Gerard Debaets (17 April 1898 – 27 April 1959) was a Belgian

racing cyclist Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling s ...

. He won 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 ...

in 1924 and 1927 and the Belgian national road race title in 1925. He also specialized in

track cycling Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it ...

, winning a total of 18 six-day events, including six times the most prestigious Six Days of New York. Debaets was a resident of Fair Lawn and North Haledon, New Jersey, where he died in 1959 of a heart attack.Staff
"Gerard Debaets Is Dead at 61; Won 18 Six-Day Bicycle Races"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 28 April 1959. Accessed 11 September 2015. "North Haledon, N. J., April 27 - Gerard Debaets, a member of NORTH HALEDON, N. J., April 27--Gerard Debaets, a member of winning teams in eighteen six-day bicycle races and the holder of several national bicycle championships, died today of a heart attack at his home, 139 Oakwood Avenue."

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* 1898 births 1959 deaths Belgian male cyclists People from Fair Lawn, New Jersey People from North Haledon, New Jersey Belgian track cyclists Sportspeople from Kortrijk Cyclists from West Flanders {{Belgium-cycling-bio-1890s-stub