TI–Raleigh was a Dutch professional track cycling and road bicycle racing team between 1972 and 1983. In that decade the team won over 900 races. The team was created and led by Peter Post . In his own cycling career, his nickname was the Six Days Emperor , being a track champion. He also won the 1964 fast edition of Paris–Roubaix . Post was pretty harsh on himself. He had no time to celebrate and was always looking ahead at the next race. That attitude might have been the key to the team's success.
57-411: The team was successful in classics and in stage races. Notable riders included Joop Zoetemelk , Jan Raas , Gerrie Knetemann , Hennie Kuiper , Urs Freuler , Henk Lubberding , René Pijnen , Johan van der Velde and Dietrich Thurau . The team was known for discipline; team time trials were a speciality. The frame-building was overseen by Jan le Grand at Raleigh's SBDU Ilkeston facility. TI–Raleigh
114-566: A cyclo-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. Panasonic cycling team Panasonic was a Dutch professional cycling team , sponsored by the Matusishita Corporation , formed in 1984 by team manager Peter Post , when the TI–Raleigh main sponsors, withdrew sponsorship. Some of
171-572: A directeur sportif and from the sport after the 2006 Vuelta a España . Zoetemelk married Françoise Duchaussoy, daughter of the Tour de France executive, Jacques Duchaussoy. They owned and ran the Richemont hotel in Meaux , near Paris. Their son, Karl, was a French mountain bike rider and champion. Joop Zoetemelk was the second Dutch winner of the Tour de France after Jan Janssen . The Dutch cycling federation,
228-415: 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
285-530: A total of eleven top 5 finishes which is a record. He was the first rider to wear the Tour de France's polka 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 the 1971 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 in 1977 , he would have finished in
342-581: A valid winner." Gerald O'Donovan, the TI–Raleigh director behind sponsorship of the team, said: Of one-day races he won La 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 won Tirreno–Adriatico ,
399-467: Is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist . He started and finished the Tour 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 the 1979 Vuelta a España and the 1980 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
456-404: The 1982 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 GC general classification rider on his team and always had a respectable placing in the overall standings. Including in his final Tour, which he rode wearing the rainbow jersey as reigning World Champion and late in his career he
513-505: The 2018 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 at Meaux , France. Zoetemelk was raised in Rijpwetering , the son of Maria and Gerard Zoetemelk. He started working as a carpenter. He became a speed-skater and a regional champion before turning to cycling in 1964. He joined
570-602: The Col de Menté , a crash in which Zoetemelk was involved but somehow managed to avoid injury. In fact, early in the 1971 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
627-643: The KNWU , 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 the Gerrit Schulte Trophy nine times as best rider of the year, more than anybody else in Dutch professional racing. The Joop Zoetemelk Classic ,
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#1732863163491684-467: The Tour de Romandie and three editions of Paris–Nice . While he was never victorious in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré , he did place in the top 10 on eight occasions. 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
741-612: The Tour 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 the Midi Libre in Valras-Plage, France. He cracked his skull and came close to dying. He returned the next season to win Paris–Nice again, and then caught meningitis . He never fully recovered and
798-477: The 1985 race all of them were between 24 and 28 years old. Regarding his victory in the 1980 Tour de France, Peter Post , directeur sportif of the TI–Raleigh team in the Netherlands, approached Zoetemelk through his wife, Françoise, after the world championship in 1979. Zoetemelk had long lived in France and ridden for French teams. His sponsor, the bicycle company Mercier , had ended its sponsorship and Zoetemelk
855-723: The Swift club in Leiden 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. He also won a gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City in the 100 km team time-trial with Fedor den Hertog , Jan Krekels and René Pijnen . Zoetemelk turned professional for Briek Schotte 's Belgian Mars–Flandria team in 1970. Initially he
912-600: The animosity grew, and it culminated into a breakaway standstill in the Tour de France of 1992. The backlash made perfectly clear that this could not go on. In the middle of the night, in the middle of a French forest, by shimmering torch lights, the men vowed to end the quarrels. The divorce was finally accepted and dealt with. [REDACTED] Media related to TI–Raleigh at Wikimedia Commons Joop Zoetemelk Stage Races One-day races and Classics Hendrik Gerardus Joseph " Joop " Zoetemelk ( pronounced [joːp ˈsutəmɛl(ə)k] ; born 3 December 1946)
969-455: 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
1026-449: The end of the 1983 season, the TI–Raleigh team split up because of tension between former world champion Jan Raas and team leader Peter Post , with seven cyclists following Post to the new Panasonic team and six cyclists joining Raas on the Kwantum team . Gerrie Knetemann (to Europ Decor ) and Johan van der Velde (to Metauro ) did not join the division. In the next nine years, the gap and
1083-423: 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
1140-519: The final climb there were less than 20 riders still in contention, 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 and Claudio Corti , who finished 2nd the previous year, as well as three Dutch riders in Zoetemelk, Van der Velde and Gerard Veldscholten . Knowing he would not win
1197-595: The final time trial. In 1979 he rode the Vuelta a España for the second time in his career. He previously rode the 1971 edition where he placed 6th overall and won the King of the Mountains competition. He would win the 1979 edition . In the 1979 Tour de France he survived the "hell of the north" cobbles of Roubaix 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
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#17328631634911254-407: 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 and of the other top 10 finishers in
1311-408: The finish, the riders were exhausted, but it was also time to celebrate. TI–Raleigh had changed its formation tactics, from the traditional double paceline to a single paceline. 1964 Olympic TTT champion Gerben Karstens came up with the idea, when they were faced with a 153 km (95 miles) long TTT in the 1978 Tour. In a single line formation, the riders get more time to recover. The duration of
1368-400: 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 the Col de Menté . Zoetemelk managed to survive the impact but Ocaña was seriously injured and had to be taken to
1425-498: 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. During that year's Tour he won stage 15 and finished strongly overall, placing behind only Thévenet, Merckx and Lucien Van Impe in a Tour where the next closest contenders were close to 20:00 or more behind
1482-416: 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 the 1980 Tour de France by nearly 7:00 over Hennie Kuiper and Raymond Martin . In 1981 he would finish 4th overall and he would finish 2nd for the 6th and final time during
1539-508: 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 the 1973 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 won Paris–Nice , the Semana Catalana and
1596-464: The instructions had to come from Gerrie Knetemann and Jan Raas ." 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 for domestiques . Joop never demanded anything." After retiring, Zoetemelk became a directeur sportif with Superconfex, which became Rabobank in 1996. Zoetemelk stayed with Rabobank for 10 years, retiring as
1653-403: The only rider in Tour history to challenge the yellow 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,
1710-412: 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
1767-405: The pull is varied. Strong riders like time trial specialist Bert Oosterbosch should not increase the pace, but rather take longer turns. Stronger and weaker riders are mixed, which keeps a steadier pace. Knetemann could gently pick up the pace, without anyone noticing. The team had a profound disgust for team members that did not do their utmost to help the team. It was not a problem when you were
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1824-448: The race had come back together and riders such as Moreno Argentin , Australian Michael 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 like Stephen Roche of Ireland and Kim Andersen of Denmark launched attacks that were eventually brought back. Following
1881-408: 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. As
1938-450: The race. He was not implicated during his Tour win in 1980. Zoetemelk is one of the most successful Tour riders of all time; he finished second a record six times and won once. His career coincided with the rise and fall of both Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault , riders considered by many to be the #1 and #2 in all of Tour de France history. While Merckx was rivaled by Luis Ocaña and Hinault by Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond , by
1995-579: The riders, followed Jan Raas to his newly formed team, Kwantum Hallen–Decosol . Peter Post retained some riders, and rebuilt his team, with riders, who became one of the most dominant teams, for both classics, and stage races. The Panasonic team, had a reputation for always having the best equipment, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz , team clothing by Descente 1984-87 / AGU 1988-89 & Biemme 1990–92, team bicycles from Raleigh 1984–85 / Eddy Merckx 1986–87 & Colnago 1988–89, were always fitted with Italian Campagnolo groupsets. Between 1990 and 1992
2052-435: The second crash on lap 12 (of 18) allowed a breakaway to form with five riders including Jens Veggerby , Dominique Arnaud and Johan van der Velde . This group built up a gap of over two minutes before the surviving peloton began reeling them back in. Hinault had an off day, suffered a flat tire and abandoned the race, as did several other strong riders including Hennie Kuiper , Dietrich Thurau and Urs Freuler . By lap 17
2109-523: The stage on Alp d'Huez Zoetemelk, Michel Pollentier and Tour debutant Bernard 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 the yellow jersey . He rode strongly and kept his narrow lead, which he would hold for several stages before losing it to Hinault on
2166-465: 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 the flamme 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
2223-460: The team custom of pulling as long as he could, but he dropped off early in the 46 km (29 mi) long race. When your team is one of the last to start, there are not a lot of cars or teams behind you to pull yourself up to. TI–Raleigh won, but went so fast, that Pronk finished outside the time limit. The next TTT, Raas en Kneet decided to start slowly in order to not repeat the disaster, but they did not tell Zoetemelk or Post about it... The team
2280-562: The top 10 seven other times. As of 2024, he is the oldest men's individual road race world champion. His record number of starts in the Tour de France was surpassed when George 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 until Sylvain Chavanel did so in
2337-534: 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 that Sylvain Chavanel tied when he finished the 2018 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
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2394-482: The top 5 in each of the first 12 Tours he entered. He won the World Professional Road Championship in 1985 at the age of 38, with a late attack surprising the favorites of LeMond , Roche , Argentin and Millar . 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
2451-482: 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 the 1977 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. During the 1978 Tour de France he won stage 14 and going into
2508-511: The weakest link, because in every team there are specialists for the mountain stages that won't be tough time trial riders. However, the team expected every rider to take their turns, until they could no longer keep up the pace. In that situation you'd take a last pull, and drop off the team. The only exception were the General Classement-riders that had to finish in the same time as the team. When in 1978 Klaus-Peter Thaler could win
2565-438: The winner. In the 1976 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
2622-500: 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
2679-424: 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 in 1969 and 1970 . He would wear the yellow jersey for the first time in the 1971 Tour de France , following a stage in which he, Luis Ocaña and Bernard Thévenet were able to drop Merckx for
2736-458: The yellow jersey if he'd finish with the team, he refused to take his turns and kept last position, which slows the team down. After 30 km in the wheels, Knetemann and Lubberding were fed up with their selfish "team mate". They started to entice him to take over, and even deliberately gapped themselves, in order to shake him off. This didn't help and also slowed down the team. They were told to knock it off, and Thaler did get his career highlight:
2793-473: The yellow jersey. The 1980 Tour de France had an early TTT. The prologue was the day before, and in the morning the riders had had a stage of 133 km (83 mi). Bert Pronk had jumped ahead, riding in the breakaway. That helped Jan Raas to win the stage. Pronk didn't recuperate fast, and like every TI–Raleigh rider who was not a TT specialist, or had a bad day, he did fear the TTT that afternoon. Pronk followed
2850-407: Was able to drop Hinault on Alpe 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
2907-503: Was for the most stages completed in TDF history with 365, a record that was not broken until 2018 by Chavanel. 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
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#17328631634912964-433: 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
3021-468: Was riding in support of team leader Roger 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 that Eddy Merckx was the strongest rider in
3078-583: Was sponsored by British cycling manufacturer Raleigh and Raleigh's holding company Tube Investments (TI) . Raleigh's sponsoring goes back at least as far as 1893, when they had given Arthur Augustus Zimmerman two of their bicycles and advertised Zimmy riding them. Over the years, they've sponsored a whole range of cyclists and teams, based in Great Britain, the Netherlands, the United States of America, Switzerland, Canada and Argentina. Subsponsors were At
3135-691: Was still good enough to win major races including the 1985 World Championship, Tirreno–Adriatico and the Amstel Gold Race . Going into the 1985 World Championship the primary favorites were thought to include Bernard Hinault , Greg LeMond and being as it was thought the course could produce a sprint finish riders like Sean Kelly or even defending world champion Claude 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
3192-401: Was the overall winner of the Vuelta a España in 1979, the King of the Mountains in 1971, and won the 1985 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,
3249-416: Was unbeatable in the team time trials of the 1978 to 1982 Tour de France . In those five years, they won eight Tour TTTs. Driving forces in those TTTs were Jan Raas and Gerrie Knetemann, who decided team tactics during the race. They gave directions and changed the order at will. In the last few kilometers before the finish, Raas began to shout and curse in order to wring out every last bit of energy. After
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