A summer excursion for de Jonge's racing cyclists

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These pictures are another example of our fondness for delving into the pasts of photographs with little or no information available. What’s going on here? We see six men in a convertible towing a caravan. To us, it seems they are embarking upon a journey and have gathered a crowd upon their departure, but where are they going and why should it of interest to so many people?

It took us some effort to decipher the words written on the side of the caravan - the quality of these pictures is not the best - but once we got there it soon answered most of our questions. It reads: ‘Joco Sport en Race Rijwielen Amsterdam’. Joco was, it turns out, short for De Jonge & Co., a manufacturer of racing bicycles set up by Matheus Antonius de Jonge. These six men are racing cyclists and competitors in the World Track Cycling Championships in Milan, Italy, in 1951. The pictures were taken on 23rd August 1951 in Haarlem in The Netherlands; the championships were due to start in Milan on 24th. Yes, the very next day, with an 1100 kilometres still to travel from Haarlem. At least, that’s what it would be today using motorways and travelling straight through the 17 km Saint Gotthard tunnel. It must have been a considerably longer and more arduous journey over minor roads and mountain passes in that big convertible back in that summer of 1951. We don’t see racing cyclists do that today, or any other sportsmen for that matter.

The Dutch team returned home with one gold medal for cyclist Jan Pronk that year, who must be among the six men seen here. De Jonge was a keen racer himself, too, although we don’t know if he’s one of the cyclists in the convertible. A quick search reveals that he passed away in competition when his brakes failed in a race in 1990, when he was 88 years old. It’s interesting stuff, cycling. Let’s not forget it was the car that brought us here in the first place. What do you think of it? Made just before the war? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.

Words: Jeroen Booij; pictures: Noord Hollands archive
 

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