{"id":28151,"title":"Yvonne Reynders","description":"The story of Yvonne Reynders. The Belgian women cyclist who overcame seemingly impossible barriers to dominate women's cycling in the 1960s.","content":"

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Cycling is famous for producing tough champions but not many come tougher than Yvonne Reynders. Despite an eye-watering daily schedule, a chaotic and unhappy childhood and discrimination she conquered all.<\/p>

\"YvonneYvonne Reynders was World Champion on Road and Track. Image: Ron Kroon \/ Anefo<\/em><\/p>

If you don\u2019t live in Belgium and have never heard of Yvonne Reynders that\u2019s not a great surprise. Unlike her British contemporary Beryl Burton OBE, her cycling career has been until now largely ignored even in cycle racing mad Belgium.<\/span><\/p>

Belgium\u2019s Beryl Burton<\/h2>

\u201cboth go on to win the world championships whilst holding down arduous jobs\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Whilst hardly a household name, the life and career of Beryl Burton have been celebrated by a radio and stage play and a biography. She\u2019s had a cycleway, a <\/span>bike-sharing scheme<\/span><\/a> and even a song named after her.<\/span><\/p>

Beryl was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) and OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen II in 1964 and 1968 respectively.<\/span><\/p>

Recognition for Yvonne is coming late in her life. She too has now been the subject of a biography, a play and lately the <\/span>Grote Prijs Yvonne Reynders<\/span><\/a>. Unfortunately, the first edition in 2022 had to be abandoned due to torrential rain and flooding.<\/span><\/p>

The parallels in the lives of the two great champions are striking. Born within a few months of one another in 1937 they would both go on to win the world championships whilst holding down arduous jobs.<\/span><\/p>

Between 1959 and 1967 the pair of them triumphed at the women\u2019s road race world championships on six occasions. But this is Yvonne\u2019s story so let\u2019s focus on her life and achievements.<\/p>

Coal Round<\/h2>

\u201ca deceitful, violent, drunk\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Yvonne was born in the Schaerbeek municipality of Belgium\u2019s capital region of Brussels. Upon leaving school at the age of sixteen she delivered coal around Antwerp on a tricycle. Not only did her early cargo bike have to be robust to take up to 200 kilograms of coal but Yvonne too developed incredible power.<\/p>

If it seems an odd career choice, it was in reality an unsurprising one given that her father was a coal merchant. In a 2002 interview in Het Nieuwsblad<\/a>, Yvonne was brutally honest about her relationship with her father whom she described as a deceitful, violent, drunk.<\/p>

It\u2019s often claimed that the success of athletes such as Yvonne and Bradley Wiggins is a result of their unhappy or disrupted childhoods. I\u2019m not qualified to provide valuable insight but whatever the reason, Yvonne possessed the greatest quality for success, utter relentless determination.<\/p>

Banned<\/h2>

\u201cdisguise herself as a man\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Such resolve was necessary not only to overcome the trials of her home life with her father, and the physical effort of hauling coal every day but prejudice against female competitors. According to an article in serviceKOERS<\/a>, women were banned from training at the Sportpaleis Velodrome by its owner.<\/p>

Her only option was to disguise herself as a man. Upon her discovery, she was told to leave immediately. Yvonne\u2019s response was somewhat, but not unreasonably, un-lady-like. She indicated her displeasure through the medium of her fingers.<\/p>

Despite these barriers, she went on to win World and National titles in the track pursuit discipline.<\/p>

Originally an athlete, she\u2019d won two national titles as a junior discus thrower, she switched to cycling. Her strength and weight as a discus thrower was a handicap when she started cycling but following a punishing training schedule, she transformed herself.<\/p>

Daily Routine<\/h2>

\u201cstiff-upper-lip\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Her daily routine reads like the exploits of the fictional British comic hero \u201cWilson the Wonder Athlete\u201d, who\u2019d perform improbable sporting feats. Wilson\u2019s grit and stiff-upper-lip is reputed to have inspired amongst others Eddy Merckx.<\/p>

Yvonne would arise early and ride the forty kilometres from home into Antwerp on a racing bike. Complete her coal round before changing and heading back home again on her racing bike. Except, rather than riding a mere forty kilometres, she\u2019d ride up to one hundred and forty kilometres.<\/p>

If he\u2019d ever existed, even Wilson the Wonder Athlete would have been impressed. It was a regime that took her to four world road race titles and three national road race titles.<\/p>

World Championships<\/h2>

\u201cit was remarkable that it took place at all\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

The first edition of the women\u2019s world road race championships was held in 1958 at Reims in France. By then the men had been participating in their world championships for over thirty years. Yvonne finished twentieth in the women\u2019s race, over six minutes down on winner Elsy Jacobs of the Netherlands.<\/p>

The 1959 world championships were scheduled to take place in the Netherlands at Zandvoort. The Dutch federation informed the UCI that they couldn\u2019t afford to run the women\u2019s and amateur events for financial or logistical reasons.<\/p>

A cynic might think that they were happy to host the plumb and lucrative professional championships but the rest were just too much bother. With one month to go, it was agreed the Belgian Federation would take over the hosting of the women\u2019s event.<\/p>

\"ImagePictured (left) with fellow world champions in 1966. Image: Joop van Bilsen \/ Anefo<\/span><\/em><\/p>

It was remarkable that it took place at all, given one of the stipulations was that the expenditure should be kept to a bare minimum. It won\u2019t surprise you to find that the men\u2019s amateur event was run off at Zandvoort as originally planned.<\/p>

Visiting riders for the women\u2019s world championship were hosted by local families in the Belgian town of Rotheux which lies just south-west of Li\u00e8ge in Wallonia.<\/span><\/p>

Given the uncertainty surrounding the event, It\u2019s unsurprising that the field was small. Just thirty riders headed out for the 72 km race. For Yvonne, with her daily diet of training this must have seemed like a gentle jaunt down the road.<\/span><\/p>

According to <\/span>serviceKOERS<\/span><\/a>, torrential rain swept the course and it was unusually cold for August. Despite this, a large crowd was watching. On the penultimate lap, a crash excluded half of the field and only a dozen were left to contest the sprint.<\/span><\/p>

And it was Yvonne Reynders, to the delight of the bedraggled crowd, that brought home victory for the host nation. Britain\u2019s Beryl Burton was fifth.<\/p>

In 1961 she won her second road race world championships on the Isle of Man. Once again the men\u2019s races took place elsewhere. This time in Bern in Switzerland.<\/p>

She doubled up with gold in the track pursuit. And whom did she defeat on both occasions? Of course, her British rival Beryl Burton.<\/p>

Yvonne won the last of her four road race world championships in 1966.<\/p>

She came back in 1976 to finish third at the world championships and clinch her final national road race title. In 1977, at the age of 39, she finished third in the Belgian national road race title.<\/p>

Discrimination<\/h2>

\u201ca shameful attitude\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Like all her contemporaries, Yvonne suffered discrimination from the very authorities of the sport that should have been encouraging them.<\/p>

I might be wrong, but I\u2019ve long felt that Belgian women have faced greater discrimination than their British counterparts. Admittedly, as Nicole Cooke described in her excellent autobiography, Britain has at times had a shameful attitude to women\u2019s cycling.<\/p>

Belgium didn\u2019t hold a women\u2019s national road race championship until 1959, a year after the first world championship and twelve years after Britain.<\/p>

More recently, in 2020 multi-world cyclocross champion Sanne Cant was initially excluded from a chartered flight that was rushing male counterparts from Belgium to race in the Czech Republic.<\/p>

In the end the Belgian Federation relented and she avoided a ten hour drive after racing on the Saturday in Kortrijk to arrive in Tabor to race on the Sunday. This was only a few years after women\u2019s cyclocross was finally broadcast in full on European TV.<\/p>

We Shouldn\u2019t Need Pioneers<\/h2>

\u201cthe content is quite shocking\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

You might think that those old-fashioned ideas have long since passed by. Diminished perhaps, less blatant certainly, but gone? I\u2019m not so sure. I found an interview from a 2002 page on the Het Nieuwsblad website.<\/p>

Given that\u2019s only twenty years ago, the content is quite shocking. The questions posed to Yvonne are extremely sexist. I can\u2019t imagine a male rider being asked the same. Amongst the less innocuous questions are those about wearing makeup and having long hair.<\/p>

There was one question that I just had to read again to make sure I\u2019d read what I thought I had. And then I read it again. And again, each time with disbelief. You\u2019ll have to read the interview from Het Nieuwsblad<\/strong><\/a> to make your own mind up.<\/p>

Remarkably, Yvonne provides a very honest and robust answer. From what I\u2019ve read of her it really doesn\u2019t surprise me. Without the strength of her character she could not have possibly have succeeded.<\/p>

The interview does give an insight into the scant rewards \u201cenjoyed\u201d by female riders of the time. Yvonne describes them as fake prizes, such as table cloths and carpets. No doubt donated by a local sponsor but they don\u2019t put bread on the table.<\/p>

Pioneers like Yvonne Reynders deserve the recognition that they are finally getting. But we should no longer need female pioneers. Equality in the treatment of women athletes should just be the norm not the exception.<\/p>

Yvonne is currently featured in the exhibition \u201cKoersvrouw\u201d about women\u2019s cycle racing at De Velodroom cycling museum<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>

20 June 2023, Tim Costello.<\/em><\/p>

All images and text are the copyright of Rijden unless stated otherwise.<\/em><\/p>

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