Rik Van Looy: Cycling
Henri “Rik” Van Looy (born 20 December 1933) is a former Belgian professional cyclist of the post-war period. Before Eddy Merckx, he won more classics than any professional cyclist ever. He was given the nickname, “King of the Classics” or “Emperor of Herentals” (because he lived in the small Belgian city near the Dutch border).
Greatest Sporting Achievements
Van Looy was the first cyclist to win all five of cycling’s monuments (Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastongne-Liege, Tour of Flanders), the most prestigious one-day classics –being one of the three riders (Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx) to win all five monument races.
He won the World Championship road race twice and once during the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 for Team road race.
Van Looy is ninth on the all-time list of Grand Tour stage winner with thirty-seven victories.
Why Was He So Good?
Rik Van Looy had remarkable abilities as a road sprinter. He was not a great climber though he was better than average. He was extremely competitive and always liked to work up himself to the best of his abilities.
What You May Not Know
- He was born in Grobbendonk in the Belgian province of Antwerp.
- Rik Van Looy started riding heavy bicycles during his youth, delivering newspapers where he was teased by neighbors of his name being so close to the well-known star at the time. That taunting spurned him to ride competitively.
- His career spanned eighteen seasons, beginning at the age of 19 in 1953 and ended at 36 in 1970. He racked up an impressive 419 professional road victories.
Related Pages
- More profiles of Cycling athletes
- sport in Belgium
- About Cycling
- Athlete Database home
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