Biography
Josiane Bost was one of the best female racing cyclists in France in the 1970s. She won the world championship in 1977 and three national championships on the track, including the unusual combination of pursuit and sprint titles. She and Geneviève Gambillon, her main rival, bridged the gap in French cycling between Lily Herse and Jeannie Longo.
Bost came second three times in the national road championship, beaten each time by Gambillon. She was French pursuit champion in 1977 and 1978 and sprint champion in 1978. In 1977, she beat the American, Connie Carpenter, in the world road championship at San Cristóbal.
Jeannie Longo is a French racing cyclist, 60-time French champion and 13-time world champion. Longo began racing in 1975 and was active in cycling through 2012. She was once widely considered the best female cyclist of all time, although that reputation is now clouded by suspicion of doping throughout her career. She is famous for her competitive nature and her longevity in the sport — when she was selected to compete for France in the 2008 Olympics, it was her seventh Olympic Games; some of Longo's competitors that year had not yet been born when she took part in her first Olympics in 1984. She had stated that 2008 would be her final participation in the Olympics. In the Women's road race, she finished 24th, 33 seconds behind winner Nicole Cooke, who was one year old when Longo first rode in the Olympics. At the same Olympics, she finished 4th in the road time trial, just two seconds shy of securing a bronze medal. She is currently number two on the all-time list of French female summer or winter Olympic medal winners, with a total of four medals including one in gold, which is one less than the total number won by the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic.
Katie Mactier is an Australian professional racing cyclist. She began racing in 1999 at 24 and was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. She was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne.
Freddy Maertens is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist who was twice world road race champion. His career coincided with the best years of another Belgian rider, Eddy Merckx, and supporters and reporters were split over who was better. Maertens' career swung between winning more than 50 races in a season to winning almost none and then back again. His life has been marked by debt and alcoholism. It took him more than two decades to pay a tax debt. At one point early in his career, between the 1976 Tour and 1977 Giro, Maertens won 28 out of 60 Grand Tour stages that he entered before abandoning the Giro due to injury on stage 8b. Eight Tour stage wins, thirteen Vuelta stage wins and seven Giro stage wins in less than one calendar year.
Marino Basso is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, considered one of the best sprinters of his generation. He won the World Cycling Championship in 1972.
Dietrich "Didi" Thurau is a retired German professional road bicycle racer. His biggest career achievements include winning the one-day classic, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, his home country's Deutschland Tour and surprising the field at the 1977 Tour de France by capturing four stages and holding the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification from the prologue for 15 days. Thurau did win the young rider classification although he lost the overall lead to eventual winner Bernard Thévenet.
Ferdinand Bracke is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist who is most famous for holding the World Hour Record (48.093 km) and winning the overall title at the 1971 Vuelta a España in front of Wilfried David of Belgium and Luis Ocaña of Spain. He also became world pursuit champion on the track in 1964 and 1969.
Roy Schuiten was a Dutch track and road racing cyclist. After retirement he became a team manager before starting a restaurant.
Knut Knudsen is a retired Norwegian road and track cyclist. As an amateur, he placed fifth in the 4000m individual pursuit at the 1968 Olympics before becoming Olympic champion in the same discipline in 1972. He would follow this up with another gold at the 1973 World Championships. At the 1972 Olympics he also placed fifth in the 100 km team time trial on the road. He won the Norwegian National Road Race Championships in 1972 and 1973.
Léon Hendrik Jan van Bon is a retired road racing cyclist from the Netherlands, who won the silver medal in the men's points race at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He won his first major race at the professionals in 1998, winning the HEW Cyclassics. In 2001 he claimed the overall-victory in the Ronde van Nederland. Van Bon retired in 2013.
Gregor Braun is a retired track cyclist and road bicycle racer from Germany, who was a professional rider from 1977 to 1989 and who became a multiple Olympic Gold medaillist and track world champion. his profession was a locksmith.
Günter Haritz is a retired road and track cyclist from West Germany, who won the gold medal in the Men's 4.000 Team Pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, alongside Günther Schumacher, Jürgen Colombo, and Udo Hempel. In 1973, together with Peter Vonhof, Hans Lutz and Günther Schumacher, Haritz won the amateur world title in the team pursuit.
Julien Stevens is a retired Belgian cyclist who raced from 1963 to 1977. Stevens spent most part of his career employed to help other riders, such as Rik Van Steenbergen, Rik Van Looy and Eddy Merckx. In 1969, at the road world championship in Zolder he got clear with Dutchman Harm Ottenbros but lost the sprint.
Michael Mørkøv Christensen is a Danish professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step. He is the brother of racing cyclists Jacob and Jesper Mørkøv.
Josef Fuchs is a retired Swiss racing cyclist. As an amateur he won two world championship medals in 1969 and 1971, both on the road and on track. He also won a few minor races and two stages of the Tour de l'Avenir and one of the Milk Race (1971).
Lucy May van der Haar is a British former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2013 and 2020 for the Team Liv–Plantur, Wiggle High5 and Hitec Products–Birk Sport teams. Van der Haar is a double junior world road race champion, winning in consecutive years, in 2011 and 2012.
Geneviève Gambillon is a former French road bicycle racer. She became the women's Road World Champion in 1972 and again in 1974. She retired from competition in 1978 and became a nurse at the hospital in Granville.
Maria Jongeling is a Dutch road and track racing cyclist. As a junior, she won a gold medal at the Track World Championships in the individual pursuit. She also became three years in a row national track champion in the individual pursuit and won in the 1994 the Dutch National Time Trial Championships. She participated at the UCI Road World Championships in the time trial in 1994 and 1995 She is the older sister of Jet Jongeling, who won the Dutch National Time Trials in 1995.
Kelly Druyts is a Belgian racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Continental Team Duolar-Chevalmeire. She finished in second place in the Belgian National Road Race Championships in 2010. She won a bronze medal in the scratch race at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, and gold in the scratch race at the 2014 Championships.
Denise Burton was an English cyclist during the mid-late 1970s, winning national titles and a world championship bronze medal in 1975 representing Great Britain.
Elisa Balsamo is an Italian road and track cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's World Team Lidl–Trek, and represents Italy at international competitions.
