Jan Janssen's greatest stage win ever

The greatest Tour de France ever is hands down was in 1989.

Greg Lemond overhauled a 50 sec deficit in the ultimate stage and turned it into an 8sec lead. Frenchman Laurent Fignon, the ponytailed favorite, gave away the victory when it was almost his and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

But the greatest stage win in the Tour as far as I’m concerned happened in 1963.

Dutchman Jan Janssen was a Tour rookie. On stage 7, he and another Dutchman, Dick Enthoven, was 15 minutes late. Fifteen minutes is a long time, especially in the context of a bicycle road race. On a flat stage, this distance could be about 12km but in bicycle racing, the distance between rides is measured in time, not distance so it could be more or less.

There is this mistaken notion that Tour de France riders start racing as soon as the start flag is down. Fortunately, racing doesn’t start at kilometer zero, otherwise, the riders won’t last half the Tour. What they do is ride at a decent pace, a pace where “you-can-talk-to-rider-beside-you” pace, if you know what I mean. And when the “live” covergage on TV starts, which is about 75km from the finish, then that’s the time that riders are really pushing the pace.

Obviously, there is no quitting in the Tour de France unless you can’t hop on your bicycle and ride. Australian Michael Matthews broke his rib during the early stage of the Tour, yet continued and finished the race despite the injury. Even Fabian Cancellara, a veteran, finished stage 3 with a broken vertebrae, finished the stage, obviously in pain.

Going back to Janssen and Enthoven, they did what they were supposed to do in a bicycle race- chase hard when you are down. There were no motorcycle guides to guide them along the race route, as they were with the main group. For directions, they just looked at the directional arrows, hoping they wouldn’t get lost. The Dutch Duo chased hard for 80 kilometers before they could reach the tail-end of the pack. Everybody was laughing and making fun of them when they arrived. I would have laugh myself.

The distance on that stage 7 was 236km so Janssen had plenty of time to rest and gather himself. Now he knew that the finish was uphill so when the road started to tilt upwards, he attacked! With the peloton nipping at his behind, and held on to his lead for his first ever Tour stage win. It was simply an amazing win and a lesson for everyone to never give up.

Janssen wasn’t just any rider, and in 1967, he would win the Vuelta a Espana and in 1968, would win the Tour de France. He was also World Road Champion in 1964 and was the winner of the 1967 Paris-Roubaix.

On that fateful day, the peloton and the world had a preview of Jan Janssen.