The 1919 Tour of Flanders was the third edition of the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and orga ...

road cycling race was held on 23 March 1919 and was won by the Belgian Henri Van Lerberghe. Van Lerberghe broke clear at 120 km from the finish in a solo effort and maintained his lead to the finish. He finished 14 minutes ahead of the first group of chasers, the largest winning margin in the history of the race. Léon Buysse won the sprint for second place before

Jules Van Hevel Jules Vanhevel (10 March 1895 in Koekelare – 21 July 1969 in Ostend) was a Belgian racing cyclist. He was a professional from 1919 to 1936. Biography In the literature, his name is often misspelled as "Jules Van Hevel. The cyclist Jules ...

. The race started in the centre of

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

and finished in

Gentbrugge Gentbrugge is one of 25 districts ("wijken") of the city of Ghent, Belgium in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Gentbrugge together with Oud Gentbrugge had been a separate municipality before 1 January 1977, when it fused with Ghent. Neighborhoods ...

, on the outskirts of Ghent. The total distance was .Vanwalleghem, Rik (1991), De Ronde van Vlaanderen, Pinguin, Belgium, , p 32 It was the first Tour of Flanders after a five-year hiatus due to the First World War. As from this edition, the Tour of Flanders has been organized annually, even during the Second World War; the longest uninterrupted streak of any cycling race. Arrivée du tour des Flandres 1919, en haut premier Henri Van Lerberghe, en bas deuxième Lucien Buysse

Arrivée du tour des Flandres 1919, en haut premier Henri Van Lerberghe, en bas deuxième Lucien Buysse

Race summary

Before the start of the race, Henri Van Lerberghe declared to the peloton that he was going to drop everyone and impose himself on the race alone. Van Lerberghe attacked into a headwind whilst there was still 120 km to be travelled, in what looked like an attack without any chance of success. During his breakaway, he saw an assistant with a bag of food planned for Marcel Buysse and convinced him that Buysse had abandoned, so as to take his food. Later, he had to pause at a level crossing as there was a train going past at the time. Van Lerberghe did not wait for the train to pass and decided to enter a train car with his bike to get out on the other side. He went on to reach the finish line with a margin of 14 minutes over the next placed rider, the largest margin in the history of the Tour of Flanders. After crossing the line and riding his lap of honour, Van Lerberghe declared to the crowd and, in all sincerity: ''"Go home; I'm half a day ahead of the pack."''Epic races
''sur rondevanvlaanderen.be''Konrad, Gabe and Melanie (200), Bikelore, On The Wheel Publications (USA), ,

Results

References

External links

sur ''bikeraceinfo.com'' {{Tour of Flanders Tour of Flanders 1919 in road cycling 1919 in Belgian sport March 1919 sports events