Briek Schotte

Albéric Briek Schotte (7 September 1919 to 4 April 2004) was a Belgian professional road racing cyclist and one of the champions of the 1940s and 1950s. His stamina earned him the nickname Iron Briek. He was world champion in 1948 and 1950, won the last stage of the 1947 Tour de France and finished second in the 1948 Tour behind Gino Bartali. He twice won the Tour of Flanders, in 1942 and 1948, Paris-Tours in 1946 and 1947, and Paris-Brussels in 1946 and 1952, and he won the first Challenge Desgrange-Colombo in 1948. He holds the record of twenty consecutive starts in the Tour of Flanders. After retiring in 1959 he coached teams for thirty years, mostly Flandria, where riders such as Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Sean Kelly rode for him. He died on the day of the 2004 Tour of Flanders and was inducted into the UCI Hall of Fame in 2002.