{"id":5182,"date":"1977-11-25T10:25:47","date_gmt":"1977-11-25T09:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/1977-168-called-up-frans-van-looy-selected\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T13:32:00","slug":"1977-168-called-up-frans-van-looy-selected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/1977-168-called-up-frans-van-looy-selected\/","title":{"rendered":"1977: 168 called up, Frans Van Looy selected"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cIf there’s a bit of driving going on here, there won’t be enough swans,\u201d said the constable in the crowd before the start. \u201cI fear they’ll ask the sheriff to ride his bike behind the cars and make it clear to people that all the drivers have passed.\u201d <\/p>

Last year, the \u201cGrote Prijs Nokere Sport\u201d attracted 156 professionals to the registration table. At the time, the organizers considered all regional records to have been broken forever. Yesterday, they thought they were dreaming when they handed out number 170. They had reserved numbers 1 and 2 for Maertens and another big name\u2014it didn’t really matter who\u2014and they had also added number 171 to the stencil of the list of participants, just to be on the safe side, but that rider didn’t show up either. <\/p>

168 starters and no entry fees paid is quite an achievement. All the more so because a few stars turned up hoping to cash in on their daily training for the upcoming classics, but left offended when it became clear to them that the Nokere Koers was already a success without them. <\/p>

The Fl\u00e8che Wallonne will be held on Thursday. The course of the Nokere fairground race is a mini version of it. In many places, photos can be taken that could pass for images from the Tour of Flanders: narrow roads between quiet fields with sturdy farms, surprised cows and pigs running away, cobblestones, wind and poplars as picturesque atmospheric elements. It didn’t take long before the multicolored gang that clashed with the serenity of the Flemish landscape was scattered into small groups. On the wide concrete roads where the fresh spring breeze had free rein, the peloton was transformed into numerous echelons. The riders in the last echelon understood better than anyone that not all echelons are the same. With each passage across the finish line, quite a few bicycles were handed over the barrier to waiting family members. <\/p>

Thirteen riders broke away in the final: Ronan De Meyer, Knetemann, Vandaele (the driving force behind the race), Van Roosbroeck, Verhaegen, De Gendt, Ceruti, Linard, Zoni, Scheefs, Van Looy, Sibille, and Vandewiele. In the very last lap (which the leading group started with a minute and a half lead on the peloton), the battle erupted in all its ferocity. Serge Vandaele, very determined to win, risked everything but got Knetemann and Verhaegen on his wheel. But Vandaele cycled there on his own without much fuss. Sibille and Frankie De Gendt dragged the rest of the leading group back with them. The French champion wanted to prove in Nokere, which was unfamiliar to him, that he was not just one of the stars of the Tour of Flanders. He formed the group of six that would sprint for victory. First, he was joined by Van Looy, Verhaegen, and Ceruti. The grim Knetemann then joined them with the outstanding Vandaele. <\/p>

\u201cNokere berg,\u201d a genuine slope with real cobblestones, is not exactly a finish line for pure sprinters. The crowd, nibbling on whiting or picking at a bag of fries, firmly believed that the unleashed Knetemann, who initiated the sprint, would make it without much effort. Van Looy turned the resentment towards \u201cthat Dutchman\u201d into Flemish joy. Frans flashed past Gerrie a hundred meters before the finish line without any fuss and won by more than a length. \u201cA name that graces our list of achievements,\u201d said the happy organizers. <\/p>

Mark Dheedene<\/p>

Result : 168<\/p>

1. Frans Van Looy the 150 km. in 3 h 32 min
2. Gerrie Knetemann 3 lengths ahead
3. Roberto Ceruti (It)
4. Frans Verhaegen
5. Serge Vandaele
6. Guy Sibille (Fr) on 10 sec
7. Hubert Linard (FR)
8. Staf Van Roosbroeck
9. Eric Vande Wiele
10. Ronan Demeyer on 20 sec
11. Carlo Zoni (It)
12. Willy Scheers on 25 sec
13. Franky De Gendt
14. Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke
15. Paul Clinckart
16. Robert Mintkiewicz (Fr)
17. Willy Teirlinck
18. Vitorio Algeri (It)
19. Daniel Verplancke
20. Eddy Cael
21. Alfons Van Katwijk (Nl)
22. Benny Schepmans
23. Walter Naegels
24. Frank Arijs
25. Tino Tabak (Nl)
26. Raf Constant
27. Maurizio Bellet
28. Serge Aubec (Fr)
29. Jacques Martin
30. Hugo Van Gastel<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf there’s a bit of driving going on here, there won’t be enough swans,\u201d said the constable in the crowd before the start. \u201cI fear they’ll ask the sheriff to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-194"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5183,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions\/5183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nokerekoerse.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}