Daily Cycling Facts 25.12.2012

Erik Harry Stenqvist, born on this day in 1893, was a Swedish cyclist who represented his country at the 1920 Olympics and won a gold medal in the Individual Road Race and a silver in the Team Road Race. He died on the 9th of December in 1968.

Daniëlle Bekkering, born in Groningen on this day in 1976, is a Dutch speed and marathon skater who has been highly successful in both sports - as well as, since 2003, in cycling. Although she specialises in time trials, she has also won numerous mass-start road races including three editions of the Noordhoorn criterium. After spending 2003 and the first five months of 2004 with the @Home team she moved to Bik-Gios, then to DSB Bank where she remained until the end of 2008 prior to a switch to Hitec Products for 2009 and Dolmans Landscaping for 2010 and 2011. For the majority of that time, her sister Eyelien rode for the same teams.

Todd Wells
(image credit: Church of the High Pines)

Frank Bizzoni, an Italian national who was listed as an American cyclist (and thus allows Italy to just hang on to its claim to have competed in every modern Olympics, as he was the only Italian in the Games that year) died on this day in 1926. He was 51.

Todd Wells, born on this day in 1975, is one of the USA's most successful cycle crossers and has won the National Championship three times, in 2001. 2005 and 2010. In common with many cyclo cross riders, he has also enjoyed a successful mountain biking career, winning the Collegiate MTB National Championship in 1995 and 1996, the National Short Track Championship in 2002 and 2010 and the National Cross Country Championship in 2010. In 2004, he was selected for the US Olympic team.

Sandra Schumacher was born on this day in 1966 in Cologne, Germany. Now retired, she won a bronze medal in the Women's Road Race at the 1984 Olympics.

Guido Reybrouck was born in Bruges on this day in 1941, the cousin of three-time Belgian champion Gustave Danneels. His first successes came in 1964 with wins at Paris–Tours and Züri-Metzgete, sufficient to persuade him to earn a place at the Tour de France the next year where he won Stages 6 and 10. A year later, he was National Champion and had won a second Paris-Tours and Stage 2 at the Tour, then in 1967 he won Stages 1 and 3 at Paris-Nice, Stages 4 and 9 at the Tour and Stage 1 at the Vuelta a Espana. A third Paris-Tours came in 1968 when he also entered the Giro d'Italia, winning Stages 3, 11 and 22. He won Stage 13 at the Tour in 1969 and the Amstel Gold Race, then had his best year in 1970 when he won Stages 3, 7, 8b, the Points competition and the Combination Classification at the Vuelta a Espana. He retired at the end of the 1973 season.

Noël Mamère, born in Liborne on this day in 1948, is the embodiment of France's passion for le velo and had been a cyclist and follower of cycling his entire life. He is a man with many strings to his bow, also achieving fame as a singer and as a television presenter, in addition to his very successful political career - he was vice-president of the Urban Community of Bordeaux from 1989 to 2001, has served five terms as the Mayor of Bègles (being halfway through the fifth at the time of writing), was Regional Councillor for Aquitaine from 1992 until resignation in 1994 and then again after reelection in 1998, became Representative for Gironde at the French National Council in 1997 and was reelected in 2002 and 2007, and sat as a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 until his resignation in 1997. He sat as president of the Ecology Generation political party from 1992 until expulsion two years later, at which point he founded the Ecology-Solidarity Convergences with similar "green" policies, then left the group in 1998 to join France's most prominent green party Les Verts. In 2004, he stirred up controversy when in his capacity as Mayor of Bègles he conducted a marriage ceremony for a male homosexual couple. Ten out of ten!

Noël Mamère - Les Enfants de par là

Other births: Lloyd Hildebrand (Great Britain, 1870, died 1924); Jacques Bellenger (France, 1927); Keith Reynolds (Great Britain, 1963); Manuel Bacigalupo (Peru, 1916, died 1965); Christ Noël Yarafa (Central African Republic, 1966); Shinri Suzuki (Japan, 1974); Luis Biera (Argentina, 1958); Max Rainsford (Australia, 1962); Leigh Barczewski (USA, 19550; Louis Bès (France, 1891, died 1961); Tarek Abou Al Dahab (Lebanon, 1939).