Freddy Maertens

Freddy Maertens

Personal information
Full name	Freddy Maertens
Born	13 February 1952 (1952-02-13) Belgium
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Major wins
World Cycling Champion 1976, 1981 Tour de France - Green jersey (1976,1978,1981) Tour de France - won 16 stages Vuelta a España 1977 (including 13 stages) Paris–Nice 1977
Medal record Competitor for Belgium Road bicycle racing World Championships Gold 1976 Ostuni Elite Men's Road Race Gold 1981 Prague Elite Men's Road Race Silver 1973 Barcelona Elite Men's Road Race
Infobox last updated on November 2008

Freddy Maertens (born 13 February 1952 in Nieuwpoort) is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist and twice World Road Race Champion.

Career

In Italy in 1976, he won in front of Italians Francesco Moser and Tino Conti. In Prague in 1981, he beat Italian Giuseppe Saronni and France's Bernard Hinault. He was also second in the 1973 world championship.

Maertens also won the 1977 Vuelta a España, taking more than half the stages; 13 in total, and took the spinters' maillot vert in the Tour de France three times (1976, 1978 and 1981). In 1976 he won a record-equalling eight stages of the Tour de France; the following year (1977), he took seven stages in the Giro d'Italia.

Outside the Grand Tours, his stage race victories included Paris–Nice (1977), the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque (1973, 1975, 1976 and 1978), the Tour of Andalucia (1974, 1975), Tour of Belgium (1974, 1975), Tour de Luxembourg (1975), Tour of Sardinia (1977) and Vuelta y Catalunya (1977).

However, despite his sprinting dominance during the 1970s, Maertens did not win a one-day Classic, coming closest with second places in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (1973) and Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1976). He was disqualified from second place in the 1977 Ronde, which was already highly debated due to an illegal bike change by Maertens on the Koppenberg climb, because of the stimul affair. His other major one-day road race victories included:

• Gent–Wevelgem (1975, 1976)
• Paris–Brussels (1975)
• Paris–Tours (1975)
• Amstel Gold Race (1976)
• Rund um den Henninger Turm (1976)
• Züri-Metzgete (1976)
• Omloop "Het Volk" (1977, 1978)
• Grote Scheldeprijs (1973)

Maertens is believed to have been one of the best sprinters in the world, and is credited with having nurtured another great sprinter Sean Kelly during the latter's early professional career. He was also an accomplished rider in individual time trials, winning the Grand Prix des Nations in 1976.

He also won the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition in 1976 and 1977.

Maertens was known to have pushed high gears, which some critics say caused him to burn out early and retire young. In response, he said that the higher gears allow him to descend without too much strain to his heart. A year after his fabulous 1981 season his career was all but on the rocks and as reigning World Champion he failed to start the 1982 edition of the race at Goodwood; the official line was that he injured his knee on a gate.

In the 1973 world championship in Barcelona, Spain, fellow Belgian Eddy Merckx accused Maertens of having chased him in the final lap while Merckx had a good chance of staying away, resulting in Italy's Felice Gimondi winning the title. Maertens responded that Merckx had sabotaged his ride because Maertens was riding Shimano components while the other two used Campagnolo. In recent interviews Maertens and Merckx said they have since reconciled their differences.

After retirement Maertens and his wife Carine had many hard years after losing much of their money and being pursued by tax authorities. Maertens was also angry when Belgian television used his photograph as a backdrop to discussions about drug-taking in the sport. He told the French newspaper L'Équipe that "like everyone else", he had used amphetamines in round-the-houses races but he insisted that he had ridden without drugs in important races - not least because he knew he would be tested for them. He previously worked as curator of the Belgian national cycling museum in Roeselare and now works at the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders Museum) in Oudenaarde.The bicycle shop "Maertens Sport" in Evergem on the outskirts of Ghent is owned by Freddy's brother Mario.

Palmarès

1971

Belgium National Amateur Road Race Championship

, World Amateur Road Race Championship

1973

1st, Overall, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque

Winner Stage 5b

1st, Scheldeprijs

, World Road Race Championship

2nd, Ronde van Vlaanderen

5th, Paris–Roubaix

1974

1st, Overall, Tour de Luxembourg

Winner Stages 1 & 2

1st, Overall, Vuelta a Andalucía

Winner Prologue a-b, stages 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6

1st, Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen

1st, Stages 2, 3 & 4, Ronde van België

1st, Stage 3b, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque

4th, Amstel Gold Race

5th, Paris–Tours

1975

1st, Paris–Tours

1st, Paris–Brussels

1st, Gent–Wevelgem

1st, Overall, Ronde van België

Winner Stages 1b & 2

1st, Overall, Vuelta a Andalucía

Winner Prologue, stages 5, 6 & 7b

1st, Overall, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque

Winner Stage 3b

1st, Prologue, stages 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4 & 7b, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

2nd, Amstel Gold Race

3rd, National Madison Championship (with Walter Godefroot)

4th, Flèche Wallonne

5th, Giro di Lombardia

5th, Overall, Paris–Nice

Winner Stage 2

1976

World Road Race Championship

National Road Race Championship, Dilsen

1st, Amstel Gold Race

1st, Rund um den Henninger-Turm

1st, Züri-Metzgete

1st, Gent–Wevelgem

1st, Grand Prix des Nations

1st, Overall, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque

Winner Stage 2b

1st, Brabantse Pijl

1st, Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen

1st, Trofeo Baracchi (with Michel Pollentier)

1st, Critérium des As

1st, Six Days of Dortmund (with Patrick Sercu)

2nd, Liège–Bastogne–Liège

3rd, Flèche Wallonne

3rd, National Madison Championship (with Marc Demeyer)

4th, Overall, Paris–Nice

Winner Prologue, stages 2, 3, 4, 6a & 6b

5th, Ronde van Vlaanderen

7th, Overall, Tour de Suisse

Winner Prologue, stage 1 & Points Classification

8th, Overall, Tour de France:

Winner Prologue, stages 1, 3, 7, 18a, 18b, 21 & 22a

Winner Points Classification

Winner Super Prestige Pernod

1977

Belgium National Derny Championship

1st, Omloop Het Volk

1st, Overall, Vuelta a España:

Winner overall classification

Winner Prologue, stages 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11a, 11b, 13, 16 & 19

Winner Points Classification

1st, Overall, Paris–Nice

Winner Stages 1a, 1b, 2 & 7b

1st, Overall, Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

Winner Stages 1, 4, 5a & 5b

1st, Trofeo Laigueglia

1st, Overall, Giro di Sardegna

Winner Stage 1

1st, Overall, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya

Winner Prologue, stages 1, 3, 4 & 7a

1st, Stage 1, Tour de Suisse

1st, Six Days of Antwerp (with Patrick Sercu)

2nd, National Omnium Championship

3rd, Paris–Roubaix

, European Omnium Championship

5th, Milan – San Remo

5th, Liège–Bastogne–Liège

5th, Amstel Gold Race

Giro d'Italia:

Winner Prologue, stages 1, 4, 6a, 6b, 7 & 8a

Winner Super Prestige Pernod

1978

1st, Omloop Het Volk

1st, Overall, Quatre Jours de Dunkerque

Winner Stages 2a & 2b

1st, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen

1st, Tour du Haut Var

1st, Stage 7a, Dauphiné Libéré

1st, Six Days of Antwerp (with Danny Clark)

, European Omnium Championship

4th, Paris–Roubaix

4th, Amstel Gold Race

13th, Overall, Tour de France:

Winner Stages 5 & 7

Winner Points Classification

14th, Overall, Tour de Suisse

Winner Stage 5

1981

World Road Race Championship

66th, Overall, Tour de France:

Winner Stages 1a, 3, 12a, 13, & 22

Winner points classification

Winner intermediate sprints classification

See also

• List of doping cases in cycling

External links

• Freddy Maertens profile at Cycling Archives
• Official Tour de France results for Freddy Maertens

Further reading

"Fall From Grace" by Freddy Maertens and Manu Adriaens, ISBN 1-898111-00-6, 1993, Ronde Publications, Hull. (Probably now out of print - but available secondhand on the net.)