Theofiel Middelkamp

Theofiel Middelkamp (February 23rd 1914 with Nieuw-Namen, May 2nd 2005) was a racing cyclist Dutch.

He was the second of a family of nine children. He wanted initially to become footballer, but realized well quickly that he could earn much more money as a racing cyclist.

He was the first Netherlander to gain a stage in the Tour de France. He never had seen mountain and nor never faced a stage of mountain, and he rolled on an ordinary bicycle with only one speed. The July 14th 1936, whereas it was its Tour first, it gained the difficult alpine stage between Aix-the-Baths and Grenoble with inter alia the Collar of Galibier. It finished to it tower with the 23e place with general classification. In 1937, it had to give up because of a fall during which it broke a finger. In 1938, it gained the seventh stage (from Bayonne to Pau), and the Turn brought back five thousand francs to him. It was definitely less than what it could gain in the cycle races of Flanders, also decided it more not to take part in the Turn but to specialize in the tests of the village fairs. “I cannot live of glory and of honor”, he in a famous sentence declares.

Its career of cyclist was stopped by the second world war, during which it earned his living as smuggler; but it got caught and spent a few months in the shade. After the war, it practiced full-time cycling.

In 1946, a mechanical incident prevented it from gaining the victory with the championship of the world. In 1947, in Rheims, it succeeds in all the same becoming finally the first Netherlander world champion.

In 1951, it hung up again and bought then a coffee with Kieldrecht. The coffee was closed in 2006 for security issues. For the Belgians, it was a Netherlander, and for the Netherlanders it was a Belgian. He put himself in anger because the Dutch government refused to give him a retirement pension. A long time it closed its door with the journalists, but on the Netwerk television channel it told in 2003 its victory with the Collar of Galibier.

It Maria twice. Of its first marriage, it had two wire, with which it did not want to have relations any more. His first wife died in 1961 and it lost also a girl. It could not carry out its ambition to be the first cyclist to reach the one hundred years age: the king of the Flemish races of village fair died out at 91 years.

Its principal results

1936 : gain a stage of the Tour de France (43e finishes); 3rd of the Championship of the World.
1938: Championship of Holland; gain a stage of the Tour de France (43e finishes).
1943: Championship of Holland
1945: Championship of Holland
1947: first Netherlander world champion on road; Circuit of the Flemish Mountains
1948: Circuit of Eastern Flanders
1950: 2nd of the Championship of the World, 10th of the Turn of Holland

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