Michel Vaarten (born 17 January 1957) is a retired

track cyclist Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

and

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

from

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. He represented Belgium at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada, where he won silver medal in the 1.000m time trial behind East Germany's

Klaus-Jürgen Grünke Klaus-Jürgen Grünke (born 30 March 1951) is a retired track cyclist from East Germany, who represented his native country at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city ...

. Vaarten was a professional from 1979 to 1992. He won 12 national titles, one European title and one world title, mainly in track cycling. Vaarten is currently piloting a Derny bike in many Six Day Cycling events around Europe. After his competitive career, he served as a pacemaker.Dernykoning Michel Vaarten schuwt risico’s
Nieuwsblad (2014-11-19). Retrieved 2018-05-24.

Teams

*1979: Mini Flat-VDB (Belgium) *1980: Eurobouw (Belgium) *1981: Fangio-Sapeco-Mavic (Belgium) *1982: Amko Sport (Netherlands) *1983: Suntour (Belgium) *1984: Fangio-Ecoturbo (Belgium) *1984: Suntour (Belgium) *1985: Unknown *1986: Eurosteiger (Belgium) *1987: Schwinn-Icy Hot (United States) *1988: Wheaties-Schwinn (United States) *1989: Wheaties-Schwinn (United States) *1990: Sakae-3 Rensho (United States) *1991: Unknown *1992: Buysse Babyartikelen (Belgium) *1992: Enra (Belgium) *1992: EM (Belgium)

References

External links

* 1957 births Living people Belgian male cyclists Cyclists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Belgium Olympic silver medalists for Belgium Sportspeople from Turnhout Cyclists from Antwerp Province Olympic medalists in cycling UCI Track Cycling World Champions (men) Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Belgian track cyclists Pacemakers {{Belgium-Olympic-medalist-stub