William Nickson (born 30 January 1953) is a British former

cyclist Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

and 1981 British National Road Race Champion. He won the 1976

Milk Race The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after th ...

whilst riding for the Great Britain "A" team. He competed in the individual road race and

team time trial A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock (see individual time trial for a more detailed description of ITT events). The winning team in a TTT is determined by the comparing the times of ...

events at the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

. He also rode in the

1977 Tour de France Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

. In the 1977 Tour de France he was one of a group of 30 riders that were sent home after finishing beyond the time limit in the toughest mountain stage

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (; ; (no longer in use)), more commonly known simply as Chamonix (), is a communes of France, commune in the departments of France, department in the regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It was the site of the f ...

Alpe d'Huez L'Alpe d'Huez () is a ski resort in Southeastern France at . It is a mountain pasture in the central French Western Alps, in the Communes of France, commune of Huez, which is part of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-R ...

. Among those riders were points classification second

Rik van Linden Rik Van Linden (born 28 July 1949 in Wilrijk, Antwerp) is a Belgian former road bicycle racer. He won the points classification in the 1975 Tour de France, ahead of Eddy Merckx. Van Linden also won several stages in all of the three Grand ...

, stage winners

Klaus-Peter Thaler Klaus-Peter Thaler (born 14 May 1949 in Eckmannshausen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a former professional cyclist whose career spanned from 1976 to 1988, he was successful in road-racing and cyclo-cross. He was world cyclo-cross champion twice ...

and

Patrick Sercu Patrick Sercu (27 June 1944 – 19 April 2019) was a Belgian cyclist who was active on the road and track between 1961 and 1983. On track, he won the gold medal in the 1 km time trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, as well as three world title ...

, and his team mates

Aad van den Hoek Aad van den Hoek (born 14 October 1951) is a former Dutch cycle sport, cyclist. He was professional between 1974 and 1983 and was good friends with Gerrie Knetemann. Together they won four Tour de France team time trial stages with their team T ...

and

Piet van Katwijk Pieter Gerardus van Katwijk (27 February 1950 – 24 February 2025) was a Dutch cyclist who was active between 1969 and 1983. He competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics and finished in eleventh place in the road race. He won the Milk Race (1973) an ...

. EN: Thirty riders send home

References

External links

* 1953 births Living people English male cyclists British male cyclists Olympic cyclists for Great Britain Cyclists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Cyclists from Liverpool {{UK-cycling-bio-stub