Tom Steels

Tom Steels is a Belgian former professional road racing cyclist, born on 2 September 1971, who specialised in sprint finishes and one-day races and counted among the best sprinters of the peloton in his day. He rode the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona on the track, finishing 19th in the men's 1000 metres time trial, and turned professional in 1994 with the Vlaanderen 2002 team, winning eight times in his first two seasons. His breakthrough came after he joined Mapei in 1996, when he won Omloop Het Volk and Gent-Wevelgem. In 1997 he was disqualified from his first Tour de France for throwing a water bottle at another rider in frustration, which earned him the nickname Tom Bidon. His best season was 1998, when he won four Tour de France stages and took the Belgian national championship for the second time, and he added five more stage wins in 1999 and 2000. National champion again in 2002 and 2004, he holds the record for Belgian road championships. He retired after the 2008 season, became a coach for Quick Step in 2011, and is the uncle of the racing cyclist Stijn Steels.