Johan Museeuw retired on Wednesday, April 14th, 2004, after a 16-year-long career. He takes with him a legacy that may well prove impossible for anyone to beat. Victories in almost all the major one-day classics, a world championship, stages of the Tour de France, winner of the World Cup competition - you name it, Museeuw has probably won it. My tribute to him is based on the years I've been seeing him race, starting way back in 1989.

I've watched Museeuw win mass-sprints. I've seen him win alone after a 50-kilometres breakaway in Paris-Roubaix. And I've seen him suffer the most horrible ill-fortune of anyone I can recall. To me it is a miracle that Museeuw lasted as long as he did - most men would have given up long ago. But Museeuw is no ordinary cyclist, no ordinary man. He is the modern-day version of a stock of Flemish cycling legends - Brik Schotte, RikVan Steenbergen, Rik van Looy, Eric Leman, Frans Verbeek, Roger deVlaeminck, Freddy Maertens and Eddy Merckx - and has earned his nickname, 'The Lion of Flanders', the hard way - I'll really miss him.

GW

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