Mien van Bree

Mien van Bree

Mien van Bree (1938)
To person
Full name	Wilhelmina Elizabeth van Bree
Nickname	Kwee
Date of birth	April 24, 1915
date of death	4th August 1983
nation	Netherlands
discipline	Track cycling, road cycling
Most important successes
Road World Championships 1938, 1939 - street races 1935, 1936, 1937 - road races 1934 - road racing European Road Championships 1937 - road racing National road championships 1938 - road racing (all titles are unofficial)

Mien van Bree (born April 24, 1915 in Loosduinen ; † August 4, 1983 there ) was a Dutch cyclist .

Athletic career

Mien van Bree's cycling talent was discovered by her village neighbor, the five-time cycling world champion Piet Moeskops , who saw her ride behind buses on her bike and subsequently trained her at times. Because of her sporty, strong appearance she was called "Kwee" (dt. = Quince, translated: man woman).

In 1931, van Bree and several friends founded the first women's cycling club in the Netherlands, Vooruitgang Is Ons Streven (VIOS). But cycling races for women were banned in the Netherlands, so the club members set off for Antwerp by bike when they learned from the newspaper that a world championship was being organized there.

In Antwerp, too, women's cycling races were initially banned by the municipality, until the Belgian sports promoter Jos De Stobbeleire decided in 1934 to hold world championships anyway. This plan led to discussions in the Antwerp newspapers, which caused a lot of public attention and thousands of spectators lined the route. 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. The Belgian Elvire De Bruyn became world champion with a time of two hours, 41 minutes and 56 seconds for 90 kilometers, which corresponded to an average of 33 kilometers per hour. Van Bree claimed third place at the World Championship, which was attended by at least 15 riders, including the Italian Alfonsina Strada . In the following six-day race in Amsterdam , she drove a lap of honor in which the male drivers stood in line. Van Drakestein respected van Bree's performance, but was of the opinion that women's races in the Netherlands should only take place on private property, as one is too "dignified" in his home country.

In order to continue racing, Mien van Bree moved to Belgium; she probably worked there as a waitress to make a living. In 1935, 1936 and 1937 she took second place at world championships, behind the Belgian local hero Elvire De Bruyn, who changed sex in 1937 and henceforth called herself "Willy". In 1937, after De Bruyn stopped racing women, van Bree became European champion in a road race and in 1938 and 1939 world champion. Also in 1938 she became Dutch champion in a mixed race with Belgian and Dutch racing drivers; as the best Dutch woman, she was awarded the championship title. The outbreak of World War II ended Mien van Bree's sports career.

In later years, Mien van Bree, who enthusiastically watched cycling races on television, said: “Eigenlijk ben ik te vroeg born.” (Eng .: “Actually, I was born too early.”)

Private

Mien van Bree was the youngest of five children in the family. Her oldest sister, who had Down syndrome , died at the age of 13. In 1944 her brother Jan was killed as a slave laborer in a bomb attack in Hamburg ; the family remained in the dark about his fate long after the war. Her mother never recovered from this stroke of fate and died in 1952, her father in 1959. Van Bree, who had returned to Loosduinen in 1941, looked after her parents until their death and worked as a nurse. She never married, but had close friends with other female racing drivers and continued to be in contact with Willy Debruyne, formerly Elvire De Bruyn. She lived with a friend in the 1970s; when she came back from a vacation, she had moved out and taken the furniture with her. In the years that followed, she began breeding canaries, kept other animals, and talked to alcohol excessively. She also joined the Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1983 she was found dead in her apartment; she choked on her own vomit.

literature

• Mariska Tjoelker: Mien. Een forgiven divorced. Thomas Rap, Amsterdam 2016, ISBN 978-94-004-0412-0 .

Web links

• Mien van Bree in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Marielle Scherer: Bree, Wilhelmina Elizabeth van (1915–1983). In: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. March 14, 2013, accessed November 30, 2013 (Dutch). 

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Mariska Tjoelker: De gesmoorde hard-boiled van Mien van Bree. October 18, 2013, accessed November 29, 2013 (Dutch). 
2. ↑ According to other reports, Mien van Bree was only eighth.
3. ↑ Treurig einde voor Nederlands eerste wereldkampioene. Stuyfssportverhalen, March 9, 2011, accessed December 2, 2013 (Dutch). 
4. ^ Wim van Eyle: Een Eeuw Nederlandse Wielersport . Het Spectrum, Utrecht / Antwerp 1980, ISBN 90-274-1065-8 , pp. 68 (Dutch).
5. ^ Marielle Scherer: Bree, Wilhelmina Elizabeth van (1915-1983). In: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. March 14, 2013, accessed November 30, 2013 (Dutch).