Daily Cycling Facts 26.09.2013

Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel

Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel

Born in Arnhem, Netherlands on this day in 1975, Maria Wilhelmina Johanna 'Mirjam' Melchers-Van Poppel signed to Rabobank in 1998 and won three races, including Stage 4 at the prestigious Holland Ladies' Tour. In 1999 she won Stage 5 at the same race and was second at the National Road Race Championship; in 2000 she won Stage 2 at the Tour de France Féminin and second place overall at the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and was victorious at the Nationals and the Holland Ladies' Tour. She also qualified for the Olympics that year and was 11th in the Individual Time Trial and 12th in the Road Race.

In 2001, riding with Acca Due O-Lorena Camichi, Melchers-van Poppel won the Thüringen-Rundfahrt; she then went to Farm Frites for three seasons from 2002, winning six times that year, 14 in 2003 (including the General Classification at the Emakumeen Bira, the Damesronde van Drenthe and the RaboSter Zeeuwsche Eilanden) when she was also second at the Worlds Championship and adding the National Cyclo Cross Championship, the Vuelta Castilla y Leon, the National Individual Time Trial Championship, a second Holland Ladies' Tour and seven other victories in 2004. She joined Buitenpoort-Flexpoint Team in 2005 and stayed with them for five years; that year, she won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Emakumeen Saria, Stage 5 at the Giro Donne, the General Classification at the RaboSter Zeeuwsche Eilanden and nine other victories.

The 2006 season started well with second place at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and another win at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but she was in a serious crash at the Euregio Tour that left her with a broken jaw, hip and pelvis; she had recovered sufficiently to return to racing the following year, but was apparently still suffering some pain and won five times, more than many riders can even dream of winning in a year, but an uncharacteristically low figure for a rider of Melchers-van Poppel's calibre. By 2008 she was fully recovered and won the National Cyclo Cross Championship for a second time (beating Daphny van der Brand, who had won it for nine of the previous ten years and would win again in 2009 and 2010) and the National Individual Time Trial Championships. In 2009, she won only one race - a cyclo cross event at Sint-Michielsgestel - but was second behind van der Brand at the CX Nationals and seventh at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. She was seventh at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad again in 2010, having signed to the Cervélo TestTeam for that year, and retired at the end of the season.

Melchers-van Poppel's husband, Jean-Paul van Poppel, was one of the Netherlands' most successful sprinters and won the Points competition at the Tour de France in 1987. Their three children are all cyclists: Boy achieved four podium finishes  and won the Points competition at the 2012 Tour of Britain, Kim was National Debutant Cyclo Cross and Novice Road Race Champion in 2006 and Danny won two stages at the Under-23 Thüringen-Rundfahrt in 2012.

Frankie Andreu
Born in Dearborn, Michigan on this day in 1966, Frankie Andreu started out as a track rider and by 1984 was good enough to become Junior National Individual Pursuit Champion. One year later he was National Madison Champion and had won silver in the Points race and Team Pursuit at the same Championships, then in 1988 he won two road races, the Capitola and the Pepsi Series, and qualified for the Olympics where he was eighth in the Road Race, which inspired him to concentrate on road racing from that point onwards. The following year he signed to 7 Eleven, with whom he rode at the Giro d'Italia and finished the race; in 1990 he achieved five victories in American events.

In 1991, 7 Eleven became Motorola. Andreu scored no victories that year nor the next; however, in 1992, he rode the Tour de France for the first time. He rode it again in 1993 and was second on Stage 18, then again in 1994 and was second on Stage 21- the two best Tour results of his career. His best overall Tour result was 58th in 1998.

In August 1992, Motorola had signed a promising young rider named Lance Armstrong; Andreu would find his greatest fame riding as the Texan's domestique and was there with him when he won his first Tour stage in 1993, then moved with him to Cofidis in 1997 and to US Postal in 1998 - and when he won his first Tours in 1999 and 2000, after which Andreu retired. Six years later, Andreu changed from faithful domestique to nemesis: he and his wife, Betsy, testified during a court hearing involving Armstrong and SCA Promotions (a company that was attempting to back out of paying a $5 million bonus due to suspicions that Armstrong had doped at the Tour) that, in their presence in 1996, Armstrong had admitted to doctors during his cancer treatment that he had used growth hormones, steroids and EPO. A settlement in which SCA paid $7.5 million (the bonus and legal fees) was reached before a ruling was made. "It's over. We won. They lost. I was yet again completely vindicated," Armstrong told the press, also saying that he believed Betsy may have become confused when she overheard him discussing the drugs he was given by doctors following treatment (which included steroids and EPO); yet both she and Frankie have stuck to their story ever since - and, since Armstrong was stripped of all his seven Tour wins, it looks as though they had good reason to do so. Later in 2006, Frankie admitted that he too had doped, using EPO when training for the 1999 Tour. He also said that his first introduction to doping had come in 1995 at Motorola.

After his retirement, Andreu became a race commentator and still serves in that capacity to this day. He was employed as a director at the Toyota-United team but was sacked for not fulfilling the obligations of his contract in 2006, then the following year became a director at Rock Racing but resigned in 2008 before working with the women's team Proman.

Max Bulla

Bulla at the 1932 Tour

Max Bulla, born in Vienna on this day in 1905, rode the Tour de France as a touriste-routier (independent riders, not signed to a national team and in some cases without sponsorship - though not in Bulla's case, as he had some limited sponsorship from the Faggi-Pirelli team) in 1931 and won Stage 2 despite having started ten minutes behind the professional riders, taking the maillot jaune for one day and thus becoming the only touriste-routier to lead the race in Tour history, as well as the first ever Austrian to win a Tour stage and wear the maillot jaune. He later won Stages 12 and 17 and came 15th overall, the best placing in the touriste-routier category.

Henri Desgrange, the director of the Tour, was so impressed by what Bulla had achieved that he persuaded the German federation to send a mixed team rather than a national team to the Tour in 1932 so that Bulla would benefit from the support that came with it. The team proved to be much stronger than the French, Belgians and Italians had expected and got two of their riders into the top ten - Bulla, however, was not one of them, finishing 19th and 1h38'23" behind winner André Leducq who had led since Stage 3 (when he took the maillot jaune from Bulla's team mate, the German Kurt Stöpel, who finished second overall). He raced again, in 1933 and 1936, but abandoned both times.

Bulla was Austrian Road Race Champion in 1926 and 1927 and in 1933 he won the Tour de Suisse. He also won Stages 8 and 10 and was fifth overall at the Vuelta a Espana in 1935.

Frédéric Moncassin
Born in Saubens, France on this day in 1968, Frédéric Moncassin was a sprint specialist who became famous for his aggressive tactics in the rough, tough bunch sprints (what some riders term "shitfights") at races including the Tour de France (where he won Stages 1 and 19 and came second in the Points competition in 1996), Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (which he won in 1995) and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (second in 1994).

Moncassin at Paris-Nice, 1997

Moncassin won 33 professional victories, and probably could have won more were it not for the Festina Affair of 1998. He was not implicated in the scandal, but his attacks on the then darling of French Cycling Richard Virenque - he once memorably told French newspaper La Dépêche "he's an arsehole and you can quote me" - saw him become increasingly isolated, one of several riders to be given the cold shoulder in the peloton for "spitting in the soup." He was third at Milan-San Remo in 1998, then retired at the end of 1999 having gone without victory for almost two years.


Cyril Gautier, born in Plouagat, France on this day in 1987, was European Under-23 Road Race Champion in 2008 and won the Youth category at the Critérium International in 2012.

Other cyclists born on this day: Gabriel Cuéllar (Mexico, 1942); Malcolm Simpson (New Zealand, 1933); Derek Horton (Guam, 1972); Cyril Bos (France, 1972); Libardo Niño (Colombia, 1968); Danilo Heredia (Venezuela, 1927); Tino Conti (Italy, 1945); Michael Matthews (Australia, 1990).

Daily Cycling Facts 03.06.2013

This photograph, taken at the 1921 Paris-Roubaix, is
believed to show Henri Pélissier, Léon Scieur and René
Vermandel.

The ninth edition of La Flèche Wallonne, which took place on this day in 1945, was the first to be held since Belgium was liberated from Nazi occupation. It ran between Mons and Charleroi, as it had done in the previous two years, but took a different route which was 5km longer at 213km in total. The winner was Marcel Kint for a third consecutive year - nobody else has yet matched his achievement.

The thirteenth edition of La Doyenne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, was held on this day in 1923. The winner for the first of two consecutive years was René Vermandel. This was the only time that the race was held on this date.

Evgeni Berzin, the man who should have been great

Evgeni Berzin
Evgeni Berzin, born in Vyborg on this day in 1970, won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1994. Two months later, he won the Giro d'Italia too - one of the few truly heroic Grand Tours of the last few decades, coming at the end of a race in which he wore the maglia rosa for 19 days. Being only 24 at the time, the cycling world immediately hailed him as the next great hero, a man who would follow in the footsteps of Hinault, Merckx, Anquetil, Coppi and Bartoli, but it was not to be - Berzin proved to be one of those unfortunate cyclists who peaks early in his career and can never quite live up to that early promise.

Berzin first appeared on the radar in 1988 when he formed part of the winning National Junior Championships Pursuit team, then formed part of the Russian Junior squad that won the same race at the Worlds. This was followed in 1989 with a National Amateur Team Pursuit title, which was repeated in 1990; the year he also rode with the victorious Amateur Pursuit team at the Worlds and took the World Amateur Individual Pursuit title for himself. In 1993, he turned professional with Mecair-Ballan, the team with which he would remain for five years through numerous sponsor changes and the gradual transformation into Gewiss-Playbus in 1997, taking second place at the 1995 Giro in addition to his overall victory the previous year, then winning Stage 19 in the Giro and Stage 8 in the Tour de France of 1998.

His performances in several other stages (and races) that year were good too, with numerous podium places, which persuaded the world that his form was simply not what it had been the year before but, as tends to be the way when a rider enters his late 20s, he'd get better than ever. With that in mind, La Française des Jeux took him on in 1998. The Tour that year was in fact his fourth, as he had competed in 1995 (abandoned), 1996 (20th overall) and 1997 (abandoned); and he came 25th overall. Alarm bells started ringing: the Tour is the hardest race of all and sometimes a top-notch rider will get a bad result through no fault of his own, but the man Russia hoped would be its first Tour champion had been expected to do better and, when his contract expired at the end of the year, he could not find a team at the same level that would take him, so instead he went to Amica Chips-Costa de Almeria - but 1999 was much worse and he won nothing. Amica too let him go, but this time he was more fortunate and found a ride with Mobilvetta Design-Rossin, a team in the same class - but then 2000 turned out not to be much better, his only good result being third place in the little 53.2km Broni criterium. Berzin, it could now be seen, was not having a couple of bad seasons before a glorious flourishing into his best years; he was a rider who had already declined. After a second season with Mobilvetta (during which he again won no races), he called it a day.

Karel Kaers

Karel Kaers

Nowadays, many people will tell you that when 21-year-old Lance Armstrong won the 1993 Elite World Championship Road Race in Oslo, he was the youngest rider to have ever done so. In fact, he was only the third youngest: Jempi Monseré was one week younger when he won in Leicester in 1970, and Karel Kaers - who was born on this day in 1914 in Voselaar - had only just passed his 20th birthday when he won on his first attempt at the race in Leipzig, 1934; an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that up until then he was known primarily as a track rider.

Kaers began racing during childhood and won the Belgian Boys' Championship along with 36 other races in his first two years, then he became a Junior in 1931 and won a National Sprint Championship, after which he moved up a gear and became an independent, remaining so when he was selected for the Belgian team in 1934, then turned professional the following year for F. Pélissier-Hutchinson (the team lasted only a season, and he moved on to Bury later in the same year). Over the next few years, he flitted back and fourth between Bury, Colin-Wolber, Bristol and Alcyon-Dunlap, and it was with the latter that he achieved his second great claim to fame - winning the 1939 Ronde van Vlaanderen without intending to do so.

Acht van Chaam criterium 1938, won by Kaers (Gerrit Schulte was second, Theo Middelkamp was third)

It is, perhaps, a tale that may have been somewhat embellished for the sake of legend and one that might not stand up to scrutiny should anybody who thinks facts are more important that a good story decide to dissect it. Kaers, it's said, had no plans to compete for the victory but, since the race started not too far from his home, it offered a good chance to get in some valuable race training. So, he put his bike in his car and drove to Kluisberg before riding the 40km to the start line in Ghent where he signed up and set off with the bunch. His plan was to ride with them to Kwaremont and then drive back home again, so when the race arrived at Kluisberg he attacked and leapt away from the field, going at full throttle up the 11% hill without worrying about conserving energy for the remainder of the race and by the time he got to the top he had a lead of one minute. However, his car was not where he'd left it; rather than find a policeman or a phone to report the theft, he decided that he may as well press on and finish the race. After he'd won, his manager admitted that when he'd seen how well Kaers was going on the hill, he realised that the rider had the potential to win; so he'd broken into and moved the car himself.

In retirement, Kaers bought and ran a bar near the entrance to Antwerp's Sportpaleis velodrome. He died in the city on the 20th of December, 1972.

Joachim Halupczok

Joaquim Halupczok,
03.06.1968 - 05.02.1994

Polish Joachim Halupczok, born in Ozimek on this day in 1968, won his nation's Junior Cyclo Cross and Elite Road Race Championships in 1987; then won the World Amateur Road Race Championship, the National Amateur Road Race Championship, the Under-23 GP Liberazione and the General Classification at the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt in 1989. Those results were good enough to get him a professional contract, and he rode for Diana-Colnago in 1990 when he finished in third place on Stage 8 at the Giro d'Italia, was second in the Trofeo Baracchi and eight overall in the Giro del Trentino.

In 1990, Halupczok was discovered to be suffering from cardiac arrhythmia and announced his temporary retirement; but just over a year he returned and took part in the Vuelta a Espana of 1992, before being ordered to stop cycling by his doctors at the end of the season. Fifteen months later, as he warmed up before playing in an indoor football match, he collapsed and died at the age of 26, leaving behind his wife and two young children. Many people suspected that he was another victim of EPO, but it has never been proved one way or the other if he was a doper.


Mary Grigson, born in Wellington, New Zealand on this day in 1971, was Australian National Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and was named Australian Female Mountain Biker of the Year in 2000 and 2001.

Cathy Moncassin

Cathy Moncassin, born in Bonnetage on this day in 1977, became French Junior Individual Pursuit Champion in 1994, then took the Elite title for the same discipline in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007 - a well as Points Champion in 2003 and a host of track silver and bronze medals along the way.

Vincenzo Zucconelli, who was born in Jolanda di Savoia, Italy on this day in 1931, won the Under-23 GP Liberazione in 1951 and was a professional rider between 1954 and 1958 - a short career during which he won Stage 11 at the 1955 Giro d'Italia (the same year that 35-year-old Fiorenzo Magni became the oldest General Classification winner in Giro history), came second on two other Giro stages (Stage 8, 1955 and Stage 8, 1956) and third on another (Stage 14, 1955).

Rossano Brasi, born in Bergamo on this day in 1972, won the very first edition of the Vattenfall Cyclassics - then rather overlooked and known as the HEW Cyclassics, HEW at that time being the name of the Vattenfall electricity plant that still sponsors the race to this day - in 1996

Trine Schmidt, born in Copenhagen on this day in 1988, became National Scratch Race Champion - at Elite level - in 2004, when she was sixteen years old (and also became National Junior Independent Time Trial Champion). In 2006, she won Stages 1 and 2 and came second in the General Classification at the Silkeborg Viborg Hammel; then in 2007 the VDO Ladies Cup and Stage 4 at the Gracia Orlova before winning no fewer than three National titles for the Individual Time Trial on road and Scratch and Pursuit on the track. She added another National Pursuit win in 2009.

Boguslaw Fornalczyk, born on this day in 1937, was Polish National Road Race Champion in 1958.

Olympic Time Trial, 1912

István Müller, born in Hungary on this day in 1883, rode with his National team (in fact representing the Austro-Hungarian Empire) at the Olympics of 1912 - the first time that Hungarian riders took part in the the cycling events (and the first time since the advent of modern Olympics that no track cycling events featured in the Games). He was 73rd out of 123 (94 finished) in the Individual Time Trial, taking 12h39'28" to complete the 315.39km parcours.

Liz Hatch, who was born in Austin, Texas on this day in 1980, began racing at the comparatively late age of 26 and realised immediately that Belgium was the place for any female cyclist to be, traveling there that same year. Two years later, she became one of the founding members of the  Vanderkitten road racing programme, one of the top teams in the sport, then signed to Lotto Ladies in 2009. Intelligent and sometimes outspoken, Liz is one of the "go to" riders whenever magazines or newspapers need a handy soundbite (the fact that she happens to look like supermodel helps, too). Among her finest is this description of cycling, published by The Sporting Life:

"I thrive off of the pain. I keep telling myself that it´s just another form of pleasure. Once you tell yourself that it hurts too much to continue, you may as well get off your bike and get a real job. It´s the races that really hurt, that really put you in your grave; that you remember and cherish."

Other births: Fabio Masotti (Italy, 1974); Tim Phivana (Cambodia, 1940); Jean-Marcel Brouzes (France, 1953); Vittorio Marcelli (Italy, 1944); Jair Braga (Brazil, 1954); Errol McLean (Guyana, 1952); Tjow Choon Boon (Malaysia, 1945); Ira Fabian (Antigua and Barbuda, 1964).

Daily Cycling Facts 26.09.12

Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel

Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel

Born in Arnhem, Netherlands on this day in 1975, Maria Wilhelmina Johanna 'Mirjam' Melchers-Van Poppel signed to Rabobank in 1998 and won three races, including Stage 4 at the prestigious Holland Ladies' Tour. In 1999 she won Stage 5 at the same race and was second at the National Road Race Championship; in 2000 she won Stage 2 at the Tour de France Féminin and second place overall at the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and was victorious at the Nationals and the Holland Ladies' Tour. She also qualified for the Olympics that year and was 11th in the Individual Time Trial and 12th in the Road Race.

In 2001, riding with Acca Due O-Lorena Camichi, Melchers-van Poppel won the Thüringen-Rundfahrt; she then went to Farm Frites for three seasons from 2002, winning six times that year, 14 in 2003 (including the General Classification at the Emakumeen Bira, the Damesronde van Drenthe and the RaboSter Zeeuwsche Eilanden) when she was also second at the Worlds Championship and adding the National Cyclo Cross Championship, the Vuelta Castilla y Leon, the National Individual Time Trial Championship, a second Holland Ladies' Tour and seven other victories in 2004. She joined Buitenpoort-Flexpoint Team in 2005 and stayed with them for five years; that year, she won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Emakumeen Saria, Stage 5 at the Giro Donne, the General Classification at the RaboSter Zeeuwsche Eilanden and nine other victories.

The 2006 season started well with second place at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and another win at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but she was in a serious crash at the Euregio Tour that left her with a broken jaw, hip and pelvis; she had recovered sufficiently to return to racing the following year, but was apparently still suffering some pain and won five times, more than many riders can even dream of winning in a year, but an uncharacteristically low figure for a rider of Melchers-van Poppel's calibre. By 2008 she was fully recovered and won the National Cyclo Cross Championship for a second time (beating Daphny van der Brand, who had won it for nine of the previous ten years and would win again in 2009 and 2010) and the National Individual Time Trial Championships. In 2009, she won only one race - a cyclo cross event at Sint-Michielsgestel - but was second behind van der Brand at the CX Nationals and seventh at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. She was seventh at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad again in 2010, having signed to the Cervélo TestTeam for that year, and retired at the end of the season.

Melchers-van Poppel's husband, Jean-Paul van Poppel, was one of the Netherlands' most successful sprinters and won the Points competition at the Tour de France in 1987. Their three children are all cyclists: Boy achieved four podium finishes  and won the Points competition at the 2012 Tour of Britain, Kim was National Debutant Cyclo Cross and Novice Road Race Champion in 2006 and Danny won two stages at the Under-23 Thüringen-Rundfahrt in 2012.

Frankie Andreu
Born in Dearborn, Michigan on this day in 1966, Frankie Andreu started out as a track rider and by 1984 was good enough to become Junior National Individual Pursuit Champion. One year later he was National Madison Champion and had won silver in the Points race and Team Pursuit at the same Championships, then in 1988 he won two road races, the Capitola and the Pepsi Series, and qualified for the Olympics where he was eighth in the Road Race, which inspired him to concentrate on road racing from that point onwards. The following year he signed to 7 Eleven, with whom he rode at the Giro d'Italia and finished the race; in 1990 he achieved five victories in American events.

In 1991, 7 Eleven became Motorola. Andreu scored no victories that year nor the next; however, in 1992, he rode the Tour de France for the first time. He rode it again in 1993 and was second on Stage 18, then again in 1994 and was second on Stage 21- the two best Tour results of his career. His best overall Tour result was 58th in 1998.

In August 1992, Motorola had signed a promising young rider named Lance Armstrong; Andreu would find his greatest fame riding as the Texan's domestique and was there with him when he won his first Tour stage in 1993, then moved with him to Cofidis in 1997 and to US Postal in 1998 - and when he won his first Tours in 1999 and 2000, after which Andreu retired. Six years later, Andreu changed from faithful domestique to nemesis: he and his wife, Betsy, testified during a court hearing involving Armstrong and SCA Promotions (a company that was attempting to back out of paying a $5 million bonus due to suspicions that Armstrong had doped at the Tour) that, in their presence in 1996, Armstrong had admitted to doctors during his cancer treatment that he had used growth hormones, steroids and EPO. A settlement in which SCA paid $7.5 million (the bonus and legal fees) was reached before a ruling was made. "It's over. We won. They lost. I was yet again completely vindicated," Armstrong told the press, also saying that he believed Betsy may have become confused when she overheard him discussing the drugs he was given by doctors following treatment (which included steroids and EPO); yet both she and Frankie have stuck to their story ever since - and, since Armstrong was stripped of all his seven Tour wins, it looks as though they had good reason to do so. Later in 2006, Frankie admitted that he too had doped, using EPO when training for the 1999 Tour. He also said that his first introduction to doping had come in 1995 at Motorola.

After his retirement, Andreu became a race commentator and still serves in that capacity to this day. He was employed as a director at the Toyota-United team but was sacked for not fulfilling the obligations of his contract in 2006, then the following year became a director at Rock Racing but resigned in 2008 before working with the women's team Proman.

Max Bulla

Max Bulla, born in Vienna on this day in 1905, rode the Tour de France as a touriste-routier (independent riders, not signed to a national team and in some cases without sponsorship - though not in Bulla's case, as he was sponsored by the Faggi-Pirelli team) in 1931 and won Stage 2, taking the maillot jaune for one day and thus becoming the only touriste-routier to lead the race in Tour history. He later won Stages 12 and 17 and came 15th overall, the best placing in the touriste-routier category.

Bulla was Austrian Road Race Champion in 1926 and 1927 and in 1933 he won the Tour de Suisse. He also won Stages 8 and 10 and was fifth overall at the Vuelta a Espana in 1935.

Frédéric Moncassin
Born in Saubens, France on this day in 1968, Frédéric Moncassin was a sprint specialist who became famous for his aggressive tactics in the rough, tough bunch sprints (what some riders term "shitfights") at races including the Tour de France (where he won Stages 1 and 19 and came second in the Points competition in 1996), Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (which he won in 1995) and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (second in 1994).

Moncassin at Paris-Nice, 1997

Moncassin won 33 professional victories, and probably could have won more were it not for the Festina Affair of 1998. He was not implicated in the scandal, but his attacks on the then darling of French Cycling Richard Virenque - he once memorably told French newspaper La Dépêche "he's an arsehole and you can quote me" - saw him become increasingly isolated, one of several riders to be given the cold shoulder in the peloton for "spitting in the soup." He was third at Milan-San Remo in 1998, then retired at the end of 1999 having gone without victory for almost two years.


Cyril Gautier, born in Plouagat, France on this day in 1987, was European Under-23 Road Race Champion in 2008 and won the Youth category at the Critérium International in 2012.

Other cyclists born on this day: Gabriel Cuéllar (Mexico, 1942); Malcolm Simpson (New Zealand, 1933); Derek Horton (Guam, 1972); Cyril Bos (France, 1972); Libardo Niño (Colombia, 1968); Danilo Heredia (Venezuela, 1927); Tino Conti (Italy, 1945); Michael Matthews (Australia, 1990).

Daily Cycling Facts 03.06.12

This photograph, taken at the 1921 Paris-Roubaix, is
believed to show Henri Pélissier, Léon Scieur and René
Vermandel.

The ninth edition of La Flèche Wallonne, which took place on this day in 1945, was the first to be held since Belgium was liberated from Nazi occupation. It ran between Mons and Charleroi, as it had done in the previous two years, but took a different route which was 5km longer at 213km in total. The winner was Marcel Kint for a third consecutive year - nobody else has yet matched his achievement.

The thirteenth edition of La Doyenne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, was held on this day in 1923. The winner for the first of two consecutive years was René Vermandel. This was the only time that the race was held on this date.

Evgeni Berzin, the man who should have been great

Evgeni Berzin
Evgeni Berzin, born in Vyborg on this day in 1970, won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1994. Two months later, he won the Giro d'Italia too - one of the few truly heroic Grand Tours of the last few decades, coming at the end of a race in which he wore the maglia rosa for 19 days. Being only 24 at the time, the cycling world immediately hailed him as the next great hero, a man who would follow in the footsteps of Hinault, Merckx, Anquetil, Coppi and Bartoli, but it was not to be - Berzin proved to be one of those unfortunate cyclists who peaks early in his career and can never quite live up to that early promise.

Berzin first appeared on the radar in 1988 when he formed part of the winning National Junior Championships Pursuit team, then formed part of the Russian Junior squad that won the same race at the Worlds. This was followed in 1989 with a National Amateur Team Pursuit title, which was repeated in 1990; the year he also rode with the victorious Amateur Pursuit team at the Worlds and took the World Amateur Individual Pursuit title for himself. In 1993, he turned professional with Mecair-Ballan, the team with which he would remain for five years through numerous sponsor changes and the gradual transformation into Gewiss-Playbus in 1997, taking second place at the 1995 Giro in addition to his overall victory the previous year, then winning Stage 19 in the Giro and Stage 8 in the Tour de France of 1998.

His performances in several other stages (and races) that year were good too, with numerous podium places, which persuaded the world that his form was simply not what it had been the year before but, as tends to be the way when a rider enters his late 20s, he'd get better than ever. With that in mind, La Française des Jeux took him on in 1998. The Tour that year was in fact his fourth, as he had competed in 1995 (abandoned), 1996 (20th overall) and 1997 (abandoned); and he came 25th overall. Alarm bells started ringing: the Tour is the hardest race of all and sometimes a top-notch rider will get a bad result through no fault of his own, but the man Russia hoped would be its first Tour champion had been expected to do better and, when his contract expired at the end of the year, he could not find a team at the same level that would take him, so instead he went to Amica Chips-Costa de Almeria - but 1999 was much worse and he won nothing. Amica too let him go, but this time he was more fortunate and found a ride with Mobilvetta Design-Rossin, a team in the same class - but then 2000 turned out not to be much better, his only good result being third place in the little 53.2km Broni criterium. Berzin, it could now be seen, was not having a couple of bad seasons before a glorious flourishing into his best years; he was a rider who had already declined. After a second season with Mobilvetta (during which he again won no races), he called it a day.

Karel Kaers

Karel Kaers

Nowadays, many people will tell you that when 21-year-old Lance Armstrong won the 1993 Elite World Championship Road Race in Oslo, he was the youngest rider to have ever done so. In fact, he was only the third youngest: Jempi Monseré was one week younger when he won in Leicester in 1970, and Karel Kaers - who was born on this day in 1914 in Voselaar - had only just passed his 20th birthday when he won on his first attempt at the race in Leipzig, 1934; an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that up until then he was known primarily as a track rider.

Kaers began racing during childhood and won the Belgian Boys' Championship along with 36 other races in his first two years, then he became a Junior in 1931 and won a National Sprint Championship, after which he moved up a gear and became an independent, remaining so when he was selected for the Belgian team in 1934, then turned professional the following year for F. Pélissier-Hutchinson (the team lasted only a season, and he moved on to Bury later in the same year). Over the next few years, he flitted back and fourth between Bury, Colin-Wolber, Bristol and Alcyon-Dunlap, and it was with the latter that he achieved his second great claim to fame - winning the 1939 Ronde van Vlaanderen without intending to do so.

Acht van Chaam criterium 1938, won by Kaers (Gerrit Schulte was second, Theo Middelkamp was third)

It is, perhaps, a tale that may have been somewhat embellished for the sake of legend and one that might not stand up to scrutiny should anybody who thinks facts are more important that a good story decide to dissect it. Kaers, it's said, had no plans to compete for the victory but, since the race started not too far from his home, it offered a good chance to get in some valuable race training. So, he put his bike in his car and drove to Kluisberg before riding the 40km to the start line in Ghent where he signed up and set off with the bunch. His plan was to ride with them to Kwaremont and then drive back home again, so when the race arrived at Kluisberg he attacked and leapt away from the field, going at full throttle up the 11% hill without worrying about conserving energy for the remainder of the race and by the time he got to the top he had a lead of one minute. However, his car was not where he'd left it; rather than find a policeman or a phone to report the theft, he decided that he may as well press on and finish the race. After he'd won, his manager admitted that when he'd seen how well Kaers was going on the hill, he realised that the rider had the potential to win; so he'd broken into and moved the car himself.

In retirement, Kaers bought and ran a bar near the entrance to Antwerp's Sportpaleis velodrome. He died in the city on the 20th of December, 1972.

Joachim Halupczok

Joaquim Halupczok,
03.06.1968 - 05.02.1994

Polish Joachim Halupczok, born in Ozimek on this day in 1968, won his nation's Junior Cyclo Cross and Elite Road Race Championships in 1987; then won the World Amateur Road Race Championship, the National Amateur Road Race Championship, the Under-23 GP Liberazione and the General Classification at the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt in 1989. Those results were good enough to get him a professional contract, and he rode for Diana-Colnago in 1990 when he finished in third place on Stage 8 at the Giro d'Italia, was second in the Trofeo Baracchi and eight overall in the Giro del Trentino.

In 1990, Halupczok was discovered to be suffering from cardiac arrhythmia and announced his temporary retirement; but just over a year he returned and took part in the Vuelta a Espana of 1992, before being ordered to stop cycling by his doctors at the end of the season. Fifteen months later, as he warmed up before playing in an indoor football match, he collapsed and died at the age of 26, leaving behind his wife and two young children. Many people suspected that he was another victim of EPO, but it has never been proved one way or the other if he was a doper.


Mary Grigson, born in Wellington, New Zealand on this day in 1971, was Australian National Cross Country Mountain Bike Champion in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and was named Australian Female Mountain Biker of the Year in 2000 and 2001.

Cathy Moncassin

Cathy Moncassin, born in Bonnetage on this day in 1977, became French Junior Individual Pursuit Champion in 1994, then took the Elite title for the same discipline in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007 - a well as Points Champion in 2003 and a host of track silver and bronze medals along the way.

Vincenzo Zucconelli, who was born in Jolanda di Savoia, Italy on this day in 1931, won the Under-23 GP Liberazione in 1951 and was a professional rider between 1954 and 1958 - a short career during which he won Stage 11 at the 1955 Giro d'Italia (the same year that 35-year-old Fiorenzo Magni became the oldest General Classification winner in Giro history), came second on two other Giro stages (Stage 8, 1955 and Stage 8, 1956) and third on another (Stage 14, 1955).

Rossano Brasi, born in Bergamo on this day in 1972, won the very first edition of the Vattenfall Cyclassics - then rather overlooked and known as the HEW Cyclassics, HEW at that time being the name of the Vattenfall electricity plant that still sponsors the race to this day - in 1996

Trine Schmidt, born in Copenhagen on this day in 1988, became National Scratch Race Champion - at Elite level - in 2004, when she was sixteen years old (and also became National Junior Independent Time Trial Champion). In 2006, she won Stages 1 and 2 and came second in the General Classification at the Silkeborg Viborg Hammel; then in 2007 the VDO Ladies Cup and Stage 4 at the Gracia Orlova before winning no fewer than three National titles for the Individual Time Trial on road and Scratch and Pursuit on the track. She added another National Pursuit win in 2009.

Boguslaw Fornalczyk, born on this day in 1937, was Polish National Road Race Champion in 1958.

Olympic Time Trial, 1912

István Müller, born in Hungary on this day in 1883, rode with his National team (in fact representing the Austro-Hungarian Empire) at the Olympics of 1912 - the first time that Hungarian riders took part in the the cycling events (and the first time since the advent of modern Olympics that no track cycling events featured in the Games). He was 73rd out of 123 (94 finished) in the Individual Time Trial, taking 12h39'28" to complete the 315.39km parcours.

Liz Hatch, who was born in Austin, Texas on this day in 1980, began racing at the comparatively late age of 26 and realised immediately that Belgium was the place for any female cyclist to be, traveling there that same year. Two years later, she became one of the founding members of the  Vanderkitten road racing programme, one of the top teams in the sport, then signed to Lotto Ladies in 2009. Intelligent and sometimes outspoken, Liz is one of the "go to" riders whenever magazines or newspapers need a handy soundbite (the fact that she happens to look like supermodel helps, too). Among her finest is this description of cycling, published by The Sporting Life:

"I thrive off of the pain. I keep telling myself that it´s just another form of pleasure. Once you tell yourself that it hurts too much to continue, you may as well get off your bike and get a real job. It´s the races that really hurt, that really put you in your grave; that you remember and cherish."

Other births: Fabio Masotti (Italy, 1974); Tim Phivana (Cambodia, 1940); Jean-Marcel Brouzes (France, 1953); Vittorio Marcelli (Italy, 1944); Jair Braga (Brazil, 1954); Errol McLean (Guyana, 1952); Tjow Choon Boon (Malaysia, 1945); Ira Fabian (Antigua and Barbuda, 1964).