Octave Dayen

In 1926 French cyclist Octave Dayen won the amateur road race at the UCI World Championships in Milano, Italy. That same year Dayen also became the French amateur road race champion, with him going on to win the title again in 1927 and 1928. These performances earned him a place on the Olympic team for the 1928 Amsterdam Games, where he competed on both the road and track. In the velodrome he just missed out on a medal in two events, finishing fourth in both the 1,000 metres time trial and the 4,000 metres team pursuit. Back on the road Dayen came 23rd in the individual road race, almost 30 minutes behind the race winner, and seventh in the combined team event.

Dayen turned professional in 1929 and shifted his focus to six-day races, competing in more than 20 of them over the next few years. He won races in Paris and Marseille, in 1929 and 1930, respectively, both with compatriot André Raynaud. Dayen continued to ride in races right up to the start of World War II, with one of the last of those being the 1939 edition of Paris–Bruxelles.