Walter Planckaert

Walter Planckaert

Walter Planckaert (2011)
To person
Date of birth	April 8, 1948
nation	Belgium
discipline	Street
Driver type	Classic driver / sprinter
End of career	1985
doping
1977	Pemoline
Team (s)
1970 1971 1972 1973–1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981–1982 1983 1984–1985	Geens Goldor Watney-Avia Watney-Maes Maes Pils-Watney Maes Pils-Rokado Maes Pils-Mini Flat C&A Mini Flat – VDB – Pirelli Vermeer – Thijs – Mini Flat Wickes-Splendor Splendor-Euroshop Panasonic
Team (s) as sporting director
1986–1994 1997–2000 2001–2002 2004–2007 2008–2016 2017-	Panasonic / Novemail-Histor Palmans Lotto-Adecco Chocolade Jacques Topsport Vlaanderen Sport Vlaanderen
Last updated: April 10, 2018

Walter Planckaert (born April 8, 1948 in Nevele ) is a Belgian sports director and former cyclist .

Athletic career

From 1967 Walter Planckaert was active as a cyclist and initially started primarily as an amateur with the Belgian criteria . By the end of his sporting career, he won more than 50 of these. In 1971, he achieved his first major success by winning the Omloop van het Waasland .

In the years that followed, Planckaert won numerous one-day races as well as individual stages of tours. He won twice - in 1973 and 1979 - the Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne race , the Amstel Gold Race in 1972, the Tour of Flanders in 1976 and the E3 Harelbeke , a total of seven stages of the Tour of Belgium and its overall ranking in 1977 and two stages from Tirreno – Adriatico . He started five times in the Tour de France and won a half-stage in 1978 , but did not make it to any of the five starts in Paris. He took part in the Vuelta a España three times, gave up twice and on his third participation in 1981 he finished 53rd in the overall ranking.

doping

In 1977, the third-placed Planckaert was disqualified after the Tour of Flanders after doping with pemoline could be proven. He received a one-month ban and had to pay a fine of 1,000 Swiss francs.

Professional

After the end of his active cycling career, Walter Planckaert became sporting director and team manager, functions that he held for over 30 years. In 1986 he started as assistant to the sports director Peter Post at Panasonic , after which he changed teams several times. Since 2007 he has been one of the sporting directors at Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise .

In the summer of 2017, Planckaert made headlines when he banned his team's drivers from wearing full beards. He wanted to maintain the "elegance of cycling", so his reasoning. Full beards are reserved for motocross riders or rugby players , "snot and leftover food" in the beard of the driver is "disgusting".

In 2018 Planckaert was 70 years old and was together with Hilaire Van der Schueren ( Wanty-Groupe Gobert ) the oldest sports director in Belgium. According to the regulations of the Belgian cycling federation Belgian Cycling and the world cycling federation UCI , due to his age, it is not permitted for him to drive a support vehicle in cycling races from 2019. Planckaert and Van der Schueren protested publicly against this. In all these years he has never had an accident, according to Planckaert, and it is the younger drivers who are prone to risky maneuvers.

family

Walter Planckaert comes from a Flemish cycling family. His brothers Willy and Eddy were racing cyclists, as were his nephews Jo (son of Willy) and Francesco (son of Eddy). Eddy junior, Eddy's son, has also been a racing driver since 2014.

successes

1971

• Omloop van het Waasland

1972

• Amstel Gold Race

1973

• Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne
• a stage tour of Belgium
• Tour de France team time trial

1974

• a stage Tirreno – Adriatico
• Omloop van het Houtland

1975

• a stage Tirreno – Adriatico

1976

• Tour of Flanders
• E3 Harelbeke
• Grand Prix de Denain
• two half-stage tour of Belgium
• one stage and one half stage Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1977

• Overall ranking, one stage and two half-stages Tour of Belgium
• Dwars door Vlaanderen
• Grand Prix de Wallonie
• Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
• Halle – Ingooigem
• a half-stage four days from Dunkirk

1978

• a half-stage Tour de France
• Prologue Tour of the Netherlands

1979

• Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne
• a stage tour of Belgium
• a stage of the Driedaagse van De Panne

1980

• one stage tour of the Mediterranean

1984

• Dwars door Vlaanderen
• one stage tour of the Mediterranean
• a stage four days from Dunkirk
• one stage tour of the Netherlands

Monuments of cycling placements

Monument to cycling	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985
Milan – Sanremo	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	35	-	-	108	-	38
Tour of Flanders	-	-	4th	-	4th	1	DSQ	9	14th	11	-	-	-	27	8th
Paris – Roubaix	20th	45	-	-	11	-	-	14th	7th	-	-	-	-	-	-
Liège – Bastogne – Liège	-	-	-	2	33	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Lombardy tour	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Legend: DSQ: disqualification.

Grand Tour placements

Grand Tour	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982
Vuelta a España	DNF	DNF	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	53
Giro d'Italia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tour de France	-	DNF	DNF	-	-	-	-	DNF	-	-	DNF	DNF

Legend: DNF: did not finish , abandoned or withdrawn from the race due to timeout.

literature

• René Jacobs / Hector Mahau / Harry Van den Bremt / René Pirotte: Velo Gotha . Presses de Belgique, 1984, pp. 416 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Planckaert  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Walter Planckaert in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Walter Planckaert in the ProCyclingStats.com database
• Walter Planckaert as sporting director in the Radsportseiten.net database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1977 Ronde van Vlaanderen results. In: BikeRaceInfo. Retrieved April 10, 2018 . 
2. ^ Ralf Meutgens: Doping in cycling . Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-5245-6 , p. 258 .
3. ^ Cycling: "Aesthetic Reasons": Beard ban for Belgian professional cyclists. In: zeit.de . October 10, 2017, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Walter Planckaert & Hilaire Van der Schueren vanaf volgend jaar te oud voor de volgwagen: “We have been 70 en plots can we niet Meer stumble?” In: hln.be. March 1, 2018, accessed April 10, 2018 (Dutch).