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Belgian cycling legend Rik Van Looy dies aged 90 / Photo: © AFP/File
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Belgian cycling legend Rik Van Looy dies aged 90
Cycling legend Rik Van Looy, renowned for his prowess in the one-day classics, has died at the age of 90, Belgian media reported on Wednesday.
Van Looy was rated as the greatest cycling champion Belgium had produced until the arrival of five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx.
Known as the 'Emperor of Herentals' after the Belgian city where he lived, Van Looy delivered newspapers on his bicycle from the age of 12, turned professional at 20 and went on to chalk up 371 pro victories.
He was a specialist in the one-day classics in his heyday in the 1950s and '60s, becoming the first cyclist, before Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck, to win at least once all five of cycling's monuments - Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy.
He was the only rider to have won all the classics of his era, 16 in total including eight monuments, something that Merckx, who never won Paris-Tours, was unable to do.
Aside from his one-day success he claimed numerous stages on all the three big Tours in France, Italy and Spain and won the world road race title in 1960 and 1961.
L.Zielinski--GL
