Roger Swerts

Roger Swerts (born December 28, 1942 in Heusden ) is a former Belgian cyclist .

Athletic career

From 1962, Roger Swerts drove internationally as an amateur. In 1964 he took part in the road race of the Olympic Games in Tokyo and finished 18th. In the following year he took part in the International Peace Tour and took 7th place, as well as third place in the special ranking for the most active driver. He then immediately received a contract as a professional driver from Antonin Magne , the Mercier team leader, and he was nominated for the Tour de France team of the racing team (41st in the final ranking). After moving to the pros, he finished third in the Road World Championships in Lasarte-Oria , Spain , behind Tom Simpson and Raymond Poulidor . This made him the only Limburg citizen to have made it onto the podium at a World Cup.

In 1969 Swerts won the championship in Zurich , in 1971 the National Sluitingsprijs , in 1972 Gent-Wevelgem , the Grand Prix des Nations and, together with Eddy Merckx, the Trofeo Baracchi . In 1974 he became Belgian road racing champion and won the Tour of Belgium .

In his first three years as a professional, Roger Swerts, who was an excellent time trial driver (in addition to the above-mentioned races, he won the 1972 Grand Prix Forlì ), drove for the Mercier cycling team with Poulidor, but was unable to assert himself as a Belgian among the French. He then drove in teams dominated by Merckx and could not develop his talent, changed teams, but later returned to a team with Merckx. He took part in the Tour de France seven times , his best placing was 14th in 1972 . On this tour he also won the mountain classification at the Col du Tourmalet . At the Vuelta a España in 1973 he was ninth and 1974 tenth overall.

After the end of his active cycling career, Swerts became the chauffeur of a Belgian minister, then sports director for various cycling teams such as Mini Flat-Vermeer Thijs , Roland-Skala , Vlaanderen 2002 and Chocolade Jacques-Topsport .

literature

• Herman Laitem, Jozef Hamels: De Tricolore Trui. 1882-2007. 125 Jaar Belgian Campaign Schappen. Pinguin Productions et al., Balegem et al. 2008, ISBN 978-90-73322-21-9 , pp. 175f.

Web links

• Roger Swerts in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Roger Swerts in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maik Märtin: 50 years of Course de la Paix . Agency Construct, Leipzig 1998, p. 259 .
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland (Ed.): XIX. Peace ride 1966 . Berlin 1966, p. 8 .
3. ↑ Roger Swert's managerial activities. In: radsportseiten.net. Retrieved August 8, 2020 .