Stan Ockers

Stan Ockers
Stan Ockers at the 1951 Tour de France
Personal information
Full nameConstant Ockers
Born(1920-02-03)3 February 1920
Borgerhout, Belgium
Died1 October 1956(1956-10-01) (aged 36)
Antwerp, Belgium
Team information
Discipline
RoleRider
Rider typeSprinter
Professional teams
1941Individual
1942Helyett–Hutchinson
1943–1945Métropole
1946Metropole–Dunlop
1947Groene Leeuw
1947–1949Mondia and Garin–Wolber
1950Metropole–Dunlop and Terrot–Wolber
1951Girardengo and Terrot–Wolber
1952–1954Peugeot–Dunlop and Girardengo–Clement
1955–1956Elvé–Peugeot
1956Girardengo–Icep
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
Points classification (1955, 1956)
4 individual stages (1950, 1954, 1956)

Other stage races

Roma–Napoli–Roma (1956)

One-day races and Classics

World Road Race Championships (1955)
La Flèche Wallonne (1953, 1955)
Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1955)
Scheldeprijs (1941, 1946)

Track Championships

National Championships
Madison (1955)

Other

Challenge Desgrange-Colombo (1955)
Medal record
Representing  Belgium
Men's road bicycle racing
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1955 Frascati Professional road race
Bronze medal – third place 1953 Lugano Professional road race

Constant ("Stan") Ockers (3 February 1920 – 1 October 1956) was a Belgian professional racing cyclist.

He was runner-up in the Tour de France in 1950 and 1952, and the best sprinter in that Grand Tour in 1955 and 1956. In 1955 he won the Classic "Ardennes double" by winning La Flèche Wallonne and the Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same year. At this time, the races were run on successive days as "Le Weekend Ardennais". He also won the World Cycling Championship that year.

Ockers and family at the start of the 1954 Tour de France

Ockers did not have the most congenial riding style - he was known as a crafty cyclist who often took advantage of other people's work - but he more than made up for this through his contact with the public. Stan Ockers always remained himself, had time for everyone and thus became one of the most popular riders of his generation, together with Rik Van Steenbergen and the young Rik Van Looy.

At the opening of the 1956 Antwerp track season, Ockers crashed heavily. He didn't see how Ernest Sterckx had returned to the track after a mechanical failure, looked back and drove full into his opponent. Ockers suffered a fractured skull and four broken ribs. The Antwerp folk hero fell into a coma, regained consciousness twice more but died of his injuries two days later on 1 October. Antwerp was in mourning, even 11-year-old Eddy Merckx was in shock at the passing of his great idol. Tens of thousands of Antwerp people saluted the corpse of their Stanneke whose body was laid to rest in Antwerp Sportpaleis.[1]

A year later, a monument was built in Les Forges, Sprimont, in the south of Belgium.

  1. ^ "De Giro komt vandaag aan in Frascati: wat weet u nog van Stan Ockers en welke is de link met Victor Campenaerts?" [The Giro arrives in Frascati today: what do you remember about Stan Ockers and what is the link with Victor Campenaerts?]. Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 14 May 2019.

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