Roger De Vlaeminck

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Medal record
Roger De Vlaeminck at home on the cobbles of the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
Competitor for  Belgium
Road bicycle racing
World Championships
Silver	1975 Yvoir	Elite Men's Road Race

Roger De Vlaeminck (born 24 August 1947) is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist. He was described by Rik Van Looy as '"The most talented and the only real classics rider of his generation". Nicknamed “The Gypsy” because he was born into a family of travelling clothiers, he is best known for exploits in the cobbled classic Paris-Roubaix race, but his performances in the other “Monument” one day races gives him a record that very few can match. His fantastic record in Paris-Roubaix earned him another nickname, that of “Monsieur Paris-Roubaix”.

[edit] Career

Born in the East Flanders town of Eeklo in Belgium, De Vlaeminck’s first love was football, he was playing centre forward for F.C. Eeklo when he left school and he could have made a career in that sport, however his elder brother Erik was having success as a pro cyclist and this persuaded the younger De Vlaeminck to try his hand at cycling. He raced as a junior in 1965, gaining just one win but 1966 saw him rack up 25 victories. Roger and Erik spent their winter’s riding cyclo-cross with a fair amount of success and in 1968 in Luxembourg the brothers made history when Erik became World professional cyclo-cross champion and Roger took the amateur version on the same day, (Roger eventually took the professional title in 1975). 1968 also saw Roger earn selection for the road race at the Mexico Olympics but he finished a disappointing 18th place.

De Vlaeminck turned professional at the start of the 1969 season with the Flandria-Declerck team and had one of the most amazing starts to a pro cycling career when he won the Belgium semi classic Omloop "Het Volk" in his first professional race. De Vlaeminck’s career ran parallel with arguably the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx and he battled for the ascendancy with Merckx throughout his career. De Vlaeminck rode Paris-Roubaix on 14 occasions, winning four times (1972, 1974, 1975, 1977), finished second four times, third once, fifth once, seventh twice and abandoned the race only once in 1980. His skill as a cyclo cross rider made him an expert on the tough cobbles of northern France which the race crosses. De Vlaeminck used the early season Italian stage race Tirreno-Adriatico as training for the Spring Classics, he dominated the race between 1972 and 1977, winning the overall classification on six occasions and taking fifteen stage victories in total.

De Vlaeminck is one of only three riders who won all the five “Monument” one day races in their careers, the other two are fellow Belgians Rik Van Looy and Eddy Merckx. The five “Monuments” are Milan-Sanremo, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Giro di Lombardia. The only major one day race he did not win was the World Road Race Championship, his best performance in this was second to the Dutchman Hennie Kuiper in 1975. In the three major Tours, he rode the Tour de France on three occasions winning one stage, that being stage 6 in 1970 between Amiens and Valenciennes, he took the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia on three occasions as well as 22 stage wins over the years including seven stages in the 1975 edition. He took a stage win in the Vuelta a España in his final season in 1984. His career lasted 15 years (retiring in 1984) and he had 257 victories.

De Vlaeminck, who now lives on a farm in Kaprijke, is still involved in cycling. He has been coaching cyclo cross riders for many years, in April 2004 he quit his job as coach to the John Saey-Deschacht cyclo-cross team in Belgium so he could spend more time with his family, However he was tempted back to the sport in November 2004 as an advisor to the Zimbabwe cyclo cross team as they prepared for the world championships in St. Wendel, Germany at the end of January 2005. De Vlaeminck is also known for having firm opinions about cycling-related topics, and is therefore often consulted by the local sports media to provide them. In particular, he often criticizes the trend to have multiple leaders in one and the same team, such that the best racers often don't battle each other but share important races between them.

[edit] Major Victories

[edit] Further reading

"Roger De Vlaeminck" by Raphael Luchon published by Kennedy Brothers, Keighley, Yorkshire

Sporting positions
Preceded by Albert Van Damme	World cyclo-cross champion 1975	Succeeded by Albert Zweifel
Preceded by Roger Rosiers	Winner of Paris-Roubaix 1972	Succeeded by Eddy Merckx
Preceded by Eddy Merckx	Winner of Paris-Roubaix 1974,1975	Succeeded by Marc Demeyer
Preceded by Marc Demeyer	Winner of Paris-Roubaix 1977	Succeeded by Francesco Moser