Goodbye Rick Van Looyfarewell Emperor of Herentals. Belgium has lost one of its cycling icons: two World Championships, 8 monument Classics (all, at least once, one of only three to do so with Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck), 39 stage victories in the three Grand Tours (18 at Vuelta, 12th in the Giro and 9th in the Tour) and an immense personality. He was head of the legendary Red Guard, made up of his Faema followers, who were always – or almost always, as we will see – faithful to him. He would have turned 91 on December 20.
The beginnings
Already in the youth categories, Hendrik “Rik” Van Looy, born in 1933 in Grobbendonk, not far from Antwerp to a working class family (as a child he distributed milk in the neighborhood using a very heavy bicycle) proved to be a winner. At the age of 22 he arrived at Faema by Briek Schotte and Federico Bahamontes. Already in his first season with the new jersey he conquered Ghent-Wevelgem and Scheldeprijs: his propensity for racing on cobblestones emerged very early. And very soon, for the Belgians, it becomes Rik II, heir to the first great Rik of Flemish cycling, Van Steenbergen.
Thanks also to his sharp tongue and his charm (and that of his wife Nini) as a Hollywood star, Van Looy soon surpasses Van Steenbergen in terms of popularity. In 1958 he won his first great classic, the Milan-Sanremo. The “Red Guard” was born due to the color of the shirts. The team’s base was in Italy: the training sessions on Lake Garda were revolutionary for the time. Van Looy’s greatest quality was his lightning sprint in restricted sprints: the at the end of his career there will be almost 500 victories. One Sanremo, two Flanders, three Roubaix, one Liège and one Lombardia are his palmarès in the Monument Classics.
The World Cup and Ronse’s betrayal
Thanks to his sprint, Rik Van Looy also won two World Championships: in 1960 he beat the defending champion André Darrigade at the Sachsenring. A year later, he does the same in Bern with Nino Defilippis. When the World Championships are organized in Ronse two years later, the whole country expects a third world title for Van Looy, with which he would equal Van Steenbergen. The entire Belgian team runs to serve Van Looy and keeps the group together for a bunch sprint. Van Looy is surprised and betrayed by his wingman of the day Benoni Beheyt in a very unfair ending on both sides: it is the “betrayal of Ronse”. The career immediately after the world title was not easy for Beheyt: in fact, despite some notable successes, he struggled to obtain engagements, recognition and invitations to the events due to the reputation of a traitor and the power that Van Looy displayed towards organizers and fans .
The arrival of Merckx
In 1966 Eddy Merckx arrived at Faema and the spaces closed for Van Looy. After his 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”. After retiring he opened a bicycle shop where he worked for thirty years. He also worked as a policeman, but ended up at the center of a news story: while practicing with the gun he fatally wounded his youngest son.
