Cycling Pantheon 026: Adelin Benoît (1900 - 1954)

Adelin Benoît: The Walloon Who Lit Up the Pyrenees

In the turbulent heart of interwar cycling, amidst the clatter of gears and the slow but unstoppable rise of Flemish dominance in Belgian road racing, a wiry, dark-eyed figure from Wallonia briefly burned with the brilliance of a supernova. His name was Adelin Benoît, and for a few unforgettable days in the summer of 1925, he was the king of France—at least, as far as cycling was concerned.