Cyclist
Pro race history: Rik Van Looy is upstaged by his teammate at the 1963 Worlds
When the World Championships rolled into the Belgian city of Ronse in August 1963, the overwhelming favourite was Rik Van Looy. Known as the Emperor of Herentals after his home town, he was in the middle of a stellar career. He was the first rider to win all five Monuments, winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1961 to complete a set that had begun with Milan-San Remo in 1958.
That day in Liège he had won easily from a three-rider group that included his Faema teammate Armand Desmet. Described as being a win ‘imposed with absolute superiority’, Van Looy had benefited from Desmet’s work in the final kilometres. As he would find out, he wouldn’t always enjoy such support.
Van Looy was also already a double World Champion. In 1960 he had taken his first rainbow jersey at the Sachsenring motor circuit in East Germany, the only time the event was hosted by the German Democratic Republic, beating defending champion André Darrigade by four lengths.
Twelve months later he defended the title, prevailing from a 14-rider final selection in Switzerland. Now, in Ronse, in front of home crowds, he was focussed on joining Alfredo Binda and Rik Van Steenbergen as the only men to have won the professional World Championships Road Race three times.
While his 1963 season had been devoid of major one-day victories, Van Looy had built form nicely as the Worlds approached. He took two stages at the Dauphiné and four stages and the points competition at the Tour. In late July he claimed his second National Championship. Despite the World Championships being considered an individual race, as Coureur reported after the event, ‘The Belgian team had been picked to support Van Looy, who had promised his teammates £1,000 each in case of victory – and a pact had been signed accordingly.’
Challenge to the crown
Seventy riders started the 278km race, comprising 17 laps of a 16.4km circuit that included the Kruisberg. After nearly seven hours of racing and with one lap to go, having seen attacks by the likes of Tom Simpson and Shay Elliot brought back by the peloton, Van Looy ramped up the pressure. He initiated wave after wave of attacks in a bid to trim the pack, but his efforts didn’t work.
With the finish line fast approaching and the lead group still numbering 29 riders, Van Looy made his final effort, launching his sprint and hitting the front at a ferocious pace. At last Van Looy, one of the greatest one-day racers in the history of the sport, had clear air between him and the line. There was less than 100m to go. The race was all but over, and Van Looy was about to join Binda and Van Steenbergen at top of the Worlds’ roll of honour. Wasn’t he?
To watch the footage of that final sprint now is to relive the drama of a hugely controversial event. Van Looy is on the right-hand barrier, ahead by at least a couple of bike lengths and with the line in sight, when he starts to veer sharply across the road. He has sensed a rider approaching from behind at speed. That rider is Benoni Beheyt, a 22-year-old in only his second year as a pro. Earlier that year Beheyt had won Gent-Wevelgem, taken top-15 places at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and finished second on the final stage of the Tour in Paris, behind Van Looy. Now he is looking intent on reversing that result. Beheyt also wears the jersey of the Belgian team.
Across comes Van Looy from the barrier to the centre of the road – according to Coureur he later admitted to deliberately trying to block Beheyt. Beheyt is now half a wheel behind and the rest of the bunch are three lengths or more back. Still Van Looy comes across. He is now a metre or more the other side of the centre line, pushing Beheyt further and further to the left.
Then comes the brief but fateful moment: Beheyt pulls on Van Looy’s jersey. The youngster actually tugs back the old master. As the pair pass the finish line it is Beheyt ahead. He raises an arm in celebration and then, almost immediately, drops it. It seems to dawn on him what he has just done. He looks over at Van Looy, who quickly loosens his toe-straps and looks back in indignation, putting an arm out as if to say, ‘What the hell was that?’
This picture, taken during the awards ceremony, encapsulates the aftermath more perfectly than words ever could.
Tears and treason
The next day, the talk was of betrayal and treason. The Italian daily La Stampa carried a photo on its front page of a crestfallen Van Looy clutching a handkerchief, under the headline ‘Van Looy’s tears’. Van Looy was angry that Beheyt had signed the pact but then contested the sprint.
‘If he really wanted to ride his [own] race, he could have told me,’ Van Looy told the paper. ‘Everyone is free to choose their own path, but they must still behave like a gentleman. Beheyt, however, yesterday, with a couple of laps to go, when I asked him to move to the front of the group to check for any escape attempts, he grumbled that he had cramps in his legs. I believed it or, at least, it was not the time to argue.’
Beheyt countered, ‘Yes, it’s true, I raised a hand, but it was he who cut me off, it was he who pushed me towards the board, if I hadn’t made that defensive gesture we would both have gone to the ground. Van Looy goes around saying that I raced the World Championships from start to finish with the sole aim of beating him. Bullshit, I worked like the others, no more, no less… what fault do I have if he was wrong in believing he had already won?’
Reflecting on the incident years later, Van Looy had seemingly softened, telling author Les Woodland that ‘you can’t blame a rider who sees an opportunity like that so close to hand and then reaches out to take it. For me the whole world turned upside down when Beheyt made out he had cramp and then attacked me. But looking back, I can understand his reaction.’
In the summer of 2023, the KOERS cycling museum in Flanders marked the 60th anniversary of the race by unveiling murals of the two men side-by-side on a wall in the museum garden. ‘I think this is a great honour,’ Beheyt said at the unveiling.
• This article originally appeared in issue 148 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe
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