 Marcel Buysse, winner of the second Tour of Flanders in 1914 | |||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 22 March 1914 | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 280 km (174.0 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 10h 20' | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
← 1913 1919 → | |||||||||||||
The second running of theTour of Flanderscycling race in Belgium was held on Sunday, 22 March 1914. BelgianMarcel Buysse won the race in a sprint of a seven-strong group on thevelodrome ofEvergem, part ofGhent.[1] 19 of 47 riders finished.[2] The race started and finished inGhent.
The race started inGhent,East Flanders, before heading eastward toSint-Niklaas and making a clockwise circle alongAalst,Oudenaarde,Kortrijk,Veurne andRoeselare. The race finished back in Ghent – for a total distance of 280 km. With this route, the race addressed all the major cities of the two westernprovinces of Flanders.[1] The course was similar to the previous edition's, but organizers had cancelled the leg to the coast in order to scale down the distance to 284 km.[3] There were no categorized climbs.[1]
Henri Van Lerberghe was caught by nine riders after a long solo breakaway. Despite late breakaway attempts byMarcel Buysse, Van Lerberghe and Vandevelde, the race ended in a sprint on the wooden outdoor velodrome ofEvergem. Van Lerberghe went high in the bend and Buysse, an experiencedtrack rider, dove in the gap and powered on to victory.[1]
The stars of Belgian cycling at the time – notablyCyrille Van Hauwaert,Odile Defraye,Louis Mottiat andJules Masselis – did not participate in the event, because their French teams had forbidden Belgian riders to enter.[4] However, there were hints of the growing status of the race as a symbol ofFlemish nationalism andMarcel Buysse, one of Flanders' cycling icons in the early 20th century, had promised organizers he would start. Buysse insisted on entering the race, against the instructions of hisAlcyon team, and won the second edition, much to the content of fans and organizers.[5]
It was the last Tour of Flanders before the race was suspended for five years because of World War I. As from 1919 the event has been organized without interruptions.[6]
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Marcel Buysse (BEL) | Alcyon-Soly | 10h 20' 00" |
| 2 | Henri Van Lerberghe (BEL) | Liberator | s.t. |
| 3 | Pier Vandevelde (BEL) | - | s.t. |
| 4 | Aloïs Persyn (BEL) | - | s.t. |
| 5 | Achille Depauw (BEL) | - | s.t. |
| 6 | August Dierickx (BEL) | - | s.t. |
| 7 | Georges Monseur (BEL) | La Française-Hutchinson | s.t. |
| 8 | Alfons Spiessens (BEL) | J.B.Louvet-Continental | s.t. |
| 9 | August Benoit (BEL) | J.B.Louvet-Continental | + 2' 00" |
| 10 | Julien Tuytten (BEL) | - | + 8' 00" |
