67th Tour de France 1980

Zoetemelk’s Shinning Moment

Bernard “the Badger” Hinault, victorious in the 1980 Giro d’Italia, came to the Tour de France in search of his third consecutive TdF championship and a rare Tour/Giro double. Again this year his main challenger was Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk. 

A steady rain at the start in Frankfurt, Germany but Bernard Hinault disregarded the weather and grabbed the first Maillot Jaune (race leader’s Yellow Jersey) by winning the 7.6 km prologue time trial. The Badger kept the pressure on with stage wins on stage 4 and 5. However, the flying Frenchman began to feel the stresses of the hard, early racing. The combination of heavy, cold rain and very long stages he aggravated a tendonitis problem in Hinault’s right knee.

The chilling rains of the first ten days of the Tour began to break after the first rest day in St. Malo. With great determination, Hinault continued to race with the pain. By stage 11, the 52 km individual time trial (ITT) from Damazan to Laplume, the Badger had battled back into the Maillot Jaune. Despite finishing fifth on the TT stage, Hinault gained enough time to take back the race lead. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Cyrille Guimard, Hinault’s team director, became increasingly concerned about the knee problem. Guimard raced through the same pain in 1972 and had his racing career cut short by the injury. As the Tour moved closer to the Pyrenees Mountains, Hinault and Guimard discussed his options at length. Two stages after re-taking the Maillot Jaune, Hinault had reached the end of his suffering and abandoned the Tour.  The new race leader was second placed Joop Zoetemelk.

SPECIAL NOTE: The honor of wearing the Maillot Jaune is an earned right and is held in such high regard that riders refuse to wear the Jersey after another rider’s misfortune. In 1971, Eddy Merckx refused to wear the Jersey after Luis Ocana crashed on the Col de Mente. Joop Zoetemelk followed that tradition and did not wear the Maillot Jaune until he earned it.

The Tour was now in the Pyrenees Mountains for Stage 13, which featured two Hors Categorie (HC-beyond category) climbs and two Category 1 climbs. French climber Raymond Martin launched an insane attack at the foot of the Tourmalet. Over the remaining three brutal climbs, Martin stayed ahead of the chasers. He crossed the finish line in Bagneres de Luchon for the stage win. Zoetemelk led the chase group in 3’27” behind and officially took over the race lead.

Into the Alps Zoetemelk still had challengers as stage 16 headed towards the finishing climb of the Pra Loup. With his very strong Ti Raleigh team of the race leader controlling a hard pace, Zoetemelk touched wheels with teammate Johan Van der Velde and crashed hard 3 km from the finish. The race leader quickly remounted, but in great pain started his chase of second placed Hennie Kuiper. Across the finish line he did manage to catch the elite group and lost no time to Kuiper.

The following day would be very difficult for Zoetemelk. A gash in his left elbow and deep bruise to his thigh, the Dutch climber sets out to defend the Maillot Jaune. Stage 17 featured the brutal climbs of the Col du Galibier (HC), Col de la Madeleine (HC), and the Joux-Plane (Cat. 1). The attacks began at the foot of the first climb. The lead group of riders formed on the climb and moved away. A struggling Zoetemelk was unable to match the move. Quickly the time gap grew to 2 minutes and the Ti Raleigh team went to work. The Dutch team's brilliant work had the race leader back with the elite group by the summit of the second climb, the Madeleine. The courageous Zoetemelk struggled again and finished the stage 3’15” behind the stage winner. His race lead was now 3’05” headed into a welcome rest day in Morzine.

Three stages later the ITT into St. Etienne gave Zoetemelk the ideal launching pad to put the crowning achievement on his TdF lead. The Dutchman covers the 34 km in 45’38” to win the stage and put the overall lead out of reach to the other contenders. 

At the age of 33 Zoetemelk rode into Paris for his first Tour de France victory. In the process he crushed the label of “eternal second” and moved into the elite group of Tour de France champions.

TdF 1979

TdF 1981

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