Jewels of my collections

OCTAVE LAPIZ

Octave Lapize (24 October 1887 – 14 July 1917) was a French professional road racing and track cyclist.

Most famous for winning the 1910 Tour de France. He was also a three-time winner of one-day classics, Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Brussels.

Philippe Thys

(8 October 1889 – 16 January 1971) was a Belgian cyclist and three times  winner of the Tour de France.

Henri Pélissier

(22 January 1889 – 1 May 1935) was a French racing cyclist from Paris and champion of the 1923 Tour de France.

In addition to his 29 career victories, he was known for his long-standing feud with Tour founder Henri Desgrange.

Nicolas Frantz

(4 November 1899 -

8 November 1985) 

was a Luxembourgish bicycle racer with 60 professional racing victories. He won the

Tour de France in 1927 and 1928.

ALFREDO BINDA

(11 August 1902 – 19 July 1986) was an Italian cyclist of the 1920s and 1930s.

He was the first to win five editions of the Giro d'Italia, and a three-time world champion. In addition he won Milan–San Remo twice, and the Tour of Lombardy four times.

Learco Guerra

(October 14, 1902 - February 7, 1963) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist.

In 1931 Guerra won four stages of the Giro d'Italia but not the final victory. The same year he won the world cycling championship.

In 1934 came his greatest success, 10 stages of the Giro d'Italia and the general classification.

KAREL KAERS

(3 June 1914 – 20 December 1972) was a Belgian professional cyclist with 30 wins.

In 1934 he became the youngest world road champion, winning in Leipzig at 20. It was the first time he had ridden the race.

He also won the Tour of Flanders in 1939, and the Belgian national championship in 1937.

Hans Knecht

(26 September 1913 – 8 March 1986)  was a Swiss professional road racing cyclist. The highlight of his career was winning the World

Cycling Championship in 1946. He was the Swiss

National Road Race champion in 1943, 1946 and 1947.

Thomas Simpson

(30 November 1937 – 13 July 1967)

was one of Britain's most successfiull professional cyclists. In 1965 he became Britain's first world road race champion. In the thirteenth stage of the 1967 Tour de France, Simpson collapsed and died during the ascent of Mont Ventoux.