Marc Wauters

Marc Wauters (born 23 February 1969 in Hasselt, Belgium) is a Belgian former cyclist who was professional from 1991 until 2006. The 2004 Olympian, nicknamed The Soldier was a member of the Rabobank cycling team of the UCI ProTour since 1998 and had to end his career several weeks short because of a broken collarbone which he suffered during a training on 20 September 2006.

He currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI ProTeam.

Wauters participated at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens where he took part in both the road race and the time trial without any success. In his early career, between 1991 and 1996 he won several of the smaller road races in The Netherlands and Belgium he was cycling in. The only exception to this was his win in the 5th stage of the 1995 Vuelta a Andalucía.

In 1997 and 1998 Wauters didn't win a single race, although he became 7th at the World Cycling Championships 1998, his highest position in this event during his career. From 1999 on after winning the Grand Prix Eddy Merckx he started achieving wins again. In this year he also won Paris–Tours, 2 stages in the Tour de Luxembourg plus the overall ranking and the overall classification in the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt. Trying to defend his title in Rheinland-Pfalz he won 3rd stage in 2000. At the end of the tour he had defended his title successively. He won the Grand Prix Eddy Merckx for the second time in his career in 2001. Wauters was known as a worker in the peloton and didn't win much, but helped his teammates achieving decent results. Meanwhile, he developed himself into one of Belgium's best time trial specialists, winning the Belgium championships in 2002, 2003 and 2005. At the 2004 World Championships he finished on a 7th position.

On 15 October 2006 a memorial race was held in Zolder, Belgium to wave Wauters officially goodbye from the sport.

Major results

 * 1986
 * 3rd Time trial, National Junior Road Championships


 * 1987
 * National Junior Road Championships
 * 1st MaillotBélgica.PNG Time trial
 * 2nd Road race


 * 1989
 * 3rd Overall Ruban Granitier Breton


 * 1990
 * 3rd Flèche Ardennaise
 * 3rd Seraing–Aachen–Seraing


 * 1991
 * 1st Liedekerkse Pijl
 * 3rd Grand Prix de la Ville de Rennes
 * 8th Overall Tour de Luxembourg


 * 1992
 * 10th Rund um den Henninger Turm


 * 1994
 * 1st Ronde van Limburg
 * 1st Ster van Zwolle
 * 1st Grote Prijs Stad Zottegem
 * 3rd Circuit des Frontières
 * 7th Le Samyn


 * 1995
 * 4th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
 * 1st Stage 5
 * 5th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens


 * 1996
 * 1st Sint-Truiden Criterium
 * 1st Stage 6 Four Days of Dunkirk
 * 4th GP Rik Van Steenbergen
 * 8th Overall Tour Méditerranéen


 * 1997
 * 2nd Druivenkoers-Overijse
 * 5th Brabantse Pijl
 * 7th Paris–Roubaix
 * 8th Overall Tour de la Region Wallonne


 * 1998
 * 5th Druivenkoers-Overijse
 * 7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships


 * 1999
 * 1st Overall Prudential Tour
 * 1st Overall Tour de Luxembourg
 * 1st Stages 1 & 4 (ITT)
 * 1st Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
 * 1st Stage 1
 * 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx (with Erik Dekker)
 * 1st Paris–Tours
 * 4th Tour de Berne
 * 5th Overall Paris–Nice


 * 2000
 * 1st Overall Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt
 * 1st Stage 3b (ITT)
 * 1st Peer Criterium
 * 1st Josef Voegeli Memorial
 * 3rd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx (with Erik Dekker)
 * 3rd EnBW Grand Prix (with Erik Dekker)
 * 4th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
 * 7th Paris–Roubaix
 * 7th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
 * 8th Overall Ronde van Nederland


 * 2001
 * 1st Grand Prix Eddy Merckx
 * 1st Stage 2 Tour de France
 * 2nd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
 * 4th GP Rik Van Steenbergen
 * 4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne


 * 2002
 * 1st MaillotBélgica.PNG Time trial, National Road Championships
 * 3rd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx (with Erik Dekker)
 * 4th Overall Tour de Luxembourg
 * 6th Overall Ronde van Nederland
 * 8th Overall Three Days of De Panne


 * 2003
 * 1st MaillotBélgica.PNG Time trial, National Road Championships
 * 2nd Veenendaal–Veenendaal
 * 4th Paris–Roubaix
 * 6th Overall Ronde van Nederland
 * 6th Overall Tour de Luxembourg
 * 7th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships


 * 2004
 * 1st Kortrijk Criterium
 * 2nd Time trial, National Road Championships
 * 3rd Overall Ronde van Nederland
 * 4th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx (with Erik Dekker)
 * 5th Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 6th Paris–Brussels
 * 7th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 * 7th LuK Challenge


 * 2005
 * 1st MaillotBélgica.PNG Time trial, National Road Championships
 * 3rd Overall Niedersachsen-Rundfahrt
 * 5th LuK Challenge
 * 8th Schaal Sels


 * 2006
 * 1st Peer Criterium
 * 1st 's Gravenwezel Criterium
 * 3rd Time trial, National Road Championships
 * 3rd LuK Challenge

Tour de France results
Wauters started in a total of 10 Tour de France editions, finishing in Paris eight times. His highest final ranking was 43rd in 2000. The year after, during the 2001 Tour de France Wauters won the second stage, held from Calais to Antwerp. He was part of a breakaway containing 16 cyclists together with teammate Erik Dekker. Wauters got away from the group together with Arnaud Pretot who he beat in the final sprint. Because of his decent result in the prologue two days prior in Dunkerque he wore the yellow jersey for a day, before losing it to Stuart O'Grady.
 * 1993 - 107th
 * 1994 - 92nd
 * 1996 - 124th
 * 1999 - Did not finish
 * 2000 - 43rd
 * 2001 - Winner stage 2, Did not finish
 * 2002 - 91st
 * 2003 - 115th
 * 2004 - 112th
 * 2005 - 140th