Les West (born 11 November 1943) was one of the dominant figures of amateur and professional cycling in Britain during the 1960 and 1970s.
West rode the Milk Race, the Tour of Britain for the first time in 1965, riding as a late selection for the Midlands.
[3][5][notes 1] West's prizes for winning were a gold watch and a combined radiogram and cocktail cabinet.
[4] That autumn he finished second to Evert Dolman of the Netherlands in the world championship on the Nürburgring circuit in Germany.
"[4] Keith Bingham, writing in Cycling Weekly went further when he spoke of a rider so ill through the drugs he had taken that he no longer recognised journalists he had known for years.
"[7] West said an official from the British Cycling Federation approached him after the championship and said: "Good ride, son.
"[8] West was to have joined Jacques Anquetil's Bic team, at the recommendation of British professional Vin Denson, but his contract did not arrive and he stayed in Britain.
[8] West won the Milk Race again in 1967, in what Keith Bingham of Cycling Weekly described as "astonishing style.
Professional racing had developed in Britain but West held on for the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968.
[11] He punctured early, waited for the mechanics in the service car behind the last rider, changed bikes twice, chased for 30 miles and gave up.
He turned professional for the Holdsworth team, managed by a shopkeeper called Roy Thame in west London.
West got into the winning break with Jempi Monseré of Belgium, Leif Mortensen and the Italian Felice Gimondi.
[14][15] The rule was that professionals had to have a season out of racing before the British Cycling Federation would consider a return to the amateur.
West returned to cycling in the veteran class, and remarked on the fact that he was remembered by older neighbours in Stoke-on-Trent but not by others.