How to Wear a Cycling Cap: Patrick Sercu

When riders have careers as huge as did Patrick Sercu, attempting to explain it with a few sentences seems rather trite, inadequately pale and hollow. Considered by many to be the greatest track cyclist of all time, and the King of the Six-Day races Sercu, the Flemish Arrow, tallied eighty-eight six-day victories (or 83, depending on where you get your information), 1,206 total wins on the track, as well as 168 wins on the road. In those victories, Sercu was frequently paired with others of cycling's elite, including Eddy Merckx, Peter Post, Roger de Vlaeminck and Francesco Moser. Sercu never finished less than 2nd place at the Ghent Six-Day, finishing 1st eleven times between 1965 and 1981 (he directed the Ghent Six-Day as well as the Hasselt Six-Day following retirement), a record nearly matched in other Six-Day events too (his record in the London Six, for instance totaled eight wins, two 2nds, a 3rd and a 5th, while at the Antwerp Six he had six wins, seven 2nds and a 3rd).

Counted among his road wins are the Criterium Zolder (1964), Memorial Tom Simpson (1967), Criterium Lignano (1972), Circuit of the Flemish Ardennes (1975), Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (1977), six stages of the Tour de France, eleven stages of the Giro d'Italia, and the Points Jersey from the 1974 Tour de France, 1977 Tour Mediterraneen, and 1977 Dauphine Libere. 

Yes, when your career is as successful as was Patrick Sercu's you can wear a cycling cap anyway you want, even crooked and in jest. Patrick Sercu (1944-2019).

Patrick Sercu (left) with Roger De Vlaeminck