Eric Vanderaerden (born 11 February 1962) is a Belgian retiredroad cyclist.
He was a considerable talent, winning the prologue time trial of theVuelta a España in his debut year of 1983. During the1983 Tour de France he also won the prologue and held theyellow jersey for two days. During the1984 Tour de France he won two stages, including the final stage of the race which finished on theChamps-Élysées in Paris. His participation in the1985 edition was a strong one, beating the eventual Tour winnerBernard 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 thegreen jersey.[1]
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 forEddy 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 adirecteur sportif with theDFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed team in August 2006.[2] His son Michael Vanderaerden signed a contract with the team in September 2007.[3] In 2022 he became VIP driver for the Alpecin-Deceuninck World Tour team.[4]
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for two days
Road race, National Road Championships
Points classificationTour de France
OverallThree Days of De Panne
