Lucien Buysse

Lucien Buysse (11 September 1892 – 3 January 1980) was a Belgian cyclist and a champion of the Tour de France.

Career
Born in Wontergem, Buysse began racing professionally in 1914, when he entered the Tour de France but did not finish. He resumed his career after World War I, entering but abandoning the Tour again in 1919 but placing third in the Paris–Roubaix classic in 1920. In 1923 he completed the Tour de France and finished in eighth place. In the 1924 and 1925 Tours, he rode with the Italian Automoto team led by Ottavio Bottecchia, where he was perhaps the first domestique in the history of the Tour. He placed third in 1924 and second in 1925.

The 1926 Tour was the longest in its history (5,745 km), with 17 stages averaging 338 km. Buysse, racing with his two brothers Jules and Michel, took the yellow jersey from Gustave Van Slembrouck on stage 10 by attacking during a furious storm on the Col d'Aspin in the Pyrenees. He gained almost an hour during the stage over his team leader Bottecchia who then abandoned. Buysse arrived in Paris as the champion despite suffering the loss of his daughter during the race.

In 1926, Buysse forced the Tour de France organiser Henri Desgrange to create a new rule when he eliminated the entire field by finishing so far ahead that everyone else was outside the limit. Desgrange extended the day's limit to 40 per cent of the winner's time and ruled that nobody in the first 10 could be eliminated.

Buysse won a total of five stages of the Tour during his career: one in 1923; two in 1925 and two in 1926.

Major results

 * 1912
 * 8th Scheldeprijs


 * 1913
 * 1st Tour of Belgium for amateurs
 * 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège


 * 1914
 * 1st Brussels-Liège for amateurs
 * 6th place overall classification Tour of Belgium


 * 1919
 * 3rd Grand Prix de l'Armistice (fr)
 * 3rd Gran Fondo
 * 10th Milan–San Remo
 * 8th Scheldeprijs
 * 10th Belgian National Road Race Championships, Road race


 * 1920
 * 2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 * 3rd Paris–Roubaix
 * 6th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen


 * 1921
 * Winner Stage 5 Tour of Belgium
 * 3rd Arlon–Ostend
 * 4th Overall Giro d'Italia


 * 1922
 * 1st Lier
 * 5th Tour of Flanders
 * 7th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
 * 7th Belgian National Road Race Championships, Road race


 * 1923
 * Tour de France
 * 8th place overall classification
 * Winner stage 8
 * 1st Critérium of Amsterdam
 * 4th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen


 * 1924
 * Tour de France:
 * 3rd place overall classification


 * 1925
 * Tour de France:
 * 2nd place overall classification
 * Winner stages 11 and 12
 * 9th Paris–Tours


 * 1926
 * Tour de France:
 * Jersey yellow.svg Winner overall classification
 * Winner stages 10 and 11
 * 3rd Bordeaux–Paris
 * 9th Paris–Brussels


 * 1927
 * 1st Stadsprijs Geraardsbergen
 * Tour of the Basque Country
 * 3rd place overall classification
 * Winner stage 4
 * 3rd Critérium du Midi
 * 5th Bordeaux–Paris


 * 1928
 * 2nd Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
 * 4th Tour of Flanders


 * 1929
 * 8th Paris–Brussels

Track cycling

 * 1922
 * 2nd Six Days of Ghent (with Henri Van Lerberghe)


 * 1923
 * 1st Six Days of Ghent (with Victor Standaert)


 * 1924
 * 2nd Six Days of Ghent (with Jules Van Hevel)


 * 1925
 * 3rd Six Days of Ghent (with Emile Thollembeek)