Nico Mattan

Nico Mattan (born 17 July 1971) is a Belgian former road racing cyclist. His greatest achievement in cycling was winning the Gent–Wevelgem classic in 2005.

Nico Mattan
Mattan at the 1998 Paris–Tours
Personal information
Full nameNico Mattan
Born (1971-07-17) 17 July 1971
Izegem, Belgium
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleClassics specialist
Professional teams
1994–1996Lotto
1997–1998Mapei–GB
1999–2003Cofidis
2004Relax–Bodysol
2005–2006Davitamon–Lotto
2007DFL–Cyclingnews–Litespeed

In 2005 Mattan won the Gent–Wevelgem in a controversial way, as there were claims that he used Publicity cars to sprint past Juan Antonio Flecha.[1] He also won 2 prologues of Paris–Nice, in 2001 and 2003.

He is known to be very superstitious, for instance his lucky number is 17 (the date of his birthdate), if his race number is 17 or if the ciphers add up to 17, he will look very happy and believes he will win. Once he got number 13 and wore it upside down to avoid bad luck because he heard on a 13th that he wouldn't be able to race anymore because of heart problems and lost the leader's jersey in Paris–Nice on a 13th.[2]

Major results
1996
1st Stage 1 Tour de Wallonie
2001
1st Overall Three Days of De Panne
1st Stage 3b (ITT)
1st Prologue Paris–Nice
1st GP Ouest–France
1st Giro del Piemonte
2003
1st Prologue Paris–Nice
2004
1st Noord Nederland Tour
2005
1st Gent–Wevelgem
gollark: ++search !xkcd 1200
gollark: Waaait...
gollark: Idea: ++xkcd command?
gollark: Pfft, "runtime".
gollark: You can use ctypes to actually make 4 be 5 in Python. Fun!

References
  1. "Mattan swoops, Flecha foiled in controversial finish – 67th Gent-Wevelgem – PT". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
  2. "I'm not superstitious but…". dailypeloton.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2009.


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