William Bilsland

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William Bilsland (born November 9, 1945 in Glasgow ) is a former British cyclist and participant in the Summer Olympics.

Athletic career

William "Billy" Bilsland won the Scottish Time Trial Championship at the age of 17 . Bilsland had his first international success in 1965 when he won two stages of the Tour of Slovakia , wore the jersey of the front runner and only missed victory by falling. In the end, he finished 5th in the final ranking. In 1966 he started at the Commonwealth Games and finished 9th in the road race. In the domestic Tour of Scotland he was third. That year he also started the International Peace Tour (where he had to finance his journey privately because the association did not have enough money), which he finished in 35th place. A year later he was able to win a stage in this race. In 1968 he won eleven victories, including a stage in the British milk race . He competed in the road race at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City , but was eliminated in the course of the race. In 1969 he went to France and became a member of the CSM Puteaux association. He managed to get third in the annual ranking of French amateurs thanks to a large number of good placements.

After he was born in 1969 a. a. Having won a stage of the Tour de l`Avenir , he obtained a license as a professional driver in the French team Peugeot-BP-Michelin in 1970, where he a. a. drove alongside Roger Pingeon and Bernard Thévenet . He stayed with Peugeot for three years and then switched to the British Ti-Raleigh team , which at that time consisted mostly of British drivers. As a professional driver, he has won a few smaller races and has placed himself several times in the British championships. In 1971 he was 14th at the UCI Road World Championships in Switzerland .

In 1975 he ended his career.

Professional

Bilsland completed an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. After his career he ran a bicycle shop in Glasgow.

Trivia

He found international recognition with his hobby as a pigeon fancier.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Billy Bilsland: Scotland's forgotten professional cyclist. Retrieved July 2, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Maik Märtin: 50 years of Course de la Paix . Agency Construct, Leipzig 1998, p. 229 .
  3. ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 18/1966 . Berlin 1966, p. 7 .
personal data
SURNAME Bilsland, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cyclist and Olympian
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow