Marcel Kint

Marcel Kint (20 September 1914, in Zwevegem – 23 March 2002, in Kortrijk) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer who won 31 races[1] between 1935 and 1951. His finest year was 1938 when he won the World Cycling Championship, three stages of the Tour de France and the season-long competition equivalent to today's UCI ProTour.[2]

Marcel Kint

Personal information
Full name	Marcel Kint
Nickname	De Zwarte Arend (the black eagle)
Born	(1914-09-20)20 September 1914 Belgium
Died	23 March 2002(2002-03-23) (aged 87)
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional teams
1935	Independent (semi-professional)
1936	Mercier–Hutchinson
1937	Fr. Pélissier
1937–1938	Mercier–Hutchinson
1938–1939	Fr. Pélissier
1939–1951	Mercier–Hutchinson
1950–1951	Girardengo
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 6 individual stages (1936, 1938, 1939) One-day races and Classics World Road Race Championships (1938) National Road Race Championship (1939) Paris–Roubaix (1943) Gent–Wevelgem (1949) La Flèche Wallonne (1943, 1944, 1945) Paris–Brussels (1938) Championship of Flanders (1935)
Medal record Men's road bicycle racing Representing  Belgium World Championships 1938 Valkenburg Elite Men's Road Race 1946 Zürich Elite Men's Road Race

He specialized in one-day classic cycle races and won Paris–Roubaix, Gent–Wevelgem, Paris–Brussels. He was the only three-time consecutive winner of La Flèche Wallonne until 2016 when Alejandro Valverde won his third consecutive race and fourth overall.[3]

Kints honours would have been much bigger but at his sporting peak, his career was halted for a few years by World War II.

The outbreak of the war would make Marcel Kint the longest reigning world champion in the history of cycling. Kint would hold the rainbow jersey until 1946: eight years, and it could have been nine. In the final of the 1946 world championship in Zurich, Kint and Swiss rider Hans Knecht were riding to the finish, when Kint was stopped by fanatical home supporters, causing him to finish second.[4]