Francina "Fanny" Elsje Blankers-Koen was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earning her the nickname "the Flying Housewife", and was the most successful athlete at the event.
Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel is a Dutch retired racing cyclist. She was a dominant cyclist in the 1990s and early 2000s, winning four gold medals at the Olympic Games and holding the hour record for women from 2003 until 2015.
Hugh William Porter MBE is one of Britain's greatest former professional cyclists, winning four world titles in the individual pursuit - more than any other rider - as well as a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 1966. He is now a commentator on cycling events, working most notably for the BBC and ITV.
Beryl Burton, OBE was an English racing cyclist who dominated women's cycle racing in the UK, winning more than 90 domestic championships and seven world titles, and setting numerous national records. She set a women's record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men's record for two years.
Natallia Tsylinskaya is an international cyclist, specialising in track sprinting. A dominant force in the 500m time trial between 2000 and 2006 in particular, Tsylinskaya is an eight time World Champion, and an Olympic bronze medalist.
Eleonora Maria "Ellen" van Dijk is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Trek–Segafredo. Besides road cycling she was also a track cyclist until 2012. Van Dijk is known as a time trial specialist and is five times world champion. She won her first world title on the track in the scratch race in 2008. She became Road World Champion in 2012, 2013 and 2016 with her respective trade teams in the team time trial and in 2013 also in the individual time trial. In 2015, she won the time trial at the first European Games and the silver medal in the team time trial at the world championships.
Sport in Belgium plays a prominent role in the society. As of 2010, Belgium counted around 17,000 sport clubs with approximately 1.35 million members, or about 13% of the Belgian population. Popular sports in Belgium are, among others: football, cycling, tennis, table tennis, athletics, swimming, basketball, badminton, judo, hockey, rowing, motocross, auto racing, volleyball, and running. Belgium has organized the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp as well as the 1972 UEFA European Championship and the 2000 UEFA European Championship along with the Netherlands. The Belgium national football team's best result was a 3rd place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and a second place of the 1980 UEFA European Championship. Belgian football clubs have won 3 times the UEFA Cup Winners Cup and twice the UEFA Cup, plus 3 times the UEFA Supercup.
Sanne Cant is a Belgian racing cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team IKO–Crelan, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Plantur–Pura. Cant's cousin Loes Sels is also a professional cyclist.
The UCI world championships are annual competitions promoted by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to determine world champion cyclists. They are held in several different styles of racing, in a different country each year. Championship winners wear a white jersey with coloured bands around the chest for the following year. The similarity to the colours of a rainbow gives them the colloquial name of "the rainbow jersey." The first three individuals or teams in each championship win gold, silver and bronze medals. Former world champions are allowed to wear a trim to their collar and sleeves in the same pattern as the rainbow jersey.
Karel Kaers was a Belgian professional cyclist with 30 wins.
Hayden Roulston is a former New Zealand professional racing cyclist. He won the silver medal in the men's 4000 m individual pursuit and a bronze medal in the men's 4000 m team pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He won the New Zealand road cycling championships on four occasions, the Tour of Southland on three occasions and came tenth in the 2010 edition of Paris - Roubaix.
Wendy Louise Houvenaghel is a Northern Irish former racing cyclist from Upperlands, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, riding on both the road and track, but specialising in the latter. She has represented Great Britain in various World Cycling Championships and in the 2008 Olympic Games, most notably winning the silver medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, and gold in the team pursuit at the 2008, 2009 and 2011 Track World Championships. She has also won many British national titles and represented England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and Northern Ireland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Houvenaghel is based in Cornwall, England.
Yvonne McGregor MBE is a female English former professional cyclist from Wibsey. She was made an MBE, for services to cycling, in the 2002 New Year Honours.
Cycle racing is a popular sport in Belgium. It is governed by the Royal Belgian Cycling League since 1882, which became a founding member of the International Cycling Association in 1892 and later of the Union Cycliste Internationale in 1900. Since 2002, the Royal Belgian Cycling League is composed of the Wielerbond Vlaanderen (WBV), which governs the cycle racing in Flanders and of the Fédération Cycliste Wallonie-Bruxelles (FCWB), which governs the cycle racing in Wallonia and Brussels. Belgium has been one of the major countries in different categories of cycle racing over the years, including road cycling and cyclo-cross. The best Belgian cyclist of all times, Eddy Merckx, nicknamed the Cannibal, has won all of the three grand tours and all of the five monuments of cycling. He also won the UCI Road World Championships three times and set the hour record, among other achievements.
Scott Matthew McPhee, is an Australian cyclist, who piloted Kieran Modra in tandem cycling. He won a gold medal with Modra at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Katie Archibald, is an elite Scottish and British racing cyclist, specialising in endurance track cycling events in which she represents Great Britain and Scotland.
Kelly Druyts is a Belgian racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Continental Team Bingoal Casino–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.
The 2008 women's road cycling season was the ninth and last season for the Vrienden van het Platteland cycling team, which began as Ondernemers van Nature in 2000.
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.
Lora Marie Fachie is a visually impaired English racing cyclist who competes in para-cycling tandem road and track events. She is a double world champion, with pilot Corrine Hall, in the tandem road race and 1 km time trial events.
