How to Wear a Cycling Cap: Fons de Wolf

In the cold.

Cor Vos photo

Admittedly Alphons, or either one of his competitors, Silvano Contini and Peter Winnen, could serve in the role of teacher for this edition of How to Wear a Cycling Cap. 1985 must have been a cold year at Liege-Bastogne-Liege; long-sleeve wool jerseys, full-finger gloves, and beanies abound. Winnen and de Wolf, at the least, are triple-decked with the head coverings - leather hairnet helmet, beanie and cap. Contini, might have a cap on under that big, ball-topped head-warmer, but the brim seems to be of the same texture, so maybe not. In any case, the cycling cap was clearly an integral part of the day's uniform.

"I was not a man of July, I hated [racing in] summer. I was better at the beginning and end of the season." De Wolf reasoned that years spent working in the fields of the family farm as a youth, during the colder months of the year, hardened him to bitter temperatures and adverse conditions.

Speaking on two of his biggest wins: "I do not know if it's my greatest victory [Milan-San Remo]. Lombardy had allowed me to assert myself, [but] San Remo allowed me to gain the respect of others."

His greatest disappointment may have been at Liege in 1982, a race he believes he should have won. "I should have! I had assumed most of the work in the break with Contini [and] Criquielion. I started the sprint [on the] Boulevard Sauveniere and [the] Italian [flew] past me. This may be the failure I was most traumatized [by]."