Search our site:

Greg Van Avermaet Photo Gallery

Les Woodland's book Cycling’s 50 Craziest Stories is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

About Greg Van Avermaet:

Belgian racer Greg Van Avermaet (born May 17, 1985 in Lokeren, Flanders, Belgium) was a wonderfully versatile racer who could explode with an astonishing burst of power when attacking or sprinting. This ability allowed him to win several Classics as well as stage races and even the points classification of the 2008 Vuelta a España.

He was born to race. Both his father and grandfather had been professional cyclists and his father, a fan of Greg LeMond, decided to name his son after the American racer.

He became Belgian amateur champion at the age of 21, in 2006, his last year as an amateur.

He turned pro for Predictor-Lotto in 2007 and in his first pro race, the Tour of Qatar stage race, he won stage 5. He was on his way. That first year as a pro he won four races.

The next year he won the important semi-classic E3-Harelbeke as well as several other races, culminating in winning that year's Vuelta a España points classification.

After that superb start to his career, the next two years were almost devoid of wins, with his only significant victory in the now-discontinued Heitse Pijl single-day race.

Unhappy with his team, now named Omega Pharma-Lotto, he moved to the BMC team.

In 2011 it took until summer, but he finally won a race, stage 6 as well as the final points classification, of the Tour of Austria followed, by several other top wins.

Van Avermaet went winless in 2012 and finally began winning again in the summer of 2013, starting with the Tour de Wallonie, taking two stages along the way.

In 2014 things started to click again with wins in the single-day GP de Wallonie and GP Impanis-Van Petegem as well as second places in the important and challenging Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Tour of Flanders.

Still better was the next year, with victory in the Tour of Belgium and several very high placings in other important races.

The high point of his 2016 racing was the Gold Medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic road race.

It was in 2017 that he lived up to his potential with a series of important wins: Paris–Roubaix, E3 Harelbeke, Gent–Wevelgem, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as well as the Tour of Luxembourg. He ended the year as the world Number one ranked racer. For many this would be a superb career.

His 2018 had a slow start, but he won the Tour of Yorkshire stage race and spent a week in yellow in the Tour de France.

His 2019 was reasonably successful with a win in the GP de Montréal and a stage win in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. Plus he took second place in the Tour de Yorkshire, the Clasica de San Sebastian and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The owner of the BMC team died and Polish retailer CCC took over sponsorship of the team.

Van Avermaet had no wins in 2020 and moved to the French Ag2r-Citroën for the balance of his career. He was clearly coming to the end of his time as a top rider. In 2022 his best placings were thirds in the the Tour du Limousin and the Omloop Het Nieuswblad and in his final year he won one race, the Boucles de l'Aulne.

The last race of his career was the 2023 Paris–Tours, a race he had won in 2011. This time he finished 58th, with a flat tire.

Back to photo gallery rider list

Major victories & high placings:

2006:

Belgian National Under-23 Road Championships
2nd place, Paris-Tours Espoirs

2007:

Rund um die Hainlette
Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen
Tour of Qatar stage 5
Tour de Wallonie stage 2
3rd place GP Briek Schotte

2008:

Vuelta a España points classification
Tour de l'Ain points classification, stage 2 win
2nd place Tour of Belgium GC, stage 3 win
2nd place Tour de Wallonie GC, stage 3 win
3rd place Tour of Qatar, young rider classification

2009:

Heistse Pijl

2011:

Tour de Wallonie GC, stage 5 win
Paris-Tours
Tour of Austria points classification, stage 6 win
2nd place Tour of Belgium
2nd place Gran Piemonte
2nd place Clasica de San Sebastian

2012:

2nd place Grand Prix de Quebec
2nd place Grand Prix de Wallonie
4th place Tour of Flanders

2013:

Tour de Wallonie, GC & points classifications, stages 3 & 5 win
Tour of Utah stage 1
3rd place Gent Wevelgem
3rd place Grand Prix de Quebec
3rd place Binche-Chimay-Binche
4th place Paris-Roubaix

2014:

Grand Prix de Wallonie
Grand Prix Impanis-Van Petegem
Eneco Tour stage 5
2nd place Omloop Het Nieusblad
2nd place Tour of Flanders

2015:

Tour of Belgium GC, stage 5 win
Tour de France stages 9 (TTT) & 13
Tirreno-Adriatico stage 3
2nd place Eneco Tour
2nd place Strade Bianche
3rd place Tour of Flanders
3rd place Paris-Roubaix
3rd place Paris-Tours

2016:

Olympic Road Race
Tirreno-Adriatico stages 1 (TTT) & 6
Grand Prix de Montreal
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Tour de France stage 5, wore Yellow stages 5-7
Gullegem Koerse
2nd place GP de Quebec
3rd place Belgian road championsuips
3rd place Tour of Qatar

2017:

Tour of Luxembourg GC & points classifications, won stages 2 & 4
Paris-Roubaix
Gent-Wevelgem
E3 Harelbeke
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Tirreno-Adriatico stage 1 (TTT)
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage 1 (TTT)
2nd place Tour of Flanders
2nd place Grand Prix de Quebec
2nd place Strade Bianche

2018:

Tour of Yorkshire GC and points classifications
Tour de France stage 3 (TTT), wore Yellow stages 3-10
Tour of Oman stage 3
Tirreno-Adriatico stage 1 (TTT)
Tour de Suisse stage 1 (TTT)
Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage 3 (TTT)
2nd place Grand Prix de Quebec
3rd place World championshops team time trial 3rd place
3rd place E3 Harelbeke
3rd place Grand Prix de Montreal

2019:

GP de Montreal
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage 3
2nd place Tour de Yorkshire GC, winning stage 4
2nd place Clasica de San Sebastian
2nd place Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
3rd place E3 Binckbank Classic
3rd place GP de Quebec

2020:

2nd place Tour de Wallonie
3rd place Gran Trittico Lombardo

2021:

3rd place Tour of Flanders

2022:

3rd place Tour du Limousin
3rd place Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

2023:

Boucles de l'Aulne
4th place Tour du Finistere

Professional Teams:

2007-2010 Predictor-Lotto, which then became Silence-Lotto & Omega Pharma-Lotto
2011-2020: BMC
2021-2023: Ag2r-Citroën

Photos: All by Photoreporter Sirotti unless otherwise noted.

Van Avermaet crests a hill in the 2011 Tour of Flanders.

Greg Van Avermaet and Thor Hushovd check out the course of the 2013 Tour of Flanders.

2014 Tour of Flanders: Van Avermaet on the Paterberg climb.

On the 2014 Tour of Flanders podium for his second place.

That should be Marcus Burghardt trying to avoid a fallen Greg Van Avermaet at the Bourghelles à Wannehain sector in the 2014 edition of Paris-Roubaix

Greg Van Avermaet at the Carrefour de l'Arbre cobbles of the 2014 Paris-Roubaix. Note his bloody leg from his crash.

Van Avermaet wins 2014 Eneco Tour stage 5.

Van Avermaet on the podium after winning stage 5 of the 2014 Eneco Tour.

2015 Strade Bianche. Van Avermaet finished second, 2 seconds behind winner Zdenek Stybar.

Time trialing in the first stage of the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico

Climbing in stage 3 of the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico

Van Avermaet wins Tirreno-Adriatico stage 3.

2015 Tour of Flanders. Climbing the Patersberg.

2015 Tour of Belgium stage 5: Van Avermaet beats Tiesj Benoot. Tim de Waele/TDW Sport photo

2015 Tour de France stage 4: Van Avermaet on the cobbles of the Avesnes les Aubert a Canieres sector. Van Avermaet finished fourth that day.

Van Avermaet wins 2015 Tour de France stage 13.

And gets some podium time for the stage win.

Greg van Avermaet was off the front in the 2015 Clásica de San Sebastián's final kilometers when he was taken down by one of the follow motorcycles.

Finishing second in stage six of the 2015 Eneco Tour.

2016 Tirreno-Adriatico stage 6: Van Avermaet just beats Peter Sagan. This win gave Van Avermaet the GC lead.

Van Avermaet time trialing in stage 7 wearing the leader's jersey.

Greg Van Avermaet has won the 2016 Tirreno Adriatico.

2016 Tour de France stage 5. It speaks for itself. ASO photo.

Yellow is his reward for that win. He kept the Yellow Jersey through stage 7.

Greg Van Avermaet wins the 2016 Olympic Road Race.

Van Avermaet with his Olympic Gold Medal.

2016 Grand Prix de Montreal. Second place World Champion Peter Sagan is just behind Van Avermaet.

2017 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Van Avermaet does it again.

2017 Strade Bianche. Greg Van Avermaet finishes 15 seconds behind winner Michael Kwiatkowski. That's Tim Wellens behind Van Avermaet, finishing third.

2017 Paris-Roubaix. Van Avermaet at the Carrefour de l'Arbre cobble sector.

A very dusty Van Avermaet wins the 2017 Paris-Roubaix ASO photo.

Van Avermaet savors his win.

Van Avermaet racing in the 2017 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Van Avermaet wins stage 4 of the 2017 Tour of Luxembourg while wearing the race leader's jersey. He won both the GC and points classification of that race.

Van Avermaet about to start the first stage of the 2017 Binckbank Tour

2018 Tour of Oman stage 3. Van Avermaet took the lead with this win and kept it until stage 5.

Van Avermaet wins the field sprint for fifth in the 2018 Tour of Flanders. Niki Terpstra won the race.

Van Avermaet checks out the cobbles before the 2018 Paris-Roubaix.

2018 Tour de France stage three. BMC on its way to winning the stage three team time trial. That put Van Avermaet in yellow.

Before the start of 2018 Tour de France stage four.

Van Avermaet racing in 2018 Tour de France stage 6.

On the cobbles in 2018 Tour de France stage 9.

2018 Tour de France stage 10: Van Avermaet on the Col de la Colombère.

2018 Tour de France stage 16. No longer in yellow, Van Avermaet climbs the Portillon.

After finishing the first stage of the 2018 Binckbank Tour.

Racing the second stage of the 2018 Binckbank Tour.

2019, in his new CCC jersey, riding on the Carrefour de l'Arbre cobble sector of Paris-Roubaix.

Van Avermaet wins stage four of the 2019 Tour of Yorkshire ahead of Christopher Lawless. Lawless was the final GC winner of the race.

2019 Tour de France stage 1: Greg Van Avermaet and Xandro Meurisse are off the front, climbing the Mur de Grammont. Van Avermaet was first to the top, earning him the polka-dot jersey.