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  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

References

External links

1969 births
Living people
Belgian male cyclists
Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Cyclists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Olympic cyclists for Belgium
Belgian Tour de France stage winners
Sportspeople from Hasselt
Cyclists from Limburg (Belgium)