[1] In 1937, Maes left the 1937 Tour de France together with his Belgian team while he was leading the general classification, in response to actions from French spectators and decisions from the jury.

[2] Born in 1909 as the youngest in a family of ten children,[3] Maes rode his first cycling race in 1928, and immediately was one of the best young riders.

When Joseph Moerenhout left the race in the second stage, the rules allowed an individual to take his place, and Maes was added to the national team.

[7] Maes won a mountain stage in the Pyrenées, and finished in fourth place in the general classification.

Marie lost contact, and Vervaecke had mechanical problems during the climb of the Tourmalet, so Maes continued on his own, and gained 15 minutes on Magne.

[12] In the fifteenth stage, where mountains in the Pyrenées were climbed, Maes created a large margin on Lapébie.

When the tour directors gave him 90 seconds penalty time for having been pushed, the margin with Maes grew to more than three minutes, but Lapébie had sensed weakness in the Belgian team, and planned to attack in the next stage.

The French team threatened to abandon the race if the penalty was increased, and the Tour directors did not change it.

Within 24 hours, 20.000 protest letters were sent to a sports magazine, and in ten days more than 100.000 Belgian Francs were sent to the national cycling organisation to support the Tour cyclists.

[18] Maes was however in bad form, and could not live up to expectations, and Felicien Vervaecke took over the team captain role.

Another protected racer in the Belgian team was Edward Vissers, but when Vissers escaped in the ninth stage, Maes started to chase his own teammate, and French cyclist René Vietto, leading the general classification, did not have to do much work to defend his lead.

[5] Maes had his chances to win a third Tour de France interrupted by the Second World War.