One of the giants in the history of cycling passed away on the night between Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th December, Rick Van Looy. Nicknamed the Emperor of Herentals, the Belgian was about to turn 91. Van Looy entered the annals of cycling for being one of the very few riders to win all five of what are currently called the Monument Classics, namely the Milan-Sanremo (one, in 1958), the Tour of Flanders (two, in 1959 and in 1962), Paris-Roubaix (three, in 1961, 1962 and 1965), the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (one, in 1961) and Lombardy (one, in 1959).
Van Looy also won two consecutive world titles, winning the Sachsenring 1960 ea Berna 1961. In all, the Emperor stood on the world podium five times, also collecting two second places and a third. He also has 39 stage victories in the Grand Tours (12 in the Giro, 9 in the Tour and 18 in the Vuelta). Furthermore, Van Looy was able to finish in the top 10, at least once, in all three major stage races: in 1959, he was fourth in the final classification of the Tour of Italy and third in that of Return to Spain. His cycling career was very long: he began in 1953 with the Gitane-Hutchinson jersey and left the bike in 1970, when he wore the colors of Willem II-Gazelle.
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