Alfons De Wolf

De Wolf after the 1988 Dwars door België (collection: KOERS. Museum of Cycle Racing)
Personal information
Born	(1956-06-22) 22 June 1956 (age 69) Willebroek, Belgium
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist
Amateur team
1978	IJsboerke–Warncke Eis (stagiaire)
Professional teams
1979–1980	Lano–Boule d'Or
1981–1982	Vermeer Thijs
1983	Bianchi–Piaggio
1984	Europ Decor–Boule d'Or
1985	Fagor
1986	Skala–Skil
1987–1989	AD Renting–Fangio–IOC–MBK
1990	IOC–Tulip Computers
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (1984) Vuelta a España Points classification (1979) 6 individual stages (1979, 1985) One-day races and Classics Giro di Lombardia (1980) Milan–San Remo (1981) Omloop Het Volk (1982, 1983)

Alfons "Fons" De Wolf (born 22 June 1956) 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.[1]

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.[2] 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.

1976 1st Overall Tour de Namur 3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften 4th Road race, Olympic Games 1977 1st Kattekoers 3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften 4th Seraing–Aachen–Seraing 5th Road race, UCI Amateur Road World Championships 9th Circuit du Hainaut 1978 1st Road race, National Amateur Road Championships 1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs 2nd Overall Grand Prix Guillaume Tell 1st Stages 2 & 5 2nd Circuit du Hainaut 2nd Flèche Ardennaise 2nd Kattekoers 1979 2nd Trofeo Baracchi (with Jan van Houwelingen) 3rd Overall Tour of Belgium 3rd Scheldeprijs 4th Overall Three Days of Bruges–De Panne 4th Herinneringsprijs Dokter Tistaert – Prijs Groot-Zottegem 5th Road race, National Road Championships 5th La Flèche Wallonne 6th Gran Premio di Lugano 7th Omloop Het Volk 7th Brabantse Pijl 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 9th Overall Vuelta a España 1st Points classification 1st Stages 2, 7, 9, 16b (ITT) & 19 9th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 9th Paris–Roubaix 1980 1st Giro di Lombardia 1st Druivenkoers Overijse 1st Trofeo Baracchi (with Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke) 1st Stage 3 Three Days of Bruges–De Panne 2nd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 2nd Amstel Gold Race 2nd Gent–Wevelgem 2nd Circuit des Frontières 3rd Overall Vuelta a Mallorca 3rd Coppa Bernocchi 3rd Rund um den Henninger Turm 4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 4th Paris–Tours 4th Grand Prix de Fourmies 5th Overall Giro di Sardegna 6th Paris–Roubaix 6th Züri-Metzgete 6th Grand Prix des Nations 7th Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Stage 4a 7th Omloop Het Volk 7th Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden 8th Paris–Brussels 10th Tour of Flanders 10th Milan–San Remo 1981 1st Milan–San Remo 1st Circuit des Frontières 1st Stage 6 Tour de Suisse 1st Stage 4 Tour of Belgium 2nd Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 3rd Overall Paris–Nice 3rd Gent–Wevelgem 3rd Amstel Gold Race 3rd E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 4th Road race, National Road Championships 4th Giro del Piemonte 5th Overall Deutschland Tour 5th Züri-Metzgete 6th Brabantse Pijl 7th Road race, UCI World Championships 7th Tour of Flanders 7th Paris–Brussels 9th Grand Prix des Nations 10th Paris–Roubaix 1982 1st Omloop Het Volk 1st Cagliari-Sassari 1st Stage 1a Three Days of Bruges–De Panne 2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège 2nd Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 3rd Gent–Wevelgem 3rd Paris–Tours 3rd Ronde van Limburg 4th Giro del Piemonte 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 Agostoni 1st Giro della Romagna 1st Giro di Toscana 1st Stage 2 Giro del Trentino 1st Stage 1 Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme 2nd Milano–Vignola 3rd Brabantse Pijl 5th Overall Giro di Sardegna 6th Coppa Placci 8th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 9th La Flèche Wallonne 1984 1st Stage 14 Tour de France 1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie 1st Stage 3 Vuelta a Andalucía 1st Stage 6 Tour of Norway 8th Druivenkoers Overijse 9th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx 1985 1st Stage 9 Vuelta a España 1st Stage 2 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 4th Overall Étoile des Espoirs 1986 6th Tour of Flanders 9th Grand Prix de Wallonie 10th De Brabantse Pijl 1988 2nd Dwars door België 7th Gent–Wevelgem 1989 3rd Road race, National Road Championships 1990 7th Nokere Koerse

Grand Tour	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	—	49	—	—	38	—	—	70
Tour de France	—	—	11	31	—	74	DNF	—	—	102	—
Vuelta a España	9	—	—	—	—	—	81	—	—	—	—

• Alfons De Wolf at Cycling Archives
• Alfons De Wolf at ProCyclingStats
• Alfons De Wolf at CycleBase
• Alfons De Wolf at Olympedia
• Official Tour de France results for Alfons De Wolf