Nicknamed “The Gypsy,” Roger De Vlaeminck was one of the great riders in history, but one who had to battle Eddy Merckx for supremacy throughout his career. De Vlaeminck’s one advantage over Merckx was his great ability as a cyclo-cross rider. He is one of the few great professional road racers to also have claimed championships in cyclo-cross, winning the amateur World Championship in 1968 and the professional world championship in 1975. This ability enabled him to win the bone-shattering Paris-Roubaix four times – still a record – and defeat Merckx several times in the process. De Vlaeminck is considered the greatest rider ever in this greatest of one-day classics. De Vlaeminck, Merckx, and Rik Van Looy are the only three cyclists to have won all of the five monument races, and in those races, De Vlaeminck’s 11 victories trails only Merckx’s record of 19. De Vlaeminck’s major victories were as follows: 1975 Tour de Suisse; 1973, 1978-79 Milano-Sanremo; 1977 Ronde van Vlaanderen; 1969, 1979 Het Volk; 1972, 1974-75, 1977 Paris-Roubaix; 1971 La Flèche Wallonne; 1970 Liège-Bastogne-Liège; 1975 Zürich Championship; 1981 Paris-Brussels; 1974, 1976 Giro di Lombardia; and the Giro d’Italia points jersey in 1972 and 1974-75.
Belgium