Patrick Sercu 1944-2019

Belgium’s Patrick Sercu was a sprinter who made the most of his talents both on track and road in the 1960s and ’70s, and was famous in particular for his record 88 six-day victories, many alongside Eddy Merckx (as pictured above, Sercu on left). After his retirement from racing in 1983 he went on to organise Ghent’s iconic six-day.

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As well as being famous for his six-day performances, Sercu won an Olympic gold medal — the 1,000m time trial in Tokyo, 1964, and three world sprint titles. He also excelled at the highest level on the road, with 19 Grand Tour stage victories, plus a green jersey win in the 1974 Tour de France ahead of Merckx and Barry Hoban.

Sercu was born in Roeselare in Flanders. Starting young, his first national titles came aged 18 on the track, in the sprint and Madison. Then, a few months after his 20th birthday in 1964, he became a bona fi de Olympic star, his 1:09.59 beating the rest of the field by nearly two seconds in the kilo.