UN CAGED

The Lions Of Flanders , John Musseuw, Tells Chris Marshall Bell all about his dominance of 1996

- JOHAN MUSEEUW'

It’s not always easy to look inside the mind of an athlete who is always focused,” Johan Museeuw says, before taking CW on an exploratory browse. “My goal every year was to win a Monument and if I didn’t, well, then it really was not OK for me. I was a winner. To be third on the podium was OK, but it was not good enough. Nobody counts second and third place. It’s just the winner that takes it all.”

That insatiable appetite to win drove him in every one of his 17 years as a professional and in each of his 65 wins. In 1996, that thirst for success led him to retaining his World Cup jersey and to two of his most rewarding and iconic victories: his maiden Paris-Roubaix and a road race World Championship.

“I won something every year, but not every year I won a Flanders, a Roubaix, a World Cup or became world champion. That year I won all the things that I could win.”

Life-changing

By the mid-90s, Museeuw was already referred to as the Lion of Flanders, winning De Ronde in 1993 and 1995. “When I finally won Flanders, my life changed a lot, because Belgium is the heart of cycling,” he reveals to Cycling Weekly. “That was the beginning of my second life. I was a little bit like a star.”

Accumulating the first long rides of winter training, there was only ever one indent in his calendar. “It starts in November and December. It’s a long way to go, but you focus and train for holy week – Flanders and Roubaix. I wanted to be good for Omloop, Ghent- Wevelgem, Harelbeke, Brabantse Pijl, but just two races count – that’s the way of life at the high levels. If I win other races, even Harelbeke, but don’t win either of those two then people say, ‘It wasn’t a good season for him.’”