Rudy Dhaenens (10 April 1961 – 6 April 1998) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer who is most famous for winning the road race at the 1990 UCI Road World Championships as a member of the Belgian national team.

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Rudy Dhaenens

Dhaenens in the 1989 Tour de France, Montpellier
Personal information
Full name	Rudy Dhaenens
Born	(1961-04-10)10 April 1961 Deinze, Belgium
Died	6 April 1998(1998-04-06) (aged 36) Aalst, Belgium
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional teams
1983–1987	Splendor–Euro Shop
1988–1990	PDM–Ultima–Concorde
1991–1992	Panasonic–Sportlife
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (1986) One-day races and Classics World Road Race Championships (1990)
Medal record Representing  Belgium Men's road bicycle racing World Championships 1990 Utsunomiya Road race

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Dhaenens excelled several times in the Paris–Roubaix classic race; finishing second in 1986 and third the following year. Dhaenens won the 1990 World Championship Road Race, held in Utsunomiya, Japan, ahead of Dirk De Wolf of Belgium and Gianni Bugno of Italy. In 1992, Dhaenens was forced to stop his career because of heart problems. For a long time, he was in the service of the PDM cycling team, usually as tactical captain. Dhaenens was known for his calm, reserved attitude.

He died in 1998, at the age of 36, from head injuries sustained in a car accident in Aalst while driving to the finish of the Tour of Flanders bicycle race.^[1] From 1999 to 2007, the Grand Prix Rudy Dhaenens was held in his honour in late March, in Nevele, Belgium.