Maurice De Waele (; 27 December 1896 – 14 February 1952) was a Belgian professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

. De Waele placed 2nd in the

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 * ...

Tour, an hour and fifty eight minutes

Nicolas Frantz Nicolas Frantz (; 4 November 1899 – 8 November 1985) was a Luxembourgish bicycle racer with 60 professional racing victories over his 12-year career (1923 to 1934). He rode for the Thomann team in 1923 and then for Alcyon- Dunlop from 1924 to 1 ...

and 3rd in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

, again won by Frantz. However, he is most famous for winning the

1929 Tour de France The 1929 Tour de France was the 23rd edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 30 June to 28 July. It consisted of 22 stages over . Nicolas Frantz had won two consecutive Tours, in 1927 and 1928, and was looking for a third. In addition t ...

. He led the Tour until stage seven when two punctures on the way to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

cost him the yellow jersey to no less than three other rides on the same time in the general classification, Frantz, Andre Leducq and

Victor Fontan Victor Fontan (born Pau, France, 18 June 1892, died Saint-Vincent 2 January 1982) was a French cyclist who led the 1929 Tour de France but dropped out after knocking at doors at night to ask for another bicycle. His plight led to a change of r ...

. Fontan was the sole leader of the race when a broken bike led to his retirement, leaving De Waele in the lead, seventy five seconds ahead of Frantz. However, punctures to De Waele gave the lead to his nearest rival until he too suffered the same problem. With Frantz out of the running for the title, sickness in Grenoble nearly cost him too but with help from his teammates, he was led to victory. After winning the 1929 Tour, the organiser,

Henri Desgrange Henri Desgrange (31 January 1865 – 16 August 1940) was a French bicycle racer and sports journalist. He set twelve world track cycling records, including the hour record of on 11 May 1893. He was the first organiser of the Tour de France. Yo ...

despaired so much of the trickery that he thought had let such a minor rider succeed that he abandoned commercially sponsored teams and ran the Tour for national teams for two decades. Desgrange had until then insisted that while riders could compete in the name of their sponsors, cooperation or tactics between those riders was not allowed. They were to consider everyone their rival and ride against them whether they had the same sponsor or not. De Waele was sponsored by the French bicycle company,

Alcyon The Alcyon was a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer between 1903 and 1954. Origins Alcyon originated from about 1890 when Edmond Gentil started the manufacture of bicycles in Neuilly, Seine. In 1902, this was complemented b ...

, whose ability to employ many of the leading riders gave it a dominant place in the sport. Clashes between Alcyon and Desgrange were frequent and came to a head when De Waele won the Tour with the illegal help of other Alcyon riders even though he was ill. "My Tour has been won by a corpse," Desgrange complained and from the following year denied entries to commercial teams and accepted national teams instead. De Waele finished 5th in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

. Other notable wins include the 1928 and 1929 Tour of the Basque Country.

Career achievements

Major results

;1927 – Labor-Dunlop :

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

:: 2nd overall, @ + 1h 48' 21" :: 1st, Stage 2 ( Dieppe -

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

), 103km :: 1st, Stage 13 (

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

), 360km ;1928 –

-Dunlop :

:: 3rd overall, @ + 56' 16" :: 1st, Stage 8 (

- Hendaye), 225km :: 1st, Stage 20 ( Charleville - Malo-les-Bains), 271km : 1st overall, Tour of the Basque Country ;1929 – Belgium :

1st overall, 5254km in 186h 39' 16" (28.319km/h) :: 1st, Stage 20 (Charleville - Malo-les-Bains), 270km : 1st overall, Tour of the Basque Country ;1931 – Belgium : 1st overall, Tour of Belgium

Grand Tour results timeline

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Waele, Maurice Belgian male cyclists Tour de France winners Belgian Tour de France stage winners 1896 births 1952 deaths Cyclists from East Flanders People from Lievegem Belgian cyclo-cross champions