Brian Robinson, the first British cyclist to win a Tour de France stage, has passed away at the age of 91. Robinson won stages of the Tour de France in 1958 and 1959, and in 1955 he was the first British rider to finish cycling’s most prestigious race.
In 1961, he won the renowned Criterium du Dauphiné stage race and in 1957, he became the first Briton to finish on the podium of one of cycling’s Monuments, Milan-Sanremo.
Jake Womersley, the Yorkshireman’s grandson, and fellow rider posted on Twitter: “It is with tremendous regret that the family of Brian Robinson must announce his departure yesterday.”
Robinson, who was born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, joined the local cycling club as a teen and later took up racing while working for the family construction business. He participated for Great Britain in the 1952 Olympics before going professional in 1955, when he finished 29th overall in his first Tour de France.
In 1958, he won Britain’s first stage on stage seven from Saint-Brieuc to Brest, but he did not get to raise his arms in victory until the evening when he received news that Italian Arigo Padovan, who had crossed the finish line first, had been disqualified. A year later, he made amends by winning stage 20 of the 1959 Tour, from Annecy to Chalon-sur-Saone, by a margin of 20 minutes.
At a period when many professional cyclists lived from hand to mouth, Robinson retired at age 33 and returned to the United Kingdom with his family, continuing to ride his bicycle in relative anonymity until 2014, when he became an ambassador for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Yorkshire.
