Bill Bradley

In 1957 Bradley won the sixth stage in the Tour of Austria and broke Tour de France winner Charley Gaul’s record for the ascent of the 20 km Großglockner pass on the fifth stage, by 8:51. It was Bradley’s first race abroad and he finished fifth overall. That same year, he won a bronze medal in the team time trial at the World Youth Games in Moskva. In 1958 Bradley won a stage in the prestigious Warsaw-Berlin-Prague “Peace Race” and finished second in his début Tour of Britain (known as the Milk Race for the first time), and finished just 45 seconds behind the Austrian winner Richard Durlacher.

In 1959 Bradley won a stage in the Tour of Sweden and was second in the British Road Race Championships. He won, however, the first of two successive Milk Races that year. In retaining his title in 1960 he dominated the race for 12 days and won three stages and the King of the Mountains. At the start of 2024, Bradley remains the only man to win the Tour of Britain in successive years.

Bradley was selected for the 1960 Roma Olympics and finished a creditable 36th (out of 141) in the individual road race. He also took part in that year’s World Championships at Hohenstein, East Germany and finished 17th in the road race. Bradley went to the 1961 Worlds in Bern, Switzerland and finished 43rd. He did, however, win his second successive British National Road Race title that year.

Annoyed at not being selected for the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games, Bradley turned semi-professional with Harry Quinn Cycles before retiring at the end of the 1965 season. Bradley did return to competitive racing again in 1973 and, as a veteran, won a silver medal behind Belgium’s Antonio Marchiori at the 1994 Veterans’ World Championship (over-61 category) at Buxton, England.

Bradley was a telephone engineer for more than 40 years and after many years as chairman of the Southport Road Racing Club he was unanimously elected President in December 1996, just six months before he died. His wife Joan inaugurated the Bill Bradley Memorial Race in her husband’s honour.