Fred De Bruyne

Alfred De Bruyne (21 October 1930 – 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 Milan–San Remo and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as the stage race Paris–Nice early in the season. In 1957 De Bruyne abandoned the Tour for the first time in his career. He won both Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Tours that year. In 1958 he rode the Giro for the first time and didn't win any stages and finished 16th overall. He won Paris–Nice, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and came in the top 10 of Gent–Wevelgem, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris–Roubaix, 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 finally left cycling behind and moved with his wife to the Provence in France. However, their happiness was short-lived, barely 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. On the bike, I was actually a beast, 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.

Road

 * 1953
 * 1st Tour of Flanders independents
 * 1st Bosbeek-Brussegem independents
 * 1st Blanden independents
 * 2nd Gent-Wevelgem independents


 * 1953
 * 1st Gentbrugge


 * 1954
 * 1st GP Berlare
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 8, 13 and 22
 * 1st Omloop van Oost-Vlaanderen
 * 1st Criterium of East-Flanders
 * 2nd GP Stad Vilvoorde
 * 2nd Schelde–Dender–Leie
 * 4th Circuit des six provinces (fr)
 * 1st Stage 2
 * 6th Paris–Tours
 * 9th Road race, UCI World Championships


 * 1955
 * 1st Omloop van Midden-België
 * 1st GP Frans Melckenbeek (nl)
 * 2nd Giro di Lombardia
 * 2nd Paris–Tours
 * 2nd Dwars door Vlaanderen
 * 1st Stage 2
 * 3rd Tour du Sud-Est
 * 1st Stage 4
 * 3rd Grand Prix du Midi Libre
 * 4th Nationale Sluitingsprijs
 * 6th Brussels–Ingooigem


 * 1956
 * 1st Milan–San Remo
 * 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 * 1st Overall Jersey gold.svg Paris–Nice
 * 1st Stages 1 and 5
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 1, 6 and 10
 * 1st Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
 * 2nd Boucles de l'Aulne
 * 2nd Paris–Roubaix
 * 4th Paris–Tours
 * 5th Road race, UCI World Championships
 * 5th Bordeaux–Paris
 * 9th Giro di Lombardia
 * 9th Paris–Brussels


 * 1957
 * 1st Tour of Flanders
 * 1st Paris–Roubaix
 * 1st Paris–Tours
 * 1st GP Berlare
 * 1st Sassari–Cagliari
 * 1st Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
 * 2nd Milan–San Remo
 * 2nd Milano–Torino
 * 4th Paris–Brussels
 * 5th Road race, UCI World Championships
 * 8th Roma–Napoli–Roma
 * 1st Stage 8


 * 1958
 * 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 * 1st Overall Jersey gold.svg Paris–Nice
 * 1st GP Berlare
 * 1st Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
 * 2nd Paris–Tours
 * 2nd Boucles de l'Aulne
 * 2nd Omloop van Limburg
 * 3rd Gent–Wevelgem
 * 4th La Flèche Wallonne
 * 4th Paris–Brussels
 * 6th Milan–San Remo
 * 6th Gran Premio di Lugano
 * 6th Paris–Roubaix
 * 7th Giro del Lazio
 * 10th Tour of Flanders


 * 1959
 * 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
 * 2nd Omloop Het Volk
 * 2nd Boucles de l'Aulne
 * 5th Bordeaux–Paris
 * 6th Paris–Roubaix
 * 6th Paris–Brussels


 * 1960
 * 8th Schelde–Dender–Leie


 * 1961
 * 1st Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
 * 5th Overall Giro di Sardegna

Track

 * 1955
 * 3rd Six days of Ghent (with Reginald Arnold)


 * 1957
 * 1st Six days of Ghent (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
 * 3rd Six Days of Paris (with Willy Vannitsen & Leon Van Daele)


 * 1958
 * 2nd Six Days of Brussels (with Reginald Arnold)


 * 1959
 * 1st Six days of Ghent (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

Honours

 * A square, Place Fred De Bruyne in Seillans, France
 * A race, Memorial Fred De Bruyne in Berlare, Belgium
 * A monument in Berlare, Belgium
 * A cycling route In het wiel van Fred De Bruyne in Berlare, Belgium

Books by Fred De Bruyne
Fred de Bruyne wrote following books (in Dutch) about famous cyclists:
 * Rik Van Steenbergen, 1963
 * Rik Van Looy, 1963
 * Patrick Sercu, 1965
 * Peter Post, 1965
 * De memoires van Fred De Bruyne, 1978