# Alfons De Wolf

Alfons ("Fons") De Wolf (born 22 June 1956 in Willebroek) is a retired Belgian road race cyclist, a professional from 1979 to 1990. He represented his country at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.
He was forecast, with Daniel Willems, to be the successor to Eddy Merckx. De Wolf seemed to fulfill that promise by having an absolutely dominant 1979 Vuelta a España winning 5 stages including an individual time trial as well as the Points Classification, securing a top 10 place in the General Classification and then following it up by winning the 1980 Giro di Lombardia and the 1981 Milan–San Remo, the last and first classic of the season. He almost won the 1982 Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but he finally lost it to the Italian Silvano Contini in the final sprint due to a shifting error.
After winning a stage in the 1984 Tour de France, his career faded, however the stage win he claimed was an impressive individual effort in which he was able to beat the group of favorites including Bernard Hinault and eventual winner Laurent Fignon by a stunning margin of almost eighteen minutes. He helped his teammate Eddy Planckaert win the green jersey in the 1988 Tour de France. He ended his career in 1990.
He now helps his wife in her funeral parlour in Dworp, in the south of Brussels.
Although he won the Omloop Het Volk two times, De Wolf was an atypical Flemish cyclist, preferring Italian races such as Milan–San Remo to Paris–Roubaix, Gent–Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders. He was at ease in hilly races, though he was not an impressive climber. He complained that he was seen as a 'new Eddy Merckx', that the public had expected too much.

## Major results
### 1976

    1st Overall Tour de Namur
    3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften
    4th Road race, Summer Olympics

### 1977

    1st Kattekoers
    3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften

### 1978

    1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
    1st Road race, National Amateur Road Championships
    2nd Overall GP Tell
    2nd Circuit de Wallonie
    2nd Flèche Ardennaise
    2nd Kattekoers

### 1979

    1st Omloop Schelde-Durme
    2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Jan van Houwelingen)
    2nd Leeuwse Pijl
    3rd Overall Tour of Belgium
    3rd Scheldeprijs
    4th Overall Three Days of Bruges–De Panne
    5th La Flèche Wallonne
    7th Brabantse Pijl
    8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    9th Overall Vuelta a España
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 2, 7, 9, 16b & 19
    9th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
    9th Paris–Roubaix

### 1980

    1st Druivenkoers Overijse
    1st Giro di Lombardia
    1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke)
    2nd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico
    2nd Amstel Gold Race
    2nd Gent–Wevelgem
    2nd Circuit des Frontières
    3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm
    3rd Overall Vuelta a Mallorca
    4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    4th GP de Fourmies
    5th Overall Giro di Sardegna
    6th Paris–Roubaix
    6th Grand Prix des Nations
    6th Züri-Metzgete
    7th Omloop Het Volk
    8th Paris–Brussels
    10th Tour of Flanders
    10th Milan–San Remo

### 1981

    1st Six Days of Antwerp (with René Pijnen)
    1st Milan–San Remo
    1st Circuit des Frontières
    1st Polder–Kempen
    1st Stage 4 Tour of Belgium
    1st Stage 6 Tour de Suisse
    2nd GP Eddy Merckx
    3rd Overall Paris–Nice
    3rd Gent–Wevelgem
    3rd Amstel Gold Race
    3rd E3 Harelbeke
    5th Overall Deutschland Tour
    5th Züri-Metzgete
    6th Brabantse Pijl
    7th Road race, UCI World Championships
    7th Tour of Flanders
    9th Grand Prix des Nations
    10th Paris–Roubaix

### 1982

    1st Omloop Het Volk
    1st Sassari–Cagliari
    1st Stage 1a Three Days of Bruges–De Panne
    2nd Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
    2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    3rd Gent–Wevelgem
    3rd Road race, National Road Championships
    3rd Ronde van Limburg
    4th Rund um den Henninger Turm
    8th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
       1st Stage 5a
    10th La Flèche Wallonne

### 1983

    1st Omloop Het Volk
    1st Coppa Ugo Agostoni
    1st Giro della Romagna
    1st Giro di Toscana
    1st Stage 2 Giro del Trentino
    1st Stage 1 Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
    5th Overall Giro di Sardegna
    8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    9th La Flèche Wallonne

### 1984

    1st Stage 14 Tour de France
    1st Stage 6 Tour of Norway
    1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
    1st Stage 3 Vuelta a Andalucía
    9th GP Eddy Merckx

### 1985

    1st Stage 9 Vuelta a España
    1st Stage 2 Vuelta Ciclista a la Comunidad Valenciana

### 1986

    6th Tour of Flanders
    9th De Brabantse Pijl

### 1988

    2nd Dwars door België
    7th Gent–Wevelgem

### 1989

    3rd Road race, National Road Championships

### 1990

    7th Nokere Koerse

### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | DNF | — | — | 49 | — | — | 38 | — | — | 70 |
| Tour de France | — | — | 11 | 31 | — | 74 | DNF | — | — | 102 | — |
| Vuelta a España | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | 81 | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |