Good Luck Tom Steels

by zegnotronic on Jun 30, 2008 7:15 PM EDT

Here's a trivia question: Who racked up the most Tour De France stage wins for the late, great Mapei squad? And it's not any of: Bartoli, Bettini, Musseuw, Rominger, Freire, or Bugno. If you read the the title, you know the answer. Tom Steels won 9 stages in the tour, and he has always been one of my favorite riders. Yesterday Tom finished 30th in his final race, the Belgian national championship, a race he had won 4 times.

Age and injuries had taken their toll over the past several years, but in the late 90's Steels was the most feared sprinter in the peloton. He won 4 stages in the 1998 TdF (including the Champs Élysées), outsprinting the likes of Cipollini, Zabel, O'Grady, and McEwen. In the 1999 Tour he won another 3 stages, including the infamous Passage du Gois stage, and 2 more in 2000. All the while Steels was also collecting sprint wins in stage races all over Europe. 8 wins in Paris-Nice, 4 in the Ruta del Sol, and various stages in the Tours of Suisse, Belgium, Luxembourg, Wallonne, Mediterranean, Deutchland etc.

Steels wasn't just a pure sprinter either, being Belgian (specifically Flemish), he was excellent on the cobbles. While riding for the Belgian arm of the powerhouse Mapei squad, he won the Het Volk, Dwars Door Vlaanderen and Gent-Wevelgem twice. And he was always the super strong domestique in Paris-Roubaix, going with the early break 3 years in a row (98-00) being instrumental in the team win. For years I had a 2 page Graham Watson photo spread of Steels leading the break out of Arenberg hanging over my desk. It was in Cycle Sport in 2000, if anyone has a copy of it, please let me know!

But his most famous race was not one he won, but the one he got dq'd for. In a heated finale of stage 6 of the 1997 Tour, Steels tangled with Frederic Moncassin and threw a water bottle at him. It was great, I'd never seen anything like that before. In the middle of the sprint, Steels just sat up, grabbed his water bottle and chucked it. Of course he was ejected for it, but he came back to win 9 stages over the next 3 years. I don't know why I loved that move, probably because it's what I've felt like doing in so many races before, but it stuck with me.

So good luck to Tom and family, enjoy your retirement.

From the 1998 Tour

The bottle throwing incident

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Comments

Ha!

That was brilliant. I’d never known of that bottle toss. Thanks for bringing it up here.

by Sui Juris on Jun 30, 2008 8:18 PM EDT 0 recs

agreed. great story thanks

by lyne on Jun 30, 2008 10:24 PM EDT up 0 recs

isn't that

like a 12 year old Robbie McEwen behind him?

by R Mc on Jun 30, 2008 10:11 PM EDT 0 recs

I was going to post the same thing! Baby McEwen.

He looks about as sweet and cuddly as he does now. Heh.

Just here for the view

by ZoeRochelle on Jun 30, 2008 10:21 PM EDT up 0 recs

yep

and Zabel on the left. I believe this was the stage in Dublin.

by zegnotronic on Jul 1, 2008 12:23 AM EDT up 0 recs

Great shot

McEwen looks like he’s about 16.

by Jimbo... on Jul 1, 2008 2:12 AM EDT up 0 recs

And Zabel was 36 when the photo was taken right?

by Jens on Jul 1, 2008 4:53 AM EDT up 0 recs

nice tribute

thanks :-)

by gavia on Jun 30, 2008 11:20 PM EDT 0 recs

That's one rider

that I will really miss watching. And another chance for me to post the Tom Steels and the gnome piece from last year.

And I hadn’t realised that helmets and silly goggles had been around for so long. I was sure that the Robocop era started a few years later than that.

by Monty. on Jul 1, 2008 3:31 AM EDT 0 recs

Steels has always been one of my faves

I even tried riding in his squatty style until my knees started hurting.

Boy those old Mapei kits were an eyesore though. The nat’l champs jersey doesn’t work with those bibs, and Belgium’s is my favorite.

by Mr Van P on Jul 1, 2008 6:12 AM EDT 0 recs

Excellent sprinter, great all arounder

As you point out, he could knock bars with the best of them and also survive a 200k break in Paris Roubaix to help Johan. He never really recovered his top end speed after he got mono in 2001 (or maybe 2000), and that hampered him for a long time. It’s a tribute to his toughness that he stuck it out for this long.

While watching the bottle throw (maybe the best maneuver ever in a sprint) I happened across this Cipo crash from the ‘94 Vuelta. I’d never even heard of it before and I’m amazed that a) he wasn’t killed, b) he wasn’t seriously disfigured, and c) he didn’t kill his teammate when he recovered.

"Hey, hey, settle down boys and girls or Krusty will have to bring out his old friend Corporal Punishment again."

by Drew... on Jul 1, 2008 6:30 AM EDT 0 recs

wow

I wonder who that was. The funny* part is that he looked back and saw Cipo on the deck, and then he still celebrated. I’ll bet the next team meeting was a little awkward.:P