Rik Van Looy

Rik Van Looy was born in 1933 in Grobbendonk, in the Antwerp Province. As a child, Van Looy was fascinated by cycling. Before the age of 13, he worked as a paper boy. The foundation of his further career was laid in that period, by daily riding on a packed, much too heavy bicycle.

In his very first races as a youngster, however, he did not yet stand out as the big talent.

Van Looy was a very powerful sprinter, rather heavy for his height due to his muscular legs. In mountain stages, he was usually able to keep up the pace, but less able to make the difference.

Despite his sprint qualities, he usually wanted to avoid the sprint by escaping earlier. Van Looy enjoyed more the cheers of the crowd during solo arrivals. There was no time for that while participating in a sprint and preparing for it.

He could also motivate himself knowing he was being chased by competitors. This is also why he excelled less in individual time trials, it fascinated him less. Yet that shortcoming is hard to reconcile with a man who could ride in the lead for miles without a flinch, visibly hurting his opponents. The more calculated riding during stage races, was at odds with his attacking style. As a result, he never won the overall classification in a Grand Tour, which also always included time trials. He did win overall victories in shorter stage races (in the 1965 Giro di Sardegna, for example, by winning 5 out of 6 stages...).[5]

Rik Van Looy wearing the Giro di Sardegna winner's jersey in 1965

Van Looy did not spare himself during preparations for races, which were characterized by spartan training methods combined with a carefully selected diet.

Gradually, he stood out for his dominant character, both in his team and in the peloton. His leadership was strict, but always fair. Because of him, the term "team captain" was brought to a higher level. He worked out the fledgling leader-domestique system to perfection, and the team had to ride entirely in his service. Instead of the team manager, he himself decided the tactics, which riders were best suited for this and even what they would earn.

The Flandria-Faema team that was built around Van Looy was nicknamed the Red Brigade by the peloton and public, after the red jerseys the riders wore.[6]

The 1963 world championship in Ronse seemed an ideal opportunity to triumph a third time, with a course that suited Van Looy, and this time supported by a home crowd.

The Belgian team would be riding completely for Van Looy, but during the race it turned out that Gilbert Desmet and Benoni Beheyt (both riding for a different brand team than Van Looy) had other plans. At the end of the race, Desmet escaped and Van Looy was forced to start the sprint much earlier than expected, after which Beheyt (pushing away on Van Looy's shoulder) eventually finished first.

Van Looy, Beheyt and De Roo on the stage of a controversial 1963 World Championship

The jury only briefly considered the problem of the obviously irregular sprint and did not change the final result. The medals were awarded in front of a rather confused audience, with both Van Looy and Beheyt having a hard time smiling. The story about the Betrayal of Ronse dragged on for a long time in the press and public, and crowds of people showed up at races where both gentlemen would start.

It didn't really seem to bother Van Looy, he enjoyed the commotion that cycling caused. Nevertheless, it is suggested that he systematically thwarted Beheyt's career afterwards. Fact is that the latter already stopped cycling a few years later at the age of 27, also due to injury problems.

The two gentlemen turned out to be on good terms after that, although neither of them ever wanted to talk about the 1963 world championship again in interviews.[7]

On August 22, 1970, after a race, Van Looy decided to quit professional cycling immediately and in all discretion. Unlike his predecessor Rik Van Steenbergen, he resolutely refused a lucrative "farewell tour" via criteria and track races. Neither was he interested in a high-paying farewell cycling race in the Antwerp Sports Palace.

Not surprisingly, he subsequently was appointed as team manager for Willem II. Afterwards he became a driver-consultant for a newspaper and magazine during races and in a later phase director of the Flemish cycling school in Herentals, the city of which he is now an honorary citizen.

In his house nothing reminds of his glorious past. "What's past is past. All the trophies, jerseys and medals, ... I've given it all away. To charities, supporters and friends, it means more to them than to me" Van Looy once mentioned.[8]

Rik Van Looy in 2010

Rik Van Looy married Nini Mariën in 1955. Both formed a close-knit couple. Nini was partly behind the top career Rik Van Looy was able to build. She was one of the most famous riders' wives in the peloton in the 1950s and 1960s, and put her life entirely at the service of Van Looy's career.

After a lingering illness, she died in 2021 at the age of 88. By then, Van Looy had already withdrawn from public life for a while to assist her. "She has done so much for me, now it's my turn" Van Looy said.[9]

The couple had a daughter and a son. Van Looy rode on incentives, which could also come from his family. When he lectured his son by saying "when will you come home with good school results again?" the boy's response was "when will you win another classic again?" The following week, the 34-year-old Van Looy won La Flèche Wallonne.

Given the grown internationalization and specialization in cycling nowadays, Rik Van Looy's number of road race victories will likely never be surpassed in the future.

Van Looy is also probably the most popular rider Belgium has ever known. Obviously because of his victories and his attacking way of riding. But his constant accessibility towards supporters, combined with his honest no-nonsense style in interviews contributed even more to this. By communicating in a mixture of Flemish dialect and Dutch, common people could identify with him. This was slightly in contrast to the less language-savvy Eddy Merckx, who hailed from the capital region of Brussels. Even when Merckx's performances began to surpass those of Van Looy, he seemed to have fewer supporters among Belgian cycling fans, compared to Van Looy.

Bust of Van Looy in Grobbendonk

• Trophée Edmond Gentil (fr): 1959[10]
• Belgian National Sports Merit Award: 1961[11]
• General Tour de France Combativity Award: 1963[12]
• Stage Combativity Awards (8): 4 in 1963, 1 in 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1966
• Swiss AIOCC Trophy (fr): 1982[13]
• UCI Hall of Fame: 2002[14]
• Mémoire du Cyclisme – The Greatest Cyclists: 11th place: 2002[15]
• Sports Personality of the Antwerp province: 2005[16]
• Honorary citizen of Grobbendonk: 2012[17]
• Statue in Herentals: 2017[18]
• GP Rik Van Looy (nl): from 2018[19]
• Bust in Grobbendonk: 2021[20]
• ProcyclingStats – All Time Wins Ranking: 2nd place (162 wins)[21]
• ProCyclingStats – All Time Ranking: 8th place[22]
• CyclingRanking – Overall All Time Ranking: 12th place[23]
• UCI Top 100: 16th place

• Pedalare! The Emperor: The Rik Van Looy Story by David Armstrong in 1971, Kennedy Brothers, 34 p. (English) ASIN B0006C6X94
• The Beast, The Emperor and the Milkman by Harry Pearson in 2019, Bloomsbury Publishing, 289 p. (English) ISBN 9781472945068
• Rik Van Looy: De Temperamentvolle Wereldkampioen by Marcel Grosjean & Roger Meuleman in 1960. G.P.V., 40 p. (Dutch)
• Rik Van Looy by Fred De Bruyne in 1963. 42 p. (Dutch)
• Rik Van Looy: Heerser en Verdeler by Louis Clicteur & Lucien Berghmans in 1966, De Steenbok, 222 p. (Dutch)
• Ik, Rik! by Rik van Looy & Rob Jans in 1972, Brito, 95 p. (Dutch)
• Van Looy Story by André Blancke, Jan Cornand & Roger Quick in 1979, Het Volk, 69 p. (Dutch)
• Rik Van Looy: Monument Voor Een Keizer by Roger De Maertelaere, Guy Crasset & Modest Maertens in 2005. De Eecloonaar, 192 p. (Dutch, French) ISBN 9789077562185
• Flandria: de 20 Wondere Jaren van een Wielerploeg by Mark van Hamme in 2007, De Eecloonaar, 392 p. ISBN 9789077562338
• Groene Leeuw: de Wielerploeg die de Keizer Uitdaagde by Jan De Smet and Patrick Feyaerts in 2008, De Eecloonaar, 360 p. ISBN 9789077562512
• Rik Van Looy 80 by Mark Vanlombeek & Robert Janssens in 2013. Borgerhoff & Lamberigts, 272 p. (Dutch, French) ISBN 9789089313997
• Van Looy / Les Héros! by Robert Janssens in 2018. Kannibaal Books, 120 p. (Dutch, French) ISBN 9789492677402
• Rik Van Looy - De Val van een (Wieler)Keizer. 1963 & 1964 Anni Horribiles by Jan De Smet and Patrick Feyaerts, De Eecloonaar, 210 p. (Dutch)
• ’t Is Rik – Hommage aan de Keizer by Bart Lamers en Thijs Delrue in 2021 (Dutch, French) ISBN 9798201045227

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rik Van Looy.

• Rik Van Looy at Cycling Archives
• Rik Van Looy at Olympedia
• Rik Van Looy at Olympics.com