Stan Ockers

Stan Ockers at the 1951 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Constant Ockers
Born	(1920-02-03)3 February 1920 Borgerhout, Belgium
Died	1 October 1956(1956-10-01) (aged 36) Antwerp, Belgium
Team information
Discipline	Road Track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional teams
1941	Individual
1942	Helyett–Hutchinson
1943–1945	Métropole
1946	Metropole–Dunlop
1947	Groene Leeuw
1947–1949	Mondia and Garin–Wolber
1950	Metropole–Dunlop and Terrot–Wolber
1951	Girardengo and Terrot–Wolber
1952–1954	Peugeot–Dunlop and Girardengo–Clement
1955–1956	Elvé–Peugeot
1956	Girardengo–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 1955 Frascati Professional road race 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 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.

Career achievements

Major results

Road

Track

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	—	6	6	—	—	—
Tour de France	11	7	2	5	2	—	6	8	8
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Awards and honours

• Trophée Edmond Gentil: 1955
• Grote Prijs Stan Ockers, a derny race in Antwerp: from 1956^[1]
• Officer in the Belgian Order of Leopold II: 1957^[2]
• Memorial monument in Sprimont, Liège (la Côte des Forges): 1957
• Grand Prix Stan Ockers, a cycle race in France: 1957-1963
• Stan Ockers Classic, a criterium in Antwerp: from 1963^[3]
• A street, Stan Ockersstraat in Borgerhout, Antwerp
• Stanneke a song by Hugo Matthysen: 1990
• Mémorial Stan Ockers, a race organized by Cyclo-Club de Beaufays from 1996^[4]
• Introduced in the UCI Hall of Fame: 2002
• Memoire du Cyclisme - Ranking of the Greatest Cyclists (44th place): 2002^[5]
• Commemorative plaque in Borgerhout, Antwerp: 2006^[6]
• CyclingRanking - Overall all time ranking (43rd place): 2022^[7]