Despite the country’s rich road racing history, André Noyelle remains the only Belgian cyclist to win the Olympic road race title through 2010. Noyelle had a very successful year in 1952 as, besides the individual gold in Helsinki, he also won the team gold, the Belgian military title and silver in the World Amateur Championships. He joined the ranks of professional cyclists the next year, and continued to race through 1966. While he occasionally finished with the top in semi-classics, Noyelle was mostly successful in kermesses in Belgium. Noyelle raced for money through 1965, winning a number of minor races, including the 1957 and 1961 Roubaix-Cassel-Roubaix, the 1959 Grand Prix de Fourmies, the 1960 Tour de Suisse Orientale, the 1962 Championnat de Flandre Occidentale, the 1964 Grand Prix de Pino-Cerami, and the 1965 Circuit des Frontières. Although he rode the Vuelta a España in 1956, without finishing, he never quite made the highest levels of the sport, never riding in the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, or the World Professional Championships. After his career, Noyelle ran a bicycle shop in his native Ieper, and later a pub called “Café Helsinki”.
Belgium