Lucien Van Impe
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Van Impe at the 1975 Acht van Chaam
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Lucien Van Impe |
| Nickname | de kleine van Mere |
| Born |
20 October 1946 Mere, East Flanders, Belgium |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road and track |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Climber |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 1969–1974 | Sonolor |
| 1975–1976 | Gitane |
| 1977 | Lejeune |
| 1978 | C&A |
| 1979 | KAS |
| 1980 | Marc |
| 1981 | Boston Mavic |
| 1982-1984 | Metauro Mobil |
| 1985 | Santini |
| 1986 | Dormilon |
| 1987 | Sigma |
| Major wins | |
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Lucien Van Impe (pronounced [lɵsˈjɛn vɑn ˈɪmpə]; born 20 October 1946) is a Belgian cyclist, who competed professionally between 1969 and 1987. He excelled mainly as a climber in multiple-day races such as the Tour de France. He was the winner of the 1976 Tour de France, and six times winner of the mountains classification in the Tour de France.
Van Impe credits the start of his career to Spaniard Federico Bahamontes, a climber nicknamed the eagle of Toledo and a former Tour de France winner. In 1968 van Impe was King of the Mountains in the Tour de l'Avenir. Bahamontes used his influence to get van Impe a contract as a professional. In 1969, Van Impe started his professional career with a 12th place in the 1969 Tour de France. In 1971, Van Impe won his first Mountains classification in the Tour de France. He would repeat that five more times, a record then shared with Bahamontes. When Richard Virenque broke the record with a seventh victory in 2004, Van Impe criticized Virenque for being opportunistic rather than the best climber; he said he had himself refrained from breaking Bahamontes' record himself out of reverence.
Van Impe's Sonolor team fused with Gitane to become Gitane-Campagnolo in 1975. Former French champion Cyrille Guimard, who retired in early 1976, became directeur sportif in 1976. In that year van Impe duelled several times with Zoetemelk in the mountains of the 1976 Tour de France. Guimard claims it was his order to attack Zoetemelk that won van Impe the Tour, shouting at van Impe that he'd run him off the road with the car if he didn't attack. Van Impe has denied this. After 1976, van Impe changed teams. In the 1977 Tour de France he started favorite but failed to take a lead in the mountains. He waited until the last mountain stage, to Alpe d'Huez, but forgot to eat, causing him to lose his lead. In that tour, he was caught by one of the accompanying cars and fell, another cause for his defeat by Bernard Thévenet.
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