Sylvère Maes

Two Tours for Belgium, and one he walked away from while in yellow.

Sylvère Maes (27 August 1909 - 5 December 1966) was a Belgian cyclist best known for winning the Tour de France in 1936 and 1939. In 1937 he and the whole Belgian team left the Tour while he was leading the general classification, in protest at the behaviour of French spectators and decisions by the jury. The youngest of ten children, he rode his first race in 1928, turned professional at the end of 1932, won the 1933 Critérium International de Cyclo-cross, then considered the unofficial world title, and took his first major road win at the 1933 Paris-Roubaix. He made his Tour debut in 1934 as an individual rider, finishing eighth and taking the only Belgian stage win of that year.