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| Race details | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 4 April 1999 | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 270 km (167.8 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 6h 15' 00" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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The 83rd running of the Tour of Flanders cycling race in Belgium was held on Sunday 4 April 1999. It was the second leg of the UCI Road World Cup. Belgian Peter Van Petegem won his first victory in the monument classic. [1] [2] The race started in Bruges and finished in Meerbeke (Ninove). [3] [4]
Frank Vandenbroucke attacked 150 from the finish with his Cofidis team, but he crashed on the Molenberg and his team mate Philippe Gaumont crashed on the Paddestraat, causing the pack to catch them again on the Oude Kwaremont. Michele Bartoli and Vandenbroucke tried to break clear on the Paterberg and Leberg, but were given little space. A group of eleven was at the foot of the Muur van Geraardsbergen, when Vandenbroucke crashed again, causing everyone to halt except for Peter Van Petegem and Johan Museeuw. Van Petegem and Museeuw continued to work together and only Frank Vandenbroucke, the strongest man in the race, managed to bridge the gap on the Bosberg. Van Petegem tried to break clear in the final kilometer, but Vandenbroucke caught him again. Van Petegem beat Vandenbroucke and Museeuw in a three-man sprint, leading to the first completely Belgian podium in 17 years.
There were sixteen categorized climbs:
| Cyclist | Team | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Peter Van Petegem (BEL) | TVM | 6h 15' 00" |
| 2 | Frank Vandenbroucke (BEL) | Cofidis | s.t. |
| 3 | Johan Museeuw (BEL) | Mapei-Quick Step | + 1" |
| 4 |  Michele Bartoli (ITA) | Mapei-Quick Step | + 8" |
| 5 |  Zbigniew Spruch (POL) | Lampre-Daikin | s.t. |
| 6 |  Markus Zberg (SUI) | Rabobank | s.t. |
| 7 | Andrei Tchmil (BEL) | Lotto-Adecco | s.t. |
| 8 |  Tristan Hoffman (NED) | TVM | s.t. |
| 9 | Denis Zanette (ITA) | Team Polti | s.t. |
| 10 |  Lars Michaelsen (DEN) | La Française des Jeux | s.t. |
The Tour of Flanders, also known as De Ronde, is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organized by Flanders Classics. Its nickname is Vlaanderens Mooiste. First held in 1913, the Tour of Flanders had its 100th edition in 2016.
Johan Museeuw is a retired Belgian professional road racing cyclist who was a professional from 1988 until 2004. Nicknamed The Lion of Flanders, he was particularly successful in the cobbled classics of Flanders and Northern France and was considered one of the best classic races specialists of the 1990s.
Frank Vandenbroucke was a Belgian professional road racing cyclist. After showing promise in track and field in his adolescence, Vandenbroucke took to cycle racing in the late 1980s and developed into one of the great hopes for Belgian cycling in the 1990s, with a string of victories that included Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Grand Tour stages and Omloop Het Volk. This early success dissipated however in a series of drug problems, rows with teams and suicide attempts. Despite repeated attempts to continue his career with a string of different teams from 2000 to 2008, Vandenbroucke's drug use and unpredictability eventually led to his estrangement from the cycling world. Although Vandenbroucke claimed in an interview in 2009 to have recovered his mental health, he died of a pulmonary embolism in October 2009 at the age of 34.
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