William Mills – Bill to his friends – was 25 when he rocked up in Paris in 1932 with an ambitious goal. He wanted to become the first Briton to take part in the Tour de France. A star of the Southern Region’s Brighton Stanley Wanderers, Mills was a record-holder over 50, 100 and 150 miles. Against the clock, he had nothing left to prove. Now he wanted to go wheel-to-wheel with the best riders on the Continent, and knew that competing in the Tour would test his abilities to the limit.
French newspaper L’Auto introduced him as “one of the best English amateur road racers”, adding that his domestic palmarès included “many second places behind Southall.” It was not faint praise; Frank Southall was so dominant on the UK scene that finishing second to him was practically winning. For L’Auto, having a Brit in the Tour was an exciting prospect: “[Having] an English rider in the grande épreuve would be a new attraction,” the paper enthused, recalling British successes of the 1890s, before speculating: “Thirty years on, will we again see the famous matches of yesteryear between our road riders and the English?”
