Alban Collignon

Alban Collignon (1920)

Alban Collignon (born May 17, 1876 in Mechelen , † October 31, 1955 in Brussels ) was a Belgian sports journalist , cycling official and president of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

In 1911 Alban Collignon founded the cycling magazine Tous les Sports and initiated the Tour of Belgium for amateurs. He later sold this magazine and founded the new Vélo Sports , which also served as the official organ of the Ligue Vélocipédique Belge .

In 1928 Collignon initiated the award of the Nationale trofee voor sportverdienste in Belgium , originally in honor of the founder of the Koninklijke Belgian Aero Club , Fernand Jacobs, which is why the award was also called Grote Prijs Fernand Jacobs for the first four years . To this day, special services to Belgian sport are honored annually, and the award can only be received once. In recent years the Trofee has been awarded to the footballer Marc Wilmots (2002) and the cyclist Philippe Gilbert (2009), among others . Collignon was President of the UCI from 1939 to 1947, after having been Vice President from 1935 to 1939.

Collignon was also president of the Belgian cycling federation and acted as referee in cycling races. At the UCI track world championships in 1931 , he caused a scandal: In the final run of the sprint race between the French Lucien Michard and the Dane Willy Falck Hansen , he decided on Falck Hansen as the winner and proclaimed him world champion. Although both the driver and himself realized shortly afterwards that this was a wrong judgment, the rules of the time did not allow his decision to be revised. As he was the only target judge, it was decided as a consequence to use several target judges in the future.

Individual evidence

^ Christian Hubert: De la Première à La Derniere Heure , p. 136
↑ Lucien Michard on lepetitbraquet.free.fr ( Memento from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) This rule was originally introduced for pragmatic reasons, in order to avoid endless discussions about the result - as was often the case before. In the rules, however, the case that the target referee corrected himself was not provided for.

personal data
SURNAME	Collignon, Alban
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian sports journalist and President of the Union Cycliste Internationale, the world cycling association
DATE OF BIRTH	May 17, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Mechelen
DATE OF DEATH	October 31, 1955
Place of death	Brussels

[1] Christian Hubert: De la Première à La Derniere Heure , p. 136

[2] Lucien Michard on lepetitbraquet.free.fr ( Memento from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) This rule was originally introduced for pragmatic reasons, in order to avoid endless discussions about the result - as was often the case before. In the rules, however, the case that the target referee corrected himself was not provided for.