Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk (pronounced[ˈjoːpˈsutəmɛl(ə)k];[1] born 3 December 1946) 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 a total of eleven top 5 finishes which is a record.[2] 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 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 the top 10 seven other times. As of 2020, he is the oldest men's individual road race world champion.[3]
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 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.[4]
^Surname in isolation: [ˈzutəmɛl(ə)k].
^"Joop Zoetemelk dans le Tour de France". Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). mrambaul.club.fr
^"Alejandro Valverde is 2nd Oldest Road Male Champion". NBC Sports/Associated Press. 30 September 2018.
^Siebelink, Jan (2006) 'Pijn is genot, Thomas Rap (Netherlands), ISBN 90-6005-632-9, p. 93
Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk (pronounced [ˈjoːp ˈsutəmɛl(ə)k]; born 3 December 1946) is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist. He started...
W. Joop Zalm (1897–1969), Dutch weightlifter Joop Zeegers (born 2004), Dutch personal trainer and Rocket League player H. G. Jozef JoopZoetemelk (born...
Impe in a battle with the previous winner Bernard Thévenet and JoopZoetemelk. Zoetemelk won three high mountain stages including Alpe d'Huez and Puy-de-Dôme...
in the lead. JoopZoetemelk became the new leader, and defended that position successfully. Just as in 1979, when Hinault and Zoetemelk finished nearly...
medals at the Summer Olympic Games and 110 at the Winter Olympic Games. JoopZoetemelk won the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France, and the 1985...
team classifications. Remarkably Hinault and second-place finisher JoopZoetemelk finished nearly a half hour ahead of the other GC Contenders, and in...
but had to pull out because of tendinitis, and the Tour was won by JoopZoetemelk. Hinault returned in 1981 and won that race as well as the one after...
completed all but his very first, JoopZoetemelk and Chavanel share the record for the most finishes at 16, with Zoetemelk having completed all 16 of the...
classification, defending his title to win his third Tour de France in a row. JoopZoetemelk (Flandria–Mars) finished second, 9:51 minutes behind, and Lucien Van...
the race for his use of performance-enhancing drugs.[citation needed] JoopZoetemelk and Chavanel jointly hold the record for the most finishes with sixteen...
trial, with a substantial margin of 3:15 minutes ahead of favourite JoopZoetemelk. At the beginning of 1978, the Gitane team was taken over by its parent...
victory and going into stage 16 Van Impe along with Eddy Merckx and JoopZoetemelk were all within about 1:00 of Bernard Thévenet who had just taken the...
leader, Luis Ocaña, crashed on the col de Mente in the Pyrenees. In 1980 JoopZoetemelk did not wear the yellow jersey that passed to him when his rival, Bernard...
Pollentier left the race, and the overall victory became a battle between JoopZoetemelk and Bernard Hinault. In the end, it was won by debutant Bernard Hinault...
are Fausto Coppi, Jan Janssen, Felice Gimondi, Bernard Hinault and JoopZoetemelk. Riders who have won at least two gold medals and three grand tours...
1970 a mere four other riders were within 20:00, with only debutant JoopZoetemelk finishing inside 15:00 of Merckx. The Tour de France started with 15...
Dutch winner of the race and the first Dutch Grand Tour winner since JoopZoetemelk in 1980. Later that year, he became the first Dutch male to win the...
Looy, Herman Van Springel, Freddy Maertens, Eddy Merckx, Sean Kelly, JoopZoetemelk, Michel Pollentier, Walter Godefroot and Roger De Vlaeminck rode for...
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