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Paris–Brussels
The Brussels Cycling Classic (known until June 2013 as Paris–Brussels) is a semi classic European bicycle race, one of the oldest races on the international calendar. History Paris–Brussels was first run on 12 August 1893 as an amateur event over a distance of 397 km, Belgian Andre Henry took the inaugural victory from compatriot Charles Delbecque with France's Fernand Augenault coming in third. The race did not return to the racing calendar until 1906 when it was run as a two-day event on 3 and 4 June. The first stage of this 1906 event was run from the Paris suburb of Villiers-sur-Marne to Reims over 152 km and was won by France's Maurice Bardonneau. Albert Dupont took the more challenging second stage on the following day from Reims to Brussels over 239 km to take the overall race victory from compatriots Jules Patou and Guillaume Coeckelberg. The following year the race reverted to being a one-day race and quickly established itself as one of the Spring Cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rik Van Looy
Henri "Rik" Van Looy (20 December 1933 – 17 December 2024) was a Belgian professional Cycle sport, cyclist of the post-World War II, war period. Nicknamed the ''King of the Classics'' or ''Emperor of Herentals'' (after the small Belgian city where he lived), he dominated the classic cycle races in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Van Looy was twice World Cycling Championship, world professional road race champion, and was the first cyclist to win all five 'Cycling monument, Monuments': the most prestigious one-day Classic cycle races, classics – a feat since achieved by just two others (both also Belgians: Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx). With 367 professional road victories, he ranks second all-time behind Eddy Merckx. Van Looy is ninth on the Grand Tour (cycling)#Grand Tour stage wins, all-time list of Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tour stage winners with thirty-seven victories. These numbers could still have risen had he not been the victim of a significant number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robbie McEwen
Robbie McEwen (born 24 June 1972) is an Australian former professional road cyclist. He is a three-time winner of the Tour de France points classification in 2002, 2004 & 2006 and, at the peak of his career, was considered the world's fastest sprinter. He last rode for on the UCI World Tour. A former Australian BMX champion, McEwen switched to road cycling in 1990 at 18 years of age. He raced as a professional from 1996 until 2012. McEwen retired from the World Tour after riding the 2012 Tour of California and is now a cycling broadcast commentator on the Tour Down Under, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and most of the major races for Warner Brothers Discovery networks like Eurosport, Discovery+ & Max Sports. Career McEwen was born in Brisbane. After four years of moving through the regional, state and national levels of cycling, he started at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra under road cycling coach Heiko Salzwedel. The first signs of his sprinting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Demeyer
Marc Demeyer (19 April 1950 – 20 January 1982) was a professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist from Avelgem, Belgium. Although known as the "master servant" for Freddy Maertens, the powerful Demeyer was able to win 60 professional road races. He died of a heart attack at the age of 31. Demeyer turned professional in 1972 for the Flandria team managed by Briek Schotte. He signed the contract while resting it on a car beside the start of Dwars door België, which he then won. Shortly afterwards he won the Grand Prix d'Isbergues. Demeyer was one of the so-called "Three Musketeers", riding with and for Freddy Maertens and Michel Pollentier He led out sprints for Maertens in particular but could win them for himself, including stages of the Tour de France. He rode the Tour six times, finishing 72nd in 1973, 41st in 1974, 42nd in 1975, 56th in 1976, 49th in 1978 and 57th in 1979. He won the intermediate sprints competition, known then as Points Chaud ('hot spot sprints' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi (; 29 September 1942 – 16 August 2019) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 Vuelta a España, 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the second cyclist (after Jacques Anquetil) to win all three ''Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours'' of road cycling: Tour de France (1965, his first year as a pro), Giro d'Italia (1967, 1969 and 1976), and Vuelta a España (1968). He is one of only Grand Tour (cycling)#Winners of all three Grand Tours, seven cyclists to have done so. Gimondi also won three of the five Cycling monuments, winning the Giro di Lombardia twice, and finished on the podium of a grand tour twelve times. He accomplished all of these major victories despite his career coinciding with that of Eddy Merckx. Biography Gimondi was born on 29 September 1942 in Sedrina in the Province of Bergamo. He was the son of a transport manager and a post mistres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octave Lapize
Octave Lapize (; 24 October 1887 – 14 July 1917) was a French professional Bicycle road racing, road racing cyclist and track cycling, track cyclist. Most famous for winning the 1910 Tour de France, 1910 Tour de France and a bronze medal at the Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 kilometres, 1908 Summer Olympics in the men's 100 kilometres, he was a three-time winner of one-day classics, Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Brussels. Career In his first Tour De France in 1909, he abandoned early due to wintery conditions during the month of July, but not before he managed a Stage 2 second place behind Tour winner Francois Faber. The following year he went head-to-head with Alcyon teammate Faber who led comfortably until colliding with a dog at the foot of the Pyrenees. Lapize finally won by just 4 points helped by a number of punctures to Faber's bike on the final stage from Caen to Paris. In a total of six starts in the Tour De France between 1909 and 1914, this victo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Félix Sellier
Félix Sellier (2 January 1893 in Spy, Belgium, Spy – 16 April 1965 in Gembloux) was a Belgium, Belgian professional road bicycle racer. Stage victory in 1921 Tour de France In the 1921 Tour de France, the cyclists were separated in two classes, the sponsored riders and the unsponsored riders. For the thirteenth stage, these classes started separated, partly because the Tour organisers wanted to punish the sponsored riders for not attacking the leader Léon Scieur, and partly because the leader in the second class was helped by cyclists in the first class. Sellier was one of the riders in the second class, and therefore could start two hours earlier than the favourites. Some of the second class cyclists including Sellier stayed ahead, and Sellier managed to win the stage. Sellier would finish 8th overall of the second class cyclists, and 16th in the overall combined classification. In the next year, Sellier started the 1922 Tour de France, Tour de France as sponsored cyclist. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Brocco
Maurice Brocco (28 January 1883 – 26 June 1965) was a French professional road bicycle racer between 1906 and 1927. He was born into a family of Swiss-Italian immigrants. In 1911 he won a stage in the Tour de France. He participated six times in the Tour de France, but finished the race only once. In his later career he was successful in six-day races. In the 1911 Tour de France, Brocco was disqualified because he helped François Faber, which was not allowed. Brocco appealed, he was allowed to start the next stage. Brocco won that stage, and his disqualification was completed after the stage. Racing career Brocco first became prominent as a rider in 1907 when he won the Paris-Dieppe race as an amateur. He turned professional the following year (1908) and rode the Tour de France for the first time, abandoning the race on the ninth stage. 1910 saw Brocco take his best win of his road racing career when he triumphed in Paris–Brussels. Brocco initially finished the race in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddy Maertens
Freddy Maertens (born 13 February 1952) is a Belgian people, Belgian former professional racing cyclist who was twice UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race, world road race champion. His career coincided with the best years of another Belgian rider, Eddy Merckx, and supporters and reporters were split over who was better.Vanwalleghem, Rik; Freddy Maertens: een leven in wit en zwart, 2012 () Maertens' career swung between winning more than 50 races in a season to winning almost none and then back again. His life has been marked by debt and alcoholism. It took him more than two decades to pay a tax debt. At one point early in his career, between the 1976 Tour de France, 1976 Tour and 1977 Giro d'Italia, 1977 Giro, Maertens won 28 out of 60 Grand Tour stages that he entered before abandoning the Giro due to injury on stage 8b. He achieved eight Tour stage wins, thirteen Vuelta stage wins and seven Giro stage wins in less than one calendar year. Personal life Maertens was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classic Cycle Races
The classic cycle races are the most prestigious one-day professional road cycling races in the international calendar. Some of these events date back to the 19th century. They are normally held at roughly the same time each year. The five most revered races are often described as the cycling monuments. For the 2005 to 2007 seasons, some classics formed part of the UCI ProTour run by the Union Cycliste Internationale. This event series also included various stage races including the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España, Paris–Nice, and the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. The UCI ProTour replaced the UCI Road World Cup series (1989–2004) which contained only one-day races. Many of the classics, and all the Grand Tours, were not part of the UCI ProTour for the 2008 season because of disputes between the UCI and the ASO, which organizes the Tour de France and several other major races. Since 2009, many classic cycle races are part of the UCI World Tour. Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucien Petit-Breton
Lucien Georges Mazan (18 October 1882 – 20 December 1917), known by the pseudonym Lucien Petit-Breton (), was a French racing cyclist best known as the first two-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Plessé, Loire-Atlantique, a part of Brittany, now part of Pays de la Loire. When he was six he moved with his parents to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he took the nationality. His cycling career started when he won a bike in a lottery at the age of sixteen. As his father wanted him to do a 'real' job, he adapted the nickname Lucien Breton for races, to deceive his father. Later he changed it to Petit-Breton, because there already was another cyclist called Lucien Breton. Professional career His first notable victory was the track cycling championship of Argentina. In 1902 he was drafted in the French Army and moved back to France. In 1904 he won the Bol d'Or track event at the second attempt, having finished second the previous year and in 1905 he broke the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Simpson
Thomas Simpson (30 November 1937 – 13 July 1967) was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He was born in Haswell, County Durham, and later moved to Harworth, Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road cycling as a teenager before taking up track cycling, specialising in pursuit races. He won a bronze medal for track cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In 1959, at age 21, Simpson was signed by the French professional road-racing team . He advanced to their first team () the following year, and won the 1961 Tour of Flanders. Simpson then joined ; in the 1962 Tour de France he became the first British rider to wear the yellow jersey, finishing sixth overall. In 1963 Simpson moved to , winning Bordeaux–Paris that year and the 1964 Milan–San Remo. In 1965 he became Britain's first professional world road race champion and won the Giro di Lombardia; this made him the BBC Sports Personality o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddy Merckx
Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (born 17 June 1945), known as Eddy Merckx (, ), is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours (five Tour de France, Tours de France, five Giro d'Italia, Giros d'Italia, and a Vuelta a España), all five Cycling monument, Monuments, setting the hour record, three UCI Road World Championships, World Championships, every major one-day race other than Paris–Tours, and extensive victories on the track. Born in Meensel-Kiezegem, Province of Brabant, Brabant, Belgium, he grew up in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre where his parents ran a grocery store. He played several sports, but found his true passion in cycling. Merckx got his first bicycle at the age of three or four and competed in his first race in 1961. His first victory came at Petit-Enghien in October 1961. After winning eighty races as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
