Alfons De Wolf

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, beaten by Italian Silvano Contini in the final sprint.
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
References
External links
Official Tour de France results for Alfons De Wolf
1956 births
Living people
Belgian male cyclists
Belgian Tour de France stage winners
Cyclists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Olympic cyclists for Belgium
Belgian Vuelta a España stage winners
Funeral directors
People from Willebroek
Tour de Suisse stage winners
Cyclists from Antwerp Province
20th-century Belgian people