Bill Pratney

William " Bill" Pratney (actually Wiremu Paratane; * 1909, † August 25, 2001 in Auckland ) was a New Zealand racing cyclist. He is considered the " largest Maori cyclist ".

Bill Pratney was born as Wiremu Paratane. His mother died at his birth year, his grandmother a few years later, and he came to an orphanage. There he was renamed William Pratney. Even as a teenager, he won local cycling races, and he decided to become a professional cyclist. In 1930, he was severely injured in a car accident and was in a coma for three days, so that the doctors saw as impossible that he could ever cycling again.

But three months later Pratney was back on the bike and won the race in record time " Taranaki Round the Mountain". A highlight of his career was winning the 1937 New Zealand road championship in front of the favorite Harry Watson, the more national titles followed.

Pratney remained active as a cyclist to old age and drove at championships in his respective age class. 1995, at the age of 86, he went to Australia within two days of a 330 km long distance charity purposes.