# 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.

## Personality

The Dutch race organiser Charles Ruys, who called Janssen a businesslike, honest and straightforward man, said:
    Anybody who tries to do something unpleasant to Jan, may it be in a race or a matter of money, has a very tough opponent. Like most successful bikies, Jan knows the value of money. So much so that he gives the impression that he is our Minister of Finance.
A bit of insight into his personality, showing the respect and compassion he showed for his fellow riders, can be gathered from a 2007 interview regarding the feisty British rider Tom Simpson (see the Death of Tom Simpson):
    "Occasionally Tommy could be annoying. When it was rolling along at 30kmh and - paf!… he’d attack. Oh leave us alone! There's still 150km to go pipe down. But often, he wanted war.” Janssen went on to say, “Even in the feed zones. It's not the law, but it's not polite. Musettes (lunch bags) were up in the air there was panic and crashes. It was Simpson acting like a jerk. It didn't happen often. Occasionally I was angry at him. I’d say to him in his native English: You fucking cunt... There were often many teams, five or six, in the same hotel together every evening. Each had their own table. And at a certain moment, Tommy walked into the restaurant like a gentleman, with a cane, bowler hat and in costume… He was like a Lord in England and the rest of us were in tracksuits. Everyone saw that, laughed, and the things he had done during the race were forgotten.”

## 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

    1st Road race, UCI World Championships
    1st Overall Paris–Nice
       1st Points classification
    Tour de France
       1st Points classification
       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 Overall Ronde van Nederland
       1st Stage 3
    1st Grand Prix du Parisien (TTT)
    Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 7a
    2nd Overall Circuit du Provençal
       1st Points classification
       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 Points classification
       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
       Held after Stage 16
    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 Overall Vuelta a España
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 1b (ITT)
    1st Overall Paris–Luxembourg
       1st Stage 1
    1st Paris–Roubaix
    1st Genoa–Nice
    Volta a Catalunya
       1st Stages 4b, 6 & 7a
    2nd Road race, UCI World Championships
    2nd Gent–Wevelgem
    3rd Overall Tour of Belgium
    3rd Trofeo Laigueglia
    3rd Tour de l'Hérault
    5th Overall Tour de France
       1st Points classification
       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 Overall Tour de France
       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 Points classification
       1st Stage 1a & 1b (ITT)
       Held after Stages 1a–3a
    7th Overall Escalada a Montjuïc
    8th Paris–Roubaix
    9th Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke

#### 1969

    1st Overall Vuelta a Mallorca
       1st Stage 2a
    1st Grand Prix d'Isbergues
    Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
       1st Points classification
       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
       1st Points classification

#### 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
       Held after Stages 2 & 3a

#### 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

| Grand Tour | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 |
| Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 6 | — | — | — | — |
| Giro d'Italia | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career |
| Tour de France | — | DNF | 24 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 26 | — | — |

### Classics results timeline

Monuments results timeline :
| Monument | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 |
| Milan–San Remo | — | — | — | 6 | — | 32 | 17 | 7 | DNF | 20 | — |
| Tour of Flanders | — | 13 | 11 | — | 44 | 9 | 3 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 13 |
| Paris–Roubaix | — | 3 | 8 | — | 2 | 1 | 8 | — | 7 | 4 | — |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | — | 9 | — | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Giro di Lombardia | — | — | 7 | — | 9 | 9 | 4 | 9 | — | — | — |

### Major championship results timeline

| | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 |
| World Championships | 31 | 7 | 1 | 43 | — | 2 | DNF | — | 16 | 36 | — |
| National Championships | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |