Joop Zoetemelk

Gerardus Joseph (Joop) Zoetemelk is a Dutch cyclist.

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Zoetemelk was born on December 3, 1946 in Rijpwetering, the Netherlands. After winning a gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Zoetemelk turned professional. His career was threatened in 1974 because of a fractured skull suffered in a bicycle crash.

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In his 18 year professional career (1969-87), he won many races including the 1980 Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espa?a in 1979. A testament to the competition at the time, most notably Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault, Zoetemelk came in second in the Tour de France six times. Additionally, he set a record by completing the course sixteen times, a mark that still stands. He became the oldest World Cycling Champion in 1985, at the age of 38 years and 9 months.

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1946: 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. (see link for calendar)...

Rijpwetering: Rijpwetering is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Alkemade, and lies about 8 km east of Leiden....

Netherlands: The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:d?rlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.(Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional m...