HE was one of the finest British road cyclists of his generation – a genuine pioneer who raced in the Tour de France six times and remains the only Englishman to win a stage at the world famous Giro d’Italia.

But the name of Vincent ‘Vin’ Denson rarely crops up in conversations about famous Chester sporting personalities.

The 73-year-old is never mentioned in the same breath Michael Owen, Beth Tweddle or Danny Murphy – though few are more deserving of a place in the city’s sporting hall of fame.

Vin, who grew up in Handbridge, began cycling in his early teens after a serious knee injury forced him to turn his back on his first love – football – and try other sports.

After joining Chester Road Club as a 17-year-old using a bike borrowed from his brother, he rose through the ‘clubman’ ranks in Britain before embarking on a glorious six-year career as a professional rider on the Continent in the 1960s.

Vin was a team-mate of the legendary Jacques Anquetil – the first man to win the Tour de France five times – and his 1965 Tour of Luxembourg victory made him the first British winner of a professional European stage race.

In 1966 he triumphed in stage nine of the Giro d’Italia and remains the only Englishman to have claimed a stage victory in the competition. (As Vin is quick to point out, Mark Cavendish – who has enjoyed recent success in Italy – is from the Isle of Man and not England).

But along with the many highs Vin enjoyed during that golden era came a crushing, devastating low – the death of his close friend Tom Simpson in the 1967 Tour de France. Simpson’s death had a profound effect on the Chester-born rider and spelled the beginning of the end of his professional career in Europe.

“Tom’s death got to me so badly I just didn’t want to have anything more to do with racing,” recalls Vin in his autobiography, The Full Cycle, published last December.

Disaster had struck for Simpson on the slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the Tour. In searing heat, he died of exhaustion.

“If the Tour could take away such a close personal friend, I didn’t want to know the sport,” writes Vin in The Full Cycle.

“I was in another world.”

Vin pulled out of the Tour three days after Simpson’s death – physically in good shape but mentally unable to carry on riding after losing his friend.

By the autumn of 1968, Vin and wife Violet – plus their three children Kevin, Natalie and Ian – were on their way back to the UK.

They settled in Essex, where Vin set up the wood treatment business that he still runs to this day.

Vin’s racing career had come the full cycle and he returned to riding as a ‘clubman’ in the UK.

But his place in British cycling history is assured thanks to those trailblazing years on the Continent – a time when few English riders risked moving abroad and starting a new life.

“I am not sure if we realised then what a gamble we were taking,” admits Vin.

“I only knew that I would never be fully content if I hadn’t at least given it a go.”

Known as the ‘Gentle Giant’ of the roads, Vin remains to this day a larger than life character – and The Full Cycle is packed with colourful stories and anecdotes from a cycling career that spanned almost half a century.

Now in his 70s, his passion for cycling burns as brightly as ever.

“The truth is I simply loved the bike, and riding the bike, and the people who ride bikes,” says Vin.

“I did as a youngster in Chester, where it all started; I did as a professional when I mixed with the best riders in the world; and I do to this day.”