Walter Godefroot

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Walter Godefroot
Personal information
Full name Walter Godefroot
Date of birth July 2, 1943 (1943-07-02) (age 64)
Country Belgium
Team information
Current team Team Astana
Discipline Road
Role Manager
Rider type One-day specialist
Managerial team(s)
1991-2005
2006-2007
T-Mobile
Team Astana
Major wins
Tour de France green jersey 1970
Ronde van Vlaanderen 1978
Infobox last updated on:
April 16, 2007
Medal record
Competitor for Flag of Belgium Belgium
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Bronze 1964 Tokyo Individual road race

Walter Godefroot (born 2 July 1943) is a retired Belgian professional road bicycle racer and former directeur sportif of the T-Mobile Team, a professional cycling team. In his competitive cycling days, Godefroot was a specialist in the one-day classic cycle races, winning three of the five 'monuments' of cycling: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1967), Paris-Roubaix (1969), and the Ronde van Vlaanderen (1968, 1978).

Besides winning the green jersey at the 1970 Tour de France, Godefroot was the first rider to win the final stage at the 1975 Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées.

Godefroot has been disqualified three times during his career because of anti-doping controls. On May 25, 2007 Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour de France and member of Team Telekom of which Godefroot was the coach, admitted to using EPO. Riis claims Godefroot turned a blind eye to drug use on the team.[1]

Before the 2006 season, Walter Godefroot stepped down as team manager and retired from cycling and Olaf Ludwig became the new T-Mobile team manager. After the exclusion of Team Astana from the 2006 Tour de France, at the request of Alexandre Vinokourov, Godefroot returned to the peloton when he accepted the management of Team Astana.

[edit] Major achievements

1964
Bronze Medal – Summer Olympics Men's Road Race
1965
Flag of Belgium Belgium National Road Race Championship
1966
2nd, Omloop Het Volk
1967
Stage 1 – Tour de France
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
1968
Tour de France
Stage 3b win
Stage 9 win
2nd, Points Classification
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Gent-Wevelgem
2nd, Paris-Tours
3rd, Paris-Roubaix
1969
Bordeaux-Paris
Paris-Roubaix
Grote Scheldeprijs
1970 – Salvarani
Tour de France
Maillot vert, Points Classification winner
Stage 5a win
Stage 8 – Giro d'Italia
Züri-Metzgete
2nd, Ronde van Vlaanderen
2nd overall, Tour of Belgium
1971 – Peugeot
Stage 9 – Tour de France
Stage 7 – Vuelta a España
Stage 8 – Vuelta a España
1972 – Peugeot
Flag of Belgium Belgium National Road Race Championship
Stage 5a – Tour de France
1973 – Carpenter
Tour de France
Stage 5 win
Stage 16a win
2nd, Paris-Roubaix
1974
Rund um den Henninger Turm
Züri-Metzgete
Four Days of Dunkirk
1975 – Flandria
Stage 22 (Champs-Élysées) – 1975 Tour de France
1976
Bordeaux-Paris
1978
Ronde van Vlaanderen

[edit] References

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Eddy Merckx
Winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France
1970
Succeeded by
Eddy Merckx
Preceded by
Eddy Merckx
Winner of Paris-Roubaix
1969
Succeeded by
Eddy Merckx