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.

Major results



 * 1982
 * 1st Flèche Ardennaise


 * 1983
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Prologue
 * Held Jersey yellow.svg for two days
 * Vuelta a España
 * 1st Stages 2 & 11
 * 3rd Dwars door België
 * 4th Milan–San Remo
 * 5th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne


 * 1984
 * 1st MaillotBélgica.PNG Road race, National Road Championships
 * 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
 * Held Jersey yellow.svg for three days
 * 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 Jersey green.svg Points classification Tour de France
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 1st Halle–Ingooigem
 * 1st Dwars door België
 * 1st E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
 * 1st Trofeo Isla de Mallorca
 * 3rd Scheldeprijs
 * 10th Tour of Flanders


 * 1987
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 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 Jersey white.svg Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 1st Ronde van Limburg


 * 1989
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Nissan Classic
 * 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 Jersey white.svg Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 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