LUXEMBOURG (AP) – Charly Gaul, a former Tour de France champion and two-time Giro d’Italia winner, has died at 72.

The Tour reported Gaul’s death on its Web site on Tuesday. No cause of death was given.

Known as the “Angel of the Mountains,” Gaul was the first non-Italian to win the Giro, in 1956 and ‘59. He won the Tour de France in 1958.

Gaul was the strongest mountain climber of the 1950s and finished third in the Tour de France in 1955 and 1961.

Gaul would have turned 73 on Thursday.