Frans Maassen

Franciscus ("Frans") Albertus Antonius Johannes Maassen (born 27 January 1965 in Haelen, Limburg) is a directeur sportif. He was a professional road racing cyclist between 1987 and 1995. He completed seven Tour de France stage races, including the 1990 Tour de France where he was involved in the Stage 1 breakaway that caused the rest of the race to be the most surprising Tour in over a decade. He was the only one of the four breakaway riders not to wear the maillot jaune, but he won the stage. He twice won the Tour of Belgium, and won the 1994 Tour de Luxembourg.

Since 2005, Maassen has been the assistant directeur sportif of the Rabobank, a Netherlands-based UCI ProTour team.

Major results

1986 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège Espoirs 2nd Overall Tour of Sweden 1987 1st Stage 2 Danmark Rundt 2nd GP du Canton d'Argovie 7th Brussels–Ingooigem 8th Tour Méditerranéen 1988

1st Stages 3a & 3b (ITT) 1st Prologue Étoile de Bessèges 1st Stage 2 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st Stage 4a Tour de Romandie 1st Stage 6a Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 3rd Overall Three Days of De Panne 6th Overall Tour of Sweden 1989

1st Wincanton Classic 2nd Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Stage 3b (ITT) 2nd Milan–San Remo 3rd Overall Étoile de Bessèges 4th UCI Road World Cup 4th De Brabantse Pijl 1990

1st Prologue & Stage 5a (ITT)

1st Stage 6 (ITT) 1st De Brabantse Pijl 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 1st Grand Prix de Fourmies 1st Stage 1 Tour de France 2nd Overall Tour of Sweden 1st Stages 2 & 3 3rd Druivenkoers Overijse 4th Gent–Wevelgem 6th Overall Nissan Classic 7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 9th Rund um den Henninger Turm 1991

1st Stage 2b (ITT) 1st Amstel Gold Race 1st Stage 5b Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne 2nd Overall Tour de Luxembourg 2nd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 3rd Overall Étoile de Bessèges 3rd Grand Prix Pino Cerami 4th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 1st Stage 5 5th Tour of Flanders 5th Circuit des Frontières 6th UCI Road World Cup 6th Grand Prix des Nations 10th Wincanton Classic 1992

Tour de Luxembourg 1st Stages 2 & 3b (ITT) 1st Stage 3 Grand Prix du Midi Libre 2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 1st Stage 4 (ITT) 2nd Paris–Brussels 2nd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 2nd Grand Prix Pino Cerami 3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm 5th Tour of Flanders 5th GP Ouest–France 8th Paris–Tours 1993 1st Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 1st Stage 4 Grand Prix du Midi Libre 1st Stage 6 Vuelta a Andalucía 2nd Overall Three Days of De Panne 2nd Tour of Flanders 2nd Circuit des Frontières 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 5th De Brabantse Pijl 6th Overall Tour de Luxembourg 7th Rund um den Henninger Turm 10th Road race, UCI Road World Championships 1994

1st Stage 3b (ITT) 3rd Overall Three Days of De Panne 1st Stage 3b (ITT) 3rd Veenendaal–Veenendaal Classic 1995 1st Profronde van Heerlen 2nd Time trial, National Road Championships 2nd Rund um Köln 6th Overall Ronde van Nederland