Cycling, goodbye to Van Springel: he won a Lombardia, was 2nd in the Adorni World Championship

Former Belgian cyclist Herman Van Springel, known for having won the classic Bordeaux-Paris seven times, has died at the age of 79 after a long illness. Belgian champion in 1971, Van Springel came close to winning the Tour de France in 1968. On the last day of competition he wore the yellow jersey, but was beaten by Dutchman Jan Janssen for 38 seconds. “The biggest disappointment of my career,” he said. Together with the 2nd place in the Imola 1968 World Championship, beaten only by Vittorio Adorni. The Tour was the smallest gap in history between the top two finishers in the Grande Boucle until 1989, when Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by eight seconds on the Champs-Elysées.

Career

–

The Belgian won seven times between 1970 and 1981, a record, the Bordeaux-Paris, the longest and hardest classic on the calendar with distances ranging between 580 and 620 kilometers and more than 13 hours cycling partly behind the derny (a light bicycle). Van Springel also won the Giro di Lombardia (1968), the Gand-Wevelgem (1966) and the Paris-Tours (1979), not to mention that the most prestigious podiums such as those of Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Milan-Sanremo. He has also won five stages of the Tour de France. The rider who was Eddy Merckx’s teammate for two seasons, with Molteni in 1971 and 1972, ended his career, which began in 1965, at the end of the 1981 season, the year of his last success in Bordeaux-Paris, at the age of 37 years old.