Belgian Rik Van Looy, one of the best runners in history, has died at the age of 90. The first winner of all the Cycling Monuments succumbed to a lightning disease
Active in the 1950s to 1970s, he was considered the greatest Belgian champion before the advent of Eddy Merckx at the end of the 1960s. The latter, his ‘friend’, also hailed in a press release ‘a super champion who was almost unbeatable in the classics’.
‘Rik was a huge champion, an absolute icon with an incredible track record,’ says Merckx (79 years old) who was Van Looy’s teammate for one season (1965). ‘I’m happy to have been able to race against him, adds Le Cannibale. Recently, even though he was sick, he took the trouble to call me when I was in the hospital after my fall, ten days ago.
‘It is only in the last month that his condition has deteriorated rapidly. A few days ago, I myself gave him words of encouragement,’ says Merckx, the only Belgian cyclist to have more victories than Van Looy (525 against 371).
‘Extraordinarily popular’
His imposing size never allowed him to win a Grand Tour (despite 37 stage victories in France, Italy and Spain) but thanks to his efficiency in sprinting, he was the first, before Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck, to win the five Cycling Monuments (eight successes in total): Milan-San Remo (1958), the Tour of Flanders (1959, 1962), Paris-Roubaix (1961, 1962, 1965), Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1961) and the Tour of Lombardy (1959).
Above all, the Antwerp native (real first name Hendrik), also a double world and Belgian champion, is the only one to have won all the classics of his time (sixteen victories in all, including the Monuments), which n Merckx, never a winner of Paris-Tours, did not succeed.
A newspaper deliverer (by bicycle) from the age of 12, Van Looy achieved the feat in 1962 of winning the three Flandrian classics in one week (Flanders, Roubaix and Ghent-Wevelgem).
Extraordinary track record
He has the immense merit of having built up an extraordinary track record against opponents of an exceptional level, from Rik Van Steenbergen to Eddy Merckx, including Fausto Coppi, Ferdi Kubler, Hugo Koblet, Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil, Raymond Poulidor or Charly Gaul. His compatriot Roger De Vlaeminck (77 years old), one of the three winners of the five Monuments, expressed his ‘pain at seeing’ his ‘idol’ leave.
‘We clashed for about four years. I still have a photo of Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and myself before the start of a race,’ remembers De Vlaeminck.
‘Monumental Figures’
At his peak, Van Looy received up to a thousand letters from admirers per week. ‘The younger people perhaps don’t realize it, but he was extraordinarily popular,’ said Lucien Van Impe, the last Belgian winner of the Tour de France (1976).
Frenchman David Lappartient, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), said he was ‘saddened’ by the announcement of the death of Rik Van Looy, who was ‘a monumental figure in history of cycling, whose legacy will live forever’.
/ATS
