Rik Van Looy: King of the Classics

Belgian cyclist Rik Van Looy is from my generation; he is a little over two years older than me.

Spending his childhood the duration of WWII, when his country was occupied by Germany.

His eleventh birthday would have come and gone through some of the fiercest fighting of the war as the allied armies advanced though Belgium in the closing days of 1944.

In 1952 at 18 years of age, Van Looy won the Belgian amateur road championship; he turned professional the following year.

Nicknamed "King of the Classics," he was the first cyclist to win all five one day classic races, a feat since achieved by only two other riders, fellow Belgians Roger De Vlaeminck and Eddy Merckx.

Rik Van Looy  may not have even started bike racing but as a young boy in the late 1940s he delivered newspapers on a heavy bicycle.

Because the first part of his name was the same as a Belgian cycling superstar of that time, he was constantly teased and called Rik Van Steenbergen.

What a thrill it must have been for the young Van Looy in 1956 when he won a Silver Medal in the World Road Championship behind none other than Rik Van Steenbergen.

1956 would be a great season for the 22 year old Rik Van Looy, earlier that year he had won the Paris - Bruxelles race beating Bernard Gauthier, and this time Rik Van Steenbergen made third place. (See picture below.)  

Above: Twenty-two year old Van Looy on his way to winning the 1956 Paris-Bruxelles race. Looking relaxed with 23 kms to go in the 293 km (182 miles.) race. (Picture from Aldo Ross's Pic of the Day.)  

Rik Van Looy won the World Road Race Championship in 1960 and 1961, he was 2nd in 1956 and 1963, also 4th in 1957. He won the Paris - Roubaux three times in 1961, 1962, and 1965

In other one-day races, Van Looy won the Paris-Tours in 1959 and 1967, the Ghent-Wevelgem in 1956, 1957, and 1962. He won the Milan - San Remo in 1958, and the Fleche Wallone a decade later in 1968.

Other classic wins were, Tour of Flanders in 1959, and 1962, the Liege - Bastogne - Liege in 1961, and the Tour of Lombary in 1959.

In the Grand Tours, he won the Points Jersey in the 1963 Tour de France and the Mountains Jersey in the 1960 Giro d’Italia. In 1959 and 1965 Van Looy was 3rd overall and won the points jersey in the Vuelta a Espana.

He racked up a total of 7 stage victories in the TDF, 12 in the Giro d’Italia, and 18 in the Vuelta a Espana. 

Above: Rik I and Rik II, as they were sometimes called. Rik Van Steenbergen (Nearest the camera.) and Rik Van Looy, wearing the World Champion's "Rainbow" Jersey.  

Above: Rik Van Looy wins the 1961 World Championship ahead of Nino Defilippis (Italy.) and Raymond Poulidor (France.)

Above: Rik Van Looy wins the 1968 Faleche Wallone. No victory salute, just a huge smile.

Above: Jacques Anquetil in the winner's Yellow Jersey (Left.) with Rik Van Looy wearing the Points Winner Green Jersey at the end of the 1963 Tour de France.

Above: Edgard Sorgeloos (Right.) gives a wheel to Van Looy during the 1962 Belgian Road Championship. 

Rik Van Looy’s professional career spanned eighteen seasons; sandwiched between fellow Belgians Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx. Beginning at age 19 in late 1953 and ending at age 36 in 1970. During this time, he racked up an impressive 379 professional road victories.

Like Van Steenbergen, most of Van Looy's victories were attributed to his dynamic finishing sprint. Also a star on the track, winning eleven Six-Day races between 1957 and 1968. For nine of these victories he was paired with Dutchman Peter Post

Footnote: 

Coincidentally, the Milan-San Remo race was first held this day on March 15th 1907 and known as "La Primavera" after the early blooming primrose flower, Milan-San Remo is the first of cycling's monuments on the calendar and is held in mid March.

As the name implies, the race runs from Milan, Italy to San Remo, a town on the Italian Riviera. The 180 mile (290 km) course includes one major climb, The Turchino, and a few smaller climbs.

Other pictures from this Rik Van Looy site

Talking of Bicycle Evolution

My recent talk here in Charleston (Part of a bicycle lecture series.) was well received, with about 80 people present.

The subject of my Power Point presentation was The Evolution of the Bicycle over the years.

In preparing for my talk it occurred to me that it was 1950 when I got my first lightweight bike, in other words, 60 years ago; I started racing two years later.

The first chain driven “Safety” bicycle, the Rover was built in 1886; this was 124 years ago. I realized my involvement with bicycles was for almost half the time the bicycle as we know it has existed.

Furthermore, people who influenced me early on were around at the beginning of the bicycle’s history.

A.J. “Pop” Hodge, (Picture above from 1952.) the man who was my mentor was born in 1877 and at the time he first showed me how to build frames was older than I am now. He began building frames in 1905; Pop died in 1966 at age 89.

The bicycle has no clear single inventor; no Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell. Rather a number of people simply improved on an idea that had been around probably for centuries in the form of a child’s toy; a pretend horse on wheels that the child sat on and pushed themselves along with their feet.

It wasn’t until this child’s toy became an adult toy around 1820 that people no doubt discovered when coasting downhill, one could lift their feet from the ground, and actually balance and stay upright on two wheels.

What does surprise me is that it took another 30 or 40 years before someone added a simple crank to the front wheel, thus turning a toy into a viable form of transport.

One has to realize the only other practical form of personal transport up until that time was the horse.

The bicycle was a machine that would take you where you needed to go, and you didn’t need to feed it, or even saddle it up or hitch it to a cart.

From that point on the evolution speeded up over the next ten years as the front drive wheel became ever increasing in size.

People realized the larger the wheel, the more distance traveled per wheel revolution, resulting in more speed. The only limitation was the length of the rider’s legs.

The high wheeler was the first enthusiast’s bike; cycling became an athletic sport. In fact a person had to be an athlete, and have a certain amount of bravado to even mount and ride one of these somewhat dangerous machines.

Some of these high wheelers weighed as little as 19 lb. Comparable to a lightweight bike today. Bicycle racing became a sport, and speeds well in excess of 20 mph were achieved. The one hour record was over 20 miles.

When the Rover “Safety” bicycle came along (Right.) it opened up cycling to those less brave, or athletic; including older people and women.

However, it was heavier and no faster than the Ordinary, and was not immediately accepted by the real enthusiasts.

It wasn’t until the pneumatic tire was invented that the Safety bicycle became faster, and the high wheeler gradually died out.

Its influence on bicycle design however, would remain for the next 60 years or more.

Because the steering was near vertical on the Ordinary the only place a rider could sit was some distance back behind the pedals. About 70 or 71 degrees to be exact, and seat angles on racing bikes would remain there up until the 1950s when I started racing.

There was no rhyme or reason for a person to sit that far back behind the pedals, other than enthusiasts who really thought they knew what they were talking about, said it was so.

Saddles were set low by today’s standard and “Ankling” was preached.

Old style Ankling which is what I speak of here, is a style of pedaling where the heel goes down at the start of the downward pedal stroke, and up on the up stroke. (Picture left.)

This is a direct throw-back to the High-wheeler. Cranks then were relatively short in order to make the wheel diameter as large as possible; the pedaling motion was mostly an ankle movement. Riders of the old Ordinary did develop huge calf muscles.

By the 1950s cranks had become longer and although Ankling was still taught and practiced, when pedaling at high revs, it became impossible to maintain. Not only that, at maximum effort the rider found himself slipping forward on the saddle because the seat angle was so shallow.

I remember phrases like “You have to sit back to pedal,” and “Good climbers ride sitting down.” These were almost religious mantras, which at the time should not be questioned. 

In my next article I’ll explore this theme of evolution into more recent years
 

The tale of two Tommy Godwins: Part II

When I got my first lightweight bike and started cycling seriously in 1951, the name Tommy Godwin was well known to me. There was the amazing long distance cyclist I wrote of in my last article.

Then there was another unrelated Tommy Godwin who won medals in the Olympics just a few years earlier in 1948. However, in the ignorance of my youth I thought they were one and the same person.

It wasn’t until 1952 at age 16, when on the whim of two older cycling club members, I joined them on a ride from Luton, about 30 miles north of London, to Birmingham. A round trip of 180 miles; the reason, to visit Tommy Godwin’s bike shop.

They may have mentioned the shop was in Birmingham, but as a naive youngster it never occurred to me that this was a whole different part of the country.

When we got to Tommy’s shop in Birmingham, it was not just the man that impressed me, or the amazing array of lightweight bike equipment, it was his "Brummie" accent.*

A Brummie is a native of Birmingham, England, and this was the first time I had ventured so far from home. Far enough that people there spoke in a totally different dialect.

It wasn't until I was on the ride home, (On the same day incidentally.) I mentioned Tommy Godwin’s One Year Mileage Record; I then learned this was a different Tommy Godwin. This was track cyclist and Olympic medalist Tommy Godwin.

Years later, in the late 1960s, I would move to Worcester, just south of Birmingham. I would return to Tommy Godwin’s shop, and meet him again on several occasions.

Now forward to the present time and in researching for this article I learned that Tommy Godwin was actually born in America; in Connecticut to be precise. (That is if I can trust Wikipedia.)

He never spoke of this, and must have went over to England at a very early age, because I always considered him a Brummie born and bred.

The success of British cycling, particularly on the track, can be traced back directly to Tommy Godwin.  A top track rider of his day; Godwin was National Sprint Campion in 1948.

He also won two bronze medals in the Olympics, held in London that same year; one in the Team Pursuit, one in the individual Kilometer Time Trial. The picture above shows Tommy in recent years with his two Olympic medals.

Born in 1920, he will be one of the ambassadors at the next Olympics in London, to be held in 2012. He is at this time president of the Solihull Cycling Club in the West Midlands of the UK.

In 1936 Tommy Godwin went to work for BSA, a large bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer in Birmingham.

The picture right shows a young Tommy on a track bike he built himself at the BSA factory.

In 1950, Godwin opened his own retail bike shop on Silver Street, in Kings Heath, Birmingham. He also built frames under his own name in the back of his shop

The shop became a Mecca for racing cyclists from the whole West Midlands area; it was one of the reasons why this region became such a hot bed for bicycle racing.

After running his business all day, Tommy would be coaching young local riders in the evening and weekends. Later in 1963, this lead to Godwin becoming the first paid British National Coach.

One youngster who was bitten by the bike racing bug at Tommy’s shop, was a young Michael Bennett, who under Godwin’s tutelage went on to win medals in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. Graham Webb who became World Road Champion in 1967, is another of Godwin’s protégés.

Michael Bennett is now one of the driving forces behind the current crop of British riders. He was the main man in the organizing of the depart stage of the Tour de France when it started from London a few years back.

Tommy Godwin and his bike shop, which he ran until he retired in 1986, was a very important part of Britain’s cycling history.

The success of his shop was due to his success as a track cyclist. The shop and Tommy’s coaching was the reason the area produced so many great riders.

My frame building business was in Worcester just 25 miles south of Birmingham; this in turn lead to my initial success as a framebuilder, because there were so many World Class riders to draw from as customers for my frames.

We can all thank Tommy Godwin for what he has done, and continues to do for the sport of cycling.

If anyone reading this knows how to contact Tommy Godwin, (Maybe someone in the Solihull Club.) I would ask him today, was he really born in Connecticut, and did he ever meet his namesake, the other Tommy Godwin?

Footnote: If you are not farmiliar with a Brummie accent,* think John Oliver of the Daily Show, or Ozzy Osbourne

The tale of two Tommy Godwins: Part I

There are two former top British cyclists named Tommy Godwin; the first not so well known even amoung cyclists from the UK. None the less he should not go unrecognized. 

Born in Stoke on Trent in 1912, he won over 200 amateur and professional races in his lifetime, but his greatest achievement was the World One Year Mileage record.

In the year 1939 he rode a bicycle 75,065 miles. (120,805 km.) That is over 200 miles per day, in all kinds of weather, 365 days of the year, or the equivalent of riding round the world, three times in one year.

WWII broke out in September 1939 and due to blackout restrictions, Tommy was forced to ride in the dark with his lamps taped over, so they gave only the slightest glimmer.

The record originated a year before Godwin was born, in 1911 sponsored by “Cycling” Magazine, and was set that year by Frenchman, Marcel Planes, who covered 34,666 miles. (55,790 km.)

No mean feat in of itself, when you consider this is roughly 95 miles a day, on a single gear, when many roads were little more than dirt tracks.

Over the years there were many attempts at this record, nine were successful, the final record was set by Tommy Godwin; WWII brought an end to further attempts, and they were never resumed.

The picture at the top of the page shows Tommy starting out in the rain, on his daily ride; he is with an official time keeper. You will notice there is a cable driven mileage recorder attached to the front wheel of his bike.

The bike equipped with mudguards, and a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gear, probably weighed in excess of 30 lbs. I’m sure Sturmey Archer was one of his many sponsors for this epic ride; along with the manufacturers of the other equipment he used.

The record is in theory still open for challenge, although not for entry in the Guinness Book of World Records; the publishers have deemed the record too dangerous to repeat.

After covering the new record distance by the end of 1939, Tommy kept riding until May of 1940 to cover 100,000 miles. He then spent several months recovering and quite possibly learning how to walk again.

Later that year he joined the Royal Air Force where he remained until the war ended in 1945. Keen to race as an amateur after the war, Tommy was banned from competition by British cycling officials because he was a former professional.

Godwin died age 63 while on a bike ride with friends in 1975. There is a memorial plaque in the Fenton Manor Sports Center, Stoke on Trent, Tommy’s birth town.

Anyone who has ridden a bike seriously can appreciate what it would take to ride 200 miles a day, for a year. It would mean riding between 12 and 18 hours a day, much of it in the dark, and imagine the amount of food one would have to consume to fuel such a ride.

My car has covered 100,000 miles in the last eight years, Tommy Godwin did the same distance on a bicycle in less than a year and a half. 

Read more about this incredible man, Tommy Godwin here. 

Next time I will write about the cycling's other Tommy Godwin. (More well known, in the UK.) One I met on several occasions, and is still with us, a former Olympic medal winner, and former GB Team Manager.

The Higginson Twins: Update

On May 1st this year, I wrote an article titled “The Higginson Twins: A Pedaling Phenomenon.”

I wrote about an event held on March 23rd, 1952; the Calleva 25 mile time trial, an event restricted to a single gear of 72 inches. (48 x 18)

This event would go down in history when the first three riders would complete the distance in less than one hour.

The first time the magic one hour had been broken for 25 miles on a 72 inch gear.

Stan Higginson was the winner with a time of 59min. 20sec. Stan’s twin brother Bernard Higginson was second in 59min. 48sec. Dave Keeler took third place with a time of 59min. 58sec. Les Inman was fourth in 1hr. 0min. 52sec.

As a result of my writing this piece, Stan Higginson contacted me. A recent picture (Above right.) shows a still fit looking Stan, now 78 years young. His brother Bernard is also well; they live some fifteen miles apart, in Worcestershire, England.

Stan also sent some pictures from that era, including one taken right after the Calleva 25 at the moment history had been made. The picture is below.

From left to right is Les Inman (4th.) Stan Higginson (1st.) Bernard Higginson (2nd.) Dave Keeler (3rd.) Extreme right is Ken Sparks who was the 3rd member of the winning Halesowen C&AC team. Stan and Bernard were the 1st and 2nd Halesowen club members. Sparks time was 1hr. 3min. 10sec. and gave the Halesowen Team a total winning time of 3-2-18

Stan also gave me some interesting tid bits of information. He and Bernard normally raced on a single fixed gear of 84.4 inches. (50 x 16) He said it suited their slight build of 5’ 9 1/2” (176.5cm.) weighing 129 lb. (58.5kg.) and their very low profile positions.

Throughout the winter they trained on 62 inch gear. (46 x 20) This no doubt gave the twins their fast pedaling abilities.

Between 1952 and 1955 they won seven British National 25 Mile Championship Medals. 3 firsts, 2 seconds, and a third. Stan Higginson broke competition record 3 times. Their team. Halesowen C&AC won 3 National Championships, and broke competition record 4 times.

Stan’s fastest 25 was 56min. 21sec. and Bernard’s fastest time was 57min. 05sec.

The caption under this 1953 picture (Above) reads: The fastest of the brilliant cycling twins now serving in the Royal Air Force, S. F. Higginson has won the 25 miles championship of the Road Time Trials Council for the past two years, and is the current record holder with a time of 56 min. 29 sec. In July this year (1953) he became the first rider to beat 57 minutes at the distance.

Picture above: Stan Higginson turning in the North Lancashire 25 (1955)

Picture above: Stan riding a pursuit race at Herne Hill, London Track, Good Friday Meeting 1952

An interesting foot note. The person who put Stan in touch with me was Lewin Chalkley, who is the owner of Stan’s old Holdsworth frame. The frame below, recently restored, looks very much like the one in the picture above