Tour de France: Can Remco Evenepoel become the 11th Belgian winner?
Ten Belgians have won the Tour de France in the long history of the iconic cycling race. The first was Odiel Defraeye in 1912, the last Lucien Van Impe almost half a century ago. In between, Eddy “The Cannibal” Merckx brought home the yellow jersey no fewer than five times. Can Remco Evenepoel follow in their footsteps, this year or later?
As a cycling-crazy country, Belgium has been waiting impatiently for almost five decades for a new local hero to take the top prize in the most important race of the year. Evenepoel, who won the Vuelta a España in 2022 and finished third in the Tour last year, now carries the hope of the nation on his shoulders.
The rider from Schepdaal, near Brussels, can draw inspiration from 10 compatriots who have won the general classification. The most illustrious among them is Merckx, considered the greatest cyclist of all time.
Merckx, who celebrated his 80th birthday this year, won the Tour de France five times between 1969 and 1974. He also won 34 stages in total, a record that was only broken last year by British sprinter Mark Cavendish.
Before Merckx, all other Belgian victories in the overall classification date from before the Second World War. The first two winners, Defraeye and Philippe Thys, even saw their careers interrupted by the First World War.
Defraeye was the first Belgian to win the race, in 1912. He was born in Rumbeke, West Flanders, in a working-class family, and four years before his triumph, he was working as a brush factory worker. But his talent for cycling charmed his boss, who promoted him to bike messenger and acted as his mentor, kickstarting his career as a pro rider.
He was only 24 when he won the Tour, but he would never repeat the feat, because of injuries and the war. Like so many Belgians, Defraeye had to report for duty on 1 August 1914, a few days before Germany invaded the country. He survived the war but his cycling career went into decline.
Thys, from Anderlecht in Brussels, on the other hand, won the Tour both before and after the First World War – in 1913, 1914 and 1920. He was the first cyclist to win the race three times. In 1920, he mainly faced competition from compatriots: the first seven riders in the overall classification that year were Belgians.
Fruitful decade
The 1920s were a very fruitful decade for the nation, with four other Belgians following Thys’ example: Firmin Lambot, Léon Scieur, Lucien Buysse and Maurice De Waele. Remarkably, two of those winners – Lambot and Scieur – came from the same town: Florennes in Namur province.
The victories of Buysse and De Waele were both dramatic, for entirely different reasons. Buysse had lost his eldest daughter just two weeks before the start of the race in 1926, which also remains the longest in the history of the event, with the riders covering 5,745km.
De Waele won the Tour of 1929, despite becoming sick when he was leading the general classification. It is even said that he fainted an hour before the start of one stage. His team and teammates did everything they could to help him limit the damage during the next stages.
De Waele continued to fight and ultimately remained on top – not to the satisfaction of the race director, Henri Desgrange, who said his race “was won by a corpse”.
King of the Mountains
The Belgian winners in the following decade carried the same name, Maes, but were not related. Romain Maes was the first in 1935. He led from day one to the final finish line. Sylvère Maes picked up the baton in 1936 and triumphed a second time in 1939, the last Tour before the Second World War.
The only Belgian to win the Tour after the reign of Eddy Merckx was Lucien Van Impe. Van Impe was a pure climber, who obtained six polka dot jerseys, the reward for the winner of the mountains classification, known as the King of the Mountains.
Van Impe took part in the Tour a whopping 15 times and he finished on the podium five times. In 1976, he finished first, something no Belgian has managed since then.
It would be a major upset if Evenepoel were to become the 11th Belgian winner this year, in the edition that started on 5 July. Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who won last year, is the clear favourite. Jonas Vingegaard from Denmark is his main rival.
But Evenepoel is only 25 and started cycling later than most pro riders, as he first pursued a football career. So he has many years to fulfil his dream – and that of so many Belgian fans.
Remco Evenepoel cycles through Lille during the official team presentation ahead of the 112th Tour de France, 3 July 2025 © PHOTO MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP
Related news
