Henri “Rik” Van Looy has died aged 90. Van Looy is biking’s greatest classics rider for absolutely the purpose that he gained a whole bunch of races and amongst them each real traditional and prime one-day race on the calendar on the time, a feat no one has since matched.
In a land the place champion cyclists are honored, Van Looy went from hero to movie star, together with his household a part of this too. In retirement he distanced himself from his imperial glory, avoiding the limelight and content material to look at classics and grand tour levels from his couch.
Henri Van Looy was born in 1933 in Grobbendonk, a village to the east of Antwerp. His introduction to biking wasn’t for pleasure, skipping faculty he began work as a newspaper supply boy, typically leaving residence at daybreak and returning after darkish within the winter the place his mom would cook dinner him horse steak and fries so he may sleep and do all of it once more.
All this biking wasn’t an instantaneous assist. Prompted by an area bike store and a good friend he entered his first race solely to get dropped, then lapped. However as he advised Humo journal in in 2023 “it obtained higher and higher and I gained my first race in Booischot. After which I immediately gained fourteen or fifteen in a row“. His mom was supportive of his racing whereas his father wasn’t solely she died leaving his father, a bricklayer, accountable for the household.
Van Looy turned skilled in 1953 however barely earned a residing from racing native kermesses. He married Nini Mariën in 1955 and she or he was incomes extra as a restaurant waitress. However Van Looy stated he was hardly coaching both.
He resolved to repair this for 1956 with two strikes. First he went to see a physician, Dries Claes, who provided help and training (son Toon Claes and grandsons Tom and Steve are well-known in Flanders for his or her collarbone and knee repairs at AZ Herentals, the hospital the place corridors are lined with framed biking jerseys from grateful sufferers).
Dr Claes had Van Looy up early every morning to do gymnastics whereas spouse Nini turned a part of the efficiency staff too, available when he got here residence from periods and instructed by Claes to shrink meals parts. This resulted in a claimed ten kilo weight reduction however he retained the muscular thighs that may ship him so many dash wins.
The second step was a transfer to Faema, the staff backed by an Italian espresso machine firm. It was the multinational of its period, Van Looy joined Charly Gaul, Federico Bahamontes and Albéric “Briek” Schotte. His first massive win was Paris-Brussels, then a significant traditional. Becoming a member of him on the rostrum that day was Rik Van Steenbergen, the Flemish champion who Van Looy had considered a hero. Solely now Van Looy was standing above him.
Each riders obtained monarchical titles. Van Steenbergen was “Rik I”, the upstart Van Looy turned “Rik II”, (the diminutive of Henri being Rik). In 1958 Van Looy stated he wouldn’t experience the Belgian championships, solely to point out up on the final minute and win the race, reportedly lapping Van Steenbergen on the best way to a shock however premeditated triumph. Quickly the monarchy was overthrown and one other journalist branded Van Looy “the Keizer of Herentals”. The imperial title caught.
Gent-Wevelgem the spotlight of 1957, Milan-Sanremo in 1958. This win, a part of a streak of dash wins by foreigners, prompted the organiser Vincenzo Torriani to incorporate the Poggio, supposedly the climb would thwart sprinters and tilt the race again to residence winners. It didn’t work, Italians needed to a wait a decade for Michele Dancelli however the race’s identification immediately owes one thing to Rik II.
Van Looy although was among the many contenders to be the highest rider in Flanders and past however not but above the remainder. Paris-Good and Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Alfred Debruyne was a rival however was seen off in 1959 because of wins within the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Excursions and Lombardia.
In 1960 Van Looy established himself on the high together with his first World Championships win. As French newspaper Le Monde wrote that yr, typically the World Champion may be gained by a rider who doesn’t deserve it however Van Looy was “the person who we agree… … is the perfect ‘classics’ specialist on this planet”. Van Looy was in his pomp and profitable repeatedly, he would repeat the Worlds win once more in 1961.
1962 was a golden yr for Van Looy but it surely didn’t begin effectively. A automobile crash on the best way again from the Berlin Six Day race noticed him severely injured. The press on the time have been anxious if he would ever race once more. Fortuitously this was forgotten by the spring when he gained the Tour of Flanders solo – a fading 39 yr outdated Van Steenbergen opting to experience a criterium in Switzerland that day as a substitute – after which he took the mid-week Gent-Wevelgem earlier than profitable Paris-Roubaix the subsequent Sunday, attaining a triple that no one else has executed.
The convenience of wins and their regularity meant Van Looy was at all times being interviewed and quoted. His straight speaking and self-confidence have been simply taken for extra. “Biking’s Boastful King” ran a headline within the English press, “Public Enemy Quantity One” one other in France, the place he was usually an excessive amount of for Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor.
Van Looy was an distinctive expertise compounded by a staff driving in his service. Others, like Fausto Coppi, had commanded a squad the place it was nearly lese-majesty if anybody else gained. However the “Crimson Guard” was greater than a hierarchy, it was a tactical formation and infrequently cited as the primary ever lead-out prepare for sprints. However it may be deployed mid-race to separate the sphere on a climb if required. The purple was first thanks the colors of Flandria, a mass-market bicycle producer that backed his 1962 staff and the purple stayed with Van Looy. Not at all times although as Van Looy stored blue equipment ito stand out from his Rode Garde at criterium exhibition races.
Group work wasn’t at all times really easy. The 1963 Worlds have been held in Flanders and a house win for Van Looy was on the playing cards. The week earlier than he’d gathered Belgian staff mates and agreed to pay them in the event that they helped him win. Nearing the end, Van Looy had gone again to search out staff mate Behoni Beheyt lurking within the bunch and requested for his assist just for Beheyt to say he was cramping. So Van Looy reportedly advised his junior simply to guard his again wheel. This proved to be a golden lead-out.
Beheyt’s win turned “The Betrayal of Ronse”. Pictures of the end present Van Looy’s bitter face and Beheyt’s hand on Van Looy, pushing him away after he’d veered throughout the street as if to cease the upstart winner. Due to this Frenchman André Darrigade was in with likelihood if the commissaires relegated each Belgians. They conferred for 1 / 4 of an hour. The decision: Beheyt was world champion. Van Looy cried foul.
Newspaper studies of the rostrum ceremony describe Beheyt as “confused” and “embarrassed”. Beheyt could be hounded out of the game due to this, though accidents performed a component too. Certainly the incident was perhaps not so clear minimize, Beheyt stated the pact was solely to work for one another till the ultimate kilometre. Van Looy had a pulpit within the media and the loudest model drowned out different voices. What aggravated Van Looy probably the most was not Beheyt’s victory however that he’d gone again on the deal.
With Humo in 2023 Van Looy was extra reflective, mentioning Tom Simpson had taken a flyer within the ultimate kilometre which obliged Gilbert Desmet to steer out the dash early. As Desmet light, Van Looy needed to go too quickly as effectively and admitted he successfully tousled the end.
The media celebrated Van Looy for his prepared quotes and he straddled a interval the place he went from print to radio after which TV. Van Steenbergen and Schotte have been revered from a distance. In Schotte’s personal phrases “we’re gods as a result of they don’t see us.” Now Van Looy was beamed inside individuals’s homes. His race outcomes mattered however quickly individuals may see how he gained, after which hear from him straight on the end, his phrases now not mediated by journalists or delayed by the medium of print.
This keen public needed extra. His household have been seen at races too and have become public property which compounded issues. Peroxide blonde Nini was branded the “Marilyn Monroe of Flanders”, “The Blonde” and the “Main Girl”. She was usually pictured on the entrance web page of magazines.
At one level somebody wrote to Van Looy threatening to kill his spouse and kids. When information of this leaked, it put Nini and their three youngsters much more within the highlight and by the mid-Nineteen Sixties the Van Looys have been changing into celebrities: well-known for being well-known.
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Look at Van Looy’s wins and most have been from flatter races and bunch sprints. Any “sprinter” label although is inadequate. He’d get bored in races and assault from afar, he’d provoke strikes and splits in crosswinds, he’d float on cobbles when others would endure them and he may win from a protracted breakaway or a solo assault. He’d end twice on the rostrum within the Vuelta a España, granted not the vertical fiesta we all know immediately in an period when Rudi Altig and Jean Stablinksi would win, however he gained the Giro d’Italia’s mountains competitors too.
Grand excursions and particularly the Tour de France proved to be his restrict although. 37 stage wins in all together with seven Tour levels wins is spectacular however there may have been extra. Adversity got here in several kinds, whether or not Jacques Anquetil or dangerous luck.
He made a belated debut on the 1962 Tour de France on the age of 28. He was portrayed as a rival to Anquetil. Solely the competition by no means occurred as he was severely injured when a motorcycle rider within the race convoy clipped him earlier than the race reached the mountains. This was dangerous for him however studies on the time additionally framed it as a catastrophe for the race: the loss a star whereas background articles aired fears about race security and the race rising too massive and too quick; articles requested aloud if the race may nonetheless match on nation roads and make protected passage by cities.
Van Looy returned to the Tour in 1963 to complete tenth total and win the factors competitors. It was a full of life version with write-ups describing a brand new fashion of attacking racing with riders making an attempt to achieve time any any level on the course fairly than the standard set-piece mountain and time trial levels. Van Looy was among the many exponents of this new type. He additionally introduced controversy as a result of his household have been on the race. He’d spend time most evenings with Nini and their youngsters, one thing unseen on the time and a cultural taboo that persevered for many years.
The Kaizer crashed out once more in 1964 with individuals asking if he would ever return. After all in 1965 he gained opening stage in that completed in Belgium and picked up the yellow jersey. The subsequent day the race went to Roubaix and hundreds of Belgians had crossed into France, many with “Rik” banners however accounts say he was carried away, showboating even and couldn’t function within the end.
He was thought-about as a GC contender however had hassle gaining time, even on the flat levels. One issue purpose was the Flandria staff. Van Looy was now driving for Superia, a rival model of bicycles born out of a household feud when Superia cut up from Flandria, a Flemish model of Adidas and Puma. There was frustration with Flandria however potential total winners like Jacques Anquetil and his Saint-Raphaël staff have been eager to close him down in an period when a stage winner may take one minute in a time bonus.
By the mid-sixties he was in his thirties, his win price slowing. An account on Belgian radio RTBF tells how in 1968 certainly one of his sons got here residence from faculty with a foul report. Van Looy scolded him, just for the boy to retort with one thing alongside the traces of “effectively you haven’t gained a traditional for ages both”. Days later on the age of 34 he gained the Flèche Wallonne, then held on a Sunday, a part of the Tremendous Status calendar of prime occasions and seen as superior to Liège-Bastogne-Liège. With this win Van Looy collected the one in the future traditional that had eluded him for years. This was a feat that even Eddy Merckx wouldn’t obtain as he by no means gained Paris-Excursions, then a highly-prized traditional.
Having distressed others together with his rise, Van Looy was now on the receiving finish as he light. Van Looy stated he knew Merckx was set to be the perfect when {the teenager} joined his Superia staff in 1966. Van Looy tried to place him down, at one level mocking his seems by branding him “Jack Palance” on account of his resemblance to the Hollywood actor. The cohabitation lasted lower than a yr. Merckx left for the Peugeot staff and, nonetheless an adolescent, began the subsequent season on the rostrum within the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad… because of Van Looy being relegated from second place within the dash.
As Merck’s repute grew, Van Looy was nonetheless a reference level in Flanders the place Merckx may very well be seen as a stranger as a result of he was from Brussels. These bothered by the language Merckx used for his marriage ceremony vows or involved if he spoke French across the dinner desk may depend on Van Looy because the genuine Flemish champion.
It wasn’t simply Merckx snapping at his heels. Van Looy gained a Tour stage in 1969 however little else and by 1970 he was being overwhelmed by all, together with those that’d by no means win however stated aloud they’d completed forward of the mighty Keizer. Relatively than present these boasters any extra alternatives he give up racing mid-season.
In retirement he run Wittenberg, a showjumping secure in Herentals and was additionally president of the city’s soccer membership. He later began biking once more, first on a mountain bike simply to maintain up together with his granddaughters who have been into operating, after which turned a daily alongside the Antwerp canal’s path, clocking 50km at near 40km/h with a daily group whereas into his eighties. Trim and with the identical haircut as earlier than, to see him for actual was like a black-and-white photograph became color.
He’d nearly put biking behind him however helped to run the Vlaamse Wielerschool, the “Flemish Biking College”, a base for kids to be taught bicycle expertise and set them up for racing on and off-road, an concept copied as far extensive as Japan.
He has a palmarès longer than nearly anybody else and gained the Monuments lengthy earlier than the biking world picked them because the 5 prime one-day races and set them as objectives for Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel. He gained each traditional going on the time, usually profitable a number of editions. He by no means gained the derny-paced Bordeaux-Paris although. However he wore all three chief’s jerseys within the grand excursions in addition to being a nationwide and world champion.
He revelled in fame and supremacy throughout his profession however he didn’t commerce on it afterward. Guests to his residence would comment there have been no trophies, not even a photograph of him from again within the day. Equally in 2017 when Herentals townhall needed to make a statue of him, Van Looy agreed on the situation was it was made in his picture as an octogenarian, he needed to be often known as who he was fairly than what he was.
Not outlined by outcomes, Van Looy wasn’t haunted by his defeats both. He met Beheyt over a beer and would lunch with Merckx. He adopted the game, content material to look at races from begin to end from his couch and if ever reached for a remark, he was extra an avuncular elder fairly than a rent-a-quote for the Belgian media, L’Equipe branded him the “silent emperor”. He shared views about Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel and so they have been largely beneficiant. Regardless of residing simply 500m away and seeing a few of himself in Van Aert, he didn’t dish out recommendation to the jonge.
Nini died in 2021 and this left him bereft. Unable even to go to her grave, he most popular to maintain a candle burning at residence and to speak to her as if she was nonetheless within the household residence.
When requested by L’Equipe’s Pierre Callewaert in 2019 what he’d inform somebody new to biking but to listen to of Rik Van Looy and all these wins, he replied “nothing, I wouldn’t even inform them I used to be a rider“. As a substitute he stated “I simply need individuals to recollect my biking faculty which allowed the kids to race. Once I was 12 I didn’t race, I delivered newspapers by bike“. Little did he know that he’d be throughout their entrance pages for years to come back.