Rik Van Looy, who died on Wednesday December 18 at the age of 90, was nicknamed the Emperor of Herentals and adored by Belgian cycling in the early 1960s, before the Eddy Merckx era.
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Twice world champion, Rik II, nicknamed in reference to his glorious elder Rik Van Steenbergen, has won the five monuments of his sport: Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders twice, Paris-Roubaix three times, Liège- Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Lombardy. A feat that only his compatriots Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck subsequently achieved.
Having turned professional at the age of 20 (end of 1953) under the orders of Guillaume Driessens, the Fleming from Herentals imposed a modern style of road-sprinter, surrounded by wheelers (Armand Desmet, Joseph Planckaert, Edgard Sorgeloos, Edward Sels, etc…) totally devoted to his cause.
Stocky build and thighs of steel
At the head of this “red guard”, the color of the jersey of his Solo Superia team, Van Looy, a man of granite, stocky build and thighs of steel, accumulated success. The result is 371 professional victories, including seven stages of the Tour de France in which he started late, at 28, and regularly stumbled in the high mountains.
“I considered each stage a classic. If I had participated in the Tour earlier, I might have won it one day », he then explained, with his places of honor in the other grand tours (4th in the 1959 Giro, 3rd in the 1959 and 1965 Vuelta).
His “double” at the world championship, at the Sachsenring (Germany) in 1960 then in Bern the following year, narrowly missed turning into a hat-trick. But, in 1963, in front of his Ronse crowd, Van Looy had to lose to one of his teammates, Benoni Beheyt.
At the release of a book dedicated to him in 2013, the former newspaper deliveryman (born December 20, 1933) humbly recounted his beginnings on a bicycle. His first race in 1948, in the small village of Herenthout, and his first result: 62nd and last, after being overtaken five times by the peloton.
An ascent with Jacques Anquetil already at the summit
“II had to face three generations, underlined the Campinois. In the 1950s, it was that of Van Steenbergen, Coppi, Bartali. Then I experienced my own ascent with Anquetil who was at the top. Then came Merckx “. Van Looy, then all-powerful (1965), saw the very young Merckx arrive in his own training. The cohabitation only lasted one season.
The match quickly became unbalanced. “ I was twelve years older than Eddy, and at the height of our rivalry, my best days were in the rearview mirror. Even when I was having an exceptional day, he beat me », admitted the eldest.
“He fought until the last moment to maintain his notoriety »confirmed Merckx. “ There was a big rivalry, the same one I experienced later with Maertens. But it was healthy, there was respect “.
After a very busy professional career (between 150 and 200 days of racing per year, he said, taking into account the Six Winter Days) which ended in 1970, Van Looy remained in the sport, notably as president of the club of Herentals football. He also became the owner of a riding school and ran a Flemish cycling school (sport-studies).
Belgium had not forgotten it. In the vote of his country’s sports journalists, he took fifth place in the ranking of Belgian sportsmen of the 20th century (behind Merckx, Roelants, Van Himst and Ickx).