José Samyn

José Samyn was a French professional road bicycle racer who was born on 11 May 1946 in Quiévrain, Belgium, to a Belgian mother and a French father, and took French nationality in 1964. As an amateur he won the 1965 French Military Cycling Championship, and in 1967 he won a stage of the Tour de France. During the 1968 Tour de France a dope test came back positive, and he was expelled from the race, suspended for one month and fined. He died on 28 August 1969, aged 23, during a race in Zingem, Belgium. He was the first winner of the GP Fayt-le-Franc, and after his death the race was renamed Le Samyn, also called the Memorial Samyn, in his honour.