death_place death_date birth_place sport birth_date image article_title
verneuil-sur-avre , france 23 october 1977 -lrb- aged 88 -rrb- floreffe , belgium cycling 26 may 1889 victor linart.jpg victor linart

victor linart

victor linart -lrb- 26 may 1889 -- 23 october 1977 -rrb- was a belgian cyclist .
between 1920 and 1931 he won four uci motor-paced world championships in the professionals division and finished four times in second or third place .
he won his first bicycle race at the age 14 , and around that time worked at an ice cream shop making use of his beautiful handwriting .
after fighting in world war i he focused on professional cycling .
during his career he won 15 national titles -lrb- 1913 -- 1931 -rrb- and one unofficial european championship .
he was nicknamed `` sioux '' -lrb- by michel berthet -rrb- due to his dark skin color and nose shape , which was flattened in a fall in 1912 .
he retired in 1933 and moved to verneuil-sur-avre , france , and ran a sawmill nearby .
he married yvonne cailleaud with whom he had a daughter monique and son hubert .
for his cycling achievements he was made a knight of the order of leopold ii .
a street is named after him in his native floreffe and in verneuil-sur-avre where he died in 1977 .
