Wout Wagtmans

Wouter "Wout" Wagtmans (10 November 1929 – 15 August 1994) was a Dutch road bicycle racer.

Together with Wim van Est he belonged to the generation that brought great popularity to cycling in the Netherlands in the 1950s. In 1947, Wagtmans started as amateur, and two years later he became Dutch champion. In 1950 he was forced to be a professional cyclist, because he was said to take money after a victory. In his first day as a professional cyclist, he entered the Dutch professional championship, and only Gerrit Schulte could keep ahead of him.

After that, he had a glorious career. He entered the Tour de France eight times, and wore the yellow jersey in 1954, 1955 and 1956. He won four stages: in 1953 in Gap he beat Gino Bartali in the final sprint, and ended fifth in the overall standings. Two years later he was the third Dutch winner in Bordeaux. He also won three stages in the Giro d'Italia and several one-day races. He was also successful as a track rider and, together with Wim van Est, in two-up time trials.

Wout Wagtmans was a very popular cyclist, both because of his combativity and his enthusiasm. He received many nicknames, Olijke Woutje, Dik Trom, Zoeloe, de Clown and het Kemphaantje. He ended his cycling career in 1961, and in 1967 he was the leader of the Dutch Tour de France team, centered on Jan Janssen. After that he took over his father's transport company. At the end of the 1980s, he had a serious accident after which he was declared physically disabled. Wagtmans died in 1994, at the age of 64.

Wout Wagtmans was the uncle of another successful cyclist, Rini Wagtmans.

Major results

1949 amateur road race champion 1950 Acht van Chaam Oosterhout Rotterdam Ronde van Noord-Holland Halsteren 1951 Leopoldsbrug Terneuzen Wouw Oostbrug 1952 Acht van Chaam Tour de Romandie 1953 Ronde van Haspengouw Tour de France: Winner stages 17 and 21 5th place overall classification Paris–Roubaix 3rd place overall Hoensbroek 1954 Helmond Sint-Willebrord Giro d'Italia: Winner stages 13 and 19 Tour de France: Winner stage 1 Wearing yellow jersey for seven days 1955 Drachten Apeldoorn Giro d'Italia: 9th place overall classification Tour de France: Winner stage 19 Wearing yellow jersey for two days 1956 Tour de France: Wearing yellow jersey for three days 1957 Roma – Napoli – Roma Giro d'Italia: Winner stage 6 9th place overall classification 1960 Tour des Quatre-Cantons