Fred De Bruyne

Alfred De Bruyne (21 October 1930 Ã¢ÂÂ 4 February 1994) was a Belgian champion road cyclist. He won six Tour de France stages early in his career and went on to win many other Monuments and stage races.

De Bruyne had a great deal of success early in his career during the Tour de France. 1953 was his first Tour, his best result was making one stage podium, on stage 5 from Dieppe to Caen. In 1954 he finished 2nd on the final stage into Paris and won three stages along the way. In 1955 he didn't win any stages, but ended up with the highest overall classification he would ever have which was 17th. In 1956, De Bruyne won three stages in the first half of the Tour, but slowed a bit in the second half and could not add to this total. Also in 1956 he won MilanÃ¢ÂÂSan Remo and LiÃÂ¨geÃ¢ÂÂBastogneÃ¢ÂÂLiÃÂ¨ge, as well as the stage race ParisÃ¢ÂÂNice early in the season. In 1957 De Bruyne abandoned the Tour for the first time in his career. He won both ParisÃ¢ÂÂRoubaix and ParisÃ¢ÂÂTours that year. In 1958 he rode the Giro for the first time and didn't win any stages and finished 16th overall. He won ParisÃ¢ÂÂNice, LiÃÂ¨geÃ¢ÂÂBastogneÃ¢ÂÂLiÃÂ¨ge and came in the top 10 of GentÃ¢ÂÂWevelgem, La FlÃÂ¨che Wallonne, ParisÃ¢ÂÂRoubaix, Paris-Tours and Milan San Remo.

Fred De Bruyne also won the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo competition three years running, from 1956 to 1958. This was the forerunner of the Super Prestige Pernod, later replaced by the UCI Ranking Points List.

After his professional cycling career he went on to write several books about some of the most important Belgian cyclists of his era and became a popular TV sports commentator, a team manager, and finally a spokesman for the cycling team.

In 1988 he retired and moved with his wife to the Provence in France. Six years later, in February 1994, De Bruyne died of a heart attack after a lingering illness.

Riding style

De Bruyne cycled on intelligence and competition insight, and only attacked when he was very sure. But then he also went very explosive and fast. In contrast to his gentle nature, the talkative De Bruyne was maniacal as a cyclist. <nowiki>On the bike, I was actually a beast</nowiki>, De Bruyne once let slip. He was not known as the great top talent, but his intelligence and innate discipline enabled him to amass a brilliant record.