Former Belgian cyclist Dirk Baert, a specialist in pursuit racing and track events, including Six-Day races, passed away on July 7th. He was born in Zwevegem, in the Belgian region of West Flanders, on February 14, 1949 and died there.

He was a professional cyclist, racing for multiple teams, some of considerable prominence at the start of his career, from 1970 to 1984, with intense track activity alternated with road racing where he achieved success in various non-international level races.

The discipline in which he excelled was pursuit racing, where he won the world professional title in 1971 on the Varese track at Masnago, during the world championship meeting assigned to Switzerland in Mendrisio, but with the track events held across the border in Italy. In 1972 in Marseille he took bronze in the same discipline, as well as in 1975 on the Rocourt track in Liège, in his home country.

Throughout his long career he literally accumulated numerous national track titles in various disciplines and in many prestigious events and urban circuits that were very popular at the time, especially in Belgium.