Eric Vanderaerden

Three Days of De Panne (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1993) One-day races and Classics

National Road Race Championships (1984) Tour of Flanders (1985) Paris–Roubaix (1987) Gent–Wevelgem (1985) E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (1986) |

Eric Vanderaerden (born 11 February 1962) is a Belgian retired road cyclist.

He was a considerable talent, winning the prologue time trial of the Vuelta a España in his debut year of 1983. During the 1983 Tour de France he also won the prologue and held the yellow jersey for two days. During the 1984 Tour de France he won two stages, including the final stage of the race which finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. His participation in the 1985 edition was a strong one, beating the eventual Tour winner Bernard Hinault in a time trial stage. He held the yellow jersey again during this tour, this time for three days. The following year, he won the green jersey.

In subsequent years, he won two monument races: in 1985, at 23, he won the storm ridden edition of the Tour of Flanders, and in 1987 he won Paris–Roubaix.

After 1988, his career went in decline and, despite his talent, he failed to win major races. He certainly had considerable talent as a time trial racer, but as a climber in the mountains his talent was limited. Perhaps, he was partly a victim of the high expectations the Belgian public had to get a successor for Eddy Merckx, a cyclist who was very versatile in winning both classic races and big stage races.

After his active career, Vanderaerden has led a few semi-professional racing teams and was also assistant-manager of a professional Belgo-Italian team. He became a directeur sportif with the DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed team in August 2006. His son Michael Vanderaerden signed a contract with the team in September 2007. In 2022 he became VIP driver for the Alpecin-Deceuninck World Tour team.

Eric Vanderaerden gives an interview after victory during Dwars door België 1991 (Maurice Terryn, collection KOERS. Museum of Cycle Racing)