hen 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
