Henri De Wolf, winner of the 1958 Manx International Road Race, passed away recently after a long and active life at the age of 87.
Born in Deinze in 1936, he was very proud of his Manx victory, which he recalled in detail to his biographer Jean-Marie Schepens 60 years after the event.
‘The conditions were terrible: gusts of rain and wind. All riders were struggling all the way. People in Belgium have no idea of the Manx race track. They think it’s flattish.
‘They only know the narrow and deadly streets of the motor race. I was also surprised by the hilly character. I remember there was a tough ‘little’ climb of some 18km up.
‘It was tailored to my size. I was quite good at riding uphill.
‘People here [in Belgium] have never valued my Manx win. Our great monument, Eddy Merckx, only got as near as a 13th place in the Isle of Man.
‘I also know that later winners included such famous names as five-time Tour winner Jacques Anquetil, world champion Tom Simpson, Rudi Altig and Bernard Hinault, beating Belgium’s last Tour de France winner Lucien Van Impe in 1981.
‘Oh happy 1958, when I should have been world champion with the amateurs. I was beaten in Reims by a misunderstanding with a team-mate in a very tight photo finish sprint.’
Regarded as a first-class domestique, De Wolf contested all the classic races of his period, including all three Grand Tours [Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España].
He rode alongside top-name riders Jacques Anquetil and André Darrigade when with the Gemiani Leroux team. Others included ‘Shay’ Elliott and Jean Stablinski.
But the Manx International was one of his finest rides as an individual.
An extract of the report in the Isle of Man Weekly Times read as follows: ‘Rain, mist and wind hampered riders. Arduous, fantastic, incredible, unbelievable were adequate adjectives to describe one of the grimmest battles ever held on the Snaefell circuit.
‘The finish was a duel full of suspension between Englishman Bill Bradley and Belgian Henri De Wolf. At Governor’s Bridge they rounded the hairpin slowly with Bradley leading.
‘Then came the ultimate dash to the line with De Wolf beating the gallant Britisher by two lengths.’
A knee injury ultimately forced Henri to quit racing in 1969, but he enjoyed quite a career.
After his racing he went on to be a team manager (Hertekamp) for a couple of years and at one point he was the coach of Marc De Block, who beat Roger De Vlaeminck for the Belgian Cyclo-cross Championship.
Three years on he started a fish shop in the Ghent suburb of De Pinte, travelling up and down to Ostend fisheries to secure fresh fish for his growing number of customers.
He also had a love for horse racing, more particularly trotting with sulkies [little carts pulled by horses who must trot and not gallop].
He was also a keen “finch player” a local Flemish sport in which finches sing a special song. Each time they sing the correct melody it is tallied on a stick. Good singing finches themselves can cost quite a lot of money.
He leaves a wife Olga, two daughters, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Henri rode for Groene Leeuw, Leroux-Alcyon, Solo Superia and Willem II - Gazell.