Eric Vanderaerden

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**Eric Vanderaerden**
Personal information
Full name	Eric Vanderaerden
Date of birth	February 11, 1962 (1962-02-11) (age 46)
Country	Belgium
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Major wins
Tour de France, green jersey win (1986) Tour de France 5 stage wins (1983, 1984, 1985) Tour de France, 5 days in yellow jersey (1983, 1985) Tour of Flanders (1985) Paris-Roubaix (1987) Three Days of De Panne, 5 time winner (1986-1989, 1993)
Infobox last updated on:
April 16, 2007

Eric Vanderaerden (born February 11, 1962) is a retired road cyclist from the town of Lummen, Belgium.

He was a considerable talent, winning the prologue time trial of the Vuelta and the Tour de France in his professional debut year 1983. As for classics, he won the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1985 and Paris-Roubaix in 1987. In the Tour de France, his participation in the 1985 edition was a strong one, beating the later winner Bernard Hinault in a time trial stage. The next year, he won the green jersey.

After 1988, his career went in decline, though every observer had the impression he could have achieved much more. He certainly had considerable talent as a time trial racer, but as a climber in the mountains his talent was limited. Perhaps, he was partly a victim of the high expectations the Belgian public had to get a successor for Eddy Merckx, a cyclist who was very versatile in winning both classic races and big stage races.^{[citation needed]}

After his active career, Vanderaerden has led a few semi-professional racing teams and was also assistant-manager of a professional Belgo-Italian team. He became a directeur sportif with the DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed team in August 2006.^[1] His son Michael Vanderaerden signed a contract with the team in September 2007.^[2]

[edit] Major results

Tour de France
- 1983 (Prologue IIT win; General classification leader maillot jaune after Prologue and Stage 1)
- 1984 (Stage 10 win; Stage 23 Champs-Élysées win)
- 1985 (Stage 13 ITT win; Stage 19 win; General classification leader maillot jaune after Stage 1-3)
- 1986 (Points classification winner of maillot vert)
Paris-Roubaix (1987)
Ronde van Vlaanderen (1985)
Ronde van Nederland (1985)
E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (1986)
Dwars door Vlaanderen (1986, 1991)
Three Days of De Panne (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1993)
Tour de Trump (1989 - 3rd overall; 4 stage wins)
Nissan Classic 1989 and three stages
Amstel Gold Race (1991 - 5th place)

[edit] References

^ From Roubaix to Wolverhampton - Eric's back at the races. Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
^ DFL-Cyclingnews wants more Belgians. Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.

Sporting positions
Preceded by Seán Kelly	Winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France 1986	Succeeded by Jean-Paul van Poppel
Preceded by Seán Kelly	Winner of Paris-Roubaix 1987	Succeeded by Dirk Demol