Philippe Thys (cyclist)

Philippe Thys (Philippe Thĳs; 8 October 1889 – 16 January 1971) was a Belgian cyclist and three times winner of the Tour de France.

Professional career
In 1910, Thys won Belgium's first national cyclo-cross championship. The following year he won the Circuit Français Peugeot, followed by stage races from Paris to Toulouse and Paris to Turin. He then turned professional to ride the Tour de France.

Thys won the Tour in 1913 despite breaking his bicycle fork, and needing to find a bicycle shop to mend it. The repair induced a 10-minute penalty, but he won with a lead of just under nine minutes. Thys took the stage and the race lead when Eugène Christophe broke his fork on the way to Luchon. Marcel Buysse overtook him in the results the following day. Another broken fork on the way to Nice gave Thys the lead again but drama continued when he fell on the penultimate stage from Longwy to Dunkirk. Despite being knocked out and being penalised for help from teammates to repair his bike, he won 8 minutes and 37 seconds ahead of Gustave Garrigou, with Buysse third.

In 1914, he took his first stage victory, to Le Havre, holding the race from start to finish despite a 30-minute penalty for an unauthorised wheel change on the penultimate stage. His victory looked uncertain, his lead cut to less than two minutes ahead of Henri Pélissier.  Ironically, on the final stage from Dunkirk to Paris, the Frenchman's supporters along the route who were expecting victory over the Belgian were the reason he was prevented from launching a breakaway. He won the stage but Thys finished on his wheel to win the Tour.

In 1917, Thys won Paris–Tours and the Giro di Lombardia. In 1918, he also won the second and last Tours–Paris. After World War I, Thys won the Tour a third and final time in 1920. He led from the second stage, Henri Desgrange writing "France is not unaware that, without the war, the crack rider from Anderlecht would be celebrating not his third Tour, but his fifth or sixth". Not until 1955 did Louison Bobet equal Thys's record, and not until 1963 did Jacques Anquetil break it with four wins. Thys also rode in the 1922 Tour, winning five stages, and in the 1924 Tour, winning two stages.

Thys was one of a generation of cyclists whose careers were disrupted by the First World War. After retiring, he recalled that he had been asked by his manager, Alphonse Baugé, to wear a yellow jersey as leader of the Tour, although that distinction is more commonly attributed to Eugène Christophe.

Major results

 * Amateur
 * 1910
 * 1st MaillotBélgica.svg National Cyclo-cross Championships


 * 1911
 * 1st Overall Tour de France Independents
 * 1st in 2 Stages
 * 1st Overall Paris-Turin
 * 1st in 2 Stages
 * 1st Paris-Toulouse
 * 1st Circuit Française Peugeot


 * Professional
 * 1912
 * 6th Overall Tour de France


 * 1913
 * 1st Overall Tour de France
 * 1st Stage 6


 * 1914
 * 1st Overall Tour de France
 * 1st Stage 1
 * 1st Paris-Menin (fr)
 * 3rd Paris–Tours


 * 1917
 * 1st Giro di Lombardia
 * 1st Paris–Tours


 * 1918
 * 1st Tours-Paris


 * 1919
 * 1st Six Days of Brussels (with Marcel Dupuy)
 * 2nd Paris–Roubaix


 * 1920
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 2, 9, 12 & 13
 * 4th Road race, National Road Championships
 * 4th Paris–Roubaix
 * 4th Paris–Brussels


 * 1921
 * 1st Critérium des As
 * 1st Paris–Lyon (with Jean Rossius)
 * 1st Paris–Dijon (with Jean Rossius)
 * 3rd Bordeaux–Paris
 * 4th Giro della Provincia di Milano
 * 10th Milan–San Remo


 * 1922
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 4, 8, 9, 10 & 15
 * 2nd Road race, National Road Championships
 * 4th Bordeaux–Paris
 * 5th Critérium des As


 * 1923
 * 1st Paris–Lyon (with Jean Alavoine)
 * 2nd Circuit du Languedoc
 * 8th Paris–Tours


 * 1924
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 3 (tied with Théophile Beeckman) & 9
 * 7th Paris–Roubaix


 * 1925
 * 3rd Six Days of Brussels (with Maurice De Wolf)


 * 1927
 * 1st Limburgse Dageraad
 * 9th Rund um Leipzig

Honours

 * A velodrome, Piste Philippe Thys in La Robertsau, Strasbourg
 * A street, Rue Philippe Thys in Strasbourg
 * Introduced in the UCI Hall of Fame in 2002

Books

 * Van Thys tot Nys by Luc Lamon, Mark van Hamme in 2011, Houtekiet, 227 p. ISBN 9789089241405
 * Philippe Thys: de vergeten drievoudig tourwinnaar by Johan Van Win in 2014, Ronde Tafel, 248 p. ISBN 9789491545153