The daughter of one of Britain’s greatest-ever sportspeople will be appearing in Ross-on-Wye as part of a new book to celebrate her mother’s life.

Beryl Burton was a seven-times world cycling champion, who remains the only woman to break a major men’s athletic record when, in 1967, she cycled more than 277 miles in 12 hours.

She famously passed a liquorice allsort to the men’s champion Mike McNamara when she caught and passed him during the race.

Denise Burton-Cole was Beryl’s only child and herself became a triple national cycling champion, with mother and daughter even riding together in the same British women’s team in many world championship races during the 1970s.

Following four years of research and interviews with more than 100 people, a new biography about Beryl’s life has been written by The Daily Telegraph’s chief sports reporter Jeremy Wilson that will be published on July 7.

The author traces Beryl’s life from her early childhood in Leeds, when she suffered serious illness, through to how she defied the social norms of post-war Yorkshire by becoming the best cyclist in the world.

Proudly amateur throughout her life, Beryl worked full-time on a Yorkshire rhubarb farm while accumulating a still unprecedented 122 national titles. She was an inspiration to numerous women cyclists who have since followed her, notably Nicole Cooke, the Welsh former world and Olympic champion. Her life was also the subject of a play by the actor Maxine Peake.

And yet the name Beryl Burton has still remained relatively unknown outside of cycling, largely because women were barred from competing at the Olympic Games or the Tour de France until 1984.

“Beryl’s story is staggering, she endured early childhood trauma and then defied her sport’s institutional sexism to become one of the greatest sportspeople who ever lived,” said Wilson. “When the project started I had been baffled by how little was known of her compared to the generation of cyclists who won medals at the London 2012 but it soon became clear to me that her athletic achievements were of a scale and magnitude never before seen in any sport.”

Denise, Beryl’s daughter, says that her mother could never understand why people were in such awe of her achievements. “She just did what she loved,” says Denise.

Beryl died in 1996, aged 58, of heart failure while out riding her bike.

Denise and Jeremy will be appearing in Ross-on-Wye at Rossiter Books on the evening of Wednesday, July 13 to talk about Beryl Burton’s extraordinary life.