Bill Pratney (Wiremu Paratane), right, and fellow cyclist Warwick Dalton enjoy an impromptu bike race at Pratney's belated 70th birthday party in 1982 (he actually turned 70 in 1979). Pratney began cycle racing in 1926 and competed professionally from 1929 until his retirement in 1957. In 1980 Pratney returned to cycle racing. He competed in the 1991 Australasian Masters Games in Brisbane at the age of 82, and in the 1994 World Masters Games, also in Brisbane, when he was 85. His last major cycling feat was a fundraising effort for the Australian Bible Society, when at the age of 86 he was sponsored to complete 900 laps of Brisbane's Chandler Velodrome, a distance of 300 km.
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Reference: Jim Robinson, Bill Pratney: never say die. Wellington: Kennett Brothers, 2007
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