Special Envoy to Copenhagen
It extends the Quick-Step series in yellow. This is the 5th consecutive year (after Fernando Gaviria in 2018, Julian Alaphilippe in 2019, 2021 and 2021) that the Quick-Step team has won the yellow jersey on the Tour. Yves Lampaert, the surprise of the day spent between the drops of Copenhagen pinched himself to believe it. At the microphone of France Télévisions, he summed up: “I really wasn’t expecting that! My head is exploding, I expected to make a top 10, it would have been very good and there, I beat all the best, van Aert, Ganna, van der Poel… I am in good condition but from there to win the first stage of the Tour de France… I did not imagine it! The Belgian, overwhelmed with emotion, signed Quick-Step’s 48th victory in 20 Tours.
A timing specialist. Team time trial world champion with Quick-Step in 2016 and 2018, Belgian time trial champion in 2017 and 2021 (Belique vice-champion in the time trial this year, overtaken by Remco Evenepoel), Yves Lampaert won his 5th individual time trial in Copenhagen. “At 2 km, the sports director was like crazy, he was shouting at me: ‘Go ahead, go ahead, you’re in position for victory, I went to my limits,’ he said. at a press conference.
Black belt. Before taking up cycling, Yves Lampaert practiced judo for a long time. He was notably Belgian champion in the youth categories. A black belt, he told Rtbf what judo brought him: “Judo gave me a big mind. When you start a fight and you grab your opponent’s judogi for the first time, you immediately feel if he is strong or not. If he has a lot of strength, then you take a morale hit! In a cycle race, it’s totally different. In general, the favorite is invisible for a long time, well hidden in the wheels, without working and it appears in the last ten kilometers, very strong. Finally, judo brought me a lot for ”body stability”. I have a more muscular back than average. Since the beginning of my career, I have hardly ever had pain, whereas many riders suffer from back pain because of the position on the bike, this position which has been ours for ten or twenty years. Thanks to my eleven years of judo, I have developed a good physique. »
The 4th Belgian after Merckx, Maertens and Vanderaerden. Winner of the inaugural stage of the Tour de France, Yves Lampaert takes the wheel of prestigious Belgian riders. He is indeed the fourth Belgian to win the opening individual time trial of the Grande Boucle (prologues included) after Eddy Merckx (1970, 1972 and 1974), Freddy Maertens (1976) and Eric Vanderaerden (1983 ).
Paris-Roubaix is the race of his dreams. 3rd in 2019, 5th in 2021, 7th in 2015, Yves Lampaert has often shone on the Queen of the Classics. During the last edition, he made an impression with a spectacular fall. Touched by the arm of a spectator, the Belgian had been thrown to the ground 7 km from the finish, before managing, somehow, to resume the thread of his favorite event. After making a cross on the podium, he had won a meritorious 10th place.
