Daily Cycling Facts 20.04.2013

Henri Pélissier

Paris-Roubaix fell on this date in 1919 and 1930. 1919 was the first time the race had been held since the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and it was the most momentous year in the event's long history.

All wars are destructive and terrible; but the world had never before seen an apocalypse such as that which scoured the landscape of Northern France and Belgium, leaving only suffering and nine million deaths in its wake. When the organisers sent an exploratory party over the route, nobody was quite sure what they'd find - were there still roads? Did any villages remain? As they traveled further, the damage grew progressively worse until they were surrounded by utter annihilation. The blackened, devastated land was empty, save for scorched stumps and the rotting corpses of cattle. L'Auto reported,

"We enter into the centre of the battlefield. There's not a tree, everything is flattened. Not a square metre that has not been hurled upside down. There's one shell hole after another. The only things that stand out in this churned earth are the crosses with their ribbons in blue, white and red. It is Hell!"

Paris-Roubaix's nickname comes not from the comparatively minor suffering of those who race, nor from the tough cobbled roads which, for much of the event' history, were simply examples of how roads were in that place and in those times. It comes from what the organisers found: L'Enfer du Nord, The Hell of the North.

After he'd been first to cross the finish line, which that year only was on the Avénue de Jussieu behind a dairy that had been one of the few buildings to survive, a victorious Henri Pélissier summed the day up to perfection. "This wasn't a race," he told the crowds, then added, "it was a pilgrimage."

Was Jean Maréchal cheated
out of Paris-Roubaix victory?

In 1930, the finish line was moved to the Avénue des Villas where it would remain until 1934. The Frenchman Jean Maréchal was first over the line with an advantage of 24 seconds over his Belgian rival Julien Vervaecke, but his victory was disallowed because, as Maréchal passed by him, Vervaecke had crashed into a ditch - and according to some spectators who'd been standing nearby, the Frenchman has punched him hard on the shoulder as he went by.

However, Jacques Augendre - whose Vélo-Légende is considered one of the most authoritative histories of French cycling - doubted the incident ever happened, or at the very least that it happened quite like judges heard. Maréchal, he says, was riding as "an individual for a little bike-maker, Colin, and he got to Roubaix alone. His happiness was short-lived. Arbitrarily accused of having provoked a fall by Julien Vervaecke, with whom he had broken away, he was disqualified without any sort of hearing. Important detail: Vervaecke belonged to the all-powerful Alcyon team, run by the no less powerful Ludovic Feuillet..."

La Flèche Wallonne has also taken place on this date. The first to do so was the 33rd edition, which took place in 1969 on a 222km parcours running from Liège to Marcinelle, and the winner was Jos Huysmans. The next time it was held on this date was in 1978 when for a fifth and final time it both started and finished at Verviers, following a 223km loop that Frenchman Michel Laurent was the fastest to complete. The 58th edition, also on this date, was in 1994 and for the eleventh year in a row it ran from Spa to Huy, the route in between being 205km from end to end. The winner, Moreno Argentin, had also been victorious in the 1990 and 1991 editions, making him the third rider to have won three. Another Italian, Danilo di Luca, won when the 69th edition fell on this date in 2005. The 201.5km parcours that year ran between Charleroi and Huy. Philippe Gilbert won the last time the race was held on this date in 2011, continuing the Belgian supermacy in this race that has seen them win 38 editions, 20 more than nearest rivals the Italians. For the 14th consecutive year, the parcours ran from Charleroi to Huy. Though the trend has been for shorter races as average speeds have increased since the earliest days of the race (the second and third editions were 280km), 2011 saw the largest increase - 3km - since 1992. For days later, Gilbert also won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and became the seventh rider to have achieved the Ardennes Double.

The eighth edition of La Flèche Wallonne Féminine fell on this day in 2005, covering a 105.5km loop starting and ending at Huy. Nicole Cooke won for a second time, her first victory having been two years earlier. 2011 saw the 14th edition, again on this day. At 109.5km - raced, once again, on a loop starting and finishing at Huy - was the longest in the race's history. The winner was Marianne Vos - between 2007 and 2009, the Dutch superstar had equalled the record of three consecutive wins set in the men's race by Marcel Kint in 1945. With this fourth victory, she beat the record for multiple wins set in either race.

Marino Lejarreta
(image credit: Historia del Ciclismo)

The Vuelta a Espana began on this day in 1982, the edition consisting of 19 stages and 3,456km in total. It would be the first time that riders were disqualified for doping: 48 hours after he'd won, it was announced that Angel Arroyo - along with Vicente Belda, Pedro Muñoz and Alberto Fernández - had tested positive for methylphenidate, a psychostimulant drug with properties similar to cocaine that has become better known in the years since as Ritalin. Arroyo disputed the result and requested that his B sample also be tested, which proved disadvantageous when it too turned out positive and he was given a 10 minute penalty that put him in 13th place overall and left Marino Lejarreta the winner. At the time, the incident was considered to be the worst scandal to have ever hit cycling.

The 2013 edition of the EPZ Omloop van Borsele took place on this day in the Netherlands. The winner, after a race in which the narrow roads and tight corners caused numerous crashes, was Vera Koedooder of the Sengers team.


Rolf Sørensen
He might not be as well-known overseas as Bjarne Riis and Jakob Fuglsang, but Rolf Sørensen remains Denmark's all-time most successful rider in history by a long chalk with 53 professional victories including some of the most prestigious events.

Rolf Sørensen
(image credit: Eric Houdas CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Born in Gladsaxe on this day in 1965, Sørensen took the same route that many of his nation's cyclists have followed by moving to Italy in search of a professional career, making the trip when he was 17. He didn't take long to get noticed, forming part of the winning team at the 1983 Junior Time Trial World Championships and the Amateurs class at the Trofeo Matteotti two years later. He also soon found himself with a nickname, Il Biondo, picked due to his Scandinavian blond hair.

After turning professional in 1986, he won the Points competition at the Danmark Rundt, then won the Youth Classification a year later before winning the Points and the Youth classes in 1988. One year after that, he was 3rd at Gent-Wevelgem, revealing his future potential as a Classics specialist. The Classics, in fact, would turn out to be the source of his most impressive results with victory at Paris-Tours in 1990, 2nd at Milan-San Remo and 3rd at both the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1991, 1t at Paris-Brussels in 1992, 1st at Liège–Bastogne–Liège and at the Milano-Torino and Rund um den Henninger-Turm semi-Classics in 1993, another Paris-Brussels in 1994, 2nd at Milano-Torino in 1995and 1st at the Tour of Flanders and 3rd at Züri-Metzgete in 1997. He also performed very well in the shorter stage races, winning Tirreno-Adriatico overall in 1992 at Tirreno-Adriatico and a stage in each of the five times he entered the event and Stages 1, 2 and 6 at the 1993 Tour de Romandie. Unusually for a Classics specialist, he didn't do badly in the Grand Tours either - he won Stage 14 at the 1994 Tour de France when he was also 19th overall, Stage 13 at the Tour in 1996 when he was 28th overall and Stage 9 at the 1995 Giro d'Italia before retiring in 2002. In 1991, after his team won the Team Time Trial, he wore the Tour's yellow jersey for four days until a crash left him with a broken collar bone.

Fedor den Hertog

(image credit: Left This Year)

Fedor den Hertog, born in Utrecht on this day in 1946, won the National Militaries Road Championship in 1966 and began adding good results over the next few years after leaving the Forces. In 1969, he won the Tour of Britain (known then as the Milk Race after its main backer) and dominated the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt where he won 9 out of 11 stages and finished with a 36 minute advantage over his quickest rival. This brought him several very good offers to turn professional, but he refused out of a belief that riding for a team would limit his freedom to enter races as and when he chose.

He won the Omloop der Kempen and Ronde van Limburg in 1970, then another Tour of Britain and a National Amateur Track Championship a year later and followed up in 1972 with the Tour de l'Avenir, a race created partly to reveal riders with the potential to perform well in Europe's most important cycling events. One year later, he won the Olympia's Tour and, finally, was made an offer he couldn't refuse - the Frisol team had got him for 1974, and he was soon riding in the Tour de France. Few riders do well in their first Tour because the race is so much bigger, harder and beyond anything else; but den Hertog grabbed some very impressive finishes: he was 11th on the prologue, 2nd in Stage 12 and 14th in Stage 21b, managing a very respectable 27th place overall. He didn't win any stages in 1975, when he was again riding with Frisol, but upped his final General Classification placing to 18th. Having stayed away in 1976, he won Stage 10 in 1977 before abandoning with a knee problem in Stage 13. That same year, he also won Stage 3 at the Vuelta a Espana, Stage 5 at the Tour Méditerranéen and the National Road Race Championship.

In the 1978 Tour de France he finished just off the podium for Stage 22 and was 25th overall, then finished Stage 8 in 3rd place in 1979 but dropped to 48th overall and retired soon afterwards. In 2007 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which would lead to his death at the age of 64 on the 12th of February in 2011.

Jennie Reed, born Kirkland, Washington on this day in 1978, won numerous National and World track titles between 1994 and 2008.

Bernard Quilfen, who was born in Argenteuil on this day in 1945, won Stage 14 at the Tour de France in 1977 and was fourth in Stage 21 a year later. He was, perhaps, one of the first riders to concentrate almost entirely on the Tour, a phenomenon that culminated in Lance Armstrong, as he achieved very little else; he won Pontoise in 1977, his first Tour year, but that he won nothing at all in his other Tour years of 1979 and 1980 suggest that all other races were merely preparation for the Tour. In retirement, Quilfen became a directeur sportif of Cofidis.

Marco Lietti was born in Gravedona on this day in 1965 who won Stage 16 at the Tour de France in 1991. During his ten season career from 1988 to 1997, he rode only for teams based in his native Italy.

On this day in 1930, the Union Vélocipédique Française set up a Bicycle Polo Commission in reponse to the growing popularity of the sport which appears to have first been played in France five years previously, an import from over the Channel where it's been played since at least 1895 when the Northampton, Newcastle, Coventry, Melton Mowbray and Catford clubs were formed.

Other cyclists born on this day: Daryl Perkins (Australia, 1943); Alojz Bajc (Yugoslavia, 1932); Jaap Meijer (Netherlands, 1905, died 1943); Boyan Kotsev (Bulgaria, 1930); Joseph Said (Malta, 1954); Mikoš Rnjaković (Yugoslavia, 1964); Daud Ibrahim (Malaysia, 1947, died 2010); Erol Küçükbakırcı (Turkey, 1952); Kobi Scherer (Switzerland, 1931); Didier Faivre-Pierret (France, 1965).

Daily Cycling Facts 19.04.2013

Fischer's facial hair was said to be
"thick and elaborate"
(copyright expired)

Paris-Roubaix fell on this date in 1896, 1908 and 1964. 1896 was the first time the race was ever held; originally scheduled for Easter Sunday, the 4th of April, but postponed two weeks after strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church which pointed out that riders wouldn't have time to attend Mass before setting out. Only half of those who had entered showed up on the day with Maurice Garin the favourite and also enjoying massive popular support due to the bike shop he owned with his two brothers in Roubaix; but in the end he finished in third place - he looked set for second, but was involved in a crash between two tandems - one of which was his pace vehicle. 2nd place was taken by the Danish rider Charles Meyer with a three minute advantage over Garin and a 25 minute disadvantage behind Josef Fischer who finished in 9h17' and, to date, remains the only German rider to have ever won the event. In 1900, Fischer finished 2nd but that same year he won Bordeaux-Paris and, three years later, was 15th in the first ever Tour de France.

Georges Passerieu, the closest to a
British Paris-Roubaix winner
(copyright expired)

1908 winner Georges Passerieu was French, but he was born in London - so we Brits can at least claim a British-born rider has won Paris-Roubaix, even if a British rider never has. Later that year, Passerieu won Stages 1 (which, coincidentally, was run between Paris and Roubaix), 5 and 13, third place overall and was the only man to make it over the Ballon d'Alsace and Chartreuse mountains without pushing his bike at the Tour de France in the year it was made especially memorable by the sight of organisers arriving at the finish of one stage in a horse-drawn carriage after Henri Desgrange's car broke down.

Peter Post became the first Dutch rider to win Paris-Roubaix in 1964 and, in doing so, also won the Ruban Jaune for setting the fastest average speed in a race more than 200km long that year (45.131kph - which, by the way, has yet to be bettered in this race, though it has been beaten in several other events). Post was primarily a track rider who won 65 Six Day events, including Brussels in 1965 when he paired up with Tom Simpson, but he performed well on the roads too; winning the Ronde van Nederland in 1960, a National Road Race Championship in 1963 and 2nd place behind Eddy Merckx in the 1967 Flèche Wallonne.

Achiel Buysse

The Ronde van Vlaanderen fell on this day in 1943. 90 riders - from 127 starters - failed to finish while Achiel Buysse became the first man to win three times.

La Flèche Wallonne has taken place on this day, too - three times, in fact. The first to do so was the 34th edition in 1970, won for a second time by Eddy Merckx. The route ran between Liège and Marcinelle for a sixth consecutive year and was 225km in length. The trend since the early days of La Flèche hasbeen for shorter and shorter races, with modern events covering some 80km less than the second and third editions - however, when the race was next held on this date three years later in 1973, it covered 249km between Verviers and Marcinelle. With the exception of 1972, which had been half a kilometre longer, this made it the longest for more than a quarter of a century. It was won by André Dierickx, who would take a second victory two years later. The last time it was held on this date was the 70th edition, which took place in 2006. That year, it covered 202km between Charleroi and Huy and it was won by Alejandro Valverde, who then won Liège-Bastogne-Liège four days later to become the sixth rider to win the Ardennes Double.

The ninth edition of La Flèche Wallonne Féminine took place on this day in 2006, covering 106km - until 2010, the longest in race history - on a loop beginning and ending at Huy. The winner was Nicole Cooke, equalling the men's record of three victories. Since 1999, the race had formed a round of the UCI Women's Road World Cup - which Cooke would also win, as she had done once before in 2003.

The Vuelta a Espana started on this day in 1983 and covered 3,398km in 19 stages. Bernard Hinault was widely considered the favourite to win. Giuseppe Saronni was expected to give him a hard time but, having won Stages 9 and 10, abandoned after Stage 15. Hinault didn't get it all his own way, however, with the hard-fought battle between him and an alliance of tough Spanish riders making for a race that many consider the finest in Vuelta history. In the end, Hinault's strength was sufficient to triumph; but he paid the price after riding so hard he developed tendinitis and missed that year's Tour de France.


Kevin van Impe was born in Aalse, Belgium on this day in 1981 and is the nephew of 1976 Tour de France winner Lucien van Impe - Kevin's father, Frank, was also a professional cyclist who won races in the 1970s and 1980s. In March 2008, when van Impe was at a crematorium in Lochristi making arrangements for the funeral of his baby son Jayden, who had died shortly after birth, he was approached by anti-doping officials who demanded he supplied a sample. The rider asked them to come back later but was told that failure to comply immediately would constitute a refusal, for which he would be sanctioned. Paris–Nice and Tirreno–Adriatico were disrupted by protests that year as riders displayed support for van Impe and their disgust at the testers.

Rosane Kirch, born in Bacabal, Brazil on this day in 1976 is a retired professional cyclist who came 2nd in the overall General Classification at the 2008 Route de France Féminine.


Bicycle Day
Today is Bicycle Day, marking the anniversary of an event in 1943 when Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann rode his bike home from his laboratory. Nothing remarkable there, surely?

Dr. Albert Hofmann

It was a bike ride with a difference. Five years previously, Dr. Hofmann had synthesised a compound he named LSD-25, to which he at first paid little further attention thinking it to be of little use. However, in time he came to realise that if the substance held the properties he suspected it might, then it could prove a powerful medical tool permitting psychiatrists a door into the subconscious minds of mentally ill patients. While creating a new batch, he accidentally absorbed some and gained his first experience of LSD's effects, which encouraged him to continue his experiment. Hofmann greatly under-estimated the threshold dose of his invention and dosed himself with 250 micrograms - the actual threshold for humans is 20 micrograms. Needless to say, he began to feel a little odd a short while later and decided he'd better go home; and since the Second World War meant that motor vehicle use was restricted due to fuel shortage, that meant cycling. An assistant who accompanied him remembered that during their journey the doctor became increasingly agitated due to worry that he was going insane, with the insanity probably caused by his neighbour whom he feared was a witch.

Later, at home when the drug began to wear off a little, Hofmann settled down and relaxed. He described the experience: "...little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux..."

Bicycle Day is not celebrated in the mainstream cycling world, but has a big following among counter-culture bicycle advocates and underground cycling clubs around the world and is a celebration of LSD's illicit uses  rather than a celebration of the bicycle. Hofmann despaired at this, believing that the drug should only be used under medical supervision in clinical surroundings and remaining a vehement opponent of its recreational use until the day he died, ten days after Bicycle Day in 2008.

Other cyclists born on this day: Daniele Colli (Italy, 1982); Eduardo Manrique (Spain, 1965); Venelin Khubenov (Bulgaria, 1959); Daniele Cesaretti (San Marino, 1954); Paul Leitch (New Zealand, 1963).

Daily Cycling Facts 18.04.2013

Maurice Garin was the second winner of Paris-Roubaix, but
was he French or Italian at the time?

Paris-Roubaix took place on this date in 1897, 1949, 1971 and 1982. 1897 was the second edition ever held and the first of two to be won by Maurice Garin, who would also win the first Tour de France six years later (and he would have been credited with winning the second Tour too, if he hadn't been disqualified for cheating). Jules Rossi's 1937 win is usually said to have been the first by an Italian rider, but this might not in fact be the case: Garin had been born in Italy, sneaking into France with his family when he was still a child as what we now term an illegal immigrant. He later became naturalised French, but the year that he did so has never been proven beyond doubt - it could have been 1892, in which case the second and third editions of Paris-Roubaix were won by a Frenchman, but it might have been 1901, in which case they were won by an Italian. 1897 was also the first year in which we know for certain that the race was held on Easter Sunday - it had been scheduled to do so in 1896 but the Catholic Church took offence, pointing out that riders wouldn't have time to attend Mass before the race started and distributed notices in Roubaix outlining their opposition; so the race was postponed for two weeks. Considering the furore and the power the Church then held over people's everyday lives, it seems odd that the race went ahead on Easter Sunday only a year later.

André Mahé
(image credit: Veloptimum)

1949 saw the first use of bikes designed specifically for Paris-Roubaix, including an apparently anachronistic  return to wooden wheel rims which were more forgiving on the rough cobbles. Deciding the winner that year took several months and two conferences: André Mahé had been first over the line after reaching the velodrome in a three man breakaway with Frans Leenen and Jacques Moujica (the latter working so hard to keep up that he broke his bike), but it was subsequently discovered that an official had given them incorrect directions and they'd arrived via a shorter route. A few minutes after the declaration, Serse Coppi (brother of Fausto) arrived among another group and sprinted over the line. Mahé, speaking in 2007 (56 years after Serse and 47 years after Fausto had died), apparently still believed that he was the fair winner and appeared to suggest that Serse had initially accepted that result:

"It's too stupid to talk about. There was a break. Coppi attacked. His brother Fausto gave him a push to get him away. He wanted his brother to win. I waited a bit and then I attacked and I caught him and the break. Then I went off by myself. I was going to win Paris–Roubaix. It wasn't like nowadays, when there's television and everything. Then it was more chaotic and the whole road was blocked. People said I should have known the way into the track. But how do you know a thing like that at the end of Paris–Roubaix, when you've raced all day over roads like that? A gendarme signalled the way to go and that's the way I went.It was a journalist on a motorbike who managed to get up to me. He was shouting 'Not that way! Not that way!' And I turned round in the road and I rode back beneath the outside wall of the grandstand and I saw a gateway that went into the track, a gateway for journalists. And that's the way I went, except that it came out on the other side of the track from the proper entrance. The bunch came in and Serse won the sprint. But then his brother told Serse to go to the judges to object. He told Serse that I hadn't ridden the entire and precise course and that therefore I should be déclassé. But that was below him. Coppi wanted his brother to have a big victory. He was a great champion, Coppi, but to do what he did, to protest like that to get a victory for his brother, that wasn't dignified for a champion. That was below him. A champion like that should never have stooped that low."

By August, the UCI decided the best course of action was to simply declare the race null and without a winner. By November, the judges decided that the two men would share the victory, and it remains the only time that the race has been tied.

Jan Raas
(image credit: Cyclisme en Images)

1971 was won by Roger Rosiers, who seems little-remembered these days despite also winning Stage 17 at the Vuelta a Espana one year previously and the Tour of Luxembourg and Three Days of De Panne in the years afterwards. In 1982 the winner was Jan Raas, who had won Milan-San Rem in 1977 then a first Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1979 and another in 1983, the Omloop Het Volk in 1981 and Paris-Tours in 1978 and 1981, thus earning him a place among the greatest Classics specialists in history; five editions of the Amstel Gold Race and ten stages at the Tour de France also earning him a place among the most successful Dutch riders of all time. Bernard Hinault, probably France's greatest ever with the possible and arguable exception of Jacques Anquetil, returned to Paris-Roubaix in 1982 as defending champion but finished ninth and was furious (actually, le Blaireau was furious much of the time when racing; nowadays he's far more relaxed and merely simmers unless anybody gives him sufficient excuse for an explosion); refusing from then on to have anything whatsoever to do with the race that even when he won he'd called "bullshit." That year, the full 2.4km Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes to Sars-et-Rosières cobbled section was used for the first time, the initial 1.4km having been used two years earlier.

Briek Schotte

The Ronde van Vlaanderen was held on this day in 1948, when it was won for a second time by Briek Schotte, the rider who is considered by many Flemmish cycling fans to be the ultimate example of a Flandrien - that is, someone who continues to ride hard and fast, repeatedly attacking come what may. That year, a prize of 100 francs was provided for the Lanterne Rouge.

La Flèche Wallonne has also fallen on this date, as it did in 2001 - the 65th edition. The 198km course between Charleroi and Huy was short by modern standards, as since 2000 the race has averaged 199.5km. The winner was Rik Verbrugghe, who had been second the previous year. The 76th edition of the race will be held on this day in 2012.

The fourth edition of La Flèche Wallonne Féminine took place on this date in 2001 too, starting and finishing at the same points as the men's race but taking a different route to reduce it to 93km. The winner, Fabiana Luperini, had also won the first edition; and she would win again the following year - thus equalling the men's record of three victories. The 15th edition takes place on this date in 2012.


Maxim Iglinsky was born in Astana, Kazakhstan on this day in 1981 and has spent most of his professional career riding for the team named after his place of birth. He won the Kazakh Time Trial Championship in 2006, then the Road Race a year later before winning the Mountains Classification at the Tour de Suisse in 2008.

Luciano Pagliarini
(image credit: Thomas Fanghaenel CC BY-SA 3.0)

Luciano Pagliarini
Luciano Pagliarini is widely regarded as the most successful Brazilian cyclist of all time. Born in Ararpongas on this day in 1978, his first notable win was Stage 3 at the 1998 Vuelta Ciclista de Chile; followed five years later with victories for Stages 2, 3 and 4 at the Tour de Langkawi, then Stages 7 and 8 at Langkawi and Stage 5 at the Vuelta a Murcia in 2004. After abandoning the road race at the Olympics in 2004 when he experienced mechanical trouble, 2005 looked set to be his breakthrough year as he rode his first Tour de France and finished 5th in Stage 2 - however, he abandoned after Stage 9. 2007 started badly due to illness, but then less than two weeks after the birth of his first child he won Stage 5 at the Eneco Tour of the Benelux, thus becoming the first Brazilian to win a stage in a UCI ProTour event.

In 2008, he won Stage 6 at the Tour of Calfornia and was once again entered for the Olympics, but finished last in his event two days after being diagnosed with renal calculi (kidney stones). The following year was worse still as, soon after he'd signed a new contract with TelTech H2O, the team announced that it had not been granted a UCI licence and folded. After spending several months unable to race and putting on weight, he announced that he would stage a comeback at the Tour of Brazil and begin preparations for the 2012 Olympics. However, it was not to be: in the latest set-back of a career that somehow never quite took off despite coming so close on so many occasions, his new Scott-Marcondes Cesar-São José dos Campos found itself experiencing financial difficulties and, when it failed to pay him, Pagliarini decided he'd had enough and retired to become coach to the national track team.

Denis Verschueren was a Belgian rider born in Berlaar on the 11th of February in 1897. He won some excellent results during the 1920s and 1930s, including two National Interclubs Champioships (1926 and 1929), the Tour of Flanders in 1926, Paris-Brussels in 1926 and Paris-Tours in 1925 and 1928. He died at the age of 57 on this day in 1954.



It's well-known that LOOK invented the clipless pedal (or clip-in, since they have clips - but not toe-clips) in the 1980s, and that Bernard Hinault made them popular by winning the Tour de France on a bike equipped with them. However, that's only partially true - Look invented the first successful clipless pedals; other designs having been around for a very long time.

The first that we know about is covered by a patent filed on this day in 1895 by an inventor named Charles M. Hanson, who lived in Rhode Island; the patent and design were published on the 26th of November that same year. Compared to modern designs, Hanson's device looks decidely clunky and heavy with a large number of moving parts ready to go wrong - which is the probable reason it never caught on.


Other cyclists born on this day: Bernt Johansson (Sweden, 1953); Lucas Sebastián Haedo (Argentina, 1983); Imtiaz Bhatti (Pakistan, 1933); Frederick Hamlin (Great Britain, 1881, died 1951); Lenka Valová (Czechoslovakia, 1983); Kévin Sireau (France, 1987); Yevgeny Vakker (Kyrgyzstan, 1976); Leon Daelemans (Belgium, 1949); Vladimir Kaminsky (USSR, 1950); Frank Small (USA, 1895, died 1971); René Lotz (Netherlands, 1938); Milan Puzrla (Czechoslovakia, 1946); Joslyn Chavarria (Belize, 1959); Elio Juárez (Uruguay, 1942); Trevor Gadd (Great Britain, 1952).

Daily Cycling Facts 17.04.2013

Left: George Ronsse, right: Andre Leducq

Paris-Roubaix was held on this date in 1927, 1938, 1966, 1977 and 1997. 1927 winner Georges Ronsse was a Classics specialist who had also won Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1925 and would win Paris-Bordeaux in 1927, 1929 and 1930, was World Road Race Champion in 1928 and 1929, then won Stage 4 at the 1932 Tour de France. Like many Paris-Roubaix victors, he excelled in cyclo cross and was Belgian Champion in 1929 and 1930, and would later become a noted track cyclist when he won the National Track Stayers Championship in three consecutive years from 1934 to 1936.

In 1938, the start was moved to Argenteuil, but the next year was moved back to Porte Maillot. The winner was Lucien Storme, a Belgian who would win Stage 6a at the Tour de France the following year. During the Second World War, Storme made a living as a smuggler until he was caught and imprisoned by the Nazis in December 1942. He survived through to the 10th of April 1945, reaching the age of 28, when the Siegburg camp was liberated by Allied forces; but was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier that day.

In 1966, the start was moved to Chantilly where it would remain until 1977. The winner was Felice Gimondi who would become the second rider in history to win all three Grand Tours with his 1968 Vuelta a Espana victory (the first had been Jacques Anquetil when he won the Giro d'Italia in 1964). Gimondi's cycling career had begun in rather less auspicious circumstances - a a child, he would accompany his mother who was employed by the Italian post office and used a bicycle to carry out her deliveries. In time, he became known as a master tactician, his intelligence giving him the ability to compete against the sheer might of Eddy Merckx. In addition to his Grand Tour successes, he made quite a name for himself in the Classics - in addition to Paris-Roubaix, he won Paris-Brussels (1966, 1976), the Giro di Lombardia (1966, 1973) and Milan-San Remo (1974).

Fabian Cancellara kisses the cobbles - in the good way
(image credit: Lee's Life Adventure)

1977, when the start moved to Compiègne, saw the historic fourth win by Roger de Vlaeminck; the first - and to date, the only - time a rider has won four editions of the race, and which might never have happened had de Vlaeminck not been persuaded as a teenager to give up his first love football (he was playing for a respected Belgian youth team and, by all accounts, was very good at it) in favour of the bike. That year, the final 0.6km of the Orchies, chemin des Prières, and chemin des Abattoirs cobbled section was used for the first time, the compete 1.7km section being used for the first time (and in the opposite direction) three years later. It was also the first year that the winner was awarded a trophy made from one of the rough-hewn pavé cobblestones that have given the race its unique nature.

1997 was won by Frédéric Guesdon, who had come 11th the year before and to date is the last time that Paris-Roubaix was won by a French rider. Strangely, this would be his last victory for three years until he won a stage in the 2000 Critérium du Dauphiné, as he would again in 2002 before entering another barren period in which he won nothing at all for three-and-a-half years. That his FDJ team kept him on the books throughout both of these stretches is indication of how much cachet a Paris-Roubaix win carries. It paid off - in 2006, he won Paris-Nice.

Jo de Roo

The Ronde van Vlaanderen has been held just once on this date, in 1965. It was won that year by Jo de Roo, who escaped the peloton on the Valkenberg - Ward Sels gave chase and managed to stay with him, but de Roo crossed the line just before him. The next riders - a group of four including Jean Stablinski and Rik van Looy - were more than half a minute behind them.

La Flèche Wallonne was held on this day in 1975, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1991, 1996 and 2002. 1975 was the 39th edition of the race and, for the second consecutive year, it took place on a 225km loop that began and ended at Verviers. The winner for a second time was André Dierickx, who had also won two years earlier. The 44th edition in 1980 covered 248km between Mons and Spa, with Giuseppe Saronni the fastest on the course - later on in that same year, he would win seven stages and the Points competition at the Giro d'Italia - thus disproving the old stereotype that Italian riders could ride well only in Italy and showing that they could perform to the same high standards at home and abroad. 1981 ran in the other direction, starting at Spa and ending at Mons, but with differences to the route that made it 8km shorter. The winner was Daniel Willems. 1985 saw the 49th edition, which returned to the loop format with a 246km starting and ending at Huy. The winner that year was Claude Criquielion, who very nearly achieved the Ardennes Double a few days later when he was second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He won again in 1989. In 1991, the 55th edition ran for the sixth consecutive year between Spa and Huy, following a route that totalled 203km and brought a second victory for Moreno Argentin. The start and finish towns remained the same when the race next fell on this date, the 60th edition in 1996, but the course was slightly shorter at 200.5km. That time, the winner was the relatively unknown young American rider Lance Armstrong, who was going to do quite well in the Tour de France over the next decade. The last time the race was held on this date was the 66th edition which took place on 2002. For the fifth year in a row, it started at Charleroi and ended at Huy, as has been the case ever since, and also covered the same distance of 198km as the previous two years. Winner Mario Aerts had come third in 1999 and fifth in 2000.

The fifth edition of La Flèche Wallonne Féminine also took place on this day in 2002. It was won by Fabiana Luperini - since she had won the first and fourth editions, she equalled the men's multiple victory record.

Caritoux
(image credit: Rob Twis
CC BY-SA 3.0)

Today is the earliest anniversary of the first day of a Vuelta a Espana, the race having started on this day in 1984. It covered a total of 3,593km in 21 stages including a prologue and one split stage. Éric Caritoux of Skil-Sem had shown climbing prowess when he was first over the line for a Mont Ventoux summit finish in Paris-Nice earlier in the year, but in his second year as a professional was far from a favourite - however, he proved to be so good in the mountains that even two disastrous time trials couldn't completely obliterate his lead and he beat Alberto Fernández Blanco (who was a favourite) into second place by 6", the shortest winning margin in the history of the Vuelta.


José Serpa, who was born on this day in Corozal, Colombia, won a gold medal for the Individual Time Trial at the 2003 PanAmerican Games, then another for the Road Race in 2006 when he also won  the Individual TT at the Central American and Caribbean Games. From 2006 onwards, he began to develop as a stage race specialist, finishing that year's Tour di Langkawi in 6th place after winning Stages 4 and 5 and won the ITT and Stage 12 at the Vuelta a Venezuela. In 2007, he won Stage 8 and was 2nd overall at Langkawi, then won Stage 5 and the overall Mountains and General Classification two years later. Serpa has yet to make his big breakthrough in cycling's European heartlands, but good results at the Settimana internazionale di Coppi e Bartali (Stage 2, 2010), Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda (Stage 4, 2010) and Giro del Friuli (1st overall, 2011) suggest that, at 33, he may still do so.

Robert Wagner, born in Germany on this day in 1983, won Stage 8 at the 2005 Thüringen Rundfahrt and then added good results at numerous races before signing with Leopard Trek for 2011, the year he won the National Road Race Championship. He will ride in 2012 with the new Radioshack-Nissan-Trek formed by the merger of Leopard Trek and Radioshack.

On this day in 1894, American inventor Michael B. Ryan was issued with a US patent for "a bicycle, so constructed that it can be easily folded and thus take up less space in length when not in use or when transported or stored." Three years later, he submitted an improved model and is the likely designer behind the Dwyer Folding Bicycle which, having found a major backer in the shape of the US Army, exhibited a bike fitted with "Ryan Folding Handlebars" (the patent for these has been located and turns out to be that same Michael B. Ryan) which was critically acclaimed and - while far too late to be the first folding bike - was the first that proved successful.

Sigrid Corneo, a Slovakian rider who was born in Italy on this day in 1970, won Stage 2 at the Tour Féminin en Limousin in 2007 and was 2nd in the National Road Race and Time Trial Championships in 2010.

The Camelford Cycle Museum in Cornwall opened its doors for the first time on this day in 1992. With a collection of more than 400 bikes, some considered innovative when built, a similar number of antique advertising signs and more ephemera  than can be imagined, the museum was very much worth a visit - sadly it closed in 2009 and the entire collection was sold, going to a new owner overseas.

On this day in 1947, Mercian Frame No. M1146 was sold. Nobody knows if it still exists, but it's the earliest documented Mercian frame.

Other cyclists born on this day: Robert McLachlan (Australia, 1971); Jacek Mickiewicz (Poland, 1970); Antônio Silvestre (Brazil, 1961); Francis Bazire (France, 1939); Panya Singprayool-Dinmuong (Thailand, 1950); Benedetto Pola (Italy, 1915, died 2000); Yu Byeong-Heon (South Korea, 1964); Cristian Becerine (Argentina, 1977); Aleksey Shmidt (Russia, 1983); Paul Crapez (Belgium, 1947); André Gruchet (France, 1933); Allan Carlsson (Sweden, 1929, died 1953); Harri Hedgren (Finland, 1959).

Daily Cycling Facts 16.04.2013

Henri Cornet

Paris-Roubaix fell on this date in 1906, 1922, 1933, 1972 and 1978. The 1906 winner was Henri Cornet, whose real name was Henri Jardry; nobody knows why he chose to race under a false name. Cornet had won the Tour de France two years previously after Maurice Garin (who had won the first Tour one year earlier and won this race in 1897 and 1898), Lucien Pothier, César Garin (Maurice's brother) and Hippolyte Aucouturier (who had won Paris-Roubaix in 1903 and 1904) were disqualified from the top four places for cheating and, as he was 19 at the time, he remains the youngest ever Tour winner. This victory, meanwhile, was won without luck - he beat Marcel Cadolle (whose career was cut short when he seriously injured his knee in the Tour one year later), René Pottier, Louis Trousselier, César Garin and Aucouturier fair and square in a final sprint. Photographs of Cornet show a rather glum, depressed-looking young man; but he was remembered by those who knew him as charming, quick to smile and in possession of a good sense of humour - including by Henri Desgrange, who nicknamed him Le Rigolo - "The Joker."

In 1922, the finish was moved to the Avénue des Villas, which has since been renamed the Avénue Gustave Delory, and where it would remain until 1928. The winner that year was Albert Dejonghe who would win Stage 4 at the Tour de France the following year, then finish in 5th place at the 1925 Tour and 6th in 1926. The 1933 edition was won by Sylvère Maes, who would also win the Tour de France in 1936 and 1939. Roger de Vlaeminck won in 1972, the first victory on the way to becoming the first - and to date, the only - man to have won Paris-Roubaix four times, his fourth victory coming in 1977 (in 2012, his record was finally equalled by Tom Boonen). Two minutes and thirteen seconds behind him was Wakefield-born Barry Hoban, who took 3rd place and (at the time of writing) the best ever result by a British rider.

Francesco Moser
(image credit: RoadWorks)

The 1978 race was won by Francesco Moser, the first step along his path to becoming the second man to win in three consecutive years (the first man to do so was Octave Lapize in 1911. Three new cobbled sections were used for the first time in 1978; the 3.1km Mons-en-Pévèle which has become known as one of the most dangerous parts of the race; the 1.4km Pont Thibaut to Ennevelin and the 1.1km Le Carrefour de l'Arbre to Gruson (Gruson, incidentally, was also the name of the little black dog that knocked Bernard Hinault off his bike, 13km from the finish of the 1982 Paris-Roubaix).

La Flèche Wallonne fell on this day in 1986 and 1997. 1986, the 50th edition of the race, ran for 248km from Spa to Huy - only one edition since has been longer. The winner was the legendary Laurent Fignon, one of his few victories during a two-year period in which he suffered a series of injuries. The 1997 race was the 61st edition, taking a 200.5km course which for a twelfth and final year ran from Spa to Huy. Laurent Jalabert won for a second time, his first win having been two years previously, which makes him the last Frenchman to have won this race.


Suzanne de Geode, born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands on this day in 1984, came 2nd in the National Newcomers Road Race Championship of 2000, then won both the National and World Junior Road Race a year later before winning the Elite National title in 2003, then 3rd in 2006 and 2007 - and won the National Time Trial Championship, also at Elite level, in 2005. She won the Damesronde van Drenthe in 2005 and has achieved podium stage finishes in numerous prestigious events including the Holland Ladies' Tour (1st, Stage 3 2003; 2nd, Stage 6 2005; the Giro della Toscana (1st, Stage 1b 2005); the Omloop het Volk/Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1st, 2006; 1st, 2009); the Tour de l'Aude (3rd, Stage 5 2006; 3rd, Stage 2, 2008); the GP Gerrie Knetemann (2nd, 2006); the Emakumeen Bira (2nd, Stage 2 2007) and the Tour of New Zealand (1st, Stage 1 2008).

Jeanne Golay

Jeanne Golay

Jeanne Golay, who was born in Florida on this day in 1962, won the US National Road Race Championship in 1992, 1995 and 1995. In 1988, she was ranked the best female US cyclist and won the first of two National Individual Time Trial titles a year later, with the second coming in 1992 and would also ride with the winning National Team Time Trial teams in 1990, 1991, 1992, also riding with the World Champion team in 1992; after which she received the US Cycling Federation Athlete of the Year award.

Golay returned to the top of the US rankings in 1994 when she won the Redlands Bicycle Classic, Dole Cycling Classic, Electricity City Challenge, Tour of Somervilleand Korbel Champagne Cup Series (and a bronze medal at the World Championships), and remained there in 1995 with victories at the PanAmerican Games, Sequoia Cycling Classic, National Road Championships, Frigidaire Cycling Classic, Colorado Cycling Classic and Fresca Cup. She retired in 1996 after winning the Valley of the Sun and the US National Criterium Championships. The long distance Jeanne Golay Trail, once known as the Red Mountain Trail, was re-named in her honour.

Phil O'Shea
(image believed to be copyright-expired)

Phil O'Shea
Phil O'Shea was born in New Zealand on this day in 1889 - his twin brother died at birth. As a child, O'Shea was prone to frequent bouts of quinsy, a disease now better known as peritonsillar abscess, which would cause his throat to swell and become so painful that he couldn't eat and had difficulty breathing. This seems to have stunted his growth - at 17 and although his father was a large man more than 183cm in height, he stood just 167cm tall and weighed less than 54kg.

However, he took up cycling when he was 19 and found it suited him very well - two years later, he had increased his muscle mass so much that he weighed in at almost 71kg and he went on to dominate the cycling scene in New Zealand and Autralia between 1911 and 1923. In the early days, be made up for brawn with sheer determination and a canny ability to read his opponents: when he started the Timaru to Christchurch race in 1909, he was given a 45 minute head start over the rest of the field and yet nobody expected him to finish. What they didn't know was that the young rider had spent much of the time when his childhood illness confined him to bed poring over the sports newspapers and had created an indexed record of races, which over time instilled him with an expert understanding of race tactics that would be the envy of any modern directeur sportif. He didn't just finish the race - he won, despite having to ride with a buckled rear wheel after another entrant rode into his bike while he was stopped at a drinks station enjoying a glass of milk.

The start of the 1911 Christchurch-Timaru
(image believed to be copyright-expired)

Two years later, the race became Christchurch to Timaru because the organisers felt that the people of Timaru had been such good hosts of the start in years gone by that they deserved the opportunity to see the finish. O'Shea was there once again, but during the race a dog ran into the road and got between his wheels, sending him flying. He landed heavily on his head and was covered in cuts and bruises. Yet he got back on his bike and won the race - bleeding all the way.

O'Shea remained a household name for a long time after his career came to an end and by the end of the 1960s there was talk of him becoming recognised as New Zealand's greatest ever athlete. Even today, a century after his peak, he remains well-known in his home country.


Marc Madiot, born in Renazé on this day in 1959, is best known as the winner of Paris-Roubaix in 1985 and 1991 but his palmares contains many other victories beginning with the 1977 National Championships and the 1979 Under-23 Paris-Roubaix. In 1980, he won the National Championships in the Elite class, then a year later he won the Tour du Limousin and in 1982 the National Cyclo Cross Championships. 1984 brought him the Trophée des Grimpeurs and Stages 2 and 3 at the Tour de France and in 1987 he won another National Road Race Championship, the Tour de l'Avenir and 3rd place at the Giro di Lombardia. He took a second Trophée des Grimpeurs in 1992 and wins in numerous races before retirement the following year.

Heiko Salzwedel
Heiko Salzwedel was born in Schmalkalden, East Germany, on this day in 1957 who, having emigrated to Australia in 1990, set up the Australian Institute of Sport' road cycling and mountain bike programmes. Matt White, Kathy Watt, Henk Vogel and Cadel Evans are just a few of the world-class cyclists to have been produced by by the programme.

In 2001, he became Performance manager at the British Cycling Federation, then moved on to become a consultant to the Danish Federation in 2003 where he worked with organisations including SRM and what was then known as T-Mobile, later to become HTC-Highroad. As head of the T-Mobile Development Program, he was instrumental in shaping the early careers of Stefan Denifl, Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish. In 2008, Salwedel returned to British Cycling where he was once again employed as Performance Manager.

Romain Feillu
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0)

Romain Feillu, born in Châteaudun on this day in 1984, signed up to Aritubel as a stagiaire in 2005 and then impressed his team mates, managers and the cycling world by winning the Tour de la Somme and GP Tours in his first full year, then the Circuit de l'Aulne, Paris–Bourges, Stage 3 at the Tour de Luxembourg and the overall General Classification at the Tour of Britain in his second. In 2008, he won the Youth category for Stage 4 at the Tour de France, leaving no doubt that he was destined to be one of the shining lights of the coming generation - which he confirmed by winning the Points competitions at the Tour de Picardie in 2009 and the Tour de Burgos in 2010, followed by the General Classification at the Tour de Picardiethree stages at the Tour Méditerranéen, one at the Tour of Luxembourg and 2nd place for Stage 3 at the Tour de France in 2011. 2012 and 2013 brought some good results - second at the GP Pino Cerami, fourth at Scheldeprijs, sixth at Cholet-Pays de Loire in 2012, second again at the Pino Cerami, ninth at Scheldeprijs by his birthday in 2013 - but no victories. He is the older brother of Brice Feillu, also a professional cyclist.

Other cyclists born on this day: Kathrin Freitag (Germany, 1974); Alan Geldard (Great Britain, 1927); Valery Khitrov (USSR, 1941); Ndjibu N'Golomingi (Congo, 1964); Hermann Martens (Germany, 1877, died 1916); Maurice Coomarawel (Sri Lanka, 1940, died 2008); Jānis Līvens (Russia, 1884); Paula Westher (Sweden, 1965); Raj Kumar Mehra (India, 1918, died 2001); Nils Johansson (Sweden, 1920, died 1999); René Deceja (Uruguay, 1934, died 2007); Davoud Akhlagi (Iran, 1944); Alipi Kostadinov (Czechoslovakia, 1955); David Gillow (Zimbabwe, 1958); Magne Orre (Norway, 1950).