JOHAN VAN DER VELDE - GREAT RIDER, PETTY THIEF, RUINED LIFE
BY LES WOODLAND
Peter Post didn’t often say fond things but he called Johan van der Velde the son he never had. The two spent years together in the Raleigh team, where van der Velde could ride frighteningly hard to open the way over mountains for Joop Zoetemelk.
Van der Velde, a long-legged, long-haired rider, had a precocious talent, riding his first Tour de France and finishing 14th only a year after turning pro. In 1980 he won the Dauphiné Libéré and was best under-25 in the Tour.
Sadly, he turned out the son from hell.
Always a petty thief, a habit he said he acquired from his father, he also became addicted to the drugs he began taking in races. That set off a sequence of crime which put him in jail for stealing lawnmowers and breaking into stamp machines to raise money for his amphetamine addiction and gambling.
He and his Belgian wife, Josée, lost their villa and almost all they owned. From there they lived in anonymous houses and apartments, one of which they now occupy in the city of Breda.
Van der Velde received hospital treatment and has become deeply religious. He began working on building sites in the area of south-west Holland where he grew up. He tried for years not to say who he was.
He has since become rehabilitated and joins his son at races. In 2000 he took part in a celebrity edition of the Big Brother television programme. More recently he has worked in public relations for professional teams, driving guests at races.
He retired from racing in 1990 after finding himself at the start of a race in Italy, his arms in goose bumps because of the amphetamine charge he had taken just to start.
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