Impe impe impe impe...impe!

Pieter and I were chatting about today's results, and he wondered out loud whether the current Van Impe was the son of one of his old favorites, Lucien Van Impe.  A little googling turns up the full extent of the Van Impe dynasty (with a huge tip of the helmet to the good work done at the Cyclingwebsite.)  

Lucien, the uncle, you probably have heard of.  "The small guy from Mere." His wins stretch from a first in the 1968 Tour de l'Avenir and include such oddities as 2nd in the Manx international (who knew?) as well as tons of stage wins in most of the major tours, and a not-insignificant haul of climbers' jerseys (polka-dotted and otherwise) tapering off to a last gasp in 1987, and an additional career off the bike.

Lucien's brother is Frank Van Impe. A specialist in minor races, but clearly first-rate in passing along skills and attitude to his son, the current Van Impe.

Three other Van Impes are given as cousins of Frank and Lucien, but they seem to be cousins, removed (based on the dates).

Achiel (racing in 1949/50), Remi and Constant were 3 racing brothers (with very cool names, no?)  Constant won the 1931 Ronde Van Vlanderen, and it looks like he was also the Belgian champion in 1934.  Remi came in 3rd in the 1927 Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen.  Needless to say, this makes it much cooler that the current Van Impe has done well in some of the same strange (to me) small(er) races won by other Impes in their day, like Lede and [ahem] Buggenhout.  (Which sounds like something you tell the other guy to do, when he's sucking your wheel.)  A Scheldeprijs for him, too, someday?  How nice that would be.