CyclistPro team history: SoloBy the mid-1960s there was little that Classics supremo Rik Van Looy hadnt achieved in cycling. The Emperor of Herentals had been in the professional ranks for more than a decade and had enjoyed a remarkable career, winning all five Monuments and claiming a couple of rainbow jerseys as well as multiple stage wins at each of the Tour de France, Giro dItalia and Vuelta a Espaa.Van Looy had ridden for a variety of teams during that time, most notably the leading Faema outfit between 1956 to 1962, during which he took the bulk of his major one-day wins. And while he may now have been closer to the end of his career than the start, he remained one of the sports biggest names.So when he signed to the Solo-Superia team for 1964, team management would have been confident they were getting a born winner, someone who could surely bring them victories in the very biggest of one-day races, something that had been missing over the previous three years of the teams existence. Meanwhile Van Looy, who had spent the past year riding for, in the words of Ren de Latour, the modest Libertas bike firm, would have hoped to add to his already impressive Monument haul.As it turned out, Van Looys first year in the red jersey of Solo-Superia was a little leaner than both he and the team would have hoped. His best results were a handful of victories, including Harelbeke (the E3 Saxo Classic today) and the Tour of Luxembourg, along with top five placings at Paris-Tours, Milan-San Remo and Gent-Wevelgem a decent return for many riders but an average season for a rider of Van Looys pedigree. Related Posts Cyclist Magazine Podcast: The legend of Eddy Merckx, with Lee Donaldson Pro team history: Bianchi Pro team history: Kas Pro team history: Carpano Before 1964 Van Looy had ridden a large number of six-day events alongside Rik Van Steenbergen. Going into 1965 a different approach was called for and Van Looy sacrificed much of the lucrative winter track season to focus preparations on the upcoming road season. The decision paid off. In February he won five of six stages and the overall at the Giro di Sardegna in a race dominated by Solo-Superia.The Belgian is in better form than hes perhaps ever been in his long career, wrote Gigi Boccacini after the penultimate stage. A successful defence of his Harelbeke title followed the following month.Nevertheless, as Van Looys attention turned to Paris-Roubaix, not all observers were convinced that he was back to his old self, questioning whether he could still compete in the most prestigious races.Tomorrow, Van Looy will ride an important race, full of uncertainty, ran a preview in Lquipe. In Roubaix we will finally know if he still deserves the title of Emperor, or if, on the contrary, he is sliding down the slope of decline, as Nol For and Willy Vannitsen, his sworn enemies, have been asserting for two years now.Rik Van Looy leads the Vuelta in 1965. Having just won Paris-Roubaix, he took eight stage wins to silence those who believed he was in decline.Offside / L'EquipeThe Emperor strikes backAccording to Pierre Chany, Van Looys move to Solo-Superia at least meant he was again surrounded by a solid team men who know how to thin out a peloton, to organise an echelon in a few seconds and to spare no effort to facilitate their leaders moves.So it would prove on the road to Roubaix. In a race that only featured some 22km of cobbled roads, Van Looy was in the leading group of 11 alongside his Solo-Superia teammate Edward Ward Sels as the race climaxed. When Rolf Wolfshohl attacked, Sels marked the move, enabling Van Looy to come back to the front. Then, with 10km to go, Van Looy made his move.For five kilometres he saw his eight companions lose ground, at first imperceptibly, then very noticeably, Chany later quoted from Lquipes race report. The fruit was ripe; all it took was the shaking of the tree for it to fall.Van Looys winning margin over Sels was a little over a minute. He called it the most beautiful win of his career.If I had failed in my attempt, Ward Sels would have counter-attacked, Van Looy said afterwards. Honestly, he would have won Paris-Roubaix then. Lets just say I was the lucky one.The reign of the Emperor is not yet over, reported Dutch daily Leidsch Dagblad. A little over two weeks later Van Looy was at the Vuelta where he won eight of 18 stages and the points classification. At the Tour he won the opening stage from Cologne to Lige. It was the first time Van Looy had claimed the famous leaders jersey. It was not however the first yellow jersey for the team, Sels having won the Tours first stage the previous year. Both would wear the jersey for two days.Van Looys Paris-Roubaix victory was the first Monument that Solo-Superia had claimed since its inception as Solo-Van Steenbergen in 1961. Solo was a brand of margarine and, as the name suggests, Rik Van Steenbergen three-time World Champion and five-time Monument winner was the outfits major name. He was in the twilight of his career, so instead it was Jos Wouters, signed in late 1961 after he had won Paris-Tours as an independent, who would claim the teams first major one-day Classic in 1962.Wouters was supremely talented and tipped as a future Monument winner for the team. Dubbed a second Van Looy, and with a large contract, Wouters managed top five finishes in Flanders and Lige-Bastogne-Lige during his time with Solo. Sadly a series of crashes ultimately forced retirement from the sport when he was just 23.In his short career he had won 43 races, reads his short bio in the book Top 1,000 Belgian Cyclists. He suffered and had to look away when he saw riders training.Instead it would be another young rider who signed his first professional contract with the team and would go on to superstardom.Top MerckxEddy Merckx had won the amateur Worlds in 1964 and in late April 1965 signed for Solo-Superia. He made his pro debut in La Flche Wallonne but abandoned. Nevertheless it wouldnt be long before the man who would become known as The Cannibal tasted success, winning the GP Stad Vilvoorde, where he outsprinted Emile Daems. A second win came in Omloop van het Houtland Torhout but Merckx would soon grow disillusioned with the team, which at the time was very much Van Looys. In the biography Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal, Daniel Friebe writes that Merckx faced incessant mockery.Van Looys speciality, on a par with his sprinting, was his sarcasm. Whether it was Merckxs fondness for rice pudding or his meek ripostes to the put-downs, everything he did was ripe for ridicule.Merckx left for Peugeot at the end of the season, winning Milan-San Remo just three months later. The 1966 season would be Solo-Superias swansong, although before they folded they claimed one more Monument.At Flanders, amid continuous rain that caused numerous crashes and ensured only 59 of the 151 starters reached the finish, Sels emerged from the sprint to claim what would turn out to be the teams final Classics win.The post Pro team history: Solo appeared first on Cyclist.