CYCLING BIO
Born 18 July 1928
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died 13 September 1958 (aged 30)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Russell Mockridge is one of the most revered figures in Ausrtalian cycling.
He was a dual Olympic gold medalist on the track, in the 1km time trial and the 2000m tandem (with Lionel Cox) sprint, at the 1952 Games in Helsinki. In 1995 he teamed with fellow Australians Roger Arnold and Sid Patterson to win the Paris six-day event, before riding the Tour de France as part of a the Luxembourg national team, with fellow Australian John Beasley Srn.
When he turned up for his first race in Geelong, in 1946, and won so convincingly that the official thought he had gone the wrong way, taking a short cut.
A year later he won the Australian road championship (201 km) and was selected to compete at the 1948 London Olympic Games, in the road race and team pursuit.
At the 1950 Auckland British Empire Games, just four years after his first race, he was Australia's premier cyclist, winning gold medals in the 1000m time trial and the 1000m sprint, and silver in the 4000m individual pursuit.
In 1952, he became the first ever rider to win both the amateur and professional divisions of the Paris Grand Prix sprint against an embarrassed world professional champion Reg Harris.
The humiliation to the professionals resulted in the rules of the race being changed and amateurs being barred for many years.
On his return to Australia, after riding the 1955 Tour de France, he became the most celebrated Australian cyclist of his generation, frequently winning from scratch in both track and road races.
In 1956 Mockridge dominated the road-racing season and set a new record for the Melbourne to Warrnambool classic, averaging a world record 44km/h.
Tragically, on September 13 1958, shortly after the start of the Tour of Gippsland, Mockridge was struck by a bus and killed on the Princes Highway at Clayton, Melbourne.
Already an international star, he died with great potential unfulfilled.
As a sign of the significance of his legacy, since his passing, race handbooks in Australia have simply been known as a Mocka.
Major Achievements
- 1st British Empire Games (Commonwealth Games) 1950, sprint
- 1st British Empire Games (Commonwealth Games) 1950, 1km time trial
- 2nd British Empire Games (Commonwealth Games) 1950, individual pursuit
- 1st Olympic Games 1952, 1km individual time trial
- 1st Olympic Games 1952, 2000m tandem (with Lionel Cox)
- 1st Paris Six-Day 1955 (with Sid Patterson and Roger Arnold)
- 64th 1955 Tour de France
- 1st Australian Professional Road Championships 1956, 1957, 1958
