Jan Janssen

Johannes Adrianus "Jan" Janssen (born 19 May 1940) is a Dutch former professional cyclist. He was world champion and winner of the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, the first Dutch rider to win either. 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. As of the death of Federico Bahamontes in August 2023, he is the oldest surviving winner of the Tour de France, but not the most ancient winner: Lucien Aimar won in 1966.

Early life

Janssen was born at Nootdorp, a small town near The Hague and Delft, just five days after the Netherlands surrendered to the Nazis. He later moved to Putte, a village on the Belgian border between Roosendaal and Antwerp. He worked with his parents as a youth, digging the heavy ground of the western Netherlands 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.

Career

Janssen turned professional after an amateur career in which he won several Dutch classics and rode for the Netherlands 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[citation needed] but he quickly developed into a rider of multi-day races.

He competed in the individual road race at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

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 yellow jersey as leader of the general classification in 1968 until he reached Paris at the end of the final stage, an individual 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[citation needed] 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[citation needed] 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 the Netherlands all the more popular at home.[citation needed]

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.

"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. That company still bears his name today. 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.

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.

A bit of insight into his personality, showing the respect and compassion he showed for his fellow riders, can be gathered from a 2007 interview regarding the feisty British rider Tom Simpson (see the Death of Tom Simpson):

"Occasionally Tommy could be annoying. When it was rolling along at 30kmh and - paf!… he’d attack. Oh leave us alone! There's still 150km to go pipe down. But often, he wanted war.” Janssen went on to say, “Even in the feed zones. It's not the law, but it's not polite. Musettes (lunch bags) were up in the air there was panic and crashes. It was Simpson acting like a jerk. It didn't happen often. Occasionally I was angry at him. I’d say to him in his native English: You fucking cunt... There were often many teams, five or six, in the same hotel together every evening. Each had their own table. And at a certain moment, Tommy walked into the restaurant like a gentleman, with a cane, bowler hat and in costume… He was like a Lord in England and the rest of us were in tracksuits. Everyone saw that, laughed, and the things he had done during the race were forgotten.”

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.

Career achievements

Major results

1959

2nd Ronde van Overijssel

1960

1st Ronde van Midden-Nederland

1st Ronde van Overijssel

1961

1st Ronde van Noord-Holland

3rd Ronde van Midden-Nederland

9th Overall Tour de l'Avenir 1st Stage 13

1962

1st Züri-Metzgete

3rd Overall Olympia's Tour 1st Stage 4

3rd Overall Tour de l'Avenir 1st Stage 1, 4 & 7

5th Tour des Quatre-Cantons

6th Overall Deutschland Tour

8th Road race, National Road Championships

8th Rund um den Henninger Turm

1963

Tour de France 1st Stages 2b (TTT) & 7

2nd Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre 1st Stage 3 & 5

2nd La Flèche Wallonne

2nd Omloop van Oost-Vlaanderen

3rd Paris–Roubaix

4th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne

4th Grand Prix du Parisien (TTT)

6th Tour des Onze Villes

7th Road race, UCI World Championships

7th Brabantse Pijl

8th Overall Tour of Belgium 1st Stage 3a

9th Overall Tour du Var

9th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

1964

1st Road race, UCI World Championships

1st Overall Paris–Nice 1st Points classification

Tour de France 1st Points classification 1st Stage 7 & 10a

2nd La Flèche Wallonne

3rd Paris–Camembert

6th Overall Paris–Luxembourg

6th Gent–Wevelgem

6th Paris–Brussels

7th Giro di Lombardia

8th Paris–Roubaix

8th Paris–Tours

1965

1st Overall Ronde van Nederland 1st Stage 3

1st Grand Prix du Parisien (TTT)

Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1st Points classification 1st Stage 7a

2nd Overall Circuit du Provençal 1st Points classification 1st Stage 3a

2nd Critérium des As

5th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stage 3a

5th Omloop Het Volk

6th Milan–San Remo

7th Paris–Tours

9th Overall Tour de France 1st Points classification 1st Stage 12

9th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre 1st Stage 1

10th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne

1966

1st Brabantse Pijl

1st Bordeaux–Paris

2nd Overall Tour de France Held after Stage 16

2nd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk

2nd Paris–Roubaix

4th La Flèche Wallonne

4th Paris–Tours

5th Critérium des As

6th Dwars door België

7th Gent–Wevelgem

9th Giro di Lombardia

1967

1st Overall Vuelta a España 1st Points classification 1st Stage 1b (ITT)

1st Overall Paris–Luxembourg 1st Stage 1

1st Paris–Roubaix

1st Genoa–Nice

Volta a Catalunya 1st Stages 4b, 6 & 7a

2nd Road race, UCI World Championships

2nd Gent–Wevelgem

3rd Overall Tour of Belgium

3rd Trofeo Laigueglia

3rd Tour de l'Hérault

5th Overall Tour de France 1st Points classification 1st Stage 13

5th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc

6th À travers Lausanne

8th GP Union Dortmund

9th Road race, National Road Championships

9th Tour of Flanders

9th Giro di Lombardia

10th Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke

1968

1st Overall Tour de France 1st Stage 14 & 22b (ITT)

1st Stage 5 Vuelta a Mallorca

2nd Maël-Pestivien

3rd Tour of Flanders

3rd La Flèche Wallonne

4th Giro di Lombardia

5th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stage 5

6th Overall Vuelta a España 1st Points classification 1st Stage 1a & 1b (ITT) Held after Stages 1a–3a

7th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc

8th Paris–Roubaix

9th Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke

1969

1st Overall Vuelta a Mallorca 1st Stage 2a

1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues

Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1st Points classification 1st Stage 2

2nd Bordeaux–Paris

6th Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stage 5b

7th Milan–San Remo

9th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk

9th Giro di Lombardia

10th Overall Tour de France

10th Overall Tour de Suisse 1st Points classification

1970

1st Stage 3a Tour of the Basque Country

1st Stage 2 Grand Prix du Midi Libre

3rd Overall Paris–Nice 1st Stage 6

7th Paris–Roubaix

7th Gent–Wevelgem

8th Tour of Flanders

9th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

Tour de France Held after Stages 2 & 3a

1971

4th Paris–Roubaix

6th Overall Tour de la Nouvelle-France 1st Stage 5b

6th Tour of Flanders

7th Bruxelles–Meulebeke

9th Gent–Wevelgem

1972

1st Stage 2 Tour de Luxembourg

10th Rund um den Henninger Turm

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Classics results timeline

Major championship results timeline

See also

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists
• List of Dutch cyclists who have led the Tour de France general classification

Notes

External links