48 Facts About Joop Zoetemelk

Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist.

Joop Zoetemelk started and finished the Tour de France 16 times, which were both records when he retired.

Joop Zoetemelk won the 1979 Vuelta a Espana and the 1980 Tour de France.

Joop Zoetemelk finished the Tour in 8th, 5th, 4th and 2nd for a total of eleven top 5 finishes which is a record.

Joop Zoetemelk 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 Espana and was considered one of the best climbers of his generation.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Nobody other than Zoetemelk achieved sixteen Tour de France finishes until Sylvain Chavanel did so in the 2018 Tour de France.

Joop Zoetemelk retired from the sport to run a hotel at Meaux, France.

Joop Zoetemelk was raised in Rijpwetering, the son of Maria and Gerard Joop Zoetemelk.

Joop Zoetemelk became a speed-skater and a regional champion before turning to cycling in 1964.

Joop Zoetemelk joined the Swift club in Leiden and made a fast impression, winning youth races in his first season.

Joop Zoetemelk rode particularly well as a senior in multi-day races.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Joop Zoetemelk proved to be by far the strongest remaining rider on the team.

Joop Zoetemelk would wear the yellow jersey for the first time in the 1971 Tour de France, following a stage in which he, Luis Ocana and Bernard Thevenet were able to drop Merckx for the first time.

On stage 10 however, Ocana stole the show in one of the most memorable attacks in Tour history taking the jersey from Joop Zoetemelk and distancing all of the other favorites.

On stage 14 Ocana and Joop Zoetemelk were involved in one of the most famous crashes in Tour history on the Col de Mente.

Joop Zoetemelk managed to survive the impact but Ocana was seriously injured and had to be taken to the hospital.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Joop Zoetemelk picked up another stage win in that year's edition.

Joop Zoetemelk then had a near-death experience during a violent crash, involving Luis Ocana, 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.

Joop Zoetemelk cracked his skull and came close to dying.

Joop Zoetemelk came fourth in the 1975 Tour de France.

In stage 10 Joop Zoetemelk won the stage, this time beating Van Impe and Thevenet by just one second, in the process coming within just seven seconds of the Yellow Jersey.

Joop Zoetemelk rode strongly and kept his narrow lead, which he would hold for several stages before losing it to Hinault on the final time trial.

Joop Zoetemelk previously rode the 1971 edition where he placed 6th overall and won the King of the Mountains competition.

Joop 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.

Joop Zoetemelk was able to drop Hinault on Alpe d'Huez and claim the stage win.

Joop Zoetemelk was able to take back just under a minute, but he needed to win by +3:00.

Hinault withdrew and Joop Zoetemelk remained the strongest rider in the Tour despite suffering a violent crash on Stage 16 which cut his arm and leg open.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Joop Zoetemelk had long lived in France and ridden for French teams.

In 18 years as a professional, Joop Zoetemelk had a remarkable record of consistency.

Joop Zoetemelk only finished outside the top 25 on four occasions.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Joop Zoetemelk 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.

Hinault and Joop Zoetemelk stayed away for the entire stage and Joop Zoetemelk was given a ten-minute doping penalty after the race was over.

Joop Zoetemelk was no longer a favorite for victory at this stage in his career and was not taking substances for "performance enhancement", but just to "survive" the race.

Joop Zoetemelk was not implicated during his Tour win in 1980.

Joop Zoetemelk is one of the most successful Tour riders of all time; he finished second a record six times and won once.

Specifically in Merckx's 1969 and 1970 Tour wins nobody was able to keep him within fifteen minutes in 1969 and in 1970 Joop Zoetemelk was the only rider to do so.

Joop Zoetemelk finished 2nd to Merckx in 1971 following Ocana's infamous crash on the Col de Mente, a crash in which Zoetemelk was involved but somehow managed to avoid injury.

Joop 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.

Joop Zoetemelk followed the rules, he got on with people.

Joop Zoetemelk stayed with Rabobank for 10 years, retiring as a directeur sportif and from the sport after the 2006 Vuelta a Espana.

Joop Zoetemelk married Francoise Duchaussoy, daughter of the Tour de France executive, Jacques Duchaussoy.

Joop Zoetemelk was named sportsman of the year in the Netherlands in 1980 and 1985.