 He competed in the individual road race at the 1972 Summer Olympics.After his career as a cyclist, Van Looy worked as a team manager with Team Telekom and T-Mobile until 2006. and had helped run his family's farm in Merksem.However, a local government order ruled that Van Looy could no longer live at the farm, despite a petition signed by 3,000 people to preserve the residence that Van Looy had been born in.