# Gerben Karstens

Gerben Karstens (14 January 1942 – 8 October 2022) was a Dutch professional racing cyclist, who won the gold medal in the 100 km team trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, alongside Bart Zoet, Evert Dolman, and Jan Pieterse. At the same Olympics he finished 27th in the individual road race. Karstens ranks 6th in all-time stage wins in Vuelta a España history.

## Biography

After the Olympic Games, Karstens started a successful professional career, where he won six stages in the Tour de France, 14 stages in the Vuelta a España, 1 stage in the Giro d'Italia, and other races such as Paris–Tours and GP Fourmies. He became Dutch national road race champion in 1966.
In the 1974 Tour de France, Karstens finished second in the fourth stage. Afterwards, he forgot to take the doping tests. The tour organisation set him back to the last place of the stage results, and gave him 10 minutes penalty time in the overall classification, which made him lose his third place. One day later, the jury took the penalty time back. Thanks to 5 seconds of bonification that Karstens won during intermediate sprints, he took over the yellow jersey from Eddy Merckx. He wore yellow for one stage before losing it to Patrick Sercu after stage 6A, but he reclaimed the overall lead after stage 6B to spend another stage in Yellow before Merckx took over the lead for the remainder of the Tour.
Karstens died of complications from a stroke on 8 October 2022, at the age of 80.

## Major results
### 1962

    1st Ronde van Limburg

### 1964

    1st Team time trial, Olympic Games
    1st Ronde van Noord-Holland
    1st Ronde van Overijssel
    10th Overall Tour de l'Avenir
       1st Stage 13

### 1965

    1st Paris–Tours
    1st Stage 21 Tour de France
    1st Stage 1 Ronde van Nederland
    2nd Giro di Lombardia
    7th Trofeo Baracchi (with Henk Nijdam)
    8th Nationale Sluitingsprijs

### 1966

    1st Road race, National Road Championships
    1st Critérium des As
    Tour de France
       1st Stages 3a (TTT), 3b & 9
    Vuelta a España
       1st Stages 12, 15b & 17
    1st Stage 6 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
    1st Stage 2 Paris–Luxembourg
    3rd Omloop der Vlaamse Gewesten
    3rd Heist-op-den-Berg
    3rd Trofeo Baracchi (with Bart Zoet)
    5th Rund um den Henninger Turm
    5th Gran Premio di Lugano
    9th Grand Prix des Nations
    10th Paris–Roubaix
    10th Bruxelles–Meulebeke

### 1967

    Vuelta a España
       1st Stages 7, 10, 17 (ITT) & 18
    1st Stage 4 Tour de Suisse
    3rd Hoeilaart-Diest-Hoeilaart
    4th Overall Giro di Sardegna
    5th Road race, National Road Championships
    7th Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke
    9th Milan–San Remo
    10th Tour of Flanders
    Tour de France
       Held after Stages 4 & 6

### 1968

    1st Grand Prix de Fourmies
    6th Harelbeke–Antwerp–Harelbeke
    8th Nokere Koerse

### 1969

    3rd Road race, National Road Championships
    3rd Coppa Agostoni
    4th Trofeo Baracchi (with René Pijnen)
    5th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
       1st Stage 6a
    6th Züri-Metzgete
    9th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

### 1970

    2nd Milan–San Remo
    7th Overall Tour of Belgium
       1st Stage 4
    7th Trofeo Laigueglia
    9th Paris–Roubaix
    10th Bruxelles–Meulebeke

### 1971

    Tour de France
       1st Stage 1b
       Held after Stages 1c, 7 & 8
    1st Stage 11a Vuelta a España
    1st stage 6 Tour de Suisse
    2nd Amstel Gold Race
    3rd Road race, National Road Championships
    3rd Gent–Wevelgem
    3rd Paris–Tours
    3rd Nationale Sluitingsprijs
    7th Brabantse Pijl
    7th GP Ouest-France
    8th La Flèche Wallonne

### 1972

    1st Stage 8a Tour de Suisse
    1st Stage 4 Giro di Sardegna
    1st Stage 4b (TTT) Paris–Nice
    3rd GP Union Dortmund
    8th Amstel Gold Race
    8th Rund um den Henninger Turm

### 1973

    1st Critérium des As
    Vuelta a España
       1st Stages 2, 5, 7 & 12
       Held after Stages 2 & 3
       Held after Stages 2 & 5–14
    1st Stage 5 Giro d'Italia
    3rd Road race, National Road Championships
    6th Circuit des Onze Villes

### 1974

    1st Tour du Haut Var
    1st Stage 16 Vuelta a España
    Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
       1st Stages 3 & 4a
    3rd Critérium des As
    4th Overall Tour Méditerranéen
    4th Grand Prix de Fourmies
    4th Circuit de l'Aulne
    6th Tour of Flanders
    6th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
    9th Paris–Brussels
    Tour de France
       Held after Stages 5 & 6b
       Held after Stage 2

### 1975

    1st Stage 4 Tour de Luxembourg
    3rd Omloop der Zennevallei
    4th Gent–Wevelgem
    5th Overall Ronde van Nederland
    5th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
    5th Grand Prix de Momignies
    6th Tour of Flanders
    8th Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden
    9th Le Samyn
    10th Paris–Roubaix

### 1976

    Tour de France
       1st Stages 5a (TTT), 18c & 22b
    1st Stage 12 Vuelta a España
    3rd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
       1st Prologue, Stages 1b, 2a & 2b
    3rd Critérium des As
    10th Paris–Brussels

### 1977

    1st Petegem-aan-de-Leie
    1st Stage 1 Ronde van Nederland
    9th Road race, National Road Championships

### 1978

    3rd Overall Tour de Luxembourg
    5th Grand Prix de Fourmies
    6th Omloop van het Waasland

### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 |
| Vuelta a España | — | 21 | 51 | — | — | — | 39 | — | DNF | 48 | — | DNF | — | — |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 23 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de France | 59 | 46 | 30 | — | 65 | — | 63 | 60 | — | 61 | 50 | 84 | 52 | DNF |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |