Les Wilson

Les Wilson started competitive cycling with the Leeds St. Christopher’s Catholic Cycling Club at the age of 16, but it was with the Leeds Kirkgate Cycling Club that he would find fame. In 1948 he won the National Five Miles Grass Championship and the following year won the Grand Prix of Coventry. In 1952 Wilson teamed up with Alan Bannister of Manchester Wheelers in the National Tandem Championship, and he helped Bannister win his sixth consecutive title. Wilson and Bannister then competed in the 2,000 metres tandem event at the Helsinki Olympics but were eliminated in their quarter-final heat by the eventual silver medallists Ray Robinson and Tommy Shardelow of South Africa.

After the Olympics, Wilson concentrated on mass start races and in 1953 won the Manchester-Birmingham Road Race. He then turned professional with Pennine Cycles, and between then and 1955 also rode for BSA, Viking, and Wearwell Cycles. In one of his first races as a professional, Wilson finished second in two consecutive stages of the 1953 Tour of Britain, and was classified 10th overall. Wilson won that year’s Macclesfield Grand Prix and in 1954 won a three-day race at Bournemouth, as well as finishing second in another stage in the Tour of Britain. Wilson’s younger brother Jack was the West Riding NCU sprint champion in 1952 and 1953.