A South African Six Day Star
Fishing through my “historical” bookshelf today, I came across these two old magazines of 1990 vintage. Both covers feature Willie Engelbrecht, aka “Die Blonde Blits” and one of South Africa's finest ever cyclists. A prolific winner on the local circuit, lesser known perhaps is Willie's forays overseas, particularly on the European Six Day track racing and German criterium circuits. I was reminded about this four years ago at one of the velodromes he raced at, the Eddy Merckx velodrome in Ghent. While wheeling the team bikes out through one of “Blaarmesen's” back entrances, an administrative staff member started asking me what I was doing, before enquiring about my accent.
'Ah, South African,' he enthused. 'I raced with Engelbrecht in the Six Days! Great rider and teammate! Very talented!'
Turns out this “admin guy” was Ferdi Van Den Haute, Belgian track cycling legend, who indeed raced with Willie and Mark Beneke on the ADR team in 1987. Willie was listed as Willy, though, one of his nom de guerres so as to throw authorities off his track as South Africa was still banned from international sport at the time.
