Rob Goris (16 March 1982 – 5 July 2012) was a Belgian professional

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most comm ...

who rode for

UCI Professional Continental Team The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) – the governing body of cycling – categorizes teams into three divisions. The first division, consisting of the top 18 teams, is classified as UCI WorldTeams, and competes in the UCI World Tour. The secon ...

team .

Biography

Before becoming a cyclist he competed at national level in

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

. From 1998 to 2009, Goris played ice hockey for

HYC Herentals HYC Herentals is a professional ice hockey team based in Herentals, Belgium. They play in the BeNe League and are known, for sponsorship reasons, as ERA Renomar HYC Herentals. History The club was founded in 1971. They won their first of nine Bel ...

and

Olympia Heist op den Berg Olympia Heist op den Berg is a Belgian ice hockey team in the city of Heist-op-den-Berg. They play in the newly formed BeNe-league, a joint league starting in the season 2015-2016, consisting of the top teams from the Netherlands and Belgium. The l ...

, winning the Belgian national championship three times. He also took part in three

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

with the

Belgian national team The Belgium national football team has represented Belgium in men's international football since their maiden match in 1904. The squad is under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Europe by UEFA—both of which were co-founded ...

, where he served as captain. After HYC Herentals won the title in 2009, Goris retired from the ice hockey to focus on a career in cycling. In 2010, he joined the

UCI Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

team

Palmans–Cras Palmans was a Belgian professional road bicycle racing, road and cyclo-cross cycling team that existed from 1993 until 2010. The team underwent many different name changes throughout its existence, but was always sponsored by Palmans, an internati ...

. That year, he won the

Antwerpse Havenpijl The Antwerpse Havenpijl is a European bicycle race held in Merksem, Belgium. Since 2006, the race has been organised as a 1.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were i ...

and the

Belgian National Road Race Championships The Belgian National Road Race Championship is a cycling race which decides who will become Belgian national champion for the year to come. The men's record for most wins is currently held by one of the most successful Belgian sprinters, Tom Stee ...

(Belgian national road race championship for elite riders without a professional contract).

Death

He died of a heart attack in his hotel room in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

while visiting the

2012 Tour de France The 2012 Tour de France was the 99th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées stage in the Tour de France, Champs ...

. A funeral service was held for Goris in Herentals, Belgium, at the Sint-Waldetrudis Church. A bicycle and a pair of hockey skates were placed before his urn. Former ice hockey teammates honored his memory by lining the church aisle with their jerseys and sticks as his ashes were brought inside.

Major achievements

;2010 : 1st National Amateur Road Race Championships : 1st

References

1982 births 2012 deaths Belgian male cyclists Belgian ice hockey forwards Cyclists from Herentals 21st-century Belgian sportsmen {{Belgium-cycling-bio-1980s-stub