Brittain was born in the Knotty Ash district of Liverpool. He joined the Woolton Wheelers and by the end of 1950 had ridden 1h 11m 45s in the East Liverpool Wheelers Novices' 25-mile time-trial. He won his first race at the distance in 1h 7m 45s wearing plimsolls and a flapping shirt. Brittain was called up to the army to start his national service in 1952. There he made up an Army team with Brian Robinson and Jim Grieves. He also became known as the nephew of Regimental Sergeant Major Brittain, who was reputed to have the loudest voice on a British army drill ground.
The army entered him for races and his showing led to his first national selection, in a "B" team for the An Tóstalstage race in Ireland in 1953. Bad weather meant that 58 riders quit the race and 16 finished. Brittain was among the non-finishers. He was picked to ride for Britain in the 1954 UCI Road World Championships at Solingen, near Cologne, Germany. He rode with Bill Baty, Ray Booty, John Perks, Bernard Pusey and Don Sanderson. Brittain crashed on the seventh lap and finished 12 minutes behind the leaders.
Peace race
In 1955 Great Britain picked Stan Brittain to ride the Peace Race, the Soviet bloc's amateur version of the Tour de France. He came second on the first day and next day took the lead. He held it until the seventh stage, when he lost it to Gustav Schur of East Germany. Brittain slipped to third on the ninth day. Schur won and Brittain came third. In 1956 Brittain was again selected to represent Great Britain. He came ninth on the first day but then he slipped further behind and dropped out at the start of stage six. In 1957 he won two stages and half the intermediate prizes, or primes, offered to the first rider through cities along the route. In 1958 he finished ninth.
1956 Olympics
Brittain represented Great Britain at the 1956 Summer Olympics that were held in Melbourne. He competed in both the Men's Individual Road Race, where he finished in sixth position, and in the Men's Team Road Race, where Great Britain finished second and he won a silver medal.
Tour de France
, organiser of the Tour de France, invited Britain to send riders in 1958. Brittain, Brian Robinson and Ron Coe were to ride with Shay Elliott of Ireland, an Austrian, a Dane and two Portuguese. The British and Elliott rode as a team within a team. Robinson won the stage into Brest and Brittain finished 68th at 3h 3m 5s. He said in an interview in Cycling: Brittain was an independent, a semi-professional. He rode for Viking Cycles in Britain for the first months of 1959, then left to live off the prizes he could win in Belgium. He didn't ride the Tour de France because of a broken wrist. He rode on the continent again in 1960 and started the Tour de France. He stayed in Belgium and rode criteriums, local races with an engagement fee, until the end of summer. He abandoned the Tour again in 1961, when it reached the mountains and rode until the end of 1964 in Britain and then stopped racing when he was 33.
Honours
In 1957 Stan Brittain was awarded the Golden Cycle by Merseyside Cycling Development. In February 1988 he was presented with a silver pin by Anne, Princess Royal commemorating his achievements in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
