1927, First World Championship cycling, first national jersey?

13/09/2012

I received some very first hints by Dries Zaeytijd from the ‘Wiemu Roeslare’, who has been very helpful in starting my little research. Most likely the first national jersey was issued in 1927, the year of the first World Championship road cycling*, with the participation of national teams.

Up to now I didn’t find pictures from Belgians competing at that Championship yet to verify these assumptions. The championship was won by the Italian Alfredo Binda, Jean Aerts was the first Belgian in 5th place. Since he was the first amateur, he was honored as a world champion as well. The sad thing to me about his story however is the fact that he wasn’t selected by the Belgian cycling federation so he probably wasn’t wearing any national jersey – if there were any.

*Note: 1927 Was the year of the first world championship for professional riders. 2 Years earlier, in 1925, a world championship for amateurs was held in the Netherlands.

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