Gerard Peters

Ge Peters

Gerard "Gerrit" Peters (born July 31, 1920 in Haarlem ; † April 6, 2005 there ) was a Dutch cyclist and world champion.

In 1941 Gerrit Peters became the Dutch master of the amateurs on the street. The following year he became a professional; In 1946 he became Dutch champion in the single pursuit on the track (after he had already been on the podium twice before) and finally world champion in this discipline at the championships in Zurich .

Shortly afterwards, Peters fell badly in a track race in Ghent and broke his arm, which remained restricted. In the following years Gerrit Peters drove with moderate success in road races . He was more successful in six-day races , where he started 37 times. He was able to win six times in six-day races - that of Berlin in 1954 - together with Gerrit Schulte , who had been his greatest competitor in the single track pursuit. They were called "the two gerrits". In 1956 he ended his cycling career after Schulte, in whose shadow the calm Peters had always stood, had ended his collaboration with him in favor of Peter Post .

Once, in 1951, Peters also took part in the Tour de France , where he caused a sensation less because of his driving successes than because of a legendary saying. When his compatriot and teammate Wim van Est , who was wearing the yellow jersey at the time , fell and fell down an embankment, Peters looked down at it from above and said: “Het is net een boterbloem.” (Dutch = “It's just a buttercup. ”) The next day, the entire team was taken out of the race by team leader Kees Pellenaars .

Gerrit Peters, who was also simply called "Gé" by fans, was married to the daughter of the Sprint Olympic champion Jacobus van Egmond . For a while he ran a restaurant in Zandvoort . He was also the sporting director of the “Caballero” cycling team.

Web links

• Gerard Peters in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Wielersport.Sportblog.nl