Amateur years Van Looy rose to prominence when he won the Belgian amateur road championship in 1952. He repeated the victory the following year, adding third place in the world title race the same year, before turning professional. He took part in the
1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, participating in the
road race, but without completing it. Instead, he and his teammates won the gold medal in the
team road race. At the age of 19, Van Looy won the bronze medal in the
World Championship amateur road race in Lugano.
1953–1960 A powerful
sprinter, Van Looy won two races in what was left of his first professional season (1953), and 20 more over the next couple of seasons. In 1956, his victories included
Gent–Wevelgem and
Paris–Brussels, plus two stages and overall victory in the Tour of the Netherlands. He also won a silver medal in the
world road race championship, behind his countryman
Rik Van Steenbergen (whom the team was obliged to ride for). stage He repeated his Gent–Wevelgem and
Tour of the Netherlands victories in 1957, and in 1958, Van Looy won the season's opening classic,
Milan–San Remo. 1959 saw Van Looy take the early-season
Tour of Flanders and the autumn classic, the
Giro di Lombardia. In between, he scored another 38 victories, including three stages of the
Vuelta a España (finishing third overall and winning the points competition) and four stages of the
Giro d'Italia (for 4th overall).
1961–1966 In 1960, he scored the first of two consecutive victories in the
world road race championship, but "classic" victories eluded him. However, he made up for this in 1961, winning both
Paris–Roubaix and
Liège–Bastogne–Liège – making him the first rider to take all five 'Monuments' – as well as retaining his rainbow
world title jersey, and taking three stages, plus the mountains competition in the
Giro d' Italia. Van Looy scored two more Classic wins in 1962 (
Paris–Roubaix,
Tour of Flanders), took another
Gent–Wevelgem, and two more
Giro stages. At the age of 28, he made his debut in the
1962 Tour de France as one of the major favorites. Van Looy's strategy was to exhaust co-favorites
Federico Bahamontes and
Jacques Anquetil before the mountain stages started. However, after ten stages in which Van Looy gave a spectacle, he was forced to abandon the Tour because of a collision with a motorcyclist. Tour director
Jacques Goddet publicly regretted his departure. in the
1964 Tour de France In 1963 Van Looy rode the
Tour de France again, taking four stages en route to victory in the points competition and a 10th place on general classification. He also grabbed a silver medal in the
world title race. In the latter race, held in
Ronse in his native Belgium, he was beaten in the sprint by his countryman
Benoni Beheyt who manually pushed Van Looy aside. Van Looy, starting the sprint too early, did not take this defeat lightly. This race has remained memorable in the history of Belgian cycling. In 1965, he scored 42 victories, including
Paris–Roubaix, and eight stages of the
Vuelta on his way to his second third place overall (his highest placing in a Grand Tour). Van Looy also took two stages in the
Tour de France.
1966–1970 During the final years of his career, Rik Van Looy's road performances began to fade, as the new Belgian star Eddy Merckx rose to prominence, but he still grabbed second in the
1967 Paris–Roubaix. He won
La Flèche Wallonne in 1968, becoming the only cyclist to win all 8 original
classics. Van Looy also took a stage of the
1969 Tour de France. His rivalry with Eddy Merckx reached the height of sabotage of Merckx in the
world championships organized in Belgium, in 1969.
Track cycling career Van Looy was also a star on the track, winning 12
Six-day races. His first came in
Brussels in 1957, his last in
Antwerp in 1968. For ten of these victories, he was paired with Dutchman
Peter Post. In the winter of 1956 he was paired with Rik Van Steenbergen for some track races. Events that many looked forward to, but the plans were shelved after they both had arguments during the
1956 world championship in Copenhagen. The two Riks would eventually ride together in a few Six-days races in 1963. == Riding style ==