Gert-Jan Theunisse

Gert-Jan Theunisse 2011

Gert-Jan Theunisse (born January 14, 1963 in Oss , Netherlands ) is a former Dutch cyclist .

Career

He was a professional from 1984 to 1995 and won 15 races during that time.

He competed in the Tour de France a total of five times . On his second participation in 1988 he was tested positive for testosterone in a doping control and was given a 10-minute time penalty, so that he dropped from fourth to eleventh place in the overall ranking. After the Tour de France, he won the Clásica San Sebastián that year . In the 1989 Tour he achieved his best overall ranking with fourth place and won the mountain stage to L'Alpe d'Huez as well as the dotted jersey of the winner of the mountain classification . In 1990 he was tested positive two more times in doping controls at the Flèche Wallonne and the Bicicleta Vasca .

In 1995 he ended his career after having heart problems at Tirreno-Adriatico . After the end of his career, Theunisse, like other Dutch professional cyclists, admitted years of doping. It is unclear whether his heart problems are related to doping use. In December 2013, Theunisse reported in a column in the magazine Wielerrevue that she had had a pacemaker inserted after a heart attack . He had previously suffered dozens of unnoticed heart attacks.