Frans Van Looy

Frans Van Looy
Van in Looy 1977
Personal information
Full nameFrans Van Looy
Born(1950-08-26)26 August 1950
Merksem, Belgium
Died20 September 2019(2019-09-20) (aged 69)
Merksem, Belgium
Height1.79 m (5 ft 10+12 in)
Weight75 kg (165 lb; 11 st 11 lb)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
Role
  • Rider (retired)
  • Assistant team manager (retired)
Rider typeSprinter
Professional teams
1972–1973Novy–Dubble Bubble
1974Carpenter–Confortluxe–Flandria
1975–1976Molteni–RYC
1977Maes Pils–Mini-Flat
1978Mini-Flat–Boule d'Or
1979Kas–Campagnolo
1980–1981Vermeer Thijs–Mini-Flat
1982Europ Decor
Managerial teams
1983Perlav–Eurosoap
1984–1987TeVe Blad–Eddy Merckx
1988–1991Histor–Sigma
1992–2006Team Telekom

Frans Van Looy (26 August 1950 – 20 September 2019) was a Belgian cyclist. Looy was professional from 1972 to 1982. He competed in the individual road race at the 1972 Summer Olympics.[1]

After his career as a cyclist, Van Looy worked as a team manager with Team Telekom and T-Mobile until 2006 and had helped run his family's farm in Merksem. However, a local government order ruled that Van Looy could no longer live at the farm, despite a petition signed by 3,000 people to preserve the residence that Van Looy had been born in.[2] After this order, which ruled his birthplace to be uninhabitable and led to his eviction, he committed suicide in September 2019.[3]

  1. ^ "Frans Van Looy Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Former T-Mobile sports director Frans Van Looy dies, aged 69". www.cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Frans Van Looy, oud-renner en ploegleider, is overleden". De Standaard. Retrieved 21 September 2019.