One name stood out in 1890s women's cycle racing: Belgian Hélène Dutrieu. Winner of multiple track cycling titles including the world championship, the Course de 12 Jours, & the Grand Prix d’Europe, she was cycling's first female superstar. But that was only the beginning.🧵
Women's racing didn't pay, and Dutrieu surprised the world by abandoning racing in 1898 to become an actress/comedienne & bicycling stuntwoman in Paris. Her signature act was called La Flèche Humaine - The Human Arrow - a death-defying mid-air loop-the-loop.
Dutrieu's first attempt resulted in a horrible crash.
“In the beginning I had heart palpitations before I got on the bike, my hands were shaking a bit, it felt like someone was choking my throat. But once I'm on the bike, that's all gone."
“Floating through the air is a blissful feeling," Dutrieu wrote. She didn't stop with La Flèche Humaine; her stint as stuntwoman was a springboard to a remarkable life as an aviation pioneer, as well as heroic service in both world wars.
The information and photos for this thread came primarily from helenedutrieu.be, which details the biography "Hélène Dutrieu: De vrouw die door de Olympia vloog" by Belgian author Gunter Segers.
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