Jan Janssen
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Jan Janssen

Personal information
Full name	Johannes Adrianus Janssen
Date of birth	May 19, 1940 (1940-05-19) (age 68)
Country	Netherlands
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Major wins
Winner Tour de France 1968 World Champion road race 1964 Best sprinter Tour de France 1964, 1965, 1967 Winner Vuelta a España 1967

Medal record
Competitor for the  Netherlands
Road bicycle racing
World Championships
Gold	1964 Sallanches	Elite Men's Road Race
Silver	1967 Heerlen	Elite Men's Road Race

Johannes Adrianus Janssen, known as Jan Janssen (born May 19, 1940) is a Dutch former professional cyclist (1962-1973). He was world champion and winner of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. He was the first Dutch rider to win the Tour de France.

Janssen was born at Nootdorp, a small town near Rotterdam and Delft. He later moved to Putte, a village on the Belgian border between Roosendaal and Antwerp. He rode the Tour de France eight times and finished all but the first time. He won seven stages and wore the yellow jersey for two days (after stage 16 in 1966 and after stage 22B in 1968). He was easily spotted in the peloton because of his blond hair and his glasses.

Career

Janssen worked with his parents as a youth, digging the heavy ground of western Holland to excavate foundations for the buildings the family firm erected. He joined the cycling club at Delft when he was 16 and as a novice won 25 races in two years. ^[1] He turned professional after an amateur career in which he won several Dutch classics and rode for Holland in the Tour de l'Avenir, which was then open to amateurs and to independents, or semi-professionals. Janssen rode for French teams and is especially associated with Pelforth-BP, sponsored by a brewer and an oil company. His talent, authority, and command of French quickly established him as the team leader. At first he had a reputation as a sprinter but he quickly developed into a rider of multi-day races. He rode his first Tour de France in 1963, when he won a stage, but a crash forced him to retire. In 1964 he won Paris-Nice, then two stages and the green jersey of points leader in the Tour. Later that year he became world champion at Sallanches, in France. He wore the green jersey again in the Tour of 1965 and in 1966 came close to winning overall. But it was finally in 1968 that he became the first Dutchman to win the Tour de France, beating the Belgian, Herman Van Springel, by 38 seconds. That remained the smallest winning margin until 1989, when Greg LeMond won by only eight seconds ahead of Laurent Fignon. Janssen had not worn the leader's maillot jaune in 1968 until he reached Paris at the end of the final stage, a time-trial.

The Tour in 1968 was, like the previous year, for national teams rather than trade teams. The organisers resolved to "experiment" with national teams in a measure widely interpreted as revenge by the organiser, Félix Lévitan, on sponsors he thought had provoked a strike against drug tests the previous year. Putting into one team riders who the rest of the year rode for rival sponsors proved a problem and internal rivalries were said to divide the Dutch team more than most. Janssen had to overcome these internal problems to win. His victory in the orange jersey of the Netherlands rather than the blue, yellow and white of the Pelforth team made his first win for Holland all the more popular at home.

Jan Janssen during the national championships in 1968 just after he won the Tour de France

Retirement

He retired from racing, he says, after being left behind in the Tour of Luxembourg and being ashamed to hear his name listed on the race radio service among other also-rans. ^[2]

"I knew then that I was Jan Janssen, winner of the Tour de France and the championship of the world and that it was time for me to stop", he says.

He left the peloton to run a bicycle frame-building business in the south-western village of Putte, which is divided by the border with Belgium. His neighbours there included another world champion, Hennie Kuiper. Janssen continued to ride his bike in retirement as a member of the Zuid-West Hoek club. He continues to make personal appearances along with other Dutch riders of his era. He said he enjoyed being recognised while on training rides. ^[3]

Personality

The Dutch race organiser Charles Ruys, who called Janssen a businesslike, honest and straightforward man, said:

"Anybody who tries to do something unpleasant to Jan, may it be in a race or a matter of money, has a very tough opponent. Like most successful bikies, Jan knows the value of money. So much so that he gives the impression that he is our Minister of Finance." ^[4]

Views of modern racing

Janssen spent most of his career with a French sponsor, profiting from the higher rate that the French franc enjoyed then against the guilder. But since then things have changed, he said.

"We had to be good all the time, from the first of February until the end of October. Because it was my duty to make the most of my sponsor's name, to get publicity. And if you had an off-day, well, you were letting your sponsors down. Now the whole sponsorship of sport has taken off. It has become so interesting to a company, because a company that wants to get its name known, you can buy a good team, with good management, good public relations, and you can get all the big names. I think, too, that the motivation has changed with the professionals as well. You get riders like Steven Rooks and Gert-Jan Theunisse saying that after the Tour they are stopping at home because they can't be bothered with criteriums, and that's not attractive for the public."^[5]

Palmares

v • d • e Tour de France Yellow jersey winners 1903 Maurice Garin · 1904 Henri Cornet · 1905 Louis Trousselier · 1906 René Pottier · 1907-1908 Lucien Petit-Breton · 1909 François Faber · 1910 Octave Lapize · 1911 Gustave Garrigou · 1912 Odile Defraye · 1913-1914 Philippe Thys · 1915-1918 World War I · 1919 Firmin Lambot · 1920 Philippe Thys · 1921 Léon Scieur · 1922 Firmin Lambot · 1923 Henri Pélissier · 1924-1925 Ottavio Bottecchia · 1926 Lucien Buysse · 1927-1928 Nicolas Frantz · 1929 Maurice De Waele · 1930 André Leducq · 1931 Antonin Magne · 1932 André Leducq · 1933 Georges Speicher · 1934 Antonin Magne · 1935 Romain Maes · 1936 Sylvère Maes · 1937 Roger Lapébie · 1938 Gino Bartali · 1939 Sylvère Maes · 1940-1946 World War II · 1947 Jean Robic · 1948 Gino Bartali · 1949 Fausto Coppi · 1950 Ferdinand Kübler · 1951 Hugo Koblet · 1952 Fausto Coppi · 1953-1955 Louison Bobet · 1956 Roger Walkowiak · 1957 Jacques Anquetil · 1958 Charly Gaul · 1959 Federico Bahamontes · 1960 Gastone Nencini · 1961-1964 Jacques Anquetil · 1965 Felice Gimondi · 1966 Lucien Aimar · 1967 Roger Pingeon · 1968 Jan Janssen · 1969-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Luis Ocaña · 1974 Eddy Merckx · 1975 Bernard Thévenet · 1976 Lucien Van Impe · 1977 Bernard Thévenet · 1978-1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Joop Zoetemelk · 1981-1982 Bernard Hinault · 1983-1984 Laurent Fignon · 1985 Bernard Hinault · 1986 Greg LeMond · 1987 Stephen Roche · 1988 Pedro Delgado · 1989-1990 Greg LeMond · 1991-1995 Miguel Indurain · 1996 Bjarne Riis · 1997 Jan Ullrich · 1998 Marco Pantani · 1999-2005 Lance Armstrong · 2006 Óscar Pereiro · 2007 Alberto Contador · 2008 Carlos Sastre

v • d • e Tour de France Maillot vert (Green jersey) winners 1953 Fritz Schär · 1954 Ferdinand Kübler · 1955-1956 Stan Ockers · 1957 Jean Forestier · 1958 Jean Graczyk · 1959 André Darrigade · 1960 Jean Graczyk · 1961 André Darrigade · 1962 Rudi Altig · 1963 Rik van Looy · 1964-1965 Jan Janssen · 1966 Willy Planckaert · 1967 Jan Janssen · 1968 Franco Bitossi · 1969 Eddy Merckx · 1970 Walter Godefroot · 1971-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Herman van Springel · 1974 Patrick Sercu · 1975 Rik Van Linden · 1976 Freddy Maertens · 1977 Jacques Esclassan · 1978 Freddy Maertens · 1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Rudy Pevenage · 1981 Freddy Maertens · 1982-1983 Seán Kelly · 1984 Frank Hoste · 1985 Seán Kelly · 1986 Eric Vanderaerden · 1987 Jean-Paul van Poppel · 1988 Eddy Planckaert · 1989 Seán Kelly · 1990 Olaf Ludwig · 1991 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov · 1992 Laurent Jalabert · 1993-1994 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov · 1995 Laurent Jalabert · 1996-2001 Erik Zabel · 2002 Robbie McEwen · 2003 Baden Cooke · 2004 Robbie McEwen · 2005 Thor Hushovd · 2006 Robbie McEwen · 2007 Tom Boonen · 2008 Óscar Freire

References

1. ^ "The world pro champion remembers Bill and Ben", Sporting Cyclist, 1964
2. ^ "There are no more hungry riders - says Janssen", Cycling, 8 February 1990
3. ^ "There are no more hungry riders - says Janssen", Cycling, 8 February 1990
4. ^ "The world pro champion remembers Bill and Ben", Sporting Cyclist, 1964
5. ^ "There are no more hungry riders - says Janssen", Cycling, 8 February 1990