With this Flandrien community, I wanted to recognize and stress the importance of the old Flandriens for the development of the modern cycling community. Flandriens were a special type of racing cyclists. Just before the First World War and in the Interbellum they were simple men that could make a cycling race hard by always attacking in most difficult weather situations and on rough cobbled roads. They used basic heavy steel frames during 450 km day drives with only one or two gears, taking all food with them and repairing themselves their bikes. In fact, the Flandriens are at the basis of all actual cycling activities. Unfortunately their epic adventures are forgotten. Today's luxury "carbon-pussy" cyclists always complain on their bicycles, on the roads, detest races of more than 200km, slow support from the team and don't feel the real passion of cycling anymore.

Flandriens were first Flemish riders ("coureurs") but soon also Brussels and Walloon riders joined the club. Flandriens dominated the cycling world between 1912 and 1939 by winning twelve times the Tour de France, winning most of the one-day races and were hired as super-domestique in the Giro. Although living in a small country with limited ressources, they achieved world class domination in cycling against larger countries with huge possibilities.

Today lots of fake false Flandriens try to duplicate their epic stories. They abuse the concept for pure narcisstic and/or commercial purposes and make lot of damage to the real Flandriens and their families. You can not simply become a Flandrien, every 10 million people only a few real Flandriens are created!

Names of popular Flandriens were: Cyril Van Hauwaert, Lucien, Jules & Marcel Buyze, Gaston Rebry, Odiel Defraeye, Philippe Thys, Maurice De Waele, Léon Scieur, Firmin Lambot, Gustaaf Van Slembroeck, Romain & Sylvère Maes, Omer Huyse, Jef Van Dam, ...

Let's also forget (and respect) for the colleagues-riders in those times who had to compete against the Flandriens: Maurice Garin, Lucien Petit-Breton, the Pelissier brothers, Ottavio Bottechia, André Leducq, René Vietto, Alfredo Binda, Learco Guerra, Roger Lapébie, Antonin Magne, Eugène Christophe, Oscar Egg, Nicolas Frantz, Costante Girardengo, Gaetano Belloni, ...

Bicycle brands (many don't exist any more):

Automoto, Christophe, Jean Louvet, le Chemineau, Continental, JB Louvet, Alcyon, Armor, Labor, Thoman, Météore, La Francaise Diamant, Bianchi, Gerbi, Gloria, Opel, Peugeot, Fiat, ...

Events (pre 1939): Milan-San Remo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Tours, Giro di Lombardi, Paris-Bruxelles, Paris-Brest-Paris,Bordeaux-Paris Tour De France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta, ...

As sole owner of Squadra Flandria I - Flandrien Bartali - try to manage the different activities. Squadra Flandria (the concept,taglines, activities, photos, articles,, video's..) are exclusively property of Flandrien Bartali. (see section Copyrights)

A few times a year, we form a separate cycling team with other soulmates and on we participate to the Tour d'Honneurs of other rallies. This is a strictly a private group. To guarantee high quality and purity you can contact us for eventual try-out under strict limited conditions. Please first consider if you are a real born Flandrien and not a fake-flandrien.

With this website and thedifferent actions we want to make a tribute to these heroes and their machines. We collect the stories of these heros in archives, we collect their bicycles and we drive their bicycles on special occasions.

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