Johan van der Velde

Van der Velde in 1982
Personal information
Full name	Johan van der Velde
Born	(1956-12-12) 12 December 1956 (age 68) Rijsbergen, Netherlands
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional teams
1978–1983	TI–Raleigh–McGregor
1984–1985	Metauro Mobili–Pinarello
1986	Panasonic–Merckx–Agu
1987–1988	Gis Gelati–Jollyscarpe
1988–1989	TVM–Van Schilt
1989	Carrera Jeans–Vagabond
1990	IOC–Tulip Computers
1990	Orbea–Alimentos de España
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Young rider classification (1980) 3 individual stages (1981, 1986) 5 TTT stages (1980, 1981, 1982) Giro d'Italia Points classification (1985, 1987, 1988) 3 individual stages (1986, 1987) Stage Races Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1980) Tour de Romandie (1978) Ronde van Nederland (1978) Tour of Britain (1978) One-Day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (1980, 1982) Brabantse Pijl (1986) Zürich-Metzgete (1983)

Johan van der Velde (born 12 December 1956 in Rijsbergen) is a former Dutch cyclist. In the 1980 Tour de France, he won the young rider classification, also placing 12th in the general classification that year. He had been a racing cyclist for only a year. In the 1981 Tour de France, he took first place on the second and 21st stages, finishing 12th overall for the second year. He rode with TI–Raleigh in the Tour de France from 1979 to 1983 and the Panasonic team where he won Stage 5 and wore the Yellow Jersey for two days in the 1986 Tour de France.

He was distinctive in the peloton for his lean, long-legged appearance, his smooth pedalling style and his long hair. He rode in support of riders such as Joop Zoetemelk, whom he could pace over mountains at impressive speed, but he was also capable of winning on his own. Success came to him early and, he said in an interview with the author Jan Siebelink ("Pijn is genot") that he had trouble coping when that success began to dry up. Van der Velde said he remembered shivering at the start of an Italian race, the skin of his arms wrinkled in goosebumps, because of the amphetamine he had taken just to start.

Addiction to amphetamine and a lifelong habit of petty theft, which he said came from seeing his father bring home things he had stolen from work, brought him into trouble with the law. He was caught stealing lawnmowers and breaking into post office stamp machines to raise money to cover his addiction and his gambling. The jail sentence and the loss of all he had won forced him and his Belgian wife, Josée, to sell the villa they had owned. They moved into a series of anonymous houses and apartments. Van der Velde began hospital treatment for his addiction and became deeply religious. He began work on building sites, rarely saying who he was or what he had been, to rebuild his self-esteem. For many years he tried to keep his address and his identity secret.

Van der Velde is now often seen at junior races, where he accompanies his son, also a racer. He took part in a celebrity edition of the Big Brother television series in 2000 and has worked in public relations for the Quickstep team, driving its guests at races. It was announced that van der Velde would join the new Roompot Orange Cycling Team as a driver for 2015.^[1]

His manager at Ti-Raleigh, Peter Post, said he had always considered Van der Velde the son that he had never had.

Grand Tour	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
Vuelta a España	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	—	—	5	22	16	9	65	DNF
Tour de France	14	12	12	3	DNF	—	—	52	—	—	—

• List of doping cases in cycling
• List of Dutch cyclists who have led the Tour de France general classification

• Official website Johan van der Velde (Dutch)
• Johan van der Velde at Cycling Archives (archived)
• Official Tour de France results for Johan van der Velde
• "Johan van der Velde career racing results". Archived from the original on 2005-09-02. Retrieved 2017-11-26.