Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx, known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours, all five Monuments, setting the hour record, three World Championships, every major one-day race other than Paris–Tours, and extensive victories on the track.
Hendrik Van Steenbergen was a Belgian racing cyclist, considered to be one of the best among the great number of successful Belgian cyclists.
Felice Gimondi was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the second cyclist to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling: Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a España (1968). He is one of only seven cyclists to have done so.
Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964.
Thomas Simpson was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He was born in Haswell, County Durham, and later moved to Harworth, Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road cycling as a teenager before taking up track cycling, specialising in pursuit races. He won a bronze medal for track cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
Lucien Aimar is a French cyclist, who won the Tour de France in 1966 and the national road championship in 1968. He is now a race organizer.
Johannes Adrianus "Jan" Janssen is a Dutch former professional cyclist. He was world champion and winner of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, the first Dutch rider to win either. He rode the Tour de France eight times and finished all but the first time. He won seven stages and wore the yellow jersey for two days. He was easily spotted in the peloton because of his blond hair and his glasses. As of the death of Federico Bahamontes in August 2023, he is the oldest surviving winner of the Tour de France, but not the most ancient winner: Lucien Aimar won in 1966.
Jean Stablewski, known as Jean Stablinski, was a French professional cyclist from a family of Polish immigrants. He rode from 1952 to 1968, winning 105 races as a professional. He won the national road championship four times - 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964. He was also world road champion in 1962, and won the Vuelta a España in 1958.
The 1969 Tour de France was the 56th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 28 June and 20 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4,117 km (2,558 mi). The participant teams were no longer national teams, but were once more commercially sponsored. The race was won by Eddy Merckx who absolutely dominated the rest of the field. As an example in 1967 nine riders finished within 20:00 of the winner, in 1968 nineteen riders were within 20:00 but in 1969 the 10th place rider was +52:56, the 20th place rider was +1:17:36 and only Roger Pingeon finished inside 20:00 of Merckx.
Alfred De Bruyne was a Belgian champion road cyclist. He won six Tour de France stages early in his career and went on to win many other Monuments and stage races.
The 1965 Tour de France was the 52nd edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It took place between 22 June and 14 July, with 22 stages covering a distance of 4,188 km (2,602 mi). In his first year as a professional, Felice Gimondi, a substitute replacement on the Salvarani team, captured the overall title ahead of Raymond Poulidor, the previous year's second-place finisher.
Rolf Wolfshohl was a German professional road bicycle racing and cyclo-cross racing cyclist. Wolfshohl is best known in cyclo-cross for winning the then unofficial cyclo-cross world championship three times, and in road racing for winning the 1965 Vuelta a España. He won the German National Road Race in 1968.
Johan De Roo is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist between 1958 and 1968. During 11 seasons as a professional he had six victories in single-day classics, three stages of the Tour de France and one stage of the Vuelta a España. He had 46 wins as a professional. He was the most successful rider from Zeeland until the emergence of Jan Raas.
Peter Post was a Dutch professional cyclist whose career lasted from 1956 to 1972. Post competed in road and track racing. As a rider he is best remembered for Six-day racing, having competed in 155 races and won 65. Because of this success he was known as “De Keizer van de Zesdaagse” or “The Emperor of the Six Days”. In road racing his main achievements were winning the 1964 Paris–Roubaix and becoming national road race champion in 1963. He was on the podium three times at the La Flèche Wallonne but never won. Post’s other nickname was “de Lange” or “Big Man” because he was tall for a cyclist. After retiring from racing he had success as a Directeur sportif. Peter Post died in Amstelveen on 14 January 2011.
Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.
Désiré Letort was a French cyclist. His sporting career began with ACBB Paris. His career best finishes in the Tour de France were 17th in 1971, 9th in 1969 and 4th in 1967.
Tino Tabak is a Dutch-born New Zealand cyclist who raced in the Tour de France in the 1970s.
Graeme Gilmore is an Australian retired track cyclist. He is the father of Belgian racing cyclist Matthew Gilmore and brother in law of British racing cyclist Tom Simpson.
Bernard Guyot was a French road cyclist. His sporting career began with U.S. Creteil. As an amateur he competed in the individual road race at the 1964 Summer Olympics, won the Peace Race in 1966, and placed fourth in the team time trial at the 1966 UCI Road World Championships. In 1967 he turned professional and won 10 races before retiring in 1974. He raced the Tour de France in 1968-1972, placing 27th in 1968 and 28th in 1971. In the national professional road championship, Guyot placed second in 1972 and third in 1969. His father Bernard Sr. and brothers Claude and Serge were also competitive cyclists.
The 1967 Paris–Nice was the 25th running of the Paris–Nice cycling stage race, often known as the Race to the Sun. It started on 8 March in Athis-Mons, south of Paris, and ended on 15 March in Nice and consisted of eight stages, including an individual time trial. A total of 96 riders from twelve teams entered the race, which was won by Briton Tom Simpson of the Peugeot–BP–Michelin team.
