Dave Handley

Dave Handley started winning cycle races in the early-1950s and by the end of the decade had established himself as a leading track cyclist in Britain and across Europe. Handley finished third in the 1955 National Amateur Sprint Championship, was second in 1956-57 and 1960, and was third again in 1958. Each time the title was won by Lloyd Binch. Handley was runner-up again in 1962, but this time Karl Barton won the title, with Binch in third place. Handley was, however, a national champion in the six consecutive years 1957-62 when he won the tandem title with Bill Towers (1957), Peter Carter (1958-59), and Eric Thompson (1960-62). Handley and Thompson reached the tandem quarter-final the 1960 Roma Olympics and, also that year, Handley achieved the pinnacle of his career by winning the amateur sprint bronze medal at the World Championships in Leipzig. He was the last British male to win a medal at the Worlds prior to the great successes of British cyclists in the Modern Era.

Handley was originally a member of the Harrow Cycle Racing Club, who were reputed to be Britain´s smallest cycling club at the time, with just 12 members. He then joined the famous Polytechnic Club in 1956 and his presence coincided with the Poly´s rise to as the top team pursuit team in the 1960s. To keep himself in top shape for his track racing, part of his training entailed taking part in hill-climbs in the winter months, and between 1955-61 he won the annual Oak Hill Climb at Berkhampsted.

After not being selected for the Perth Commonwealth Games, Handley quit competitive racing in October 1962. Having been a coach and manager at the Polytechnic club, the British Cycling Federtion (BCF) appointed him manager of their track team in 1965. Handley quit the post in 1967 to concentrate on his business as an electrical engineer but later went to the Paddington Club after they asked him to coach their riders. He also got back into the saddle 11 years after retiring and won the 1973 Paddington Sprint Championship at the age of 41.