Eric Vanderaerden

Eric Vanderaerden (born 11 February 1962) is a Belgian retired road cyclist.

He was a considerable talent, winning the prologue time trial of the Vuelta a España in his debut year of 1983. During the 1983 Tour de France he also won the prologue and held the yellow jersey for two days. During the 1984 Tour de France he won two stages, including the final stage of the race which finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. His participation in the 1985 edition was a strong one, beating the eventual Tour winner Bernard Hinault in a time trial stage. He held the yellow jersey again during this tour, this time for three days. The following year, he won the green jersey.

In subsequent years, he won two monument races: in 1985, at 23, he won the storm ridden edition of the Tour of Flanders, and in 1987 he won Paris–Roubaix.

After 1988, his career went in decline and, despite his talent, he failed to win major races. 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.

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. His son Michael Vanderaerden signed a contract with the team in September 2007. In 2022 he became VIP driver for the Alpecin-Deceuninck World Tour team.

Major results Eric Vanderaerden gives an interview after victory during Dwars door België 1991 (Maurice Terryn, collection KOERS. Museum of Cycle Racing)

1982 1st Flèche Ardennaise 1983 Tour de France 1st Prologue

Vuelta a España 1st Stages 2 & 11 3rd Dwars door België 4th Milan–San Remo 5th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne 1984

Tour de France 1st Stages 10 & 23 Tour de Suisse 1st Prologue, Stages 2 & 7 1st Paris–Brussels 2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne 2nd Gent–Wevelgem 2nd Rund um den Henninger Turm 3rd Milan–San Remo 9th Omloop Het Volk 10th Tour of Flanders 10th Nokere Koerse 1985 Tour de France 1st Stages 13 (ITT) & 19

1st Tour of Flanders 1st Gent–Wevelgem 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 1st Ronde van Nederland 1st Stage 5 Tour de Suisse 2nd Dwars door België 4th Milan–San Remo 4th Rund um den Henninger Turm 1986

1st Halle–Ingooigem 1st Dwars door België 1st E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 1st Trofeo Isla de Mallorca 3rd Scheldeprijs 10th Tour of Flanders 1987

1st Paris–Roubaix 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 2nd Milan–San Remo 3rd Tour of Flanders 5th Omloop Het Volk 8th Gent–Wevelgem 1988

1st Ronde van Limburg 1989

1st GP Impanis 1st Stage 1 Tour de Suisse 4th Gent–Wevelgem 5th Omloop Het Volk 1990 Étoile de Bessèges 1st Stage 2 & 3 1st Stage 5 Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Six Days of Antwerp 2nd Scheldeprijs 3rd Binche–Tournai–Binche 8th Omloop Het Volk 9th Overall Three Days of De Panne 1991 1st Dwars door België 2nd Le Samyn 3rd Milan–San Remo 4th Gent–Wevelgem 5th Amstel Gold Race 1992 1st Stage 17 Vuelta a España 1st GP Wielerrevue 2nd Le Samyn 3rd Omloop Het Volk 3rd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 1993

1st Stage 3 Étoile de Bessèges 2nd Gent–Wevelgem 3rd Omloop Het Volk 8th Le Samyn 1995 4th Scheldeprijs 6th Paris–Roubaix 1996 3rd Scheldeprijs