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Le Samyn

Belgian one-day road cycling race

Field	Value
name	Le Samyn
image	Le Samyn-logo 2022.png
date	February/March
region	Hainaut, Belgium
localnames	Le Samyn des Hommes (men)
Le Samyn des Dames (women)

nickname	Le Samyn
discipline	Road
competition	Men: UCI Europe Tour
Women: Lotto Cycling Cup
type	Single-day
history	Men's history
first
number	57 (as of 2025)
firstwinner	José Samyn
mostwins	Johan Capiot
(3 wins)
mostrecent	Mathieu van der Poel
history_women	Women's history
first_women
number_women	14 (as of 2025)
firstwinner_women	Adrie Visser
mostwins_women	Chantal Blaak
(3 wins)
mostrecent_women	Lorena Wiebes

Le Samyn des Dames (women)

Women: Lotto Cycling Cup (3 wins) (3 wins)

Le Samyn is an annual single-day road bicycle race in Belgium, held usually in late February or early March. The event was first held in 1968 as a men's race; since 2012, there is a men's edition (Le Samyn des Hommes) and a women's edition (Le Samyn des Dames) held on the same day. It is named after José Samyn, the race's first winner, who died in 1969.

Johan Capiot holds the men's record and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak holds the women's record for most victories, each with three.

History

The first edition of the race, called the Grand Prix de Fayt-le-Franc, was held in 1968 and won by Frenchman José Samyn. Samyn died in a race accident the next year, and the race was renamed Grand Prix José Samyn as a tribute. The race more commonly referred to as simply Le Samyn or Memorial Samyn. As of 2025, the race is officially called Ename Samyn Classic for sponsorship purposes.

Since 2005, the race is included in the UCI Europe Tour as a 1.1 event. It is the first race of the season in Wallonia, held on the Tuesday after its Flemish counterpart, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The race is run entirely in the province of Hainaut, starting in Quaregnon and finishing in Dour. During the course, 16 sectors of cobbled roads are traversed, prompting Belgian media to call it The Little Paris–Roubaix.

The 2005 edition was cancelled because snow had made the roads too dangerous. Since 2012, a women's edition of the race, named Le Samyn des Dames, is held on the same day as the men's race.

Winners

Men's race

Multiple winners

Wins		Rider		Country		Years
3
2
Niki Terpstra

Wins by country

Wins		Country
35
9
6
1

Women's race

Source

Multiple winners

Wins		Rider		Country		Years
3

Wins by country

Wins		Country
8
2
1

References

(2023). "Le Samyn".
"Le Samyn des Dames".
"Le Samyn". lesamyn.be.
(28 February 2024). "Frustrated Arnaud De Lie blames race car for Le Samyn crash".
"41st Memorial Samyn - 1.1".
(4 March 2025). "Ename Samyn Classic: Mathieu van der Poel sprints to first road victory of 2025".
"Ename Samyn Classic - Le Néerlandais Mathieu van der Poel ouvre sa saison sur route mardi au Grand Prix Samyn".
"Le Samyn (Bel) - Cat.1.1". Memoire-du-cyclisme.eu.
"Niki Terpstra wint nu ook "klein broertje van Paris–Roubaix"".
(3 March 2005). "Memorial Samyn Fayt-le-Franc cancelled". Cyclingnews.
"Le Samyn des Dames". cqranking.com.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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