Roger De Vlaeminck

Roger De Vlaeminck

De Vlaeminck at the 1978 Tour of Flanders
Personal information
Full name	Roger De Vlaeminck
Nickname	The Gypsy[1]
Born	(1947-08-24) 24 August 1947 Eeklo, East Flanders, Belgium
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road/Cyclo-cross
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1969–1971	Flandria-De Clerck-Krüger
1972	Dreher
1973–1977	Brooklyn
1978	Sanson
1979	Gis Gelati
1980	Boule d'Or
1981–1982	DAF Trucks-Cote d'Or-Gazelle
1983	Gios
1984	Gis-Tuc Lu
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 1 individual stage (1970) Giro d'Italia Points classification (1972, 1974, 1975) 22 individual stages (1972-1979) Vuelta a España 1 individual stage (1984) Stage races Tirreno–Adriatico (1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977) One-day races and Classics Omloop Het Volk (1969, 1979) Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1970) Paris–Roubaix (1972, 1974, 1975, 1977) Milan – San Remo (1973, 1978, 1979) Giro di Lombardia (1974, 1976) Tour of Flanders (1977) National Road Race Championships (1969, 1981) Cyclo-cross National Cyclo-cross Championships (1974, 1975, 1978)
Medal record Competitor for  Belgium Cyclo-cross World Championships Gold 1975 Melchnau Elite race Silver 1974 Bera Elite race Road bicycle racing World Championships Silver 1975 Yvoir Elite 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".^[1] Nicknamed “The Gypsy” because he was born into a family of traveling clothiers,^[1] he is known for exploits in the cobbled classic Paris–Roubaix race, but his performances in other “Monument” races gave him a record that few can match. His record in Paris–Roubaix earned him another nickname, “Monsieur Paris–Roubaix”.

Early life and amateur career

De Vlaeminck was born on 24 August 1947 in the East Flanders town of Eeklo,^[2][3] His first love was football. He played center forward for F.C. Eeklo when he left school and he could have made a career in the sport, however his elder brother Erik was having success as a pro cyclist and this persuaded Roger to try cycling.^[3] He raced as a junior in 1965, gaining one win, but 1966 saw 25 victories. Roger and Erik spent their winters riding cyclo-cross and in 1968 in Luxembourg Erik became world professional champion and Roger the amateur champion on the same day. Roger eventually took the professional title in 1975.

In 1968 De Vlaeminck rode the road race at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico and finished 18th.^[4]

Professional career

De Vlaeminck turned professional at the start of the 1969 season with Flandria-Declerck and won the Omloop "Het Volk" in his first race. De Vlaeminck’s career ran parallel with Eddy Merckx and he battled for 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, sixth once, seventh twice and abandoned only in 1980. His skill as a cyclo-cross rider made him an expert on the 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 on six occasions and taking 15 stages.

De Vlaeminck is one of only three riders to have won all five 'Monuments of Cycling' (i.e., Milan – San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and the Giro di Lombardia). The other two are fellow Belgians Rik van Looy and Eddy Merckx. The only major one-day race he did not win was the world road race championship, his best performance was second to Dutchman Hennie Kuiper in 1975. He rode three Tour de France, winning 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 stages over including seven stages in 1975. 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.

Post-career

De Vlaeminck, who lives on a farm in Kaprijke, is still in cycling. He has been coaching cyclo-cross riders. In April 2004 he quit his job as coach to the John Saey-Deschacht team in Belgium to spend more time with his family, However he was tempted back to the sport in November 2004 as advisor to the Zimbabwe team as it prepared for the world championship in St. Wendel, Germany, at the end of January 2005.

De Vlaeminck is known for firm opinions about cycling and is often consulted by journalists. In particular, he criticizes the trend to have multiple leaders in a team. That, he says, means the best racers share important races between them. De Vlaeminck is also known for his harsh opinion of Tom Boonen, calling him unworthy of equaling his Paris-Roubaix record of 4 wins, claiming cycling isn't as hard as it used to be. This led to the meme "In den tijd van Roger De Vlaeminck ..." ("in the days of Roger De Vlaeminck") where De Vlaeminck was attributed to doing all kinds of unrealistic stuff.^[5]

Palmarès

Source:^[2][6][7]

Monuments results timeline

Source:^[6][7]

Notes

References

• Fotheringham, William (2003). A Century of Cycling: The Classic Races and Legendary Champions. London: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 978-0-7603-1553-8. Retrieved 19 November 2013. 
• Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill (2011). Historical Dictionary of Cycling. Historical Dictionaries of Sports. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7175-5. Retrieved 8 November 2013. 
• Hilton, Tim (2005) [1st. pub. 2004:HarperCollins]. One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers. London: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-00-653228-6. Retrieved 8 November 2013. 

Further reading

• Luchon, Raphael (1978). Roger De Vlaeminck. Yorkshire, UK: Kennedy Brothers. ASIN B0007C86H0. Retrieved 7 November 2013. 

External links

• Roger De Vlaeminck profile at Cycling Archives
• Complete palmares (French)

UCI Cyclo-cross World Champions – Men's elite race 1950 Jean Robic 1951–1953 Roger Rondeaux 1954–1958 André Dufraisse 1959 Renato Longo 1960–1961 Rolf Wolfshohl 1962 Renato Longo 1963 Rolf Wolfshohl 1964–1965 Renato Longo 1966 Erik De Vlaeminck 1967 Renato Longo 1968–1973 Erik De Vlaeminck 1974 Albert Van Damme 1975 Roger De Vlaeminck 1976–1979 Albert Zweifel 1980 Roland Liboton 1981 Hennie Stamsnijder 1982–1984 Roland Liboton 1985 Klaus-Peter Thaler 1986 Albert Zweifel 1987 Klaus-Peter Thaler 1988 Pascal Richard 1989 Danny De Bie 1990 Henk Baars 1991 Radomír Šimůnek 1992 Mike Kluge 1993 Dominique Arnould 1994 Paul Herygers 1995 Dieter Runkel 1996 Adri van der Poel 1997 Daniele Pontoni 1998–1999 Mario De Clercq 2000 Richard Groenendaal 2001 Erwin Vervecken 2002 Mario De Clercq 2003–2004 Bart Wellens 2005 Sven Nys 2006–2007 Erwin Vervecken 2008 Lars Boom 2009 Niels Albert 2010–2011 Zdeněk Štybar 2012 Niels Albert 2013 Sven Nys 2014 Zdeněk Štybar 2015 Mathieu van der Poel