Belgian legend Rik Van Looy, the emperor of cycling classics, dies at 90

At the moment, the cause of Van Looy’s death is unknown, who has 397 wins in his career, among them two world championships and eight monuments, and he has the second best track record in Belgian cycling, only surpassed by Merckx.

Van Looy, who at the age of 22 coincided in the Faema with the Spanish Federico Martín Bahamontes, is one of the only three cyclists in history, along with Merckx himself and Roger de Vlaeminck, who has at least a victory in the five cyclist ‘monuments’s, repeating triumph in Paris-Roubaix (1961, 1962 and 1965) and the Tour of Flanders (1959 and 1962) in one of the golden stages of cycling and against rivals such as Fausto Coppi, Ferdi Kubler, Hugo Koblet, Louison Bobet , Jacques Anquetil, Charly Gaul and their compatriots Rik Van Steenbergen and Merckx.

In a statement following the announcement of Van Looy’s death, Merckx himself defined him as “a super champion who was almost unbeatable in the classics,” reports AFP. “Rik was an immense champion, an absolute myth with an incredible record,” he highlighted. ‘The Cannibal’, Van Looy’s teammate in the 1965 season.

Despite having a physique that was too imposing to aspire to final victory in the grand tours, Van Looy won stages in Tour, Turn and Returnand was a double world champion on the road (1960 and 1961).

The 1963 road World Championship in Belgium is also worth remembering, in which Van Looy was the great favorite for victory, but surpassed at the finish line by his compatriot Benoni Beheyt after the also Belgian Gilbert Desmet launched the sprint too early. , an action that the fans of the now deceased continue to describe as a “betrayal” of his teammates, with bad relations between them and bets involved.

Palmares

Among his 397 professional victories are 2 World Championships, 3 Paris Roubaix, 2 Tour of Flanders, 1 Milan San Remo, 3 Ghent Wevelgem, 1 Liège-Bastogne, 1 Lombardy and 1 Flecha Wallonne.

In addition, he was ‘top 10’ in the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, with two podiums in the Spanish round (1959 and 1965), in which he achieved 18 stage victories, compared to 12 in the Italian test and another 7 in the French one.

After ending his professional career, Van Looy became director of the Flemish cycling school of Herentals, a city of which he is also an honorary citizen and to which he owes his nickname: ‘The Emperor of Herentals’.