The Cycling world mourns one of its legends. At the age of 90, as reported by the Belgian media, the Belgian passed away Rick Van Looyconsidered one of the greatest riders in history and victorious in all the Classics. Professional from 1954 to 1970, he dominated road racing for more than a decade between the 1950s and 1960s.
Twice world champion among road professionals, in 1960 and 1961was awarded as mentioned all Monumentsa record shared with his compatriots Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminckconquering three Paris-Roubaix, one Milan-Sanremo, two Tours of Flanders, one Tour of Lombardy and one Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Van Looy was also the only cyclist capable of winning them all the 8 original Classics, namely the 5 Monuments, the Flèche Walloon, the Paris-Bruxelles and the Paris-Tours.
He was nicknamed “the emperor of Herentals” and his imposing build was always thought to be an obstacle to winning a Grand Tour. It is true that he came second twice in the Tour de France. Van Looy caught up the record of 379 road victorieswhich would later be surpassed only by Merckx. With thirty-seven victories he is ninth in the all-time ranking of Grand Tour stage winners (18 in the Vuelta, 12 in the Giro and 7 in the Tour).
An iconic figure, therefore, who faced champions of the caliber of during his career Fausto Coppi, he cites Merckx, Rik Van Steenbergen, Ferdi Kubler, Hugo Koblet, Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil and Charly Gaulnames that have made the history of cycling.
