Joop Zoetemelk

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Joop Zoetemelk (2008)

Joop Zoetemelk (born December 3, 1946 in The Hague ; real name Hendrik Gerardus Joseph Zoetemelk ) is one of the most successful Dutch racing cyclists . He won the Tour de France in 1980 , which he finished second six times between 1970 and 1982, and the 1985 World Championships . Zoetemelk has tested positive for doping several times .

Career

Zoetemelk, who grew up in Rijpwetering in the municipality of Alkemade near Leiden , won the gold medal in the 100 km team time trial at the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968 . He got into cycling when a school friend took him to training at the Leiden cycling club. As early as 1967 the high point of his career as an amateur was to be when the UCI Road World Championships were held in his home country. But neither in the road race nor in the team time trial, he was able to place himself at the top.

He began his professional career in 1970 and in the same year achieved second place in the Tour de France in 1970. It should be a total of six second overall placings in the world's most important cycling race ( 1970 , 1971 , 1976 , 1978 , 1979 , 1982 ). In total, he started there 16 times and always reached the finish in Paris. Zoetemelk wore the yellow jersey on 22 days and won a total of ten stages. The fact that he did not achieve more than one Tour victory was due not least to the two overpowering competitors Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault , who won five of his six second places.

In addition to the Tour de France, he was also able to win the Vuelta a España in 1979 . But he not only had some successes in the big tours, but also in shorter stage races and the classics . Zoetemelk won Paris – Nice (1974, 1975, 1979), Paris – Tours (1977, 1979) and the Amstel Gold Race (1987). At the age of 38, he won the 1985 World Cup .

Zoetemelk tested positive for doping substances at the Tour de France in 1977, 1979 and 1983 and was known to have used nandrolone in the annual preparation in 1983 .

Professional

Joop Zoetemelk completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and bricklayer .

Web links

Commons : Joop Zoetemelk  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b tour . No. 6/1986 . Atlas Verlag, Reutlingen, S. 40 .
  2. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 36/1967 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1967, p. 5 .
  3. ↑ Cycling - doping cases on cycling4fans.de
personal data
SURNAME Zoetemelk, Joop
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH December 3, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Rijpwetering