UNCOVER CYCLING HISTORY IN BELGIUM
As a boy, Paul van Bommel started a cycling collection. Today it has become a cycling museum in the town of Boom in Flanders. Cyclist pays a visit to hear his story
Mounted on a wall behind the welcome desk of Boom’s new cycling museum is a tabletop of wood and metal. Evoking the image of a bicycle, scrawled on it are the signatures of some of the best cyclists of the modern era.
‘Every year broadcaster VRT has a competition for schools to design a table for the Tour de France,’ Paul van Bommel explains as he points out the signatures of Contador, Cancellara and Cavendish. ‘The winning design is used on their Vive le Vélo show and they ask the cyclists to sign it. This is from 2010.’
Van Bommel is the curator of De Velodroom, a cycling museum named in honour of the Apostel-mampaey
‘I started telling everyone I wanted to be a professional cyclist but my parents didn’t like the idea’
family, who lived in the town and built velodromes in the early 20th century, including Antwerp’s famous Sportpalais.
Situated on the banks of the river Rupel, the museum is at the centre of a cycling hub that has been established close to the Schorre, a recreational area of Boom that is home to the famous Tomorrowland festival. The popular Flanders Cycle Route, used by some 400,000 people each year, passes by and bikes can be rented here and electric bikes recharged. Next door is the appropriately named Musette, a light and airy cafe with cycling memorabilia adorning its walls.
Born in Antwerp in 1954, Van Bommel grew up in a family with little interest in the sport. ‘My father played hockey and tennis but few people were
interested in cycling,’ he says. Yet he found his riding legs young, beating friends in races around the local church.
‘We did 20 laps and they were never in the picture,’ he laughs. ‘I started telling everyone I wanted to be a pro cyclist but my parents didn’t like the idea.’
It was the danger of the sport that worried his parents. ‘I remember going to the bike shop of [Belgian pro] Rik Van Linden’s father. I bought pedals with toe straps but when I got home my father said they were too dangerous and put the old pedals back on.’
Nevertheless, cycling had him gripped. ‘I also bought bike gloves there,’ he says. ‘I still remember the smell of those gloves. It drove me crazy. I went to bed wearing them!’
Van Bommel also had a second passion – cooking. ‘My mother was a very good cook and I loved to work alongside her. I was 11 years old when I decided I wanted to go to cookery school.’ He became a professional chef, eventually opening his own restaurant.
The collector’s passion
While Van Bommel’s love of cycling wasn’t inherited, the urge to collect certainly was – ‘my father had 7,000 jazz records, all perfectly arranged,’ he says. When his parents brought him a miniature cycling figure from a holiday in France it proved to be the seed of a collection that would grow into 1,700 figures. But that was just the start.
‘Fourteen years ago I had a friend who knew [Eddy Merckx teammate] Jos De Schoenmaecker,’ Van Bommel says. ‘I said, “Bring him to the restaurant and I’ll cook for him for free.” So he came with two Molteni jerseys and signed them for me. Those were my first jerseys and from there I started collecting. Riders would come and eat for free and give me a jersey. Greg Lemond, Lucien Van Impe, Rudi Altig, Raymond Poulidor – they all came.’
He now has more than 700 jerseys, not to mention trophies, medals, bikes and other cycling paraphernalia.
‘Riders would come and eat for free and give me a jersey. Greg Lemond, Lucien Van Impe, Rudi Altig, Raymond Poulidor – they all came’
Van Bommel housed the collection in his restaurant. Over time it became well known and diners would go there to eat just to admire the exhibition, but when Van Bommel decided to retire three years ago a new home was needed.
‘The director of the Schorre came to me,’ Van Bommel says. ‘He took a symbolic Euro coin, put it on the table and said, “That is for your collection. I want to build a hub for cycling including a museum.” This is the result.’
De Velodroom is modern and light, built with the latest eco-technology. Display tables are inlaid with sections of the old Antwerp track. Highlights include jerseys worn by Merckx, Rik Van Steenbergen, Freddy Maertens and Lemond. There’s also a mock-up of the impossibly steep Kuipke track, as well
as Olympic and World Championship gold medals and Fabian Cancellara’s Tour of Flanders trophy from 2010.
The most important exhibits for Van Bommel include the yellow jersey of Van Impe. ‘He was my main idol, the way he climbed… it was amazing,’ he says. ‘Also, Yvonne Reynders. No one knows Yvonne anymore but she was the biggest female cyclist of the last century along with Jeannie Longo. I dedicated a table to her achievements in my restaurant and she was so happy she gave me her rainbow jersey.’
There are poignant reminders too. In the basement display is a cabinet dedicated to Willy ‘Rupske’ Lauwers, who was killed during a race in Mallorca at the age of 22. The display includes a section of a jersey that his wife cut into small pieces to sell to fund the funeral.
Then there is the jersey of Raymond Delisle, a French national champion who wore yellow at the Tour. ‘He had a chambre d’hôte in Normandy and I went and talked about my collection and showed him pictures,’ says Van Bommel. ‘As I was about to leave he said, “Wait a minute,” and went out of the room. He came back with a Peugeot jersey. He said, “I only have two jerseys. One I keep, this one I give
‘My parents would be very proud if they could see this because it started with that one figure they gave me’
to you because I can see you are a man with a passion for cycling.” He signed it Bien Amicalement, Raymond Delisle.
‘Later he fell from a ladder and couldn’t walk anymore. One year later he killed himself... I have a responsibility for that jersey.’
It’s quite a journey from a single miniature cyclist received as a holiday present to curating a museum centred on his own collection. ‘It is a little crazy,’ agrees Van Bommel. ‘My parents would be very proud if they could see this because it started with that one figure they gave me. They could never have imagined something like this being built for my collection. It makes me proud.’ De Velodroom is at Rupeldijk, Hoek 129, Boom, Belgium. Entrance is free. Find out more at develodroom.be