Jozef Schils

Jozef "Jef" Schils (4 September 1931, in Kersbeek-Miskom – 3 March 2007, in Liège) was a Belgian cyclist.

Jozef Schils

Schils in 1961
Personal information
Born	(1931-09-04)4 September 1931 Kersbeek-Miskom, Belgium
Died	3 March 2007(2007-03-03) (aged 75) Liège, Belgium
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Amateur team
1951	Garin–Wolber
Professional teams
1951–1953	Garin–Wolber
1953	Bianchi–Pirelli
1954	Touring–Pirelli
1955	Girardengo
1956–1959	Faema
1960–1962	Mercier–BP–Hutchinson
1963	Wiel's–Groene Leeuw
1964	Dr. Mann
1965	Lamot–Libertas
Major wins
Stage races Paris–Tours (1953) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (1952) Nationale Sluitingsprijs (1953) Nokere Koerse (1955) Brussels–Ingooigem (1956) Schaal Sels (1956) Grand Prix d'Isbergues (1960) Flèche Hesbignonne (1960, 1962)

In 1952, at the age of 21, Jozef Schils, who had just become a professional racing cyclist^[1] and was still in the army, became Belgian road racing champion. He was nominated for the road world championships in Luxembourg in the same year and finished tenth.

Schils rode as a professional until 1965 and won around 40 Belgian criteria during this time. 1953 was his most successful year, in which he won Paris-Tours and the Nationale Sluitingsprijs.^[2] In 1955 he won at Nokere Koerse. His nickname was "little Coppi", because Fausto Coppi had praised him. However, he turned down offers to go to Italy. In 1957, he won the Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten in Ichtegem on a postman's bike.^[3] In 1960, he switched to the French team "Mercier", which was led by Antonin Magne and in which Raymond Poulidor rode. At the end of the season he had a hard crash and he crashed again heavily in 1961. In 1965, he ended his career.^[4]

Then Jozef Schils opened a café in Koekelberg, later a laundry and a bicycle shop. Jozef Schils was the father of the former professional racing cyclist Patrick Schils and was the grandfather of Dominic Schils, also a racing cyclist of note.^[5]