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Rik Van Looy was seven years old when World War II broke out in Belgium. The war passed by relatively quietly for his family in Grobbendonk. 

Although school attendance was compulsory until the age of fourteen, Van Looy left school a year earlier, he was far too busy with his newspaper rounds, which he shared with his brother Lowie. The entire Van Looy family lived off the newspaper service. The responsibility of delivering the newspapers on time shaped the young Rik Van Looy’s character. "I later experienced those challenges in cycling races."

The switch from a bulky courier bike to the much lighter racing bike was not an easy one. Rik played football for the FC team from Herentals. However, it wasn’t football reports in the newspapers that caught his attention, but the articles about cycling.

Little by little, cycling took hold of him. He decided to spend his savings on his first race bike, a secondhand one with the gears stuck. At fifteen years old, he lined up for his first street race. He fell five times and swore never to race again. Seven months later, with a new bike, he gave it another go. Rik Van Looy won.

In the races that followed things went well. With each victory, the young Rik Van Looy's drive to win grew. He took great pleasure in putting his competitors, who often latched onto his wheel, through their paces. After consecutive Belgian amateur titles in 1952 and 1953 Lomme Driessens, legendary sports director and former masseur of Fausto Coppi, could no longer ignore the Flemish rider. A contract worth 2,000 francs per year followed.

Rik Van Looy didn’t train. “I didn’t care. I wasn’t bothered about training. That was fine when I was an amateur, but things changed.” One evening at the local café Ford, Van Looy met the daughter the owner. Rik and Nini fell in love, married on February 1, 1955, and then moved into the house above the café. Rik’s second contract with Lomme Driessens' team was significantly less valuable than the first. With children on the way, the drop in income was a challenge. Nini gave her husband an ultimatum. He had to start fully using his talent, or he would have to find a real job.

Through Nini, Van Looy met Dries Claes. The doctor and scientist offered some advice. When Claes once went to check if Van Looy was following his advice, he saw him diligently working on the prescribed exercises. A lifelong bond was formed.

When Rik Van Looy made his debut in the professional peloton, he immediately earned the nickname "Rik II." The nine-year-older Rik Van Steenbergen, already a world champion and multiple winner of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, naturally became "Rik I." As Rik Van Looy started to build a palmarès that was slowly starting to rival the shadow of Rik I, the nickname "Rik II" was eventually overshadowed by a new one.

In the cycling cafés of Brussels, Rik Van Steenbergen was a beloved rider. The handsome, humorous man from Arendonk was the most decorated Belgian cyclist after the war. His fans watched with frustration as a 'new' rider was prominently pushed into the spotlight by the newspapers. At the bar, the supporters decided to write a protest letter to Louis Clicteur and Lucien Berghmans, journalists at Het Laatste Nieuws. They asked the gentlemen to tone down their "imperial" praise of Rik Van Looy. A few days later, the newspaper headline referred to Rik Van Looy as 'the Emperor of Herentals'.

As Emperor, Rik Van Loy came in as the absolute leader of Faema in 1956. ”When I joined Faema, I chose all my teammates. In the classics, everyone had to ride for me." As the composer, conductor, and soloist of the team nicknamed “The Red Guard”, the Grobbendonkenaar achieved success after success.

In 1956, Rik Van Looy won Paris-Brussels for the first time. Looking back, this marked the beginning of an unparalleled historical streak. Two years later, he was too fast for the great Miguel Poblet in Milan-San Remo. A year later, Van Looy set the foundation for his victory in the Tour of Flanders with an attack on the Muur of Geraardsbergen. At the end of the 1959 season, he had also won Paris-Tours and the Tour of Lombardy, both within the span of a week. By winning Lombardy, Rik Van Looy became the first rider to win all classical Monuments. Only three riders in history have achieved that up until now.

Van Looy won the World Championship road race twice. In 1960, he won by outsprinting a thinned-out group in the German Democratic Republic. A year later, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, he was too fast for 13 breakaway riders, including Jacques Anquetil, in the streets of Bern.

In five Grand Tours between 1958 and 1961, Rik Van Looy won 19 stages. This even brought him to third place in the 1959 Vuelta. On flat terrain, Rik Van Looy was the boss. On good days, he could follow the true climbers in the mountains, and in the descents, he made up a lot of lost time. Lomme Driessens even called Van Looy the best descender the cycling world had ever seen.

1962 marked Rik Van Looy’s peak year. He won the biggest cobbled classics in one year: Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix. Another unique achievement, only to be repeated decades later by Tom Boonen.

At the end of 1962, Van Looy parted ways with his team sponsor, Flandria. Before the Belgian cycling season had truly kicked off, Rik Van Looy himself introduced a new sponsor: G.B.C. It was the ‘Emperor’ who arranged everything. Van Looy was not just the emperor of Herentals; he was the emperor of Belgian cycling. However, it didn’t lead to new successes in the classics. To make matters worse, Van Looy was the victim in the disastrous 1963 World Championship in Ronse. He was set to become world champion for the third time, but a sworn domestique walked away with the prize. The public's reaction, as tens of thousands of fans booed Benoni Beheyt, underscored once again how beloved Rik Van Looy.

In 1965, Van Looy made a strong comeback. As he entered the Vélodrome André Pétrieux to win Paris-Roubaix for the third time, tears flowed down his cheeks. The emperor felt a battalion of crown princes were pushing to ascend his throne. But Van Looy was still there. No less than eight stages were won by Van Looy in the Vuelta, which started just three weeks later.

These were the last major victories before the new generation truly took over. In the final years of his career, Rik Van Looy had to face a young up-and-comer in the same way that Van Steenbergen had once faced him at the end of his own prime. The new kid on the block was named Eddy Merckx. Van Looy and Merckx rode together on the same team for a year.

Rik Van Looy’s cycling career lasted another four years. After a criterium in Valkenswaard on August 22, 1970, he decided it was enough. In a café in the city he told his team manager “Toontje, I’m stopping. The peloton is full of young guys I can no longer keep up with. I’m driving to Herentals now, and I’m going to tell Nini.”