# Fred De Bruyne

Alfred De Bruyne (21 October 1930 – 4 February 1994) was a Belgian champion road cyclist. He won six Tour de France stages early in his career and went on to win many other Monuments and stage races.
De Bruyne had a great deal of success early in his career during the Tour de France. 1953 was his first Tour, his best result was making one stage podium, on stage 5 from Dieppe to Caen. In 1954 he finished 2nd on the final stage into Paris and won three stages along the way. In 1955 he didn't win any stages, but ended up with the highest overall classification he would ever have which was 17th. In 1956, De Bruyne won three stages in the first half of the Tour, but slowed a bit in the second half and could not add to this total. Also in 1956 he won Milan–San Remo and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as the stage race Paris–Nice early in the season. In 1957 De Bruyne abandoned the Tour for the first time in his career. He won both Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Tours that year. In 1958 he rode the Giro for the first time and didn't win any stages and finished 16th overall. He won Paris–Nice, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and came in the top 10 of Gent–Wevelgem, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris–Roubaix, Paris-Tours and Milan San Remo.
Fred De Bruyne also won the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo competition three years running, from 1956 to 1958. This was the forerunner of the Super Prestige Pernod, later replaced by the UCI Ranking Points List.
After his professional cycling career he went on to write several books about some of the most important Belgian cyclists of his era and became a popular TV sports commentator, a team manager, and finally a spokesman for the Panasonic cycling team.
In 1988 he retired and moved with his wife to the Provence in France. Six years later, in February 1994, De Bruyne died of a heart attack after a lingering illness.

## Riding style

De Bruyne cycled on intelligence and competition insight, and only attacked when he was very sure. But then he also went very explosive and fast. In contrast to his gentle nature, the talkative De Bruyne was maniacal as a cyclist. ''On the bike, I was actually a beast'', De Bruyne once let slip. He was not known as the great top talent, but his intelligence and innate discipline enabled him to amass a brilliant record.

## Major results
### Road
#### 1953

    1st Tour of Flanders independents
    1st Bosbeek-Brussegem independents
    1st Blanden independents
    2nd Gent-Wevelgem independents

#### 1953

    1st Gentbrugge

#### 1954

    1st GP Berlare
    Tour de France
       1st Stages 8, 13 and 22
    1st Omloop van Oost-Vlaanderen
    1st Criterium of East-Flanders
    2nd GP Stad Vilvoorde
    2nd Schelde–Dender–Leie
    4th Circuit des six provinces (fr)
       1st Stage 2
    6th Paris–Tours
    9th Road race, UCI World Championships

#### 1955

    1st Omloop van Midden-België
    1st GP Frans Melckenbeek (nl)
    2nd Giro di Lombardia
    2nd Paris–Tours
    2nd Dwars door Vlaanderen
       1st Stage 2
    3rd Tour du Sud-Est
       1st Stage 4
    3rd Grand Prix du Midi Libre
    4th Nationale Sluitingsprijs
    6th Brussels–Ingooigem

#### 1956

    1st Milan–San Remo
    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    1st Overall Paris–Nice
       1st Stages 1 and 5
    Tour de France
       1st Stages 1, 6 and 10
    1st Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    2nd Boucles de l'Aulne
    2nd Paris–Roubaix
    4th Paris–Tours
    5th Road race, UCI World Championships
    5th Bordeaux–Paris
    9th Giro di Lombardia
    9th Paris–Brussels

#### 1957

    1st Tour of Flanders
    1st Paris–Roubaix
    1st Paris–Tours
    1st GP Berlare
    1st Sassari–Cagliari
    1st Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    2nd Milan–San Remo
    2nd Milano–Torino
    4th Paris–Brussels
    5th Road race, UCI World Championships
    8th Roma–Napoli–Roma
       1st Stage 8

#### 1958

    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    1st Overall Paris–Nice
    1st GP Berlare
    1st Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    2nd Paris–Tours
    2nd Boucles de l'Aulne
    2nd Omloop van Limburg
    3rd Gent–Wevelgem
    4th La Flèche Wallonne
    4th Paris–Brussels
    6th Milan–San Remo
    6th Gran Premio di Lugano
    6th Paris–Roubaix
    7th Giro del Lazio
    10th Tour of Flanders

#### 1959

    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    2nd Omloop Het Volk
    2nd Boucles de l'Aulne
    5th Bordeaux–Paris
    6th Paris–Roubaix
    6th Paris–Brussels

#### 1960

    8th Schelde–Dender–Leie

#### 1961

    1st Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
    5th Overall Giro di Sardegna

### Track
#### 1955

    3rd Six days of Ghent (with Reginald Arnold)

#### 1957

    1st Six days of Ghent (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    3rd Six Days of Paris (with Willy Vannitsen & Leon Van Daele)

#### 1958

    2nd Six Days of Brussels (with Reginald Arnold)

#### 1959

    1st Six days of Ghent (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

## Honours

* A square, Place Fred De Bruyne in Seillans, France
* A race, Memorial Fred De Bruyne in Berlare, Belgium
* A monument in Berlare, Belgium
* A cycling route In het wiel van Fred De Bruyne in Berlare, Belgium

## Books by Fred De Bruyne

Fred de Bruyne wrote following books (in Dutch) about famous cyclists:
* Rik Van Steenbergen, 1963
* Rik Van Looy, 1963
* Patrick Sercu, 1965
* Peter Post, 1965
* De memoires van Fred De Bruyne, 1978