Karel Kaers

Karel Kaers

Personal information
Full name	Karel Kaers
Born	(1914-06-03)3 June 1914 Vosselaar, Belgium
Died	20 December 1972(1972-12-20) (aged 58) Antwerp, Belgium
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Major wins
1934 World Road Racing Championships
Medal record Competitor for  Belgium Road bicycle racing World Championships Gold 1934 Leipzig Elite Men's Road Race
Infobox last updated on 7 April 2009

Karel Kaers (3 June 1914^[1] – 20 December 1972) was a Belgian professional cyclist with 30 wins.

Kaers was born in Vosselaar. In 1934 he became the youngest world road champion, winning in Leipzig at 20. It was the first time he had ridden the race. He also won the Tour of Flanders in 1939, and the Belgian national championship in 1937.

His last race was on the track at Ordrup, near Copenhagen, Denmark, on 9 May 1948. He finished fourth in an omnium competition.^[2]

Youngest world champion

Lance Armstrong is frequently described as the youngest world champion. In fact, he was only the third youngest road champion when he took the rainbow jersey in Oslo in 1993. Armstrong was two weeks short of 22; Kaers had just turned 20. Jean-Pierre Monseré was three weeks short of 22 when he became champion in Leicester on 16 August 1970.

History

Karel Kaers started racing at 14 and won 37 events in his first two years, including the Belgian boys' championship on the road.^[3] He became a junior in 1931 and won the national sprint championship. He became an independent, or semi-professional, and then a full professional in 1932, riding mainly on the track until 1934.^[4]

In 1934 he began riding more on the road, winning the world championship at Leipzig. That winter he rode 1m 9.6 for a standing-start kilometre and, another track record, 1m 48s for the flying-start kilometre, both on the Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris.^[5] He won the 320 km Circuit of Paris road race in 1937, then rode the track again in the winter and equalled Jeff Scherens' record of 29.6s for 500 metres. He then broke the world one-mile record at Wembley, during the six-day race, by riding 1m 49.6s.

His weight, 85 kg, made him a poor climber and he never succeeded in hilly races.^[6]

Retirement

Karel Kaers ran a bar inside the entrance to the Sportpaleis track in Antwerp after he stopped racing.^[7] He died in Antwerp, aged 58.

Palmarès

Teams

1933-1934: Unknown 1935: Pélissier-Hutchinson 1936: Colin-Wolber and Bristol 1937: Bury and Alcyon-Dunlop 1938: Dilecta-Wolber and Bury and Alcyon-Dunlop 1939-1940: Alcyon-Dunlop 1941-1943: Unsponsored 1944: Trialoux-Wolber 1945-1946: Unsponsored 1947: Magali 1948: Individual

External links

• Karel Kaers profile at Cycling Archives

References

UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race 1927 Binda 1928 Ronsse 1929 Ronsse 1930 Binda 1931 Guerra 1932 Binda 1933 Speicher 1934 Kaers 1935 Aerts 1936 Magne 1937 Meulenberg 1938 Kint 1946 Knecht 1947 Middelkamp 1948 Schotte 1949 Van Steenbergen 1950 Schotte 1951 Kübler 1952 Müller 1953 Coppi 1954 Bobet 1955 Ockers 1956 Van Steenbergen 1957 Van Steenbergen 1958 Baldini 1959 Darrigade 1960 Van Looy 1961 Van Looy 1962 Stablinski 1963 Beheyt 1964 Janssen 1965 Simpson 1966 Altig 1967 E. Merckx 1968 Adorni 1969 Ottenbros 1970 Monseré 1971 E. Merckx 1972 M. Basso 1973 Gimondi 1974 E. Merckx 1975 Kuiper 1976 Maertens 1977 F. Moser 1978 Knetemann 1979 Raas 1980 B. Hinault 1981 Maertens 1982 Saronni 1983 LeMond 1984 Criquielion 1985 Zoetemelk 1986 Argentin 1987 S. Roche 1988 Fondriest 1989 LeMond 1990 Dhaenens 1991 Bugno 1992 Bugno 1993 Armstrong 1994 Leblanc 1995 Olano 1996 Museeuw 1997 Brochard 1998 Camenzind 1999 Freire 2000 Vainšteins 2001 Freire 2002 Cipollini 2003 Astarloa 2004 Freire 2005 Boonen 2006 Bettini 2007 Bettini 2008 Ballan 2009 Evans 2010 Hushovd 2011 Cavendish 2012 Gilbert 2013 Costa 2014 Kwiatkowski