As the kilometres click by, Herman Vanspringel grows more confused. He is in his first full season as a professional rider and is tackling the Milan-San Remo Classic for the first time.

Vanspringel has heard tales of the terrible climbs they would endure on the way to San Remo but the race is hours old and he is still at the front of the race. Where are these capi he has been warned about? The ones the Italians were always talking about? He catches the eye of an Italian rider, draws the shape of a mountain in the air and points ahead. How long before these capi come? The Italian shakes his head and points behind. The capi are done and dusted. Vanspringel hadn’t even noticed them.

As the finish approaches Vanspringel is still in the leading group of 11 riders. Feeling good but wanting to avoid a sprint to the finish, he launches his bid with around a kilometre to go. The Italian Adriano Durante reacts fastest and drags the small group back. Vanspringel’s effort has shown his strength and intent but now it means that when the final sprint finally unfurls he has already lit one match too many.

Even so, as a 20-year-old Eddy Merckx powers to the finish line to take the first of a record seven wins in the race, Vanspringel isn’t beaten by much. He finishes third, behind Durante and only a bike length or so from Merckx.

Four days later Vanspringel is back in Belgium for Gent-Wevelgem. Alongside him on the start line are the likes of Jacques Anquetil, Rik Van Looy and, once more, Merckx. Vanspringel again attacks off the front, this time on the descent of the Kemmelberg, and only fellow Belgian Noël Vanclooster goes with him. Now the attack sticks. There is no coming back for the bunch and Vanspringel takes the two-up sprint to record the biggest win of his young career to date. He has truly announced himself on the international stage.

‘Belgians greet Vanspringel tonight as a great revelation in cycling,’ reports the Italian daily La Stampa. ‘They speak of him as the probable successor, with Merckx, of the timeless Van Looy.’

From farming stock

It is December 2022 and Luc Wuyts is talking to me over the phone from his home in Belgium. He is about to explain how he came to know Vanspringel as well as he did when there is a ringing in the background. ‘Just a minute,’ he says, ‘I have to take my cakes out of the oven.’

This feature was first planned as an interview piece with Vanspringel. Arrangements had been made to visit in spring 2020 but the Covid pandemic hit, and while Cyclist was able to source a photographer in Belgium to photograph him, the interview itself got pushed back due to the travel restrictions. Then, as lockdowns eased, a series of sad events meant that Vanspringel wasn’t in a position to be interviewed. In November 2021 he underwent surgery following the discovery of a brain tumour and, after a period of slight recovery, he sadly passed away in August 2022. He was 79.

I found Wuyts through the organisers of the Herman Vanspringel Diamond, an under-17 race introduced in 1988, with Tom Boonen, Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle among the riders who have stood on its podium. Wuyts used to organise the race and, in 2020, published a book about the event and Vanspringel’s career.

Wuyts comes back from his oven and picks up his story. ‘In my local grocery store there were packs of chewing gum that came with photocards of cycle racers,’ he says. ‘The card of Herman said that he had the potential for a great professional career. So that was the beginning for me. From that point I started to follow his career.’

Born in 1943, Vanspringel was one of ten children. ‘I grew up in Oevel,’ he once told an interviewer. ‘My parents worked on the farm… “as many children as cows,” they always laughed.’

Vanspringel started riding in local bike races after his older brother asked if he wanted to race. He didn’t really want to compete but he did want a bike and so agreed.

‘I immediately won four village races with it,’ he said. ‘Then you start to think there might be more to it after all.’

Vanspringel later moved to Grobbendonk, a small town near Antwerp. He turned professional in July 1965, signing for the Dr Mann-Grundig team and winning his first pro race just six days later. He developed into a strong rider, able to sustain a high pace for long periods. He was best when riding alone.

‘Herman told me he was afraid to cycle in the peloton,’ Wuyts says. ‘Sometimes when the bunch split into small groups, Herman took the other side of the road but kept up with the group for kilometre after kilometre. You have to be strong to do that.’

A fine 17-year career followed. He amassed more than 130 career wins including the Tour of Lombardy, the result that, according to Wuyts, Vanspringel was most proud of, escaping in the final 4km of such a famous race to beat Franco Bitossi and Merckx into Como.

Other notable wins included back-to-back Grand Prix des Nations, the Trofeo Baracchi, Belgium’s national road race championship, seven Bordeaux-Paris and five stages at the Tour. On top of that he recorded podium results in Paris-Roubaix (twice), Milan-San Remo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, all three Grand Tours and the Worlds. He also claimed the green jersey at the Tour. Yet despite achieving all this – far more than most riders could dream of – Vanspringel was unfairly derided by some as a perennial runner-up. That stemmed from his second place at the Tour in 1968, when he lost yellow on the final day (see below).

Instead Vanspringel should be celebrated for his consistency over such a long career and his all-round cycling ability, says Eric Peeters, a fellow Grobbendonk resident and cyclist who also knew Vanspringel well.

‘He had a little bit of everything, except maybe sprinting – that was his weakest part,’ Peeters says. ‘He could do everything else. And to be a professional for so long you have to take care of yourself – good training, rest well, not party too much. You have to sacrifice a lot of things.’

The Derby King

Last held in 1988, Bordeaux-Paris was a unique race. More than 550km long and dubbed the ‘Derby of the Road’, the once-prestigious event brought a 2am start and long hours of riding through the dark before collecting pacers for the race into Paris. I was researching a story on the race back in 2016 and, through Peeters, Vanspringel was kind enough to offer some insight into what it was like to prepare for and ride an event that was quite unlike any other on the calendar.

It was a race he had first entered in 1967 though he was uncertain at the time whether it was a good idea to ride.

‘I had doubts about the distance, how it would be to ride 600km, how to follow a pacer,’ he told me. ‘Everyone told me that such a race was not good for a young rider because it was too long and hard and could [negatively] impact my career.’

In the end his career would be defined by the race: ten starts, a record seven wins, never finishing off the podium.

‘It demanded special training,’ he said. ‘The weeks before you would train in the morning, ride a race, and then afterwards you’d ride home behind a derny to get used to riding a lot of kilometres in one day. The pacer was very important. I rode behind Gaston De Wachter. He was like a friend to me. We trusted each other completely. We both knew what each other could do and how the other would react.’

Vanspringel’s most famous Bordeaux-Paris win came in 1974. He was leading the race by around ten minutes when, although following the official cars and police outriders, he realised he hadn’t seen any spectators for a while. He had been led off course. The officials got their maps out and worked out a way back to the race route. By then his lead had been more than halved.

Such was Vanspringel’s superiority that he still won by 15 minutes. But then came a message that his win wouldn’t stand.

‘After the ceremonials a journalist told me I was disqualified,’ he reflected. ‘I couldn’t believe it.’

As Vanspringel hadn’t stayed on course the win was instead to be awarded to the second-placed rider Régis Délepine, even though Vanspringel had actually ridden further than the new winner.

‘One month later it was decided to give us both first place. I got the money for first place and it was on my palmarès so it was OK.’

A modest champion

What comes across most when speaking with people who met Vanspringel is the kindness and warmth he had for others. After photographer Kevin Faingnaert took the images that accompany this piece, he sent me a note telling me about the day.

‘Cyclists were passing by all the time, and it seemed like Herman knew each and every one of them,’ he said. ‘Herman was very friendly and did everything I asked. Afterwards he offered me a Rochefort, his favourite beer. It’s a well-known Trappist beer. He drinks it after every ride. I’m sure you would have gotten a Rochefort too if you were able to be there.’

It is clear that Wuyts and Peeters have a real fondness for the man Vanspringel was. He was modest, they say – a person who treated everybody equally; a man who, for all his achievements, in no way thought of himself as special or different from anyone else.

‘When he became an honorary citizen of Grobbendonk there was a dinner where he spoke about his career,’ says Peeters. ‘He was very emotional about that but he wouldn’t have chosen it for himself. He said, “I am just a normal person; it is not necessary for you to do this for me.”’

Wuyts thinks this modest nature may have actually cost Vanspringel some victories: ‘The first time he won a race as a junior and had to go onto a podium he was afraid to go up there, to receive the kisses of the girl presenting him his prize. He never wanted to be the centre of attention. I think sometimes he lost races because subconsciously he was afraid of that. It was always a big struggle for him – the ambition to win but a fear of the spotlight.’

I wonder whether he ever regretted that reticence, ever thought that it cost him. Faingnaert told me that the day he met Vanspringel he still seemed sad about finishing second in the 1968 Tour, even though 50 years had passed, and that it seemed to cast a shadow over the career he’d had.

Wuyts has a different take: ‘My feeling is that he was very proud of what he achieved. He enjoyed every victory and was proud that he wore the yellow jersey through Belgium during the Tour. I don’t feel that he regretted anything. As a young boy he never expected to achieve what he did in cycling. The only slight regret I think he had was that races like Bordeaux-Paris and the Grand Prix des Nations no longer exist and so no one talks about them anymore. He thought that meant people had perhaps forgotten him in a small way.’

Herman Vanspringel: a racer of rare talent for those who saw him ride; a man of modesty and warmth for those who knew how he lived. Remember him.

Belgian pride

Herman Vanspringel’s career timeline

1943: Born 14th August in Ranst, Belgium.

1962: Wins the amateur edition of Omloop Het Volk. At least one report incorrectly states his nationality as Dutch.

1964: Wins the eight-stage amateur Tour of Belgium by 17 seconds.

1965: Rides strongly for Belgium at the Peace Race in May until forced to abandon. Signs for the Dr Mann-Grundig team in late July. Takes his first professional win six days later.

1966: Announces himself on the international stage by finishing third in Milan-San Remo. Four days later outsprints Noël Vanclooster to win Gent-Wevelgem. Makes his Tour debut, finishing sixth as the best-placed Belgian.

1967: Claims the first of an eventual five Tour stage wins.

1968: Wins a host of premier one-day races including the Tour of Lombardy. Finishes second at the Tour, Paris-Roubaix and the Worlds.

1969: Wins both the GP des Nations and the Trofeo Baracchi, the latter alongside Joaquim Agostinho.

1970: Claims the first of an eventual seven Bordeaux-Paris titles. Finishes third overall at the Vuelta a España. In October defends his GP des Nations title.

1971: After signing for Eddy Merckx’s Molteni team he finishes second at the Giro d’Italia, completing his suite of Grand Tour podium places. Crowned national champion after escaping the bunch and soloing to a near two-minute win.

1973: Joins the Rokado team. Claims the green jersey at the Tour after placing in the top ten in 17 stages.

1981: Hangs up his wheels. His final win comes in October in a 150km criterium in Boom.

2008: Takes retirement after more than 25 years in sales.

2022: Dies on 25th August, aged 79 years.

The Tour that got away

In 1968, Herman Vanspringel came within a whisker of winning the Tour de France

It is the quietness that friend Luc Wuyts remembers most. On 21st July 1968, just as the Tour de France was concluding with a 55km time-trial into Paris, the then 13-year-old Wuyts was watching a local bike race on the streets of Kalmthout, just north of Antwerp.

‘To my young eyes there were thousands there,’ Wuyts says. ‘A house by the finish line had a radio by an open window so updates from Paris could be relayed over the loudspeaker.’

Herman Vanspringel, born just 25km away, was leading. His margin was slender – 12 seconds over Spain’s Gregorio San Miguel, with the Dutchman Jan Janssen a further four seconds back – but Vanspringel was one of the strongest against the clock. Surely a Belgian was going to win for the first time since 1939.

‘Everyone thought Herman was going to win the Tour,’ recalls Wuyts. ‘There was a great atmosphere.’

Then Janssen started to eat into Vanspringel’s lead. Sixteen seconds became ten, then five. Kalmthout got nervous.

‘Every time the speaker relayed the news that Janssen was getting closer to Herman, the atmosphere fell a little,’ Wuyts says.

Janssen would win the stage by 54 seconds, lifting yellow from Vanspringel’s shoulders at the last possible moment. In the aftermath Vanspringel was photographed being consoled, head bowed, an interviewer knelt before him seeking answers. Years later Vanspringel said he still couldn’t explain how Janssen had taken so much time from him that day.

‘When the announcer said that Jan Janssen had won the Tour the crowd fell so quiet,’ Wuyts remembers of that day in Kalmthout. ‘It was unbelievable. I have never forgotten it.’