Rik Van Looy |
|
| Nickname | Rik II (Rik I is Van Steenbergen)
Keizer Van Herentals (Emperor of Herentals) |
|---|
| Born | Henri Van Looy
(1933-12-20)20 December 1933
Grobbendonk, Belgium |
|---|
| Died | 17 December 2024(2024-12-17) (aged 90)
Herentals, Belgium |
|---|
|
| Role | Rider |
|---|
| Rider type | All-rounder |
|---|
|
| 1953–1954 | l'Avenir |
|---|
| 1953–1954 | Gitane–Hutchinson |
|---|
| 1954 | Touring |
|---|
| 1954 | Bianchi–Pirelli |
|---|
| 1955 | Van Hauwaert–Maes Pils |
|---|
| 1956–1961 | Faema–Guerra |
|---|
| 1962 | Flandria–Faema–Clément |
|---|
| 1963 | G.B.C.–Libertas |
|---|
| 1964–1966 | Solo–Superia |
|---|
| 1967–1970 | Willem II–Gazelle |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
Grand Tours
- Tour de France
- Points classification (1963)
- Combativity award (1963)
- 7 individual stages (1963, 1965, 1969)
- Giro d'Italia
- Mountains classification (1960)
- 12 individual stages (1959, 1960, 1961, 1962)
- Vuelta a España
- Points classification (1959, 1965)
- 18 individual stages (1958, 1959, 1964, 1965)
Stage races
- Tour of the Netherlands (1956, 1957)
- Vuelta a Levante (1959)
- Giro di Sardegna (1959, 1962, 1965)
- Tour of Belgium (1961)
- Paris–Luxembourg (1964)
One-day races and Classics
- World Road Race Championships (1960, 1961)
- National Road Race Championship (1958, 1963)
- Milan–San Remo (1958)
- Tour of Flanders (1959, 1962)
- Paris–Roubaix (1961, 1962, 1965)
- Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1961)
- Giro di Lombardia (1959)
- Gent–Wevelgem (1956, 1957, 1962)
- La Flèche Wallonne (1968)
- Scheldeprijs (1956, 1957)
- Paris–Brussels (1956, 1958)
- Coppa Bernocchi (1957, 1958)
- Paris–Tours (1959, 1967)
- Championship of Flanders (1959)
- Boucles de l'Aulne (1963, 1964)
- E3 Saxo Bank Classic (1964, 1965, 1966, 1969)
Track cycling
- National Championships - Madison (1969)
|
|
|
|---|
|
Henri "Rik" Van Looy (20 December 1933 – 17 December 2024) was a Belgian professional cyclist of the post-war period. Nicknamed the King of the Classics or Emperor of Herentals (after the small Belgian city where he lived), he dominated the classic cycle races in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Van Looy was twice world professional road race champion, and was the first cyclist to win all five 'Monuments': the most prestigious one-day classics – a feat since achieved by just two others (both also Belgians: Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx).
With 367 professional road victories, he ranks second all-time behind Eddy Merckx. Van Looy is ninth on the all-time list of Grand Tour stage winners with thirty-seven victories. These numbers could still have risen had he not been the victim of a significant number of falls resulting in serious injuries. Remarkable was his sporting rivalry with two other cycling legends: namely the successful Rik Van Steenbergen at the beginning of Van Looy's career. Conversely, Van Looy had to face the generational change with a young Eddy Merckx at the end of his career.