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.
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.
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