Peter Post

Peter Post in 1977
Personal information
Full name	Peter Post
Nickname	De Keizer van de Zesdaagse (The Kaiser of the Six-days)
Born	(1933-11-12)12 November 1933 Amsterdam, theNetherlands
Died	14 January 2011(2011-01-14) (aged 77) Amstelveen, the Netherlands
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road/Track
Role	Rider
Managerial teams
1974–1983	TI–Raleigh
1984–1992	Panasonic–Raleigh
1993–1994	Novemail–Histor–Laser Computer
Major wins
Paris–Roubaix (1964) National road race champion (1963)

Peter Post (12 November 1933 – 14 January 2011) was a Dutch professional cyclist whose career lasted from 1956 to 1972. Post competed inroad andtrack racing. As a rider he is best remembered forSix-day racing, having competed in 155 races and won 65. Because of this success he was known as “De Keizer van de Zesdaagse” or “The Emperor of the Six Days”. In road racing his main achievements were winning the 1964Paris–Roubaix and becoming national road race champion in 1963. He was on the podium three times at theLa Flèche Wallonne but never won. Post’s other nickname was “de Lange” or “Big Man”, because he was tall for a cyclist.^[1] After retiring from racing he had success as adirecteur sportif. Post died in Amstelveen on 14 January 2011.^[2][3]

Post turned professional in 1956 with the small Dutch team R.I.H. He rode for the first few years withGerrit Schulte, a track rider who also rode on the road and was an inspiration to him. Notable early career successes on the road came when he won theRonde van Nederland in 1960 and the 1962Deutschland Tour. In 1963 he becamenational road race champion as well as winning theTour of Belgium.

Post in 1960

Peter Post in the Tour the France of 1979 at the height of his success as directeur sportif

In 1964 Post had his finest moment in road racing when he became the first Dutchman to win Paris–Roubaix. The race was run at top speed from the start and favouritesRik Van Looy,Raymond Poulidor andRudi Altig were caught out by the fast pace and missed the decisive break atArras. Post’s team mate, Willy Bocklant, was in the break and sacrificed his chances by keeping the pace high for his leader. Five riders entered thevelodrome atRoubaix with Post winning the sprint by beating the world championBenoni Beheyt in the finishing straight. The high pace ensured that Post was also awarded theRuban Jaune for the highest speed in a classic, the 265 km run at 45.131 km/h. This 1964 record was broken in 2017 byGreg Van Avermaet .^[4][5]

Post was delighted with his victory, but always the businessman, his delight was increased when he realised his appearance money at the winter six-day races would be increased. In 1965 Post made his only appearance in theTour de France but he abandoned beforeParis. (He subsequently acknowledged that he had doped at the Tour de France.^[6]) His only other noteworthy result on the road came in 1967 when he finished runner-up toEddy Merckx inLa Flèche Wallonne although he had wins in smaller races. Post was votedDutch Sportsman of the year in 1964 and Dutch cyclist of the year in 1963 and 1970.^[7]

Post rode his first six-day in 1956 and his first victory came in 1957 inChicago, partnered by Harm Smits. Post had three partners with whom he had most success. In 1960 he teamed with Rik Van Looy and won ten sixes. In 1963 he formed his most successful partnership with the SwissFritz Pfenninger and they had 19 victories until 1967, when Post joined the BelgianPatrick Sercu, with whom he had 14 victories up to 1971 and his final and 65th six-day inFrankfurt. Post's 65 six-day wins stood as a record for a few years, beatingRik Van Steenbergen's 40 wins when at theMilan six in 1968 when partnered byGianni Motta. However, since thenRené Pijnen (72 wins), Danny Clark (74 wins) and Patrick Sercu (88 wins) have all passed Post's total with Sercu as the new record holder.

Post won the Dutchindividual pursuit championships six times between 1957 and 1963. He took 14 European track titles (mostlymadison andderny races). In 1965 inAntwerp he set the derny-paced hour record of 63.783 km, beatingStan Ockers' record which had stood for nine years.

Post retired from riding in 1972 and becamedirecteur sportif of theTI–Raleigh team in 1974. He was a former rider who knew the inside of cycling but also a shrewd businessman who could negotiate with sponsors. Post had a reputation of being hard on riders but his success with TI–Raleigh was exceptional. Post had riders such asHennie Kuiper,Gerrie Knetemann,Jan Raas andJoop Zoetemelk (all Dutch), one of the best squads in the world for a decade. Most impressive was the 1980 edition of theTour de France. TheTI–Raleigh team won 11 stages andJoop Zoetemelk won overall.

In 1983 Raleigh pulled out of sponsorship and Post found a new backer inPanasonic. The success continued, this time with mainly non-Dutch riders such asPhil Anderson,Eric Vanderaerden,Viatcheslav Ekimov,Olaf Ludwig andMaurizio Fondriest. After the withdrawal of Panasonic, Post led the Histor and then Novemail teams before leaving cycling in 1995. As of September 2020, he is ranked as the seventh most successful director of all time byCycling Ranking.^[8] Post returned to cycling as an adviser to theRabobank team in 2005.^[9] He died on 14 January 2011.

• List of doping cases in cycling

• Cycling Heroes, Les Woodland, Springfield Books,ISBN 1-85688-042-7
• A Century of Paris–Roubaix, Pascal Sergent, Bromley Books,ISBN 0-9531729-0-2

Media related toPeter Post (cyclist) at Wikimedia Commons

• 1933 births
• 2011 deaths
• Dutch male cyclists
• Directeur sportifs
• Dutch track cyclists
• Cyclists from Amsterdam
• Dutch sportspeople in doping cases
• Doping cases in cycling
• UCI Road World Championships cyclists for the Netherlands
• 20th-century Dutch sportsmen

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