TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

The Netherlands is first and foremost a cycling country, so it’s no surprise that it has produced some of the greatest riders of all time, and the current world-beating generation of female athletes. Procycling looks into the roots of Dutch cycling culture, to find the reasons for its continuing success

WRITER Thomas Olsthoorn 

PROCYCLING UK - Issue 287, November 2021

There was a beautiful moment during the closing ceremony of the recent Vuelta a España. Fabio Jakobsen stepped onto the podium, before the impressive façade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Bike in hand, his machine sprayed the same colour as the jersey that hung over his shoulder. The Dutch sprinter had won the green jersey and he received loud applause from the gathered fans.

His confirmation as the best sprinter in the Vuelta came 396 days after his terrible crash at the Tour de Pologne in August 2020. Jakobsen narrowly escaped death, and after a rehabilitation process that took months, he first got back to being a functioning person again and finally back as a pro cyclist. He showed he was fully back at world class level at the Vuelta. With stage wins in Molina de Aragón, La Manga del Mar Menor and Santa Cruz de Bezana he regained his position as one of the best sprinters in the peloton. It was an impressive comeback, giving cycling fans around the world goosebumps and which commanded nothing other than respect and admiration within and beyond cycling. 

Jakobsen’s triumph was a personal one. But beyond that important aspect of his achievement, it was also a triumph for the Netherlands. Exactly 10 years after Bauke Mollema, once again a Dutchman was awarded the Vuelta’s points jersey. 

In recent years, Dutch cycling fans have again become accustomed to the sight of their compatriots winning big races. It was a different story a decade ago. Mollema’s 2011 Vuelta points jersey was a rare highlight in a period of significant drought for Dutch cycling. Wins were rare, especially in the most important races. There were even years when there were no wins at all in the three major tours. The most painful was the absence of success at the Tour de France. Pieter Weening’s Tour stage win in 2005 – by a millimetre ahead of Andreas Klöden in Gérardmer – was followed by eight winless Tours for the Dutch. Even in the Giro and the Vuelta the takings were meagre; between 2005 and 2013 there were three stage wins in total. 

They were tough seasons. The generation of Erik Dekker and Michael Boogerd, the men who were well-known faces for Dutch cycling in the years before and after 2000, had retired and the new generation wasn’t yet mature enough to compete to win in the big tours or classics. Servais Knaven took a heroic mud-spattered win in the 2001 Paris-Roubaix, but after that, it was a long, long wait. 

It was all an enormous contrast to the glory years of the 60s, 70s and 80s, when the Netherlands was one of the strongest nations in the peloton. Jan Janssen and Joop Zoetemelk both made history by winning the Vuelta as well as the Tour, and riders like Jan Raas and Hennie Kuiper won monuments and classics by the boatload. All four of them became world champions, just like Gerrie Knetemann and Harm Ottenbros. And then there was the ever powerful and epochal TI Raleigh team, under the command of Peter Post, who managed to win a whopping 44 Tour stages and a whole host of classics between 1976 and 1983.

NEW WAVE

The turnaround came in 2014, with a certain symbolism. Thirteen years after Knaven, Niki Terpstra put an end to the classics drought at Paris-Roubaix. Three months later Lars Boom finally gave fans something to cheer about again at the Tour de France. Just like Terpstra, he managed it on the rainy cobblestones in the north of France at Arenberg. It was a portent of the seven successful years that have followed. In 2015, Tom Dumoulin almost won the Vuelta. He then transformed into a GC rider and in 2017 he was the first Dutchman to win the Giro. It was also the first win by a Dutchman in a grand tour since Zoetemelk won the Tour in 1980. Later on that summer, sprinter Dylan Groenewegen took the first win for the Dutch on the Champs-Élysées, in the final stage of the Tour, in 29 years. 

In 2018 Terpstra won the Tour of Flanders, something no fellow Dutchman had been able to achieve since 1986. That same season Dumoulin came second at not just the Giro but also the Tour. In 2019 Steven Kruijswijk made the podium of the Tour, coming third behind the Ineos duo of Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas. That same Tour saw Mike Teunissen win the opening stage in Brussels to much surprise and therefore became the first Dutchman to wear the yellow jersey since Erik Breukink in 1989. Earlier, in the spring of 2019, Mathieu van der Poel managed to fill another gap in the national cycling history by winning, in sensational fashion, Amstel Gold, the only Dutch classic, which hadn’t had a homegrown winner since Erik Dekker in 2001. To top it all off, in the autumn of 2019, Mollema experienced the best moment of his career when he added a win at Il Lombardia to his list. 

The opulence was unprecedented. The past couple of years have seen Dutch riders go from strength to strength with regards to stage wins at the Tour, Giro and Vuelta. There were four wins at the three major tours between 2005 and 2013. In the eight seasons to follow, between 2014 and 2021, no fewer than 29 wins were taken, of which 12 were at the Tour. The difference was day and night.

FOCUS ON YOUTH

To find out why recent years have been so successful, we have to step far back into the past. Twenty-five years to be exact. In 1996 the biggest bank in the Netherlands decided to fully dive into pro cycling. Not just to sponsor the elite team – of which Boogerd, Dekker and Breukink were the shining stars – but also to establish a future plan where they would be able to focus on the discovery and education of young talent. The ‘Rabobank Wielerplan’ comprised, among other things, the organisation of ‘Dikke Banden Races’ [Fat Tyre Races] – accessible races for young riders and beginners – throughout the entire country to get as many kids as possible enthusiastic about cycling. In 1997 the Rabobank Development Team also came into being, for the best talent from the U23 category, to get them ready for a career in pro cycling. Laurens ten Dam, Thomas Dekker, Robert Gesink, Mollema, Kruijswijk, Boom, Wilco Kelderman: all of them came through the Development Team. So did some wellknown foreign riders, such as Tejay van Garderen, Rohan Dennis and Ryder Hesjedal. Tom Dumoulin rode for the Rabo-training team for just a year before he decided to go pro at Argos-Shimano, but his talent had been noticed. 

“That plan has had an enormous influence on Dutch cycling,” says Stef Clement, who rode for the development team in 2004 and 2005 and as a pro, was employed for eight years for Rabobank and its successor LottoNL-Jumbo, which is now Jumbo-Visma, and now works as a radio and TV analyst. “Everything was facilitated, from the Dikke Banden Races to the pros. When the current generation of riders started cycling as kids in the 90s, the plan blossomed. That’s why until this day it has had a big and long lasting influence on Dutch cycling. 

“In those days the training team was better organised than some of the pro teams. Everything was well taken care of: the bikes, equipment, competition programmes, the leadership… In those years we were taught what it meant to live as a pro cyclist. Yes, in some ways we were pampered but there always was that pressure to perform. Foreign teams were keen to take on riders who had come through Rabobank, because they knew that they were adding riders to their team who were essentially already pros. 

“Maybe not many real winners have come out of the ‘Wielerplan’. But due to the structure that Rabobank established, lots of good, solid riders have been able to break through who have become widely deployable at World Tour level. Especially guys who excel at climbing and time trialling. The strength of the plan lies in that those climbers were discovered and trained. Otherwise that talent might have been lost.”

LEAN YEARS

After the release of the USADA report and the revelations of widespread doping during the 1990s and the early 2000s, Rabobank decided to pull the plug on its WorldTour team at the end of 2012. However, the bank still continued to sponsor the training team for another four years. They also made sure that riders such as Dylan van Baarle, Mike Teunissen, Sam Oomen and Cees Bol could be prepared for bigger things. After Rabobank’s departure, Richard Plugge became the director of the sponsorless team. He started by having a big clear out and in recent years, together with directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman, started building the team back up to the now very successful Jumbo-Visma iteration. Plugge underlines the important role the bank has played in contributing to the current period of success. “Rabobank has for many years invested an enormous amount of time, energy and attention into cycling. There were races for the youth everywhere. As a result a whole new generation came to maturity. Partly they worked with our team, and some riders, such as Mollema, have continued elsewhere.” Generations come and go. One is always better and more successful than the other. But exceptional talent, riders who due to their physical capabilities, mentality and tactical nous can outclass their international peers, are only born once in a while. The Netherlands has two at the moment. There is Mathieu van der Poel, who grew up in Belgium and has found success on the road, in cyclo cross and on mountain bikes. And there is Marianne Vos. Aside from the many races she has won, of which two are Olympic titles and twelve are road, cross and TT world titles, Vos carried women’s racing for the Netherlands for many years, and inspired a whole generation of riders.

“There was a good structure of racing clubs and races for young girls during my youth,” says former rider Iris Slappendel, who nowadays acts as the driving force behind The Cyclists’ Alliance, a union that works for the interests of women in professional cycling. “There were lots of options to start racing from a young age and therefore there were a lot of girls who were able to make the step up to pro level. My generation consisted of riders like Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen, Chantal Blaak, Lucinda Brand and Ellen van Dijk. We all grew up together in the Dutch selection.

“Through the union investments were made towards training camps, trainers, power meters… Back then that was all still in its infancy, but a very good foundation was laid for us. Even Marianne was already very important. She was so good, we had to train extremely hard to get to the same level as her. We really had someone to measure up to.” 

Vos’s achievements also meant that women’s cycling became more and more interesting for sponsors, although 10 years ago, businesses weren’t as eager as they are now. In 2012 Rabobank decided to also become an investor in the team surrounding Vos. During that time more Dutch riders were able to live off the sport and therefore able to commit to cycling full-time. As a result Rabobank attracted lots of young international riders, such as Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Jolanda Neff. 

“The fact that the Netherlands has had a pioneering role in women’s cycling over previous years has to do with the good structure through which the youth has had more opportunities and become increasingly more professional,” says Slappendel, who rode for Rabobank-Liv from 2012 to 2014. “But it also has to do with our character. Dutch women are less docile and more emancipated than women in many other European countries. Besides that, brand teams have become increasingly more important. Rabobank was a good example of that. Riders such as Ferrand-Prévot and Niewiadoma were able to see up close what Vos, Van der Breggen and van Vleuten were doing for their sport.” 

After Rabobank decided to also stop with the sponsorship of the women’s team in 2016, things started to fragment. Van der Breggen and Van Vleuten, who had already left by that point, became leaders at Boels- Dolmans (now SD Worx) and Mitchelton-Scott. From being team-mates for years, they became each other’s competition and the rivalry has burned strongly ever since. More and more Dutch riders went to foreign teams and Dutch teams were taking on more and more international riders. The result was that the overall level of the women’s peloton rose. 

Despite this, the Netherlands continues to be the dominant nation in women’s cycling. The hegemony at the world championships is a great example of this. Of the eight rainbow jerseys that were won between 2017 and 2020, in the road race and time trial, seven went to Dutch riders (three to both Van Vleuten and Van der Breggen and one to Blaak). Even at the Giro Rosa the Orange flag has been at the top for over a decade. Between 2011 and 2021 only Mara Abbott and Megan Guarnier were able to deny the Dutch from taking first place. The remaining nine titles during that period of time were taken by Van der Breggen (four), Vos (three) and van Vleuten (two). 

“You can surely see from the results of other countries that they are growing closer to the Dutch level,” says Slappendel. “I’m talking about Australia, Italy and the US. Although that group is somewhat smaller than the number of Dutch top riders. The reason why so many big races are also starting to organise women’s versions is really because of how the level has gone up in recent years. Cycling fans are asking for a women’s Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix. If you don’t do it or broadcast it, then as a business you are 1-0 down with the fans. My hope is that the increase in visibility on television and in the media will be a catalyst for young girls to take up cycling. Cycling isn’t seen as the most sexy sport for the youth today.”

SERIOUS PROBLEMS

Ask any random foreigner what he or she knows of this little country by the North Sea and besides windmills, cheese and clogs, you will undoubtedly hear cycling come up. Bicycles are part of the Dutch cultural heritage. Countless generations have grown up with the two-wheeler as the ideal means of transport. Not least because of the fantastic and extensive infrastructure of cycling paths that has been built throughout the country. According to recent research, the Netherlands even has more bikes (22.9 million) than citizens (17.2 million). 

However nice those numbers might appear, they are no guarantee for a surge of new talent. The generation that is currently coming to an end has been world beating. There are a few riders - Vollering and Lorena Wiebes for example - who are coming up fast. But the long-term future may be less successful for the Netherlands, and that’s true for both male and female road cyclists. There is an increasing lack of interest for sports among the Dutch youth. Not just in cycling but also in many other disciplines, and it’s part of a larger social problem. Generally the government doesn’t place sports – both elite and recreational – high on the agenda and at primary schools there is a lack of proper physical education. More and more children get hooked on computer games and other distractions in their teenage years and drop out when it comes to sports. It’s no different in cycling. The annual report numbers from the Dutch cycling federation speak volumes. In 2007 there were 2,736 permit holders for the youth group (girls and boys between the age of eight and 14). In 2020 there were only 1,714. As for the boys, the number of permit holders for beginners, juniors and U23s has even decreased by 30 to 40 per cent over the past 13 years. Another problem is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to organise road races on public roads in the Netherlands, partly because of the lack of police escorts and volunteers. It’s a stark contrast to our southern neighbours in Belgium where racing is religion. “The Belgium mentality is different, they have much more love for the sport,” says Plugge. “It’s already a problem when a few streets are closed down somewhere for one day of the year to organise a race. It immediately evokes resistance. People find it annoying and everyone has something to say about it. That’s typically Dutch. In Belgium there is a lot more understanding. Because there is a lot more racing, there is also a better breeding ground for the youth. 

“Dutch kids won’t go cycling for an hour in a hurry,” continues Plugge. “That often has to come from their parents encouraging them. They won’t often come into contact with the sport if the parents aren’t fans of cycling. Also because the amount of races has reduced considerably. During the recent Vuelta you could see masses of people standing by the side of the road, even kids. That’s the magic of the sport. You only get that if you see it on TV or even better when a race is organised in your hometown and as a kid you see the riders race through your streets.”

BACK TO BASICS

Over recent years, Plugge together with head sponsor and supermarket chain Jumbo started work on new initiatives to bring Dutch kids more in contact with cycle sport. In the spirit of Rabobank, the Dikke Banden Races are once again being organised. In addition, the Jumbo-Visma academy has been created. Talks are being given at high schools to get girls and boys between the ages of 15 and 18 to take up cycling. For youngsters who are already hooked on the sport but have no experience, training and races are being organised. Talented riders receive guidance and support in all areas related to the sport. Since 2020, Jumbo-Visma also has a development team again, the first protegés of which have already made the move to pro teams this season. The total package was completed at the beginning of this season by the arrival of the women’s team, headed by none other than Marianne Vos.

“Finally we have managed to draw the whole picture. Now it’s time for it to be filled in,” says Plugge. “This is how we’ve always wanted it. Because we feel responsible for Dutch cycling and also just because we think it’s a beautiful sport.”

NEW WAVE

The rich history of Dutch cycling leads to questions as to whether it can ever be the same again. On the men’s side, Jan Janssen and Joop Zoetemelk won the Tour de France and the Vuelta, and Janssen was also exceptionally good at one-day racing and even sprinting - he won the Tour’s green jersey three times, along with a world road race title and Paris-Roubaix. Zoetemelk came up against both Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault in the course of his long career but he still won many stage races, along with Amstel Gold Race and his own rainbow jersey. In the one-day races, Jan Raas won five Amstels, the Worlds and three spring monuments - Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Hennie Kuiper was twice runner-up at the Tour de France and came within a whisker of achieving a career slam in the biggest one-day races - he won a world title, and every monument except Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he came second.

For the time being, the best of the Dutch riders have many good years left in their legs. Especially the top sprinters Groenewegen and Jakobsen, for whom physically the best seasons in their career are about to start. The same goes for van der Poel. Van der Poel has won the Tour of Flanders and worn the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, and is inspiring a new generation of fans by spreading his talents across multiple disciplines. He should go on to win many one-day races. But whether or not there will be a first Tour win for the Dutch since 1980 any time soon remains to be seen. However a new world champion – the last one was Zoetemelk in 1985 – is certainly in the realm of possibility. 

For the women it’s a slightly different story. Van der Breggen will be hanging up her jersey in a few weeks’ time after a glorious career and also van Vleuten (almost 39) and Vos (34) won’t have eternal lives as athletes. Luckily we don’t have to worry about who will accede to the throne. With her wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Course, and countless other podium places this season, Demi Vollering has proven that she has what it takes to become the new figurehead of Dutch women’s cycling. Lorena Wiebes is more focused on the sprints, but she is already prolific, with 15 wins in 2019 and 10 so far in 2021. Amber van der Hulst, aged 22, of Parkhotel Valkenburg and Lonneke Uneken, aged 21, of SD Worx are both steadily climbing the rankings. 

“I’m expecting the selection to be smaller for the women than for the men,” says Stef Clement. “When Rabobank was the sponsor surrounding the team around Vos, other teams were motivated to also build a good structure. Just look at Parkhotel Valkenburg for example, a great team for young riders.” 

As for the men, no successors have been spotted in the grand tours to replace riders such as Dumoulin, Mollema, Kruijswijk and Kelderman, and the long wait for a yellow jersey goes on, even if Dumoulin’s Giro win in 2017 was a welcome boost. “It might take a few years, but talent is on its way,” says Plugge. “Not as far as sprinters are concerned, we will keep those. I’m talking about riders for the grand tours. We may  see a small dip in that area.” 

There will always be people who will contribute to the future of Dutch national cycling. Education is simply part of the Dutch DNA. Just look at Team DSM, they might be operating under a German licence and have been focusing on the development of young foreign riders these past years, but at their core they are still a Dutch team. SEG Racing Academy has, since its inception in 2015 as a U23 team, acted as an ideal springboard for youngsters. Fabio Jakobsen, Cees Bol, Ide  Schelling and David Dekker all made the switch to the World Tour via-SEG. Van der Poel’s rise was more leftfield - he grew up in Belgium and came through cyclo cross, but he’s still spearheading the current generation of Dutch talent.

“It’s important that we keep encouraging kids to keep cycling and showing them that it offers many fun challenges,” says Clement. “In recent years there have been plenty of riders who are living proof that it can be an advantage to first start with cyclo cross, track or mountain biking. You can start road racing at a relatively older age.”

Plugge sums it up: “The people with knowledge about these things say that it’s best for kids to try different sports up until 14 years old. At some stage they will make the choice of where their passion lies. Our goal is to try and catch them around that age. The more children that start cycling, the higher the level of those that eventually progress to the Development Team and then the pro team. It would be great if in 10 years time we have Dutch riders in our men’s and women’s teams that we were able to reach and encourage in this way. That is the dream, that is why we do it.”

Thomas Olsthoorn

Thomas Olsthoorn lives in the Netherlands and is a cycling journalist. He started covering the sport in 2010 and has been an editor at Dutch Procycling ever since. The last decade, he has followed the rise of the current Dutch generation - men and women - from up close.

DUTCH HEROES 

The Netherlands have been producing world-beating riders since the 1950s, and they have won every major race, some multiple times. We pick out six of the best from the last half century

JAN JANSSEN  - Career: 1962-1972 

The first Dutch Tour winner was a strong sprinter and all rounder. As well as his 1968 Tour title, he won three green jerseys in France and two in Spain. Janssen also won the Vuelta, Worlds road race and Paris-Roubaix. 

JOOP ZOETEMELK - Career: 1970-1987 

Zoetemelk had a long and illustrious career. He won the 1980 Tour, and finished on the podium a further six times. Also won the Vuelta, Paris-Nice three times, the Worlds and Amstel Gold Race, the last in 1987 at the age of 40. 

JAN RAAS - Career: 1975-1985 

Raas was the most successful Dutch male classics rider. He won the Tour of Flanders twice, along with single titles at Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Worlds. Won Amstel Gold Race a record five times, along with 10 Tour stages. 

MARIANNE VOS - Career: 2006-present 

The greatest female rider of all time, with 238 road wins alone. Vos has won three world road titles, Olympic gold, three Giri Rosa, 20 World Cup/WWT one-day races and 10 equivalent stage races. Also has seven world cross titles. 

ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN - Career: 2009-present 

Currently the world’s number one-ranked cyclist, Van Vleuten has edged just ahead of compatriot Anna van der Breggen in recent years, with wins at the Giro Rosa, Worlds, Li.ge, Strade Bianche, Flanders and Plouay, plus an Olympic TT gold. 

TOM DUMOULIN - Career: 2012-present 

Dumoulin became the Netherlands’ first grand tour winner in 37 years when he won the 2017 Giro. Dumoulin has also come second in the Tour and Giro, been the world time trial champion and won the BinckBank Tour. 

BEST RESULTS IN THE BIG NINE 

RACE 

WINNER                         RUNNER-UP                     THIRD

TdF    

Jan Janssen 1968     11 x runner-up                  4 x third

Joop Zoetemelk 1980

GdI 

Tom Dumoulin 2017     Erik Breukink 1988         Erik Breukink 1987

Tom Dumoulin 2018     Wilco Kelderman 2020

VaE 

Jan Janssen 1967         -                                     Rini Wagtmans 1969

Joop Zoetemelk 1979

MSR 

• Arie den Hartog 1965 
• Gerben Karstens 1970 
• Jan Raas 1980, 83
• Jan Raas 1977 
• Teun van Vliet 1985 
• Steven Rooks 1988
• Hennie Kuiper 1985 
• Frans Maassen 1989

RVV 

11 wins 6 x runner-up 8 x third

PR 

6 wins 3 x runner-up 9 x third

LBL 

4 wins 6 x runner-up 5 x third

WLD 

7 wins 4 x runner-up 6 x third

IL 

• Jo de Roo 1963, 64 
• Gerben Karstens 1965 
• Adrie van der Poel 1983 
• Hennie Kuiper 1984 
• Adrie van der Poel 1985 
• Teun van Vliet 1984
• Bauke Mollema 2019 
• Michel Boogerd 1998, 2004 
• Michael Boogerd 2001

TDF Tour de France, GDI Giro d’Italia, VAE Vuelta a España, 

MSR Milan-San Remo, RVV Tour of Flanders, PR Paris-Roubaix, LBL Liège-Bastogne-Liège, IL Il Lombardia

WLD World Championships,