Achiel Buysse

Achiel Buysse (born December 20, 1918 in Lochristi , † July 23, 1984 in Wetteren ) was a Belgian cyclist .

Achiel Buysse rode his first bike race at the age of eleven, on a ladies bike that his grandfather had given him, and he won. Against his mother's wishes, he continued to race.

From 1938 to 1950 Buysse was a professional cyclist and, due to the World War and the occupation, almost exclusively drove road races in his home country. He was the first to win the Tour of Flanders three times (1940, 1941 and 1943) and is thus in a row with Johan Museeuw , Eric Leman and Fiorenzo Magni .

Buysse is revered as a cycling idol in Belgium, especially in the Flemish part; the Tour of Flanders led more than 30 times through his hometown Wetteren, where the winner of 1929, Jef Dervaes , also came from. In Wetteren, at a monument in honor of Bruysses, a 32 km long “Achiel Buysse-fietstour” begins; the local baker sells “Achiel Buysse cake”. When Wetteren was a stage destination of the Tour of Flanders in 2009, the church was decorated with an oversized photo of Buysse.

Buysse is the grandfather of the professional racing drivers Pascal Elaut and Luc Colijn ; his son-in-law is the Keirin world champion Michel Vaarten .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ wielersport.slogblog.nl: "Achiel Buysse" accessed on February 27, 2010 (Dutch)
2. ↑ Grootwetteren.be: "De Ronde is thuis gekomen" queried on February 27, 2010 (Dutch)

Web links

• Achiel Buysse in the Radsportseiten.net database