04/29/2024 at 08:00
CEST
“The first two Tours of Spain were won by a flamenco who did not know how to clap, Gustaaf Deloor. When he arrived in Spain he was 21 years old and his presence became so familiar that we ended up calling him Gustavo,” says Juanma Trueba in his ‘Cycling Dictionary’ (Geoplaneta).
Indeed, the first winner of the Lap was a belgian that in his long life (1913-2002) he would live several lives. In 1935, he traveled to Spain to participate in a newly born race, emulating what was happening in France with the Tour and in Italy with the Giro, countries that had already had an advantage for several years.
Like the Tour and the Giro, The Vuelta was born in the editorial office of a newspaper: in this case, the newspaper ‘Informaciones’.
Its director, Juan Pujol, started the project in collaboration with the former cyclist and journalist Clemente López Dórigain the first months of 1935.
The race would be held April 29 to May 15, with a route of 14 stages and 3,431 km in total. The first stage was held between Madrid and Valladolid. Only 50 cyclists started the race.
Deloor, who shared a team with his brother Alfons, sealed the race in the third stage, between Santander and Bilbao. His great rival was Mariano Cañardo, born in Navarra and raised in Cataloniawho would finish second on the podium.
Deloor was also the winner of the Vuelta in 1936, months before the outbreak of war completely stopped any sporting competition in Spain.
The Tour, the war and the USA
A fan of painting, cinema and reading, Gustaf Deloor was a special guy and an atypical cyclist. In 1936, in addition to winning the Vuelta, he won a stage in the Tour. It was his last triumph.
He had an interesting life, narrated in detail by Juanfran de la Cruz in ‘Gustaf Deloor, de la Vuelta a la luna’ (Road Books). He served in the Belgian army in World War II and was captured by the enemy, but a German officer recognized him and assigned him to the kitchen..
After the war, he left Europe to find a life in the United States. He did very well: he started working as a car mechanic in New York and when he mastered English (it took him several years), he went to California.
He became an American citizen, was widowed, and remarried an American of Belgian descent. In 1956 he went to work for the Marquardt Corporation, dedicated to building parts for the aerospace and weapons industries.
The company received many orders from the US government, including for NASA’s Apollo Project in the midst of the space race to reach the Moon.
On July 21, 1969, when Neil Armstrong reached the Moon, Deloor was on vacation in his native country, probably feeling part of the success of that NASA project.
A lover of the Vuelta
Years later, Deloor would admit that the Vuelta had been one of his favorite races. “How can we not love the Vuelta a España, this return, a country, when in addition, I have been the target of such moving demonstrations by its noble and gentleman public?”
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