by winning 13 stages, half the total. He imposed his will "like a South American dictator", according to the writer Olivier Dazat. He won the prologue time-trial and led the race from start to finish. 14 of the 20 stages were won by Flandria, with Pollentier taking the other stage win. 1977 Giro Maertens again took the lead at the start by winning the prologue. He kept it until Francesco Moser became the race leader on stage five. Maertens was expected to take the lead again after Mugello, when there would be a time-trial. He had already won seven stages. The finish at Mugello ended in a crash. Michel Pollentier led Marc Demeyer into the last few hundred metres, with Maertens behind Demeyer. One by one they moved aside to let Maertens through. But he crashed, with Rik Van Linden, and broke a wrist. He abandoned the race and the rest of the team would have returned to Belgium had Maertens not persuaded them otherwise. Wilderness years There followed a wilderness period in which he did little of note. He started big races but often stopped after 100 km, or was dropped on unremarkable hills. It made his victory in the 1981 world championship in Prague the more remarkable. He finished in front of Giuseppe Saronni and Bernard Hinault, two short and stocky riders like himself. Journalists wondered whether the era of tall, lean riders such as Merckx, Gimondi, and De Vlaeminck was over. A year later his record faded again. He rarely finished races and shone only in round-the-houses races, where his contract fees were needed to pay his tax debts. He did not defend his title in the 1982 world championship at Goodwood, saying he had injured his knee on a gate. He became fatter and rode for small teams for equally small salaries. Olivier Dazat said: "His employers sacked him and others stepped in to benefit from the publicity. Freddy often forgot to go to races and was fired again. The press and those around him begged him to stop". Other successes As well as the Tour, Vuelta and Giro, his stage race victories included Paris–Nice (1977), the Four Days of Dunkirk (1973, 1975, 1976 and 1978), the Tour of Andalucia (1974, 1975), Tour of Belgium (1974, 1975), Tour de Luxembourg (1975), Tour of Sardinia (1977) and Vuelta y Catalunya (1977). Despite his sprinting dominance, Maertens never won a one-day classic, coming closest with second places in the Tour of Flanders (1973) and Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1976). He was disqualified from second place in the 1977 Ronde after changing his bike on the Koppenberg climb. Maertens also won the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International in 1976 and 1977. 1981 World Championship In one of the most surprising comebacks in cycling history, Maertens won the 1981 World Championship, which was held in Prague. In a sprinting duel he had one ultimate jump left which sufficed to defeat runner-up Saronni. Riding style Maertens was an aggressive rider who pushed high gears. He frequently rode 53 x 13 or 14. He was a talented time-triallist and an excellent sprinter. He nurtured another sprinter Sean Kelly. His time-trial record includes winning the Grand Prix des Nations in 1976. Financial problems Maertens and his wife were naïve about money. Carine Maertens said money "flooded in" when her husband reached the top as a professional. Maertens estimated his earnings throughout his career as 10-15 million French francs, "which was a lot of money in the 1970s". Carine Maertens said: "We let ourselves be sweet-talked by sponsors, team directors, managers, architects, accountants, tax advisers, bankers, investment