GREATEST ROAD SPRINTERS – #8: EDDY PLANCKAERT

In the 1980s, the famed Panasonic team directed by former Paris–Roubaix winner Peter Post was filled with stars—among them Phil Anderson, Theo De Rooy, Henk Lubberding, Eddy Planckaert, Steven Rooks, Eric Vanderaerden and Peter Winnen. But when it came down to a field sprint, Planckaert was the big hitter. And what a sprinter he was!

Words: John Wilcockson | Image: Yuzuru Sunada

In an 11-year pro career, Eddy Planckaert won stages in all three grand tours, a total of 13, along with a host of spring classics, including the Tour of Flanders (1988), Paris–Roubaix (1990), E3 Harelbeke (1987 and ’89), Omloop Het Volk (1984 and ’85), Across Flanders (1985 and ’88) and the Flèche Brabançonne (1983). He also won a few stage races, including the Tour of Belgium and the Étoile de Bessèges (both in 1984).

Eddy Planckaert grew up in the small town of Nevele, not far from Ghent, in East Flanders. He was the younger brother of two other Belgian pros, Walter and Willy Planckaert, both of whom won some big races but not as many or as frequently as Eddy Planckaert. Although he won only two Tour de France stages (in 1981 and ’86), he won the green points jersey in 1988 and took 10 stages from the four editions of the Vuelta a España he started.

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But the spring classics were his favorite races, headed by his victories in the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix. In the first of those, he was in a nine-man break before attacking with Anderson (who’d moved to the TVM team) and then out-sprinting the Aussie. Coincidentally, it was another rider from the Commonwealth, Canadian Steve Bauer, who Planckaert was up against in the finish of the 1990 Roubaix. This image shows the Belgian (on left) throwing his bike at the line alongside the 7-Eleven team’s Bauer. It was a photo finish that showed Planckaert won by a centimeter, the closest margin in the monument’s century-old history.