# 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 Lotto–Dstny.
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 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 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 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 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