Victor Campenaerts

Victor Campenaerts
	Victor Campenaerts (2017)
To person
Date of birth	28th October 1991 (age 28)
nation	Belgium
discipline	Street
Driver type	Time trial
height	173 cm
Racing weight	73 kg
To the team
Current team	NTT Pro Cycling
function	driver
Team (s)
2014–2015 ; 2016–2017 ; 2018–2019 ; 2020	Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise ; Team Lotto NL-Jumbo ; Lotto Soudal ; NTT Pro Cycling
Most important successes
	UEC European Road Championships 2017, 2018 - individual time trial UCI Road World Championships 2018 - individual time trial Hour record April 16, 2019: 55.089 kilometers
	Last updated: April 17, 2019

Victor Campenaerts (born October 28, 1991 in Wilrijk ) is a Belgian cyclist . He was European time trial champion in 2017 and 2018 . On April 16, 2019, he improved the previous hour record to 55.089 kilometers.

Career

Victor Campenaerts was European champion in the U23 individual time trial in 2013. He had previously become Belgian champion in this discipline. In 2014 he got a contract with Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise . In 2015 he won the French duo Normand , a pair time trial, with his teammate Jelle Wallays . A few months earlier, Campenaerts was the best young driver in the Tour de Wallonie .

In 2016 he moved to the UCI WorldTeam Lotto NL-Jumbo . He also became Belgian champion in the individual time trial. In September 2016 he won the silver medal at the European championships in the individual time trial in Plumelec . At the Ruta del Sol 2017 he won the individual time trial with one second ahead of Alejandro Valverde .

Campenaerts caused a sensation during the individual time trial on the tenth stage of the Giro d'Italia 2017 , where he crossed the finish line with his jersey open. Carlien data was written on his torso , with which he asked triathlete Carlien Carvel , with whom he often trains and asked for a date. Carvel agreed to a date. The UCI punished the action with CHF 100 . At the UEC European Road Championships in 2017 , he won gold in the individual time trial with three seconds ahead of Maciej Bodnar from Poland .

In 2018 he was able to successfully defend his European time trial title, this time with a lead of six hundredths of a second over Jonathan Castroviejo , and at the World Championships in Innsbruck he won the bronze medal in the individual time trial, just five hundredths of a second behind second-placed Tom Dumoulin .

In February 2019, the World Cycling Federation UCI confirmed the dates April 16 or 17, 2019, when Campenaerts wanted to tackle the hour record on the track in the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico ; the track is over 1500 meters high, which is why many records have been set on it. On April 16, Campenaerts improved Bradley Wiggins' previous hour record of 54.526 kilometers, which he had set in June 2015 at London's Lee Valley Velodrome . He drove 55,089 kilometers in an hour and outbid Wiggins by 563 meters. This also made him the first driver to break the 55-kilometer limit. The last Belgian hour record holder was Eddy Merckx , who had reached 49.431 kilometers in October 1972.