May 13th, 1952, in a shower of glory, for he not only dominated the field of 93 other riders, but led his 5 team mates (Ian Greenfield from Edinburgh, Bev Wood from Hyde in Cheshire, Ken Jowett from Bradford, Londoner Les Scales and Frank Seel from Manchester) to the head of the team race in which exalted position they stayed from the end of the 6th stage to the finish."

Ian concluded: "I could never have won the race on my own without my teammates supporting me throughout the whole race. I said at the time if I had died the next day, I could have accomplished as much as I required to do. It was the best day of my life and I couldn't have wished for any more."