Sylveer Maes (Gistel, 1909-1966) won the Tour de France twice: in 1936 and 1939. After that, it would take no less than thirty years before, with Eddy Merckx, another Belgian won the world's most important stage race.

Perhaps Maes could have won the Tour even more often, but the Second World War broke out precisely in his best years. And then, not to forget, there was that infamous 1937 edition, when French chauvinism reached boiling point and the weary Belgians left the Tour four days before the end - and with Sylveer Maes in yellow! - dropped out of the Tour.

Sylveer Maes excelled in the Tour, but was above all a versatile rider. He won Paris- Roubaix, for instance, and was also active both on the track and in the field.

And yet. Despite his great achievements, Sylveer Maes' name seems to have pretty much faded away in the mists of time.

Eighty years after his last Tour victory, Patrick Cornillie brings him back from oblivion with this comprehensive and lavishly illustrated biography. Patrick Cornillie (1961) is a poet and writer, journalist and author of a whole series of cycling guides and cycling books.

He has published biographies on Freddy Maertens (2003), Gilbert Desmet (2004) and Marcel Kint (2011), as well as, among others, 'De Zomer van '69. How Merckx won from Armstrong' (2009) and 'Racing in the Great War' (2018).

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