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Paul Deman

montage picture of the five cyclist who won the first editions of the five monuments

The first monument winners

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. Considering the first Bordeaux-Paris (1891) as important milestone in the history of road cycling races, it’s  quite remarkable, how early the organizers of Liége-Bastogne-Liége (Spa-Bastogne-Spa, according to their original plans) had the idea to create a road cycling race. It’s also remarkable, that Liége-Bastogne-Liége is still on. (Several popular races from the end of the 19th century did not survive… Read More »The first monument winners

Paul Deman the winner of the first Ronde van Vlaanderen -sentenced tobdeath and almost executed twice!

Sentenced to death and almost executed – twice!

Paul Deman was the first winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (1913). During the WW1 he was working as a courier for underground resistance movements and carrying messages around Belgium and also in the Netherlands. In November 1918 he had already 14 successful missions, but unfortunately on the 15th, he was stopped by the Germans. He was arrested, jailed and sentenced to death immediately. Fortunately, while he was awaiting his execution, the Armistice was signed. But it still wasn’t a happy ending for Deman. The British Army took over the prison where he was jailed and believed him a German because of his accent. They wanted to execute him too. At the end a letter… Read More »Sentenced to death and almost executed – twice!

The first Tour of Flanders 1913 and the first winner of the rsce Paup Deman, who is sitting in the saddle of his bicycle

The longest Ronde van Vlaanderen

The first Ronde van Vlaanderen (1913) was the longest edition of the race: it was 324 km long [su_box title=”More Ronde van Vlaanderen related content”][su_posts posts_per_page=”3″ tax_term=”334″ order=”desc” orderby=”rand”] [/su_box] [su_box title=”More cycling fun facts “][su_posts posts_per_page=”3″ tax_term=”425″ order=”desc” orderby=”rand”] [/su_box]