Elvire De Bruyn

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Elvire De Bruyn
Willem Maurits Debruyne (from 1937)Road cycling
To person
Date of birth 4th August 1914
date of death August 13, 1989
nation Belgium
discipline Track cycling, road cycling

Elvire De Bruyn , also Willem "Willy" Maurits Debruyne , (born August 4, 1914 in Erembodegem , † August 13, 1989 in Antwerp ) was a Belgian cyclist .

Life and career

Between 1934 and 1937 Elvire De Bruyn was four times world champion in road racing. These world championships were unofficial as they were not organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale , but on the basis of a private initiative.

The World Championships in Antwerp in 1934 were announced by the Belgian sports promoter Jos De Stobbeleire, although women's cycling races were actually forbidden there. De Stobbeleire's plan attracted a lot of publicity and thousands of spectators lined the circuit. According to reports from the Dutch sports official Gerard Bosch van Drakestein , who attended the race, only 7,500 of the announced 50,000 francs in prize money were paid out, and an international participation was simulated by announcing Dutch drivers as German or Luxembourg champions.

De Bruyn won the race with a time of two hours, 41 minutes and 56 seconds for 90 kilometers, which was an average of 33 kilometers per hour. Her Dutch competitor Mien van Bree attested her a "male driving style".

In 1937 De Bruyn declared that she was a man and called herself "Willem Maurits Debruyne". From April 1937 the series “Hoe ik van vrouw man werd” (German: “How I became from woman to man”) was published about him in the newspaper De Dag . Willy Debruyne continued to race, but without success. He got married and opened Café Dedenderleeuw in Brussels near the Gare du Nord .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mariska Tjoelker: De gesmoorde hard-boiled van Mien van Bree. October 18, 2013, accessed November 29, 2013 (Dutch).
  2. ↑ Elvire de Bruyn's business card. Retrieved December 2, 2013 .
  3. ↑ La lente et difficile Avancée du Cyclistme Fémin. parisvelo.fr, 2006, accessed on December 2, 2013 (French).
personal data
SURNAME De Bruyn, Elvire
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Bruyn, Elvira (full name); Debryune, Willem Maurits (from 1937)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Erembodegem
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1989
Place of death Antwerp