History

The Dutchman born in Belgium is the son of former cyclist Adrie van der Poel and grandson of French cyclist Raymond Poulidor. Cycling must therefore is in his blood. Yet, as a young sportsman, he chose football first. He was even allowed to do an internship at Willem 2 and was part of the selection of the province of Antwerp. In the end, he chose cycling. He first got acquainted with cycling in the cyclocross season of 2009-2010, where he immediately came 2nd at the Dutch Championships. His career took off from there. A year later he took part in 29 cyclocross races and won them all. Today, Mathieu is a six-time Dutch champion, three-time European champion and four-time world champion in cyclocross. Not only in the field, but also on the mountain bike he is competing for prizes. Among other things, he was already able to add the Dutch and European titles to his palmares once.  

In 2014, Van Der Poel decided to give road racing a try too. He sprinted to victory in the Tour of Limburg and also won a stage in the Tour of Liège and the Tour of Alsace. To make an immediate impression, he not only won a stage in the Baltic Chain Tour, but also suddenly won the final classification. 2019 was the year of the very first spring classics for Van der Poel. He won the GP Denain that year and immediately finished fourth on his debut in Gent - Wevelgem. A few days later he was even better in Waregem, where Van der Poel won his first Dwars door Vlaanderen. In the 2019 edition, he was the fastest in a group of 5, ahead of Anthony Turgis and Bob Jungels. 2019 was a real banner year for VDP, because that same season he also won the Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race. 

A year later, he sprinted just a bit faster than Wout van Aert in Oudenaarde and won the Tour of Flanders. In 2021 he added the Strade Bianche to his palmares. 2022 started less well. After a winter full of injuries, Van der Poel surprisingly started in Dwars door Vlaanderen. The Dutchman immediately showed that his legs were in good shape. After the race really started on Berg Ten Houte, he rode with a group that included Benoot and Campenaets. In the final part of the race Benoot accelerated and Van der Poel jumped on the Belgian's wheel. At the finish line on Verbindingsweg, Van der Poel sprinted Benoot out of the wheel and took his second win in Dwars door Vlaanderen. 

Yves Lampaert started cycling at the age of 17. After achieving a black belt in judo, He thought it was time for a new sport challenge. In 2013 Lampaert signed his first pro contract with Topsport-Vlaanderen and 2 years later he moved to Quick-Step. At that time his list of achievements was almost empty but Patrick Lefevere must had noticed the talent of the Fleming from Ingelmunster. In the beginning he worked as a servant for Boonen & co, but in his first year he already impressed with a 7th place in Paris-Roubaix. In 2016 he missed the Spring Classics after a fall in the Tour of Algarve and an Achilles Tendon injury incurred when someone hit him accidentally with a shopping cart.

With riders like Boonen, Terpstra, Gilbert and Stybar Quick-Step had an amazing team in 2017, which Lampie probably could take advantage of. In Dwars door Vlaanderen that year he was outstanding. Nobody could beat the supremacy of Quick-Step and Lampaert finished off the teamwork perfectly. 7 kilometers before the finish he escaped and he rode solo to Waregem. Winning this race in his backyard made him blissful.

In 2018 Dwars door Vlaanderen was moved to the Wednesday before the Tour of Flanders. Furthermore, the route was radically renewed. In this new edition the peloton has to tackle the Kluisberg twice and the Knokteberg thrice. This change didn’t bother Lampie. In a very rainy Dwars door Vlaanderen again he was super strong. In the final kilometer he escaped from the front group and rolled solo to the finish for the second year in a row. It remains to be seen which races Lampaert can add to his palmares.

Terpstra started out as a track cyclist, combining this discipline with road racing. That’s how he managed to snap up nearly every single Dutch title across several different disciplines. In 2005, he took home the silver at the World Championship for team pursuit. Belgium first caught wind of Terpstra in 2006 when he won the fourth stage of the Tour of Belgium. This was then followed by a fallow period of three years absent of victory,
until the Dutchman won the third stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in 2009. One year later, he bagged the first of three national Dutch championship titles (2010, 2012 and 2015). In 2011, Terpstra switched from the German stable Team Milram to Patrick Lefevere’s Quick Step. It was a year without victories, but in 2012 he won Dwars Door Vlaanderen for the first time, after riding solo for 30 kilometres, marking the start of the his career’s finest era. He rode into sixth place in the Tour of Flanders, after team mate and the race’s winner, Tom Boonen. One week later he claimed the fifth place in Paris-Roubaix. At the end of that season, he snapped up his second national title riding solo for 50 kilometres and became the world champion in the team time trial. In 2013, he inched closer to victory, coming third in Paris-Roubaix and winning the team time trial world championship again with Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

2014 was a string of successes for the time trial specialist. He won the first stage in the Tour of Qatar and made it into the final ranking. Terpstra also won Dwars Door Vlaanderen a second time by being the only rider to stay ahead of the pack. In the ensuing interview with Sporza, the Dutchman revealed his cultural side. He answered the interviewer’s question by quoting the first lines of the lyrics to “Als je wint, heb je vrienden” (You always have friends when you win), by Herman Brood and Henny Vrienten. Two days later he finished second after Sagan in the E3 Harelbeke. He finished sixth in Flanders’ Finest the same as in 2012; however, one week later he hit the jackpot. He was the first to arrive in the Vélodrome, all on his own, winning Paris-Roubaix.

The most recent season was a bit of a let-down for the Dutch rider. He won the Tour of Qatar for the second time. However, in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad he had to acknowledge the superiority of Ian Stannard. Luca Paolini was just a whisker ahead in Gent-Wevelgem, and outmatched, he lost the sprint in the Tour of Flanders to the tempestuous Alexander Kristoff. In autumn, he won the Tour de Wallonie and nabbed his third Dutch title. One thing is for certain, the career of the 31-year old Dutchman is far from over.

Niko’s nickname in the peloton was “Rambo”. And on that day he made it crystal clear that he was worthy of it in spades. Anyone who breaks free of the pack just eight kilometres into the race in those weather conditions, leaving the entire pack in his smoking wake in true Flandrien form, has got to inspire not just surprise, but above all admiration in his colleagues and the rest of the cycling world. “A lot of my colleagues in the pack know that I am quite capable. However, up until that point I hadn’t been able to prove my mettle as a first-class race due to some setbacks. Now I finally am where I want to be: a potential winner of prestigious races. I’m not thinking about top ten rankings in classics just yet, but I do think that I am capable of hitting the tier just below that.”

Eeckhout’s heroic victory in Dwars door Vlaanderen compensated for the bad after-taste of two previous setbacks, boosting his pride and ambition. First and foremost, for the previous edition the jury of Dwars Door Vlaanderen disqualified him because he was seen hanging onto the handle of a support vehicle. “Last year, I was even faster in this race, but the UCI commissioner disagreed. I don’t think anyone can accuse me of anything like that today.” And then there was the finish of Nokere Koerse, just one week before his victory. “As the strongest man in the race, I was swindled by someone who spent the entire time crying for mummy, who by some fluke found his wings in the last kilometre (Vanhaecke, ed.). Believe me, I was furious. Where my ship washes ashore in future is still a mystery. I’m just going to continue to work hard and we’ll see where I end up. More than ever, I am definitely convinced of one thing: there are still loads of victories in battle ahead for Rambo.”
And he was right. Four years later, on 23 March 2005, the West Fleming was able to lift the trophy a second time for Dwars Door Vlaanderen’s 60th edition. Unlike 2001, the jubilee edition of this race was positively sun-drenched. This time around, “Rambo” did not repeat his daring feat of 2001. From the start, the pace in the pack was devastatingly high, and the first serious break came at just 85 kilometres from the finish line, when fourteen riders took off just before scaling the Eikenberg. However, the pack wasn’t about to let them escape and caught up with them after six kilometres. Next, Koen Barbé launched another attempt, but he too was soon swallowed up by the pack again.

After climbing Kalkhoveberg and Paterberg, Eeckhout felt the time was ripe for some action, 55 kilometres from the finish line. Together with thirteen other riders, including Belgian compatriots Boonen, Van Petegem, Mattan and Devolder, he broke away from the pack entering the final round in the lead, with a group of nine riders. At the finish in Waregem this culminated in a sprint between eight riders - for Nico Mattan the pace was just a little too fast and he was forced give it up moments before - wherein Eeckhout went on to outperform Englishman Roger Hammond and the Italian, Gabriele Balducci. Another victory in the bag for “Rambo”, who is the tenth rider to sail across the finish line twice with his arms stretched victorious to the heavens in Waregem.

“Rambo”, who was 39 years old at this point, continued as a pro cyclist for a few more years, winning several races and finishing in the top three in several smaller races. That was until 2013, when he decided he’d had a good run, but that it was time to hang up his racing bike for good. Eeckhout was a professional cyclist for 21 years and with a handful of sweet victories in addition to those of the Dwars Door Vlaanderen, the Tour of Midden-Zeeland and the Belgian Championship he can look back on a fantastic career. However, Eeckhout, nearly 43, is matter-of-fact about it: “For quite some time it’s been really great, but it’s now time to call it quits. You can’t keep on racing.” Kevin Van Impe followed suit. Soon Eeckhout and Devolder were able to join them somewhat later, entering the final round as a group of five. When Van Impe tried to break away from them, the experienced Eeckhout immediately eased his way in, duking it out with Van Impe in a two-way sprint. Eeckhout began the sprint in the lead, but was caught off guard by Van Impe, who effortlessly sped away. Eeckhout was no longer able to steal back his lead and was forced to watch as Van Impe crossed the finish line first. He had no choice but to be satisfied with his second place win, and the fact that the record for Dwars Door Vlaanderen will remain at two victories for the time being.

In 1999, he came close to winning Ghent-Wevelgem, where he finished third and he snatched up fifth place in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Hoffman did win the first stage in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen as well as emerging triumphant in Veenendaal-Veenendaal and the Clasica de Sabinanigo.

The year 2000 was his most successful season. The Dutchman won Dwars Door Vlaanderen for the second time in his career, sharing the record. That year, Hoffman also won the Tour van Made and piled the winnings up across the classics: fourth in Ghent-Wevelgem, fifth in the Tour of Flanders and fourth in Paris-Roubaix.

One year later, he even snapped up fifth place in the E3 Harelbeke. In 2002, he finished fourth in Paris-Roubaix and in 2004; he came very close to a victory in that same cobblestone classic. Magnus Bäckstedt beat him to the finish line in the sprint.

His career ended on 26 February 2015. In the Omloop Het Volk of that year, he hit a post and sustained a double open fracture of the tibia. After an extensive period of rehab, the Dutchman quit racing, and got started as a team leader at CSC.

There was no chance the Hoffman would disappear from the word of cycle racing, and from 2007 and 2010, he was the team leader at HTC-Columbia/Highroad. In 2011, he made the switch to Tinkoff-Saxo and to date, he is still a member of the staff of the Tinkoff team of world champion Peter Sagan.

Walter Godefroot, who was also known to the pack as “the Flemish Bulldog” was a professional cyclist from 1965 until 1979. His long list of victories includes ten stages in the Tour de France (including the very first final stage to end in Champs-Elysées in 1975), the Tour of Flanders twice, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Ghent-Wevelgem, stages in Paris-Nice, stages in the Vuelta to name but a few. He also spent two seasons sporting the Belgian tricoloured jersey.

What’s more, Godefroot is one of the record holders of Dwars Door Vlaanderen. He and ten other riders are able to lay claim to having crossed the finish line first in Waregem twice. In 1966, he finished before Willy Bocklant and the Dutch Peter Post, two years later he was flanked on either side by Willy Monty and Bernard Van De Kerckhove on the winner’s stage.

In 1979, Godefroot retired as cyclist, but the “Flemish Bulldog” did not disappear from the pack. After his professional career, he worked as the team manager of IJsboerke, Capri Sonne and Weinmann. In 1992, he became the team manager of Team Telekom, returning in 2004 (the team was then called T-Mobile Team). Godefroot officially retired in 2005, but he wasn’t able to stay away from cycling for long. In 2006, he returned to the pack as a consultant to Astana; however, in 2007, he left this position after having been accused of involvement in doping practices.