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 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 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 the Netherlands all the more popular at home.

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.

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

Tour de France

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 Stage 3 1st Grand Prix du Parisien (TTT) Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st Stage 7a 2nd Overall Circuit du Provençal

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 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

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 Stage 1b (ITT)

1st Stage 1 1st Paris–Roubaix 1st Genoa–Nice Volta a Catalunya 1st Stages 4b, 6 & 7a

2nd Gent–Wevelgem 3rd Overall Tour of Belgium 3rd Trofeo Laigueglia 3rd Tour de l'Hérault 5th Overall Tour de France

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 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 Stage 1a & 1b (ITT)

7th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc 8th Paris–Roubaix 9th Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke 1969

1st Stage 2a 1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

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

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

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

+ Legend — Did not compete DNF Did not finish