Piet van Heusden
Van Heusden started cycling when he was 18 years old. He became for the first time Dutch national champion in 1952 in the individual pursuit at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. With this achievement he qualified for the 1952 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris. Here he became World Champion in the amateur individual pursuit ahead of the Italians Mino De Rossi and Loris Campana. Van Heusen became again Dutch national champion in 1953, 1954 and 1955. Because he was so fast, he was described in the media as "an Amsterdam phenomenon".