.jpg) Zoetemelk in 1971 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Gerardus Joseph Zoetemelk |
| Born | (1946-12-03)3 December 1946 (age 78) The Hague, Netherlands |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Weight | 68 kg (150 lb; 10 st 10 lb) |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Retired |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | All-round |
| Professional teams | |
| 1970–1972 | Flandria–Mars |
| 1973–1974 | Gitane–Frigécrème |
| 1975–1979 | Gan–Mercier–Hutchinson |
| 1980–1981 | TI–Raleigh–Creda |
| 1982–1983 | COOP–Mercier–Mavic |
| 1984–1987 | Kwantum–Decosol–Yoko |
| Major wins | |
Grand Tours
| |
Medal record | |
Gerardus Joseph"Joop" Zoetemelk (pronounced[joːpˈsutəmɛl(ə)k];[a] born 3 December 1946) is a Dutch former professional racingcyclist. He started and finished theTour de France 16 times, which were both records when he retired. He also holds the distance record in Tour de France history with 62,885 km ridden. He won the1979 Vuelta a España and the1980 Tour de France.
Besides winning the Tour de France he also finished the Tour in 8th, 5th, 4th (three times) and 2nd (six times) place for a total of eleven top 5 finishes which is a record.[1] He was the first rider to wear the Tour de France'spolka dot jersey as the King of the Mountains and even though he never won this classification in the Tour de France, he did win it in the1971 Vuelta a España and was considered one of the best climbers of his generation.
If not for a ten minute time penalty for a doping infraction in1977, he would have finished in the top 5 in each of the first 12 Tours he entered.
He won theWorld Professional Road Championship in 1985 at the age of 38, with a late attack surprising the favorites ofLeMond,Roche,Argentin andMillar. He completed a total of 16 World Championships which is notable considering more than half the field abandons nearly every World Championship and in addition to his win he has come in the top 10 seven other times. As of 2024, he is the oldest men's individual road race world champion.[2]
His record number of starts in the Tour de France was surpassed whenGeorge Hincapie started for the 17th time, but Hincapie was disqualified from three tours in October 2012, for doping offenses, giving the number of starts record back to Zoetemelk. Nobody other than Zoetemelk achieved sixteen Tour de France finishes untilSylvain Chavanel did so in the2018 Tour de France. Currently, three riders have had more than 16 starts in the Tour de France, but no one has yet exceeded the record of finishing the event 16 times. He retired from the sport to run a hotel atMeaux, France.[3]
Zoetemelk was raised inRijpwetering,[4] the son of Maria and Gerard Zoetemelk.[5] He started working as a carpenter. He became a speed-skater[6] and a regional champion before turning to cycling in 1964.[6] He joined the Swift club inLeiden and made a fast impression, winning youth races in his first season. He rode particularly well as a senior in multi-day races. He won the Tour of Yugoslavia, the Circuit des Mines, three stages and the mountains prize in the Tour of Austria, and the 1969 Tour de l'Avenir.[7] He also won a gold medal at the1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City in the100 km team time-trial withFedor den Hertog,Jan Krekels andRené Pijnen.[8]
Zoetemelk turned professional forBriek Schotte's Belgian Mars–Flandria team in 1970.[7][9] Initially he was riding in support of team leaderRoger De Vlaeminck, but the Belgian abandoned the race due to a crash near the end of the first week. Zoetemelk proved to be by far the strongest remaining rider on the team. Of his teammates who finished the race the highest placed was 69th, with the majority of others coming in the range of 80th to 100th place. While he admitted thatEddy Merckx was the strongest rider in the world in that year's Tour de France, and was not challenging him for victory, he managed to finish on the podium in 2nd place and was the only rider to finish within 15:00 of Merckx during his first two Tour victories in1969 and1970.
He would wear theyellow jersey for the first time in the1971 Tour de France, following a stage in which he,Luis Ocaña andBernard Thévenet were able to drop Merckx for the first time. On stage 10 however, Ocaña stole the show in one of the most memorable attacks in Tour history taking the jersey from Zoetemelk and distancing all of the other favorites. On stage 14 Ocaña and Zoetemelk were involved in one of the most famous crashes in Tour history on theCol de Menté. Zoetemelk managed to survive the impact but Ocaña was seriously injured and had to be taken to the hospital. From that point on Merckx would lead the race and Zoetemelk would finish 2nd for the second consecutive year.
He wore the yellow jersey for the second time after winning the Prologue in the1973 Tour de France, which took place in his home country of the Netherlands. He also picked up another stage win in that year's edition.
Zoetemelk wonParis–Nice, the Semana Catalana and theTour de Romandie in 1974. He then had a near-death experience during a violent crash, once again involving Luis Ocaña, except this time Zoetemelk had to be taken to the hospital as he crashed heavily into a car left unattended at the finish of theMidi Libre in Valras-Plage, France. He cracked his skull and came close to dying.[10]
He returned the next season to win Paris–Nice again, and then caughtmeningitis. He never fully recovered and the head injury reduced his sense of taste. Nevertheless, he won 20 races that season, including Paris–Nice, the Tour of Holland and the Dwars door Lausanne and a stage of the Tour de France. He also came fourth in the 1975 Tour de France. Duringthat year's Tour he won stage 15 and finished strongly overall, placing behind only Thévenet, Merckx andLucien Van Impe in a Tour where the next closest contenders were close to 20:00 or more behind the winner.
In the1976 Tour de France he won stage 9 up Alp d'Huez by :03 in a hard-fought climb where he and Van Impe dropped all other riders and were alone crossing the finish. In stage 10 Zoetemelk once again won the stage, this time beating Van Impe and Thévenet by just one second, in the process coming within just seven seconds of the Yellow Jersey. On stage 14 however, Van Impe attacked and for all intents and purposes won the tour. Zoetemelk would win again on Stage 20 but he remained more than 4:00 behind Van Impe as every other rider was more than 12:00 back.
In the1977 Tour de France he would have the worst Tour placing of his career up to that point, which was partially because he was penalized ten minutes and had a stage win revoked. He still finished in the Top 10 overall.[11][12]
During the1978 Tour de France he won stage 14 and going into the stage on Alp d'Huez Zoetemelk,Michel Pollentier and Tour debutantBernard Hinault were separated from one another by only 0:18. At the end of the stage he led Hinault by +0:14 but was 2nd in the overall classification to Pollentier; however due to the Pollentier doping incident following the post-stage drug test, he took over theyellow jersey. He rode strongly and kept his narrow lead, which he would hold for several stages before losing it to Hinault on the final time trial.
In 1979 he rode theVuelta a España for the second time in his career. He previously rode the1971 edition where he placed 6th overall and won theKing of the Mountains competition. He would win the1979 edition.[13]
In the1979 Tour de France he survived the "hell of the north" cobbles ofRoubaix on Stage 9, which is a notorious stage where several riders can get multiple flat tires and there are always many crashes. Zoetemelk survived with four other riders in the winning group, won 3:45 over the next finishers and moved into the yellow jersey, which he would hold for 6 stages. Following the stage 11 time trial it was a two-way battle between him and Hinault and it was possible that he would win the Vuelta-Tour Double.
Hinault steadily chipped away at Zoetemelk's lead and then steadily built his lead over Zoetemelk while all other GC contenders were distanced further and further. Zoetemelk was able to drop Hinault onAlpe d'Huez and claim the stage win. He was able to take back just under a minute, but he needed to win by +3:00.
In the end Hinault would keep the lead and he and Zoetemelk finished nearly a half hour ahead of the rest of the field as Zoetemelk refused to give up and attacked on the final stage into Paris. It was not enough to break Hinault however as he took 2nd place on the podium for the 5th time.
The following year he was riding with a new team in TI–Raleigh, who was one of the strongest cycling teams in the world and they grew even stronger after signing Zoetemelk. At one point in this Tour TI–Raleigh won seven stages in a row, one of which was an ITT won by Zoetemelk where he gained 1:39 on Hinault and pulled within 0:21 of the overall lead prior to the first stages in the high mountains. Hinault withdrew and Zoetemelk remained the strongest rider in the Tour despite suffering a violent crash on Stage 16 which cut his arm and leg open. He would also claim another stage win during the final ITT winning the1980 Tour de France by nearly 7:00 overHennie Kuiper andRaymond Martin.
In 1981 he would finish 4th overall and he would finish 2nd for the 6th and final time during the1982 Tour de France. While he was in his late 30s during his final Tours between 1982 and 1986 and was no longer a pre-race favorite he still remained the strongest GCgeneral classification rider on his team and always had a respectable placing in the overall standings. Including in his final Tour, which he rode wearing therainbow jersey as reigning World Champion and late in his career he was still good enough to win major races including the 1985 World Championship,Tirreno–Adriatico and theAmstel Gold Race.
Going into the1985 World Championship the primary favorites were thought to includeBernard Hinault,Greg LeMond and being as it was thought the course could produce a sprint finish riders likeSean Kelly or even defending world championClaude Criquielion. There were several early breakaways, but none of them included any riders considered threats to stay away and never extended their gap much beyond two minutes. There were two major crashes, both of which Zoetemelk managed to avoid but the second crash on lap 12 (of 18) allowed a breakaway to form with five riders includingJens Veggerby,Dominique Arnaud andJohan van der Velde. This group built up a gap of over two minutes before the survivingpeloton began reeling them back in. Hinault had an off day, suffered a flat tire and abandoned the race, as did several other strong riders includingHennie Kuiper,Dietrich Thurau andUrs Freuler. By lap 17 the race had come back together and riders such asMoreno Argentin, AustralianMichael Wilson and Criquielion had launched attacks but before long they had been brought back. By the final lap Zoetemelk had been all but invisible within the pack no different than many other riders, but he was still in the race as riders likeStephen Roche of Ireland andKim Andersen of Denmark launched attacks that were eventually brought back. Following the final climb there were less than 20 riders still in contention,[14] but it was a very strong surviving group that was going to come down to a sprint finish with riders including former champs LeMond and Criquielion, as well as Andersen, Roche,Robert Millar,Marc Madiot, Italian riders Argentin andClaudio Corti, who finished 2nd the previous year, as well as three Dutch riders in Zoetemelk, Van der Velde andGerard Veldscholten. Knowing he would not win a sprint against the youngest, strongest riders in the world he launched an attack with over a kilometer to go. Going into the second to last turn Zoetemelk got to the front of the group, moved all the way to the outside of the road then swept back along the inside charging forward into the straightaway. Perhaps, as he was by far the oldest rider in the group and considered long past his prime, his attack caught the surviving contenders by surprise and he quickly opened a gap of fifty meters. His teammates in Van der Velde and Veldscholten moved to the front of the group, but we're not actually chasing Zoetemelk down and were therefore slowing the chase group. As he went under theflamme rouge banner he had a gap of over 300 meters and was continuing to pull away from the best riders in the world. With 400 meters to go in the race he had a gap of 500 meters and Argentin was at the front of the pack trying to bring back Zoetemelk's attack but couldn't, so he actually put his arm in the air and waved for someone else to come forward and help. No one did, including LeMond who stated after the race that he just wasn't strong enough to bring back this final attack after chasing down the attacks of other riders all day long.[15] As the finish line approached he looked over his shoulder one final time and began celebrating. He crossed the line with his hands in the air and as his teammates Van der Velde and Veldscholten crossed the line in 9th and 14th place, they too threw their hands in the air in celebration. As of 2020 Zoetemelk is still the oldest world champion in the history of this event[16] and of the other top 10 finishers in the 1985 race all of them were between 24 and 28 years old.[17]
Regarding his victory in the 1980 Tour de France,Peter Post,directeur sportif of theTI–Raleigh team in the Netherlands, approached Zoetemelk through his wife, Françoise, after the world championship in 1979.[18] Zoetemelk had long lived in France and ridden for French teams. His sponsor, the bicycle companyMercier, had ended its sponsorship and Zoetemelk was looking for a new team. The following year Zoetemelk won his – and TI–Raleigh's – only Tour de France. The pre-race favourite,Bernard Hinault had retired halfway due to knee-problems. Zoetemelk objected to claims that he had won only because Hinault had dropped out, saying: "Surely winning the Tour de France is a question of health and robustness. If Hinault doesn't have that health and robustness and I have, that makes me a valid winner."
Gerald O'Donovan, the TI–Raleigh director behind sponsorship of the team, said:
Of one-day races he wonLa Flèche Wallonne in 1976, and the Grand Prix d'Automne in 1977 and 1979. He came in fourth in the World Championships of 1976 & 1982, and placed in the top 10 in 1972, 1973, 1975, 1978 and 1984 before winning in 1985. Of the major week long stage races he wonTirreno–Adriatico, theTour de Romandie and three editions ofParis–Nice. While he was never victorious in theCritérium du Dauphiné Libéré, he did place in the top 10 on eight occasions.[20]
In 18 years as a professional (1969–1987), Zoetemelk had a remarkable record of consistency. In grand tours and major stage races he entered 57 races, completing 55 of them, or 96.5% of them. Of these 55 completed races he finished inside the top 10 thirty-eight times, made the podium twenty-one times and claimed seven victories. He only finished outside the top 25 on four occasions.
He entered the Tour de France sixteen times and finished the race sixteen times, the latter of which is a record thatSylvain Chavanel tied when he finished the2018 Tour de France. He holds the record for total kilometers ridden, a record that will be very difficult to break as modern stages are considerably shorter than they were during Zoetemelk's era. Another record he held was for the most stages completed in TDF history with 365, a record that was not broken until 2018 by Chavanel.[21]
During the 1977 Tour de France he won the mountain time trial on stage 15B, several days later it was revealed he took a banned substance and had the stage win revoked and was penalized ten minutes.
In the 1979 Tour de France Zoetemelk tried attacking Hinault on the final stage of the race into Paris. Hinault and Zoetemelk stayed away for the entire stage and Zoetemelk was given a ten-minute doping penalty after the race was over.
During the 1983 Tour de France he was given a doping penalty. At his stage of his career, he was no longer a favorite for victory and was not taking substances for "performance enhancement", but just to "survive" the race. Much later it was revealed by riders from this era they would often times take substances just to finish the race.[22]
He was not implicated during his Tour win in 1980.[23][24][25]
Zoetemelk is one of the most successful Tour riders of all time;[26] he finished second a record six times and won once. His career coincided with the rise and fall of bothEddy Merckx andBernard Hinault, riders considered by many to be the #1 and #2 in all of Tour de France history. While Merckx was rivaled byLuis Ocaña and Hinault byLaurent Fignon andGreg LeMond, by the end of most of their Tour victories it was Zoetemelk who proved to be the only rider in the entire field capable of keeping either one of them within striking distance. Specifically in Merckx's 1969 and 1970 Tour wins nobody was able to keep him within fifteen minutes in 1969 and in 1970 Zoetemelk was the only rider to do so. He also finished 2nd to Merckx in 1971 following Ocana's infamous crash on theCol de Menté, a crash in which Zoetemelk was involved but somehow managed to avoid injury. In fact, early in the1971 Tour de France Zoetemelk wore the Yellow Jersey for the first time becoming the first GC contender to take the Yellow from Merckx. Then in the 1979 Hinault victory nearly the entire field finished a half hour or more behind him, but Zoetemelk was able to keep him within about three minutes to finish in second place, becoming the only rider in Tour history to challenge theyellow jersey on the final stage into Paris in the process. Zoetemelk finished second to Hinault in 1978 and 1979, before outlasting and defeating him in 1980, and again during his sixth and final second-place finish in 1982.
During his remarkable career Zoetemelk spent 22 days in the Yellow Jersey and won 10 individual stages in the Tour de France, was the overall winner of theVuelta a España in 1979, the King of the Mountains in 1971, and won the1985 UCI Road World Championships.
A fellow Tour rider,Rini Wagtmans, said: "Joop Zoetemelk is the best rider that the Netherlands has ever known. There has never been a better one. But he could not give instructions. He was treated and helped with respect. But when Zoetemelk won the Tour, the instructions had to come fromGerrie Knetemann andJan Raas."[27]
Peter Post said: "Joop would fit in any team. I've known only a few riders who were so easy. He followed the rules, he got on with people. That's the way he is. He never asked fordomestiques. Joop never demanded anything."[28]
After retiring, Zoetemelk became adirecteur sportif with Superconfex, which becameRabobank in 1996. Zoetemelk stayed with Rabobank for 10 years, retiring as adirecteur sportif and from the sport after the2006 Vuelta a España.
Zoetemelk married Françoise Duchaussoy, daughter of the Tour de France executive, Jacques Duchaussoy. They owned and ran the Richemont hotel inMeaux, near Paris. Their son, Karl,[29] was a Frenchmountain bike rider and champion.
Joop Zoetemelk was the second Dutch winner of the Tour de France afterJan Janssen. The Dutch cycling federation, theKNWU, named Zoetemelk the best Dutch rider of all time at a gala to mark its 75th anniversary. A statue of him at Rijpwetering, where he grew up, was unveiled on 31 May 2005. He was named sportsman of the year in the Netherlands in 1980 and 1985. Between 1972 and 1985, he won theGerrit Schulte Trophy nine times as best rider of the year, more than anybody else in Dutch professional racing.[30]The Joop Zoetemelk Classic, acyclo-sportive over 45, 75 or 150 km, is held every March, organised by the Swift club of which Zoetemelk is a member. The course passes his statue.
Team time trial,Olympic Games
OverallRonde van Midden-Zeeland OverallCircuit de Lorraine OverallTour de l'Avenir
Road race, National Road Championships
Mountains classificationRoad race, National Road Championships
Combination classification OverallParis–Nice
OverallTour de Romandie OverallSetmana Catalana de Ciclisme OverallParis–Nice OverallRonde van Nederland OverallÀ travers Lausanne OverallÀ travers Lausanne OverallÀ travers Lausanne OverallÀ travers Lausanne OverallVuelta a España OverallParis–Nice OverallCritérium International OverallÀ travers Lausanne OverallTour de France OverallEscalada a Montjuïc
Road race,UCI Road World Championships
OverallTirreno–Adriatico| Grand Tour general classification results | |||||||||||||||||
| Grand Tour | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vuelta a España | — | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
 Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de France | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | — | 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 30 | 12 | 24 |
| Major stage race general classification results | |||||||||||||||||
| Race | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 |
| Paris–Nice | 18 | DNF | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | — | 3 | 1 | — | — | DNF | 4 | — | — | — |
| Tirreno–Adriatico | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 9 | 1 | 12 |
| Tour of the Basque Country | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de Romandie | 3 | — | — | — | 1 | 17 | — | 2 | — | — | 5 | — | 11 | 12 | — | 4 | 11 |
 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré | 7 | — | 20 | 3 | — | 3 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 13 | 9 | 46 | 33 | 11 | — | — | 3 |
| Tour de Suisse | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — |
 Volta a Catalunya | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Championships | 52 | 21 | 5 | 5 | — | 5 | 4 | 26 | 6 | 16 | DNF | 21 | 4 | 38 | 10 | 1 | 52 | 51 |
| National Championships | — | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | 3 | 4 | — | 7 | 2 | — | 14 | 3 | — | 12 | — | — | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). mrambaul.club.fr{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). swift-leiden.nl{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). lequipe.fr
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| Preceded by | Dutch National Road Race Champion 1971 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Dutch National Road Race Champion 1973 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Dutch Sportsman of the Year 1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Dutch Sportsman of the Year 1985 | Succeeded by |
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