Id this Belgian pro rider who died in a crash

[Dbgfgggf]

In the sefer “Voice of Truth” they bring in Rabbi Shalom Schwadron’s name that a famous young Belgian pro cyclist died in a race. Nearly a million people attended the funeral in Belgium. The rider “had once biked several kilometers in only 14.5 minutes. He was now a millionaire. He opened a bar, where thousands came to drink with the champion. Two years passed. Yesterday, that same man tried his luck again, attempting to achieve a new record at the same distance. On the way, he crashed into a wall, overturned, and was killed on the spot.” Who is the rider that Rabbi Schwadron described?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Given the quote suggests relatively modest feats were seen as spectacular at the time, we're probably talking early days of the sport and potentially track cycling in order that the distances would have been uniform and records verifiable. Without any further information I'd suggest Karel Verbist is the most likely candidate.

 

[Dbgfgggf]

Given the quote suggests relatively modest feats were seen as spectacular at the time, we're probably talking early days of the sport and potentially track cycling in order that the distances would have been uniform and records verifiable. Without any further information I'd suggest Karel Verbist is the most likely candidate.

well no it wouldn’t be him because Rabbi Schwadron in the sefer is telling the story as it happened. He was in a kosher restaurant in antwerp and all of the patrons there were in a sad mood because they had just attended the funeral of this rider. And Rabbi Schwadron was a grown man at the time of this story, and he was born in 1912. The rider you mentioned died in 1909.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Stan Ockers died in Antwerp. According to Getty images the turnout for his funeral was huge

 

[Dbgfgggf]

Stan Ockers died in Antwerp. According to Getty images the turnout for his funeral was huge

seems like that’s probably the rider he was referring to. Thanks.

 

[Izzyeviel]

It says in one of his books that he spent the first 40 years of his life or so in israel before leaving and his first stop was Belgium, so if he were born in 1912 that would put him in belgium before 1955 and I don't think he was there for several years. If he turned up earlier he may have got caught up with the funeral of Richard Deporter who died in 1948 at the Tour of suisse - but theres nothing on his funeral so we can say it probably wasn't a big deal.

Given the details you've given us, I'm not really satisfied with either answer. I suggest the most likely scenario is one of mistaken memory or the fact that he seems to be a story teller - a guy who just so happens to meet people who's pov he can change by telling a story so its likely he may have taken inspiration from several events and merged them into one or since he's not a cycling fan he may have gotten his details wrong and misunderstood.

If you really want to get to the bottom of it, you need to find out when exactly he was in Antwerp & check the dates for big funerals.

If they're not on this page, we won't have a clue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_racing_cyclists_and_pacemakers_with_a_cycling-related_death

This has rather been a fascinating research exercise!

 

[Dbgfgggf]

Thanks. Yeah it’s clear the author knew nothing about cycling so many of the details are probably incorrect. The Rabbi had just been visiting Antwerp. I don’t think he lived there for a long period of time, I may be wrong though.

 

[Izzyeviel]

How badly do you want to know? There's probably an archive or something you could get in contact with. There's gotta be a flemish cycling forum somewhere you can join?

 

[Armchair cyclist]

I suspect pure parable or at best exagerated detail.
A million people at a Belgian funeral? That is not going to be easily forgotten.

Wikipedia states of Ockers that "thousands took to the streets for his funeral", but the source for that is not accessible. But the day after Ockers' accident he was in hospital fighting for his life, so it can't be him.

Died while trying to attempting to achieve a new record at the same distance: if this is to be taken at face value we are looking at a track or timetrial, not a road race situation such as Depoorter.

This is, it would appear, a story told for a religious audience with the moral being drawn from it deemed far more important than veracity of detail.

Others may wish to draw their own conclusions on the relationship between religious preaching and truth.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also Ockers was 36 at the time of his death so doesn't really fit the bill of a 'young' Belgian cyclist, and most of his biggest achievements were in the last 3 years of his life.

Willy Lauwers died in 1959 at the age of 22 after falling in a track race and died in the hospital very soon after, but that was in Spain and he was a much less well known rider. From the timescales given this may also be too late. It is likely that details surrounding a number of such cycling related deaths have been conflated, potentially in error given the rabbi's lack of knowledge of the sport, but with Stan Ockers as the primary source of inspiration for the story given his prominence, the timeframe matching best of anybody, and the importance of his funeral even if the numbers have been rather overstated. The rabbi may well have been in Antwerp at the time of Ockers' death and heard various tales and stories about other such incidents and they've melted into one in his understanding. Details about other incidents seem to have found their way into it, possibly per the folk song about Verbist who obviously is many years too early for Schwadron to have encountered personally, but whose story is immortalised, the Antwerp Sportpaleis crash death of André Raynaud years earlier, the near-instant death of Richard Depoorter a few years earlier, and even possibly also Gustave Ganay via literature.

 

[fmk_RoI]

In the sefer “Voice of Truth” they bring in Rabbi Shalom Schwadron’s name that a famous young Belgian pro cyclist died in a race. Nearly a million people attended the funeral in Belgium. The rider “had once biked several kilometers in only 14.5 minutes. He was now a millionaire. He opened a bar, where thousands came to drink with the champion. Two years passed. Yesterday, that same man tried his luck again, attempting to achieve a new record at the same distance. On the way, he crashed into a wall, overturned, and was killed on the spot.” Who is the rider that Rabbi Schwadron described?

Can you provide the actual quote from VoT?

Schwardon was in Antwerp in the early 1950s, that is correct, yes? Do you know how long we was there?

While Ockers sounds the most likely funeral in the 50s in terms of fame, nothing about his death in the story as you tell it rings right, least of all the death itself, which was in a mass fall during a Six, not in a record attempt.

 

[rallybanana]

The 14.5 minutes stat is what catches my attention. 14.5 must mean something. The 1957 Tour had a 9.8K time trial in Barcelona won by Anquetil in 14 mins 29 secs. So in 1956, 14.5 minutes was probably considered a very good time for a 10K time trial. But I've never heard of Belgian cycling having 10K, 25K, 50K time trials in the way British cycling culture had 10, 25, 50-mile events.

So why would the rabbi remember such a random number as 14.5? In 1953 Ferdi Kubler won Bordeaux-Paris in a time of 14 hours 56 minutes (14.5 hours?) which was the fastest winning time post WWII. Stan Ockers finished second in the 1956 Bordeaux-Paris but in a fast time of just over 13 hours. Smashing Kubler's time was probably of more significance to Ocker's fans than finishing second. So maybe the 14.5 thing is related to this event but with the exact details getting mangled.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

The story comes out a bit different here, although it does not bring any relevant info, other than it was 'the first time he visited Belgium':

"Who died?” The man relented. He explained that the national passion of Belgium is bicycle racing, like baseball in America and horseracing in England. It seemed that a young Belgian had once biked several kilometers in the space of a short span to win a championship prize. He became an instant hero and millionaire in Belgium and even opened a popular tavern. “Yesterday,” the diner informed R’ Sholom sadly, “he tried his luck again, attempting to achieve a new world record but he was unsuccessful and crashed into a wall. He fell over and was injured grievously. Later, he succumbed to his injuries and died. Nearly a million people attended his funeral.”

 

[fmk_RoI]

That detail sounds more like Depoorter - he crashed in a tunnel, so into a wall, and died of his injuries some time later - but it would have been before Schwadron was in Belgium, if I understand the dates right (1948). But given how low he rates sport it's hard to imagine him caring enough to get the facts of the story right.

Edit: L'Équipe on Depoorter's funeral. (Bottom right of the page, highlighted)

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Could very well have mashed multiple stories together.

 

[Ricco']

The story comes out a bit different here, although it does not bring any relevant info, other than it was 'the first time he visited Belgium':

"Who died?” The man relented. He explained that the national passion of Belgium is bicycle racing, like baseball in America and horseracing in England. It seemed that a young Belgian had once biked several kilometers in the space of a short span to win a championship prize. He became an instant hero and millionaire in Belgium and even opened a popular tavern. “Yesterday,” the diner informed R’ Sholom sadly, “he tried his luck again, attempting to achieve a new world record but he was unsuccessful and crashed into a wall. He fell over and was injured grievously. Later, he succumbed to his injuries and died. Nearly a million people attended his funeral.”

Just from an outsider, that quote from the diner doesn't make much sense.

So, the rider tried this achievement "yesterday" and was injured and later succumbed and died. That's implausible but possible, as a rider could have an accident yesterday and die in the night/next day. But if he died the day before, what's the chance that a funeral attended by a million people could be organized the day after the accident?

So, I see two options:

• this is a story heard from the author and told to show Belgians passion for cycling but it didn't happened near the time it was told to the author so the time frame suggested by the yesterday is badly applied
• the funeral attended by a million people is an eufefism to pass the picture that a lot of people were present

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Or the third option is that it's all made up, created to have a vehicle to lead to the point of the story, which comes on p25 in the link I provided above:

“My friends, you wish to attend athletes’ funerals? Well, then, come to my neighborhood in Shaarei Chesed. There is a cat there
that climbs the tallest tree in the neighborhood in just half a second – from bottom to top. He moves like lightning! Yesterday, unfortunately, the cat died. I think you should go to his funeral!”
The men smiled sheepishly, realizing that the Maggid was speaking in a spirit of jest. But R’ Sholom softened his tone and continued, “Look, you are confusing skill with wisdom. A talent or skill is a natural thing that HaKadosh Baruch Hu grants a person, giving him the ability to jump or fly or run. It’s not at all connected to the person’s character, but simply to natural phenomena. In fact, in this area, the animal kingdom often outshines the human one! What, then, is a person’s task? To work on himself and his spiritual attributes, to elevate himself and rise ever higher. That is human!”
Sweeping his gaze about the restaurant, R’ Sholom challenged them. “Come now! Form that kind of competition, and see who wins!”

 

[Unchained]

Okay I am totally confused.. and man was I wrong!! I went on to a website called worldometers and I had an idea of Belgium population.. It's currently less than 12 million which I thought it would be higher. And the graph jumps around a little but goes to 1955..Population was@ 8.8..so as I was reading the posts and nobody really knows what year the story takes place in.. a million people at a funeral.. wow.. The number was big..but now as a percentage of the entire population!!! Oh my!!

Belgium Population (2023) - Worldometer

Population of Belgium: current, historical, and projected population, growth rate, immigration, median age, total fertility rate (TFR), population density, urbanization, urban population, country's share of world population, and global rank. Data tables, maps, charts, and live population clock

www.worldometers.info

 

[Unchained]

* and not an exact science* but in the Jewish tradition it's customary to get buried as fast as possible.. so given the year (s) in which the versions of the story take place.. sounds difficult to assemble that kind of crowd very very quickly..

 

[fmk_RoI]

a million people at a funeral.. wow

But read the actual story and it's just some rando saying there was nearly a million people. There are three groups of people you do not believe when it comes to crowds sizes: the police; the organisers; and randos. And that's even if the story were true and I think at this stage it's pretty clear that Rabbi Shalom Schwadron was full of crap, on this at the very least.

 

[fmk_RoI]

in the Jewish tradition it's customary to get buried as fast as possible

The rider was not Jewish. He was not even Jew-ish. That's clear in the story as told.