Freddy Maertens

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Freddy Maertens Road cycling
Freddy Maertens during the Tour de France 1978
Freddy Maertens during the Tour de France 1978
To person
Date of birth February 13, 1952
nation BelgiumBelgium Belgium
discipline Train / street
doping
1974
1977
1986 		?
Pemoline
cortisone
Most important successes
UCI Road World Championships
1976, 1981 World Champion - road racing
Last updated: June 19, 2017

Freddy Maertens (born February 13, 1952 in Lombardsijde ) is a former Belgian cyclist .

In the 1970s Maertens was considered the world's best sprinter, who achieved a total of 142 professional victories in his long career from 1972 to 1985 . With the victory in the Tour of Spain and Paris – Nice (both in 1977 ) he was able to win two important stage races, otherwise he was one of the most successful stage hunters in tours. At the Tour de France he won a total of 15 stages and won the green jersey three times in 1976 , 1978 and 1981 . In 1976 alone he won the prologue and another seven stages. He rode a similarly successful tour in 1981 when he won six stages.

As successful as Maertens was in the big tours, he was never able to win one of the monuments of cycling in his career . Maertens is also the record winner of the Four Days of Dunkirk , he won this stage race in 1973, 1975, 1976 and 1978. He also won the Gent – ​​Wevelgem race in 1976. In 1975 Maertens won the Paris-Brussels race and became the new bearer of the yellow ribbon thanks to the average speed of 46.110 km / h .

He was also very successful at the road world championships : in 1974 he became vice world champion, in 1976 and 1981 he won the title.

Freddy Maertens was convicted of doping with pemoline several times , for example in 1977 at the Flèche Wallonne and the Tour of Flanders . He was therefore outclassed or disqualified.

After winning the world title, Maertens did not achieve any great success. He rode for smaller teams until 1987, when he ended his cycling career.

Freddy Maertens then acted as a representative. From 2001 he worked for the Nationaal Wielermuseum in Roeselare and from 2008 for the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen in Oudenaarde .

In April 2017, Maertens had to undergo heart surgery.

Successes (selection)

1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1981

Grand Tour placements

Grand Tour 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
Yellow jersey Vuelta a España - 1 - - - -
Maglia Rosa Giro d'Italia - DNF - - - -
Yellow jersey Tour de France 8th - 13 - - 66
Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

Teams

Web links

Commons : Freddy Maertens  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Meutgens : Doping in cycling , Bielefeld 2007, p. 258. ISBN 978-3-7688-5245-6
  2. ↑ Freddy Maertens transferring van Roeselare naar Oudenaarde. In: nieuwsblad.be. December 31, 2007, accessed June 19, 2017 (Dutch).
  3. ↑ Freddy Maertens had a heart operation in Brussels. In: Cycling Archives. April 15, 2017, accessed April 15, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Maertens, Freddy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Lombardsijde