On a day where Dominique Cornu won gold in the U23 men's TT, the Belgian men's team suffered a blow when both Marc Wauters and Johan Vansummeren crashed during training and eliminated themselves for Sunday's road race. Vansummeren tore ligaments in his left shoulder, and will have to rest for six weeks. It was worse for Wauters, who broke his right collarbone, and will therefore end his career on a slightly disappointing note, as the Belgian had already announced this season to be his last.
Wauters made his professional debut in 1991 for Lotto, also riding for Wordperfect and Novell in the 1990s before making the move to Rabobank in 1998. He has 29 victories to his credit, peaking in 1999 when he won Paris-Tours, the GP Eddy Merckx (with Erik Dekker), two stages and the overall of the Tour of Luxembourg, PruTour, and one stage and the overall of the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt. In 2001, he realised a dream when he won a stage of the Tour de France into Antwerpen. The next day, he was able to ride through his home town wearing the yellow jersey of race leader. Wauters' other achievements include being Belgian national time trial champion in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
