Percy Osborn (1901-1991) was an Australian

racing cyclist Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling spo ...

. Osborn from

Koo Wee Rup Koo Wee Rup () is a town and satellite suburb in Victoria, Australia, 63 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district and located within the Shire of Cardinia local government area. Originally marshland, the area has since been ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

competed in the

1928 Tour de France The 1928 Tour de France was the 22nd edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 17 June to 15 July. It consisted of 22 stages over . The Tour was won by Nicolas Frantz, his second win. He held the yellow jersey from beginning to end, desp ...

with fellow Australians

Hubert Opperman Sir Hubert Ferdinand Opperman, Order of the British Empire, OBE (29 May 1904 – 18 April 1996), referred to as Oppy by Australian and French crowds, was an Australian cyclist and politician, whose endurance cycling feats in the 1920s and 1930s ...

and Ernest Bainbridge and New Zealander Harry Watson where he finished 38th. He was 22 hours 1 minute and 49 seconds behind the winner

Nicolas Frantz Nikolas Frantz (; 4 November 1899 – 8 November 1985) was a Luxembourgish bicycle racer with 60 professional racing victories over his 12-year career (1923 to 1934). He rode for the Thomann team in 1923 and then for Alcyon- Dunlop from 1924 to ...

. The Australians cycling tour of Europe was financed by a fund raising campaign run by

The Sporting Globe ''The Sporting Globe'' was a newspaper published in Melbourne from 1922 until 1996. Establishment The first issue of the paper was published on 22 July 1922 and, for the first four weeks, it was published only on Saturday evenings. On 16 Augu ...

. In 1927 Osborn was the fastest professional in the

Goulburn to Sydney Classic The Goulburn to Sydney cycling race was a one-day Road bicycle racing, road bicycle race. The first race was held in 1902 with the last in 2012. History The route from Goulburn to Sydney via the Hume Highway was popular with cyclists in the l ...

with a time of 5hrs 54mins, the first time the race has been completed in less than 6 hours. The feature race of 1927 was the Dunlop Grand Prix, which at the time was the biggest cycling race in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

and the richest race in the world. The race was held in four stages from the 14–19 November 1927, covering 690 miles (1110 km). Osborn finished sixth behind Opperman, Watson and Bainbridge. Osborn lived and worked in Koo Wee Rup for the rest of his life, and died while a resident at Koo Wee Rup’s Killara hostel.

References

External links

*
Official Tour de France results for Percy OsbornOfficial CyclingRanking page for Percy Osborn
Australian male cyclists Cyclists from Melbourne 1901 births 1991 deaths Sportsmen from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-cycling-bio-stub