Nico Mattan is a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 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

Juan Antonio Flecha

Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni is an Argentine-born Spanish professional road bicycle racer for the UCI ProTour team .-Career:...

. He also won 2 prologues of Paris–Nice, in 2001 and 2003.

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.

Previous Teams

• 1997-1998 : Mapei
  Mapei (cycling team)
  Mapei was an Italian based road bicycle racing team active from 1993 to 2002, named after sponsoring firm Mapei. From 2003 Mapei dropped the sponsorate, and a new team was built on top of the old with the name of Quick Step-Davitamon....
  
  
• 1999-2003 : Cofidis
  Cofidis (cycling team)
  Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne is a French professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by a money-lending company, Cofidis. It was started in 1996 by Cyrille Guimard the former manager of Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon of the Renault-Elf team of the 1980s...
  
  
• 2004-2004 : Relax-Bodysol-Fuenlabrada
  Relax-Gam
  Relax-GAM Fuenlabrada was a professional cycling team based in Spain and participated in UCI Europe Tour and when selected as a wildcard to UCI ProTour events....
  
  
• 2005-2006 : Davitamon-Lotto
  Davitamon-Lotto
  Omega Pharma-Lotto is a Belgian professional cycling team sponsored by the Belgian lottery and Omega Pharma.- Lotto :Lotto has a long history of cycling sponsorship, they began sponsoring 1984 with Tönissteiner-Lotto-Mavic-Pecotex. In 1985, it became prime sponsor of a team bearing only its name....
  
  
• 2007- : DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed

Palmares

1996

1st, Stage 1, Tour de Wallonie

Tour de Wallonie

The Tour de Wallonie is a stage race cycling race on the UCI Europe Tour. It runs in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium in the end of July. Between 1974 and 1995 it was reserved to amateurs. Since 2005, the race has been organized as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour- Winners...

2001

Prologue, Paris–Nice

1st, Three Days of De Panne

Three Days of De Panne

The Three Days of De Panne is a mid-week, three-day stage race before the Ronde van Vlaanderen in De Panne in West Flanders, Belgium. It is rated 2.HC by the UCI and is part of the UCI Europe Tour.- Winners :...

1st, Stage 3b (ITT)

1st, GP Plouay

1st, Giro del Piemonte

Giro del Piemonte

The Giro del Piemonte is a semi classic European bicycle race held in the Apennine Mountains, Italy. The race first took place in 1906. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 1.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour...

2003

1st, Prologue, Paris–Nice

2004

1st, Noord Nederland Tour

Profronde van Fryslan

Profronde van Fryslan is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in June in Friesland, Netherlands. Since 2007, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour...

2005

1st, Gent–Wevelgem