Stan Ockers

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 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.

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