Former Belgian racer and team manager Walter Godefroot dies at 82

Former racer and team manager Walter Godefroot has died at the age of 82 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Godefroot, who hailed from Gent in Belgium, was a 10-time Tour de France stage winner during a racing career which ran from 1965 to 1979. He also won the Tour's points classification in 1970 and took wins at the Tour of Flanders (twice), Paris-Roubaix, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

He later worked as a manager for the Telekom/T-Mobile team in the 1990s to 2005, later taking up similar roles at Astana before retiring after the 2007 season.

As a rider, Godefroot won Olympic bronze in the 1964 road race before turning professional the following season, emerging as an early rival for Eddy Merckx with wins at the Belgian National Championships (in 1965), Liège (in 1967) and Roubaix (in 1969).

He was a Classics specialist and Grand Tour stage hunter during his career, winning 10 Tour stages between 1967 and 1975 as well as a stage of the 1977 Giro d'italia and two at the 1971 Vuelta a España.

During his racing career, Godefroot picked up 155 victories racing for several teams, including Flandria, Salvarani, and Peugeot.

He retired from racing in 1977 and opened a bicycle shop with his wife before stepping back into top-level cycling in 1991 as manager of Telekom after a spell managing smaller teams. Under his guidance, the team grew into one of the biggest in the sport, winning two Tours de France with Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich.

He stepped away from team management after the 2005 season but continued to work as an advisor for Astana in 2006 and 2007 before withdrawing from pro racing completely.

Godefroot, nicknamed 'the bulldog of Flanders' during his racing days, died on Monday, September 1, 2025.