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 der Poel 2024 IF YOU LIKE PELOTONTALES BLOG, PLEASE SUPPORT IT WITH A SMALL DONATION VIA PAYPAL THANK YOU!
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 victories. He collected the other one in the subsequent year. Impanis rode Tour de France a total of seven times. Raymond Impanis had the peak of his career in the 1950s. In 1954 he won Paris-Nice (his second victory at the race happened in 1960) , Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. Impanis started the “Hell of the North” 17 times… Read More »Faces from the peloton: Raymond Impanis (1925-2010)
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 the 587 km long Milano-München, which he completed in 29 and half hours. During the 1890s bicycle was still a new vehicle, there were several crazy events to promote the product, like Fischer’s duels against horses. On the 19th April 1896, the first Paris-Roubaix was held. The distance was 280 km long, the race started at 5:30 am. Although more… Read More »Faces from the peloton: Josef Fischer (1865-1953)
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 defending champion Georges Ronsse rode away from the rest of the peloton. Charles Pélissier and Charles Meunier followed him. André Leducq and Gaston Rebry (the later three-time Paris-Roubaix winner from 1931, 1934 and 1935) joined later. Then, Rebry and Pélissier dropped, and only three riders arrived at the avenue des Villas in Roubaix. Meunier was a kind of an outsider… Read More »Iconic Paris-Roubaix images: André Leducq crossing the finish line in 1928
Every road cycling fan knows the name Octave Lapize, the rider who crossed Tourmalet first at the Tour de France in 1910. His memorial is on the top of the ascent. Lapize also won that year’s Tour de France. But, although he was rather considered a climber, he was good also at the Paris-Roubaix. Actually, he was the first rider, who won the race three times. In 1909, 1910 and 1911. Lapize just turned professional at the beginning of the season 1909 and made a good impression on Henri Desgranges: “He has an energetic aspect, a solid chin, a focused look, a pointed moustache, all of which give him the look of a racer[…]He has a… Read More »Octave Lapize, the first three-time Paris-Roubaix champion
Serse Coppi, the younger brother of the big Fausto was born on the 19th of March in 1923 in Castellania, Italy. Read More »Cycling Who’s Who: Serse Coppi
The second edition of Paris-Roubaix was held on the 18th April 1897. 32 professional and 28 amateur cyclists departed in the rainy Paris, but the 280 km long racerun mostly under sunny conditions. The Italian-born French Maurice Garin, who is best known for winning the first Tour de France in 1903, and the Duch Mathieu Cordang arrived in the velodrome of Roubaix first. Unfortunatelly, Cordang crashed and, although he managed to get 2 m close to his rival again, Garin won the race. [su_box title=”Read more on cycling races before 1903″][su_posts tax_term=”453″ order=”desc” orderby=”rand”] [/su_box]