Walter Godefroot, rival of Merckx and manager of Ullrich, dies aged 82

The multiple Classics winner Walter Godefroot has died at the age of 82. The Belgian won the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège during a career that intersected with Eddy Merckx, and he later managed Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich to Tour de France victory.

A native of Ghent, Godefroot won a bronze medal in the road race at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo before turning professional with Wiel's–Groene Leeuw the following year. He enjoyed immediate success, beating Merckx to the Belgian title in 1965. He would win the title again in 1972.

Blessed with a rapid finish, Godefroot quickly established himself as a Classics hunter. He won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1967 before claiming the first of two Tour of Flanders victories in 1968, which was quickly followed by a win at Gent-Wevelgem.

In 1969, Godefroot would get the better of his old rival Merckx to win Paris-Roubaix, soloing clear to win by almost three minutes.

By then, Godefroot’s turn of speed had carried him to his first Tour de France stage wins. He would claim ten victories on the Tour in total, winning the green jersey in 1970. He enjoyed the distinction of becoming the first rider to win on the Champs-Élysées in 1975.

Godefroot remained a consistent performer in the Classics for the duration of his career, and he would claim a second Tour of Flanders victory in 1978, outsprinting Michiel Pollentier and Gregor Braun.

As well as being a double winner of the Ronde, Godefroot is credited with discovering the Koppenberg, which was added to the route for the first time in 1976. “A friend of mine was the course designer for the Ronde. I told him: I know another climb. But I won’t tell you until I stop racing, because you might dare send us over it,” Godefoot said. He duly conquered the Koppenberg en route to his second Tour of Flanders win.

“I didn't have the character of a champion like Eddy. If we had played football, he would have been the centre forward, the one who finishes the job, and I would have stayed in the shadows in midfield, more to organise the work,” Godefroot told L’Équipe in 2021. “I certainly lacked selfishness, unlike Eddy or Roger De Vlaeminck, who wanted to win everything. It's all about character.”

In the same interview, however, Godefroot dismissed the idea that he had been a ‘victim’ of Merckx’s dominance. “No, I was more like his best rival,” he said. “That sums up my state of mind better when I was racing against Eddy. I never felt like I was number two behind him; otherwise, I would have ended my career immediately.”

After retiring in 1979, Godefroot opened a bike shop in Deurle, but he returned to prominence in the 1990s when he took over as manager of modest German outfit Team Stuttgart, which later transformed into Team Telekom.

Management was something Godefroot had already considered during a racing career that had seen him line out for squads like Flandria, Salvarani and Peugeot. 

Under Godefroot’s stewardship, the team won the Tour de France in 1996 with Bjarne Riis and in 1997 with Jan Ullrich, though both riders would later confess to doping. In an interview for Daniel Friebe’s 2022 book Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was, Godefroot confessed to a feeling of unease after Riis’ triumph.

“In 1996, when [the UCI president] Hein Verbruggen congratulated me for the Tour win, I told him that I wasn’t proud, that it hurt a bit in my heart, because I wasn’t sure but I thought things were happening that were dangerous for the health of the riders,” Goodefroot told Friebe, though he added: “People want to make cycling an island of purity in a dirty world. It’s not possible.”

Godefroot left Telekom in 2005, and he briefly linked up with Alexandre Vinokourov at his nascent Astana team before standing down ahead of the 2007 Tour de France. In recent years, Godefroot had retreated from cycling following his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease. Touchingly, his old rival Merckx was among the first to pay tribute to Godefroot on Monday. 

“I visited him at home occasionally last year, but Walter was already ill by then. Lately, his condition had deteriorated significantly,” Merckx told Het Nieuwsblad. “Walter was a top rider. Fast and strong, like how he beat me in 1967 in Liège-Bastogne-Liège or twice at the Belgian Championship. Walter first, me second each time. His palmarès speaks volumes, really. Walter was an underrated rider. He was better than many thought. And he was a decent person. If you made an agreement with Walter, you knew it would be kept. It’s a shame. It’s a real shame.”