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By Barry Boyce, CyclingRevealed Historian
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Philippe Thys (Bel) 
Born: October 8, 1890, Anderlecht, Belgium
Died: January 16, 1971
Professional: from 1913 to 1927
Thys was the first Belgian and the second foreigner to win the Tour de France (1913, 1914, 1920). After a Thys stage 1 abandonment in 1919, a furious race director Henri Desgranges wrote that Thys had gotten soft during the WW1. An inspired two-time winner returned in 1920 to prove Desgranges wrong. Thys took the race lead on stage 2 and never trailed again. He became the first three-time winner of the Tour de France. His record stood for 35 years, when Louison Bobet tied the record in 1955.
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