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Saturday, 25 April 2026
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Belgium·Cycling

Belgian town honours forgotten Paris-Roubaix champion 100 years on from his victory

Friday, 17 April 2026, 08:11 · 1 min read

The Belgian town of Harelbeke (a small municipality in the West Flanders province) has held a formal ceremony honouring local cycling legend Julien Delbecque, exactly 100 years after he won Paris-Roubaix in 1925 — a commemoration given extra resonance by Wout van Aert's victory in the same race last Sunday. The town's heritage alderman, who traced Delbecque's descendants through a local history Facebook group, invited the cyclist's extended family to the town hall, where archival photographs were displayed and relatives noted a striking physical resemblance between Delbecque and his grandson. Delbecque, who also won the Tour of Flanders in 1924, had been largely forgotten for nearly half a century, making the tribute all the more significant to his family, with his daughter Nelly describing it as "a great honour."

Sources
VRT NWSNa zege Wout van Aert huldigt Harelbeke zijn eigen vergeten kasseikoning, 100 jaar na zijn winst in Parijs-Roubaix ↗︎
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