The second most successful rider in history has passed away, the only one together with Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck capable of winning the five monument classics, as well as two world road titles.
Wednesday 18 December, 10.50am
An absolute legend of road cycling has passed away, the one who for everyone was the Emperor of Herentals, so much so that in the Belgian country which was also the birthplace of Wout Van Aert, there is a bronze statue in the central square (3 meters high) in his honor.
Rik Van Looy died at the age of 90, which he celebrated on December 20, 2023: he was the second most successful rider in history by cold numbers, with 371 stamps (including circuits) as a pro, behind only the GOAT, Eddy Merckx, but more generally at the turn of the ’50s and ’60s he characterized an era, first challenging Rik Van Steenbergen and then finding himself precisely “giving the witness” to the Cannibal after his retirement.
Van Looy was a symbol of that generation, a complete and phenomenal rider in the classics, so much so that he added to the two consecutive World Championships, those of 1961 and 1962 (with Beheyt’s “betrayal” in 1963 due to the failed hat-trick), all the classics monument like only Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck at his side (but after him).
The Belgian champion has in fact put three Paris-Roubaix, 2 Flanders, 1 Milan-Sanremo, 1 Lombardy and 1 Liège-Bastogne-Liège on his board, not to mention… everything else. Farewell, Emperor of Herentals.
