Walter Godefroot: On the death of the Belgian cycling legend
TOUR
· 06.09.2025
The cycling world mourns the loss of Walter Godefroot. The former Belgian professional cyclist and long-time team manager of Team Telekom has passed away at the age of 82. Born in Ghent in 1943, Godefroot shaped international cycling for several decades as a rider and later as sporting director. In recent years, he had largely withdrawn from the public eye due to Parkinson's disease. Cycling dominated Godefroot's life for four decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, the father of three became the most successful Belgian professional cyclist after Eddy Merckx. He won all the major classics in his home country, triumphed in Paris-Roubaix and celebrated ten stage victories in the Tour de France. He later built on these successes as team boss and led Team Telekom to the top of the world with Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel, triggering an unprecedented cycling boom in Germany.
Successful career as a professional cyclist
As an active rider, Walter Godefroot was one of the outstanding classics specialists of his generation. His international career began at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he won the bronze medal. In the years that followed, he developed into one of cycling legend Eddy Merckx's strongest rivals. Godefroot became Belgian champion twice and was able to outpace his famous compatriot in important races such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Roubaix. His two victories in the Tour of Flanders in 1968 and 1978 - ten years apart - were particularly noteworthy, emphasising his extraordinary longevity as a top rider. At the Tour de France, he not only secured ten stage wins, but also the green jersey of the best sprinter. In 1975, he made history as the first winner on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, which has traditionally marked the end of the Tour of France ever since.
From professional cyclist to successful team manager
After his active career, Godefroot switched to the team car as sporting director. When he was put in charge of Team Telekom in 1992, he had to do a lot of pioneering work. Within just a few years, he built a world-class team from virtually nothing. Godefroot was at the helm of the Bonn-based cycling team for 14 years and celebrated two overall Tour victories with Bjarne Riis (1996) and Jan Ullrich (1997) as well as numerous classics and stage victories in major tours. Under his leadership, Erik Zabel developed into one of the most successful sprinters of his generation with six consecutive green jerseys at the Tour de France. "It was great with Jan and Bjarne. But the problems were the enormous expectations, the huge pressure from the public," Godefroot once said looking back. The rather reserved Belgian found it particularly difficult to deal with the huge hype surrounding Ullrich.
Doping problem overshadows career
Both as an active professional cyclist and later as a team manager, Godefroot's career was overshadowed by doping controversies. As a rider, he refused to undergo doping tests at Paris-Tours in 1967 and at the Walloon Arrow in 1974. At the 1974 Tour of Flanders, he was disqualified for taking Ritalin. However, he experienced the greatest controversy as team boss. When the doping revelations surrounding the Telekom team became public in 2007, Godefroot had already left the front row of management. The Belgian once said that he did not want to have known anything about all the machinations, that he was not the man behind the system and claimed that he may have been naive. He had neither organised nor financed doping in the team.
After his involvement with Telekom, Godefroot worked briefly for Team Astana, but was sacked after his name was mentioned in connection with the Fuentes doping scandal. In the last years of his life, he struggled with serious health problems, including a progressive Parkinson's disease.
Legacy in cycling
Despite the controversies, Walter Godefroot leaves behind a significant legacy in cycling. As a rider, he was one of the most versatile professionals of his generation, winning both one-day races and sprint stages in Grand Tours. As a team manager, he was instrumental in popularising cycling in Germany. Without Godefroot, the wave of success in German cycling around Jan Ullrich would hardly have happened. However, the former Telekom supervisor Jef D'hont had claimed to have collected the money for the doping agents from the riders and then given it to Godefroot. Former team captain Bjarne Riis said that Godefroot should have known about the practices if he had not been "blind in one eye". Regardless of these accusations, Godefroot remains one of the defining figures of cycling, whose influence as a rider and team manager was felt for decades.
