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

### 1984

    1st 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 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 Points classification Tour de France
    1st 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 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 Overall Three Days of De Panne
    1st Ronde van Limburg

### 1989

    1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
    1st 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 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