Frans Slaats (born

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former mun ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, 11 June 1912, died Waalwijk, 6 April 1993) was a Dutch professional cyclist who broke the world hour record. Slaats was a prominent

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...

rider in the 1930s, especially in

six-day racing Six-day cycling is a track cycling event that takes place over six days. Six-day races started in Britain, spread to many regions of the world, were brought to their modern style in the United States and are now mainly a European event. Initiall ...

. In September 1937 he set the world

hour record The hour record is the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour on a bicycle from a stationary start. Cyclists attempt this record alone on the track without other competitors present. It is considered one of the most prestigious record ...

at 45.558 km on the Vigorelli track in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It was bettered the same year by the French rider,

Maurice Archambaud Maurice Archambaud (30 August 1908 in Paris – 3 December 1955 in Le Raincy) was a French professional cyclist from 1932 to 1944. His short stature earned him the nickname of ''le nabot'', or "the dwarf", but his colossal thighs made him an exce ...

. Slaats was at the Buenos Aires six-day in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

when

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

erupted in 1939. On returning to the Netherlands when peace came in 1945, he found his four brothers had been killed by the German army.

Palmarès

;1934 : 2nd Berlin six-day ;1936 :3rd Ronde van Valkenburg :1st Amsterdam six-day :2nd Ghent six-day :1st Copenhagen six-day ;1937 :1st Antwerp six-day :World hour record :1st Copenhagen six-day ;1938 :1st Ghent six-day :2nd Antwerp six-day ;1939 :1st Brussels six-day :3rd Copenhagen six-day ;1944 :1st Buenos Aires six-day

References

1912 births 1993 deaths Dutch male cyclists Dutch track cyclists Sportspeople from Waalwijk Cyclists from North Brabant 20th-century Dutch sportsmen {{Netherlands-cycling-bio-stub