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Historic Overview Joop Zoetemelk

Rider

Overall Rank6
NameJoop ZOETEMELK
Country
  Netherlands
Date of birth03-Dec-1946 - Rijpwetering (Zuid Holland)
ContemporiesView Contemporary Ranking

Biography

Joop Zoetemelk

Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk (pronounced [ˈjoːp ˈsutəmɛl(ə)k]; 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.

He finished the Tour in 8th, 5th, 4th (three times) and 2nd (six times) for a total of eleven top 5 finishes which is also 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 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.

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.

source - Wikipedia

Badges

9 10 3 22 15 4 9 5 61

Major Victories

Tour de France 1980
Vuelta a España 1979
World Championships Road Race 1985
Paris - Nice 1974, 1975, 1979
Amstel Gold Race 1987
La Flèche Wallonne 1976
Tirreno - Adriatico 1985
Tour de Romandie 1974
Paris - Tours 1977, 1979
Critérium International 1979
Tour du Haut-Var 1973, 1979, 1983
Paris - Camembert 1978
G.P. de Lugano 1978
G.P. Pino Cerami 1980, 1981
Setmana Catalana 1974
Tour de l'Avenir 1969
Ronde van Nederland 1975
Tour de France - stages 1973 (2), 1975 (1), 1976 (3), 1978 (1), 1979 (1), 1980 (2)
Vuelta a España - stages 1971 (1), 1979 (2)
Paris - Nice - stages 1973 (1), 1974 (2), 1975 (2), 1979 (1)
Dauphiné Libéré - stages 1973 (1), 1976 (1), 1979 (1), 1980 (1)
Tirreno - Adriatico - stages 1985 (1)
Tour de Romandie - stages 1974 (1), 1980 (1)
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya - stages 1977 (1)
G.P. du Midi-Libre - stages 1973 (2)
Critérium International - stages 1978 (1), 1979 (1)
Etoile de Bessèges - stages 1974 (1), 1979 (1)
Paris - Luxembourg - stages 1970 (1)
Tour de Luxembourg - stages 1971 (1)
Setmana Catalana - stages 1974 (1)
Ronde van Nederland - stages 1975 (1), 1979 (1)
More results

Seasons

Joop Zoetemelk - Scores by Season

Year Team Score Rank
1. 1966 Individual 8 762
2. 1968 Individual 4 865
3. 1969 Individual 100 339
4. 1970 Flandria - Mars 2066 13
5. 1971 Flandria - Mars 2324 9
6. 1972 Beaulieu - Flandria 2458 7
7. 1973 Gitane - Frigécrème 2863 6
8. 1974 GAN - Mercier - Hutchinson 1236 29
9. 1975 GAN - Mercier - Hutchinson 2825 5
10. 1976 GAN - Mercier - Hutchinson 2900 4
11. 1977 Miko - Mercier - Hutchinson 2322 9
12. 1978 Miko - Mercier - Hutchinson 3088 3
13. 1979 Miko - Mercier - Vivagel 3588 4
14. 1980 TI - Raleigh - Creda 2676 4
15. 1981 TI-Raleigh - Creda 1268 35
16. 1982 Coop - Mercier - Mavic 1789 15
17. 1983 Coop - Mercier - Mavic 1716 11
18. 1984 Kwantum Hallen - Decosol - Yoko 975 37
19. 1985 Kwantum Hallen - Decosol - Yoko 2039 10
20. 1986 Kwantum Hallen - Decosol - Yoko 1249 37
21. 1987 SuperConfex - Kwantum Hallen - Yoko 810 62
Overall: 38304 6