Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Mr. H. Bemboom (owner PP Slagharen) and Mr. G. Does (BMX organisation)
Organisation: Ponypark Slagharen with owner/director Mr. H. Bemboom taking care of all facilities and promoter/organiser Mr. Gerrit Does taking care of the sport technical part of the organisation as well as marketing, publicity, public relations (TV) and so on.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Mr. Dekkers (R.I.P.) introduced BMX in Belgium and soon Mr. Blondiau followed.
Both men started organisations and promoted the sport of BMX in Belgium.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Founder and former owner of SUNN bicycles; now of Commencal Bicycles.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Among others responsible for the organisation of:Mr. Didier Coste was responsible within the Lariviere Organisation ("Chef Redaction" of the Edition Lariviere group)
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Inducted in 2013
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Founder of PRO-WINNER bicycles and now owner of a production company making ATB/MTB frames and parts as well as BMX frames and parts.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Mr. Dekkers (R.I.P.) introduced BMX in Belgium and soon Mr. Blondiau followed.
Both men started organisations and promoted the sport of BMX in Belgium.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Pioneer non racer, promotor of BMX, official, organiser; in short one of thé pioneer BMX fathers in England
Picture on right, courtesy of Rhodopsin Photography
First Name: Scott
Family Name: Dick
Married: YES with Margaret Dick
Date of Birth: 25/8/1956
City where you live: London
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
As you can read from the History of BMX, Gerrit Does discovered BMX in the USA in 1974 and imported the sport in Europe, more specific Holland in the first place.
Louis Vrijdag has been instrumental getting the sport organised in Holland together with Gerrit Does in the early days.
Gerrit Does has been instrumental getting an international organisation of the the ground called the I.BMX.F. , now integrated into the UCI. Louis Vrijdag was instrumental integrating I.BMX.F. into the UCI which took about 6 years to realise all together.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
At the age of 6 (1976) Nico was already riding BMX bikes, which his uncle Pierre Karsmakers (former MX Dutch and USA National Champion) imported from the USA in the late '70s.
Officialy Nico was the first license holder in Holland and probably in Europe with an official registrated organisation. At the time his skills were very exceptional. Even in the USA, were he competed at the JAG BMX World Championships in 1979, American riders, among them several Pro's, were astonished by his technic and skills of ND doing one-handers, no-footers and such.
Besides racing, Later on Nico started his own company building and selling BMX bikes. He started WEBCO Bicycles in 1991. Up till this day (ending 2001) Nico is involved in building these bikes and selling them.
KD Quality Products AG, owned by Albert Knill in Switzerland, works with Nico on this. (KD stands for, Knill Does).
Besides all of this Nico still is actif as a trainer/coach on local level with his club "F.C.C. Lion d'Or" in Valkenswaard - Holland, on National level with the KNWU regional training sessions and at International level, when invited to give training/seminars and so on.
More then 25 years he has been involved in the sport of BMX and still lives the sport a loves. Nico never won a European or World title, did win several Dutch national titles and 2 third places at World Championships (Indianapolis-USA and Brisbane-Australia) but for sure deserves his place in the European BMX Hall of Fame as BMX racer/promoter of the absolute "first hour of the sport".
More information on Nico can be found in his University of BMX Advisor CV.
Inducted in 2001
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
A pioneer rider. still active in the sport (without a break) and competing at the highest level, celebrates his 25th anniversary in the sport in July 2004, has been nominated: Pieter Does, Holland. Update: end year 2004 Pieter Does stopped racing.
For more information about Pieter Does, check out his profile.
Inducted in 2004
1994 World Champion
1993 World Champion
1991 World Champion
1995 European Champion
1993 European Champion
1992 European Champion
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Corine Dorland has been crowned the QUEEN of CHAMPIONS, holding 3 World titles in the highest age/performance classes and another 7 titles in lower age classes, which makes 10 world titles won in total.
Corine Dorland switched in 1997 to MBT.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Inducted in 2012
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Stefan Ekwall started a motorcycle- and bicycle shop with a partner, Two WheelService in Sweden. Both men have been moto-cross riders up till that time. They started with renting BMX bikes to youngsters and they could ride these bikes on a small BMX track beside our shop. They started to imported "Kuwahara" bikes when the ET movie came to Sweden.
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Founder and owner of GPR / ONE Bicycles. Still going (very) strong.
Concerning the motivation for this induction, please do read the article on Christian van de Groenendaal in the blog section (Opinions).
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Uli was one of the first BMX racers in Germany. Started in 1979 and competed in his first international race in 1980 at the AVRO GOLD CUP TV event in Waalre-Holland. In the early days, Uli was the "face" of German BMX.
In his country he was a trend-setter at the time because he was racing in the oldest age-class at the time (16+). BMX was new and many people found it kind of strange, boys of about 16 year and older riding these small 20" BMX bikes.
Uli's dad Helmut Heidtkamp, was one of the first pioneers of BMX in Germany in the Cologne area and did a great job getting BMX off the ground as an organised sport and promoting the sport of BMX in general.
By nominating Uli, we also honour his dad (died in the early '90 of cancer) for his pioneer work.
Inducted in 2001
Special recoqnition European Hall of Fame
Inducted in 2011
Although I am writing about the History of European BMX as I know it, you will find that a lot of the information comes from Holland and from other countries outside Europe.
I think one can say that the developments in Holland, almost reflects the developments as they happened in most of the other countries, not only in Europe but even worldwide. There are many of comparisons. It might give a good idea how BMX progressed in general in the early days in any country.
Since most information on BMX developments outside Europe aren't known to a lot of people, I do mention in my stories the dates and facts of which I am certain they are correct. I also state situations and happenings that are interesting enough to be mentioned. Most of the facts can be confirmed by documents in my BMX archief.
At first as Gerrit Doesand later on as General Secretary of I.BMX.F., I had almost all international contacts up and till 1985/86 with individuals world-wide, with countries/ organizations asking for an I.BMX.F. affiliation. Over the same period I also can report on what I know on outside Europe developments in BMX.