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Rik Van Linden

road bicycle racer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ978000 ↗
Source-derived summary

Rik Van Linden (born 28 July 1949 in Wilrijk, Antwerp) is a Belgian former road bicycle racer. He won the points classification in the 1975 Tour de France, ahead of Eddy Merckx.

Van Linden also won several stages in all of the three Grand Tours, and the classic cycle race Paris–Tours twice (1971, 1973).

Through his career, he eventually won 359 races, of which 73 as junior cyclist in 1968.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rik Van Linden” as road bicycle racer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1975, 1971, 1973—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1949-07-28. The account is most persuasive where Linden, road and bicycle can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as road bicycle racer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q978000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1975, 1971 and 1973.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rik Van Linden”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rik Van Linden primary sources, Rik Van Linden archive and Linden research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rik Van Linden”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rik Van Linden” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.