Nico Mattan (born 17 July 1971) is a Belgian former road racing cyclist. His greatest achievement in cycling was winning the Gent–Wevelgem classic in 2005.

In 2005 Mattan won the Gent–Wevelgem in a controversial way, as there were claims that he used Publicity cars to sprint past Juan Antonio Flecha. He also won 2 prologues of Paris–Nice, in 2001 and 2003.

Nico Mattan

He is known to be very superstitious, for instance his lucky number is 17 (the date of his birthdate), if his race number is 17 or if the ciphers add up to 17, he will look very happy and believes he will win. Once he got number 13 and wore it upside down to avoid bad luck because he heard on a 13th that he wouldn't be able to race anymore because of heart problems and lost the leader's jersey in Paris–Nice on a 13th.

Nico Mattan

Major results

1996

1st Stage 1 Tour de Wallonie

2001

1st Overall Three Days of De Panne

1st Stage 3b (ITT) 1st Prologue Paris–Nice 1st GP Ouest–France 1st Giro del Piemonte 2003 1st Prologue Paris–Nice 2004 1st Noord Nederland Tour 2005 1st Gent–Wevelgem

Nico Mattan

References

1971 births

Living people

Belgian male cyclists

Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics

Olympic cyclists for Belgium

Cyclists from West Flanders

People from Izegem