NOS Wielrennen•vandaag, 06:16
Joop Zoetemelk beams from ear to ear when he sees his old cycling teammates together. “The fact that they are all back, except for a few, is great, yes.”
After 50 years of reunion of iconic cycling team Raleigh: ‘Great Dutch class’
In 1974, according to many, the golden decade of Dutch cycling began. Then sports director Peter Post formed the most successful Dutch cycling team in history, under the umbrella of bicycle manufacturer TI-Raleigh.
Fifty years later, many key players from that time have come together in Den Bosch for a reunion. On the occasion of the book presentation of ‘The final chord of Raleigh’, they look back on more than nine hundred victories, including two world titles, countless classics and Tour stages.
And of course Joop Zoetemelk’s Tour victory in 1980.
ANP
Is Raleigh comparable to the current Dutch Visma-Lease a Bike? Last year, the Dutch team won the three Grand Tours with three different (foreign) riders: Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss. Something like this had never been seen before. Not even by the famous Raleigh team.
“It’s different in that sense, because we were lucky enough to have a great Dutch class,” says Henk Lubberding, who joined the team in 1977. Post collected almost all the good Dutch riders in his stable. Think of Jan Raas, Gerrie Knetemann, Hennie Kuiper and Johan van der Velde.
Total cycling
“Raleigh had a different system,” says Joop Zoetemelk, now 77 years old. “At Visma they ride for one rider. And then they win fewer stages.”
EPAJohan van der Velde, Gerrie Knetemann and Henk Lubberding.
Raleigh was synonymous with racing as a close-knit team. Post’s philosophy was even dubbed ‘total cycling’, analogous to the total football of the Dutch national team during the 1974 World Cup, led by national coach Rinus Michels.
Everyone, and not just the leader, was allowed to win within this team. “We had a lot of riders who could win,” says Lubberding. “And they were not all friends of each other, but at a certain point they were able to ignore themselves, for that one great goal: certainty. The one who had the most certainty of winning, that was what was raced for.”
“That was really new,” says Lubberding. “When I became a professional, there was just one leader for whom everything was done. After Jan Raas, we had Gerrie Knetemann behind us in the classics. Or Hennie Kuiper. Post bet on several horses.”
ANPJoop Zoetemelk during the 1981 National Championships in the legendary Raleigh t-shirt
That tactic did have one important condition, says Lubberding. “You had to be honest with each other. If you are not good or think you are not capable of finishing it, then you report it honestly and leave it to the other person.”
And if that didn’t happen? “Then Post would immediately wash that rider’s ears.”
ANPJan Raas (l) signs his contract in 1974, with sports director Peter Post alongside him
In 1980, Raleigh experienced its greatest successes, when Zoetemelk joined the team. He had already finished second in the Tour de France five times while working for French teams. Now he gave it a try “with the best team in the peloton”.
That year, Raleigh won no fewer than eleven stages in the Tour, and Zoetemelk “finally” rode to Paris in the yellow jersey. Partly thanks to a phenomenal team time trial, a discipline in which the men from Raleigh excelled.
ANPThe Raleigh team during a team time trial. Lubberding, second from the left. Zoetemelk, second from the right.
Since then, no Dutch rider has followed Zoetemelk. And will it ever happen again? “Pooh…” says Lubberding. “I don’t think I’ll see that again.”
Zoetemelk hopes so. “But I don’t dare say for sure. At the moment, the Netherlands has no riders who can win the Tour. Anyway, I once came in one go. Jan Janssen too. So yes, there is certainly someone on the way. .”
