When you think of the Tour of Flanders, you probably think of the Cannibal, Raas or van Looy, but there are many other riders who have won this Tour several times. One of them is Eric Leman. Also known as the "Ice man" because of his good performance in the cold, Leman has won the Tour three times. And each of these victories was won as a rider on other cycling teams. Leman won the Tour of Flanders in 1970 with Flandria-Mars, in 1972 with Bic and in 1973 with Peugeot-BP-Michelin. He probably could have won the 1971 race as well. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse that year when his wife and teammate Monseré both died in the same month. This hellish month was March 1971, just a few weeks away from the Tour of Flanders.
Fortunately, Lemans' team leader, Briek Schotte, helped him a lot. He encouraged him to keep on racing, advising him: "You'd better start racing again, otherwise you'll be sitting at home thinking about everything.". In the end, this indeed helped and Leman achieved 3 stage victories at the Tour de France and Paris-Nice in that same year (1971). A tough year for him personally, but a successful one in the world of cycling. And the good thing is, that Leman himself is eventually pleased with it as well.
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