Winners of both Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix in the same year: Henri Suter 1923 Romain Gijssels 1932 Gaston Rebry 1934 Raymond Impanis 1954 Fred De Bruyne 1957 Rik Van Looy 1962 Roger De Vlaeminck 1977 Peter van Petegem 2003 Tom Boonen 2005 Fabian Cancellara 2010 Tom Boonen Belgium 2012 Fabian Cancellara 2013 Mathieu van … Read more
Cyrille Van Hauwaert (1883-1974) was one of the most successful Belgian cyclist in the pre -WW1 era. His story began like a folktale. The big and strong Flemish farm boy, who didn’t speak French arrived in the office of the La Française team’s directeur sportif, Pierre Pierrard two days before Paris-Roubaix in 1907. Van Hauwaert … Read more
On the afternoon of the 20th April 1980, while a little girl, called Anita Pethő ( the author of PelotonTales blog) was born in a small town in North-West Hungary, on the other part of Europe, in Belgium, Bernard Hinault delivered one of the most iconic victories in the history of the Monuments. Snow can … Read more
Although Paris-Roubaix in 1936 was more important in the career of Tour de France winner (1933) cyclist Georges Speicher, one of the most popular funny vintage cycling images from the good old days of road cycling was taken one year earlier.Georges Speicher (1907-1978) was a French rider, the first cyclist who won Tour de France … Read more
Fausto Coppi rode Paris-Roubaix 5 times (1949, 1950, 1952, 1955 and 1959), only one time (1950) managed to win the famous Hell of the North. Maurice Diot, the other cyclist on the picture finished second. After he arrived, he said: I won Paris-Roubaix today. Coppi was competing on a higher level.1 Indeed, Fausto Coppi delivered … Read more
The winner of the longest ever individual time trial (139 km ) in the history of Tour de France, Raymond Impanis had a successful career. Although a bit in the shadow of the biggest names of the era. That certain individual time trial at Tour de France 1947 was one of his two TDF stage … Read more
Jean Stablinski, the cyclist who suggested to include Trouée d’Arenberg (Arenberg Forest) in the program of Paris-Roubaix, was born on 21 May 1932 in Thun-Saint-Amand, France. As a son of Polish immigrants his name was Jean Stablewski originally. A journalist mispelled it accidentally, creating the surname by which the cyclist became known. After the untimely … Read more
Of course, they weren’t called “monuments” those days, but here are some interesting stuff about the winners of the first editions of the five most important one-day races. Léon Houa, Liége -Bastogne-Liége (1892) Belgian cyclist Léon Houa (1867-1918) actually won the first three editions of La Doyenne. The first two of them were amateur events. … Read more
Josef Fischer, the winner of the first Paris-Roubaix (1896) was born on the 20th January, 1865 in Atzlern (near München, Germany). Fischer participated in several of the earliest long-distance bicycle races, like the 582,5 km long Vienna-Berlin race in 1893, where he triumphed. The route took him 31 hours. Next year, among others, he attended … Read more
André Leducq, the two-time Tour de France winner (1930 and 1932) claimed his first great triumph at Paris-Roubaix in 1928. The race took place on the 8th April 1928. 89 riders departed in Le Vésinet but only 52 riders completed the 260 km long route. The defining moment of the race happened in Arras, where … Read more