# 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 death of his great idol. Tens of thousands of Antwerp people saluted the corpse of their Stanneke whose body was buried in Antwerp Sportpaleis.
A year later, a monument was built in Les Forges, Sprimont, in the south of Belgium.

## Career achievements
### Road
#### 1941

    1st Scheldeprijs
    1st Antwerp Province championship

#### 1943

    3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    3rd Schaal Sels

#### 1944

    1st Bruxelles-Everbeek
    4th Overall Omloop van België

#### 1946

    1st Scheldeprijs
    1st Heist-op-den-Berg
    1st Bruxelles–Sint-Truiden
    1st Antwerp Province championship
    5th Gent–Wevelgem

#### 1947

    3rd Overall Tour de Suisse
    4th La Flèche Wallonne
    5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    6th Overall Tour de Luxembourg

#### 1948

    1st Overall Tour of Belgium
    2nd Omloop der Vlaamse Ardennen
    2nd Dwars door West-Vlaanderen
    3rd Gullegem Koerse

#### 1949

    7th Overall Tour de France

#### 1950

    2nd Overall Tour de France
       1st Stage 4
    2nd Critérium des As
    7th Road race, UCI World Road Championships
    8th Overall Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    8th Road race, National Road Championships

#### 1951

    5th Overall Tour de France
    6th Bordeaux–Paris

#### 1952

    2nd Overall Tour de France
    2nd Overall Roma–Napoli–Roma
       1st Stage 4a
    2nd Overall Vuelta a Argentina
       1st Stage 3
    2nd La Flèche Wallonne
    3rd Overall Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    6th Overall Giro d'Italia
    10th Road race, UCI World Road Championships
    10th Road race, National Road Championships

#### 1953

    1st La Flèche Wallonne
    2nd Overall Roma–Napoli–Roma
       1st Stage 4
    2nd Critérium des As
    2nd Overall Week-end ardennais
    2nd Gran Premio di Lugano
    3rd Road race, UCI World Road Championships
    3rd Road race, National Road Championships
    3rd Overall Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    4th Giro di Lombardia
    4th Bordeaux–Paris
    6th Overall Giro d'Italia

#### 1954

    1st Schaal Sels
    2nd Paris–Roubaix
    5th Bordeaux–Paris
    6th Overall Tour de France
       1st Stage 11
    6th Milan–San Remo

#### 1955

    1st Road race, UCI World Road Championships
    1st Overall Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    1st Overall Week-end ardennais
    1st La Flèche Wallonne
    1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    1st Trophée Gentil
    1st Stage 1b (TTT) Driedaagse van Antwerpen
    2nd Overall Tour de Suisse
    2nd Grand Prix Martini
    2nd De Drie Zustersteden
    2nd Bruxelles–Couvin
    3rd Critérium des As
    5th Paris–Brussels
    8th Overall Tour de France
       1st Points classification
    9th Paris–Tours

#### 1956

    1st Overall Roma–Napoli–Roma
       1st Stages 1b, 3b, 4b, 5a & 5b
    2nd Tour of Flanders
    2nd Bordeaux–Paris
    2nd Grand Prix Martini
    3rd Overall Challenge Desgrange-Colombo
    4th Road race, UCI World Road Championships
    4th La Flèche Wallonne
    5th Classica Sarda
    6th Gent–Wevelgem
    8th Overall Tour de France
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 19
    9th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
       1st Stages 5 & 9
    10th Milan–San Remo

### Track
#### 1948

    3rd Six Days of Antwerp (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

#### 1951

    1st Six Days of Brussels (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

#### 1953

    1st Prix de Salon (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    3rd Six Days of Brussels (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

#### 1954

    1st Six Days of Ghent (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    2nd Six Days of Brussels (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    2nd Six Days of Berlin (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    3rd Six Days of Antwerp (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

#### 1955

    National Championships
       1st Madison (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    1st Six Days of Antwerp (with Rik Van Steenbergen)
    2nd Six Days of Ghent II (with Ferdinando Terruzzi)
    2nd Six Days of Brussels (with Jean Brankart)
    3rd Six Days of Ghent I (with Rik Van Steenbergen)

#### 1956

    1st Six Days of Antwerp (with Reginald Arnold and Jean Roth)

### 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 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |

## Awards and honours

* Trophée Edmond Gentil: 1955
* Grote Prijs Stan Ockers, a derny race in Antwerp: from 1956
* Officer in the Belgian Order of Leopold II: 1957
* 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
* 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
* Introduced in the UCI Hall of Fame: 2002
* Mémoire du Cyclisme - Ranking of the Greatest Cyclists (44th place): 2002
* Commemorative plaque in Borgerhout, Antwerp: 2006
* CyclingRanking - Overall all time ranking (43rd place): 2022