Frans Slaats (born

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the motorways A59 and N261. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former municipality of Sprang-Capelle) and W ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, 11 June 1912, died Waalwijk, 6 April 1993) was a Dutch professional cyclist who broke the world hour record. Slaats was a prominent

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate Track tran ...

rider in the 1930s, especially in

Six-day racing Six-day cycling is a track cycling event that competes over six days. Six-day races started in Britain, spread to many regions of the world, were brought to their modern style in the United States and are now mainly a European event. Initially, i ...

. In September 1937 he set the world

hour record The hour record is the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour on a bicycle from a stationary start. Cyclists attempt this record alone on the track without other competitors present. It is considered one of the most prestigious re ...

at 45.558 km on the Vigorelli track in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It was bettered the same year by the French rider,

Maurice Archambaud Maurice Archambaud (30 August 1908 in Paris – 3 December 1955 in Le Raincy) was a French professional cyclist from 1932 to 1944. His short stature earned him the nickname of ''le nabot'', or "the dwarf", but his colossal thighs made him an exce ...

. Slaats was at the Buenos Aires six-day in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

when

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

began in 1939. On returning to the Netherlands when peace came in 1945, he found his four brothers had been killed by the Germans.

Palmarès

;1934 : 2nd Berlin six-day ;1936 :3rd Ronde van Valkenburg :1st Amsterdam six-day :2nd Ghent six-day :1st Copenhagen six-day ;1937 :1st Antwerp six-day :World hour record :1st Copenhagen six-day ;1938 :1st Ghent six-day :2nd Antwerp six-day ;1939 :1st Brussels six-day :3rd Copenhagen six-day ;1944 :1st Buenos Aires six-day

References

External links

1912 births 1993 deaths Dutch male cyclists Dutch track cyclists People from Waalwijk Cyclists from North Brabant 20th-century Dutch people {{Netherlands-cycling-bio-stub