Betrayal or not? The 1963 world championship in Ronse (Belgium), which Rik Van Looy, who died at the age of 90, finished in second place behind his teammate Benoni Beheyt, remains controversial. At the time, Van Looy, already titled twice, was the leader of the Belgian selection, which was racing at home. But grains of sand will upset the scenario, which Beheyt mentioned only once publicly.
Could a money issue be involved? “We had a bit of an argument the day before the World Cup during the team meeting“, explained the 1963 world champion. “Van Looy had promised 50,000 francs to each teammate but nothing in the event of defeat, while we were sacrificing our chances. Gilbert Desmet asked the question : ‘What if Rik loses?’ We didn’t get a response. That evening, I understood that with a little luck, I could become world champion.”
But other reasons than this simple quarrel have been put forward. Albert De Kimpe, the usual sports director of Desmet and Beheyt, was suspected of having bet on the defeat of Van Looy (29 years old) and the success of Beheyt (22 years old). A few weeks earlier, he had forbidden his rider from ahead of Van Looy in the sprints of the Tour de France, even for a place of honor. Nothing like this on August 11, 1963 in Ronse.
That day, the Belgian selection controlled the race until the final, confused sprint, during which Van Looy’s line changes forced Beheyt to lean on his leader with one arm. The underdog wins, and will not be downgraded. Trapped by another of his compatriots, Gilbert Desmet, who sprinted at him from afar, Van Looy was therefore overwhelmed by Beheyt, who was supposed to work for him. His supporters cried betrayal and Beheyt, ostracized, had to end his career prematurely two years later.
I can’t, I have cramps.
For Beheyt, he was simply the strongest during this sprint: the Englishman Tom.Simpson attacked and Gilbert (Desmet) again blocked the gap but, already, Van Looy had all the trouble in the world to hold on to his wheel. He then simply could not conclude, he no longer had the strength“. “I couldn’t sprint in the last 100 meters, I just pushed Van Looy back, otherwise we would both fall, he was in front too early. I was simply the best“, he insisted. Without mentioning Desmet’s prior acceleration, which forced Van Looy to make a sustained effort.
In the newspaper The Worldin 1963, the day after the race, the report of this World Championship reports an exchange which, in hindsight, takes on a particular meaning: “Rik Van Looy, three kilometers from the finish, during the last lap went to find Beheyt who was at the back of the peloton to ask him to come to the front: ‘Come with me, you are going to take the sprint’, said to him Rick. But Beheyt grimaced and replied: ‘I can’t, I have cramps.'”
Benoni Beheyt dons the world champion jersey in 1963. End of the race, start of the controversy.
Credit: Getty Images
It took the intervention of three gendarmes to prevent Rik Van Looy, who had thrown his bike in anger, from rushing towards Benoni Beheyt to attack him. Finally, it was… Van Looy’s brother-in-law who took care of the job by punching the new world champion in the stomach, still confused and shaken when he came to the podium to put on his jersey iridescent a quarter of an hour later.
Since then, time has softened the controversy, but without ever providing definitive answers. The Mondial 63 retains its share of mysteries. The Belgian newspaper The Last Hourhe will put forward a final explanation, that of revenge: four years earlier, at the Tour of Flanders, Van Looy had caused Desmet, then his teammate, to lose the race, who had escaped. Desmet, assured the daily, had sworn revenge.
