Daily Cycling Facts 03.12.11

Joop Zoetemelk

Joop Zoetemelk
Happy birthday to Joop Zoetemelk, born in Rijpwetering on this day in 1946 and the winner of one Tour de France (1980), one Vuelta a Espana (1979), one World Road Championship (1985) and two National Road Championships (1971 and 1973).

In addition, Joop won many other races - but perhaps his greatest achievement was that he completed a record 16 Tours, coming second in six of them. After his retirementfrom racing, he worked as directeur sportif for Superconfex, the team that became Rabobank. He remained with Rabobank for ten years until 2006 when he announced his departure from the world of cycling at the Vuelta a Espana. His son Karl (with Françoise Duchaussoy, daughter of Jacques) is a champion mountain bike rider.

Happy birthday to Joey McLoughlin, "the English Jens Voigt," who was born on this day in 1964 in Liverpool. Joey first found fame as a junior when his aggressive riding style and fierce attacks brought him to the attention of the cycling magazines and he was soon lauded as British cycling's greatest hope. He went on to win two Tours of Britain (in 1986, when it was known as the Milk Race and in 1987 when it had become the Kellogg's Tour of Britain), but his career never quite reached the heights expected due to numerous injuries, tendinitis preventing him from riding in the 1987 Tour de France. He retired in 1991, having never ridden in a Tour.

Laurent Roux

Laurent Roux
(image credit: Eric Houdas CC BY-SA 3.0)

Laurent Roux is a retired cyclist born in Cahors, France on this day in 1972. An immediately likable character, Roux was banned from racing for six months in 1999 after he tested "non-negative" for amphetamines during the Fleche Wallonne and was selected by his team to ride that year's Tour de France ("non-negative" is a term used when the A-sample provided is positive but the B-sample cannot confirm the result). He failed another test in 2004 and this time was handed a four-year suspension which, at his age, effectively spelled the end of his professional career.

 In 2006 he decided to make a full confession and come clean - or, as one newspaper put it, "he emptied his bag" - at a trial in Bordeaux into a ring on some 23 riders accused of supplying and/or using Belgian Mix or Pot Belge (sometimes also known as crazy person mix), a combination of cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, various analgesics and caffeine, which brought the infamous mixture and its use to widespread attention.

Laurent and his brother Fabien stood accused of possessing 2,200 doses of the substance of which roughly half were intended for their own use and the rest to be supplied to other riders, with the total value of the stash  estimated to be €188,100 at the time. Laurent, who was commended by newspapers for his decision not to withhold any details, claimed that he had never used doping at the beginning of his career in 1994 but had felt pressured into doing so simply in order to be competitive at the top level of the sport and said that he had begun using antidepressants and amphetamine to cope with his distress when he started thinking he wasn't going to be able to survive at their level. However, he said, his results did not improve; and so he turned to Pot Belge. "It was a true drug," he told the court.

A representative of the French Cycling Federation asked if he had used drugs during his stage wins at the Tour de l'Avenir, Paris-Nice, Classique des Alpes and Giro d'Italia. He confessed that in addition to Belgian Mix, he had used testosterone, growth hormones, cortisone and EPO.

Katie Compton
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Katie Compton
Katie Compton, born in Wilmington, USA on this day in 1978, is the most successful American cyclo cross rider of all time, holding the National Championship title from 2004 to 2010, seven consecutive years (thus beating Alison Dunlap's record of five consecutive years from a total of six wins). In 2007, she became the first US female rider to achieve a podium finish at the World Cyclo Cross Championships, finishing behind Maryline Salvetat. In 2011, she won the Plzeň round of the season-long UCI Cyclo Cross World Cup

Like many cyclo crossers, Compton is also a talented mountain biker and has won a series of short track National races. In addition, she acts as Tandem partner to blind athlete Karissa Whitsell and with her has shared many wins, including four medal-winning rides at the 2004 Paralympic Games.


On this day in 2010, Anna Meares set a new Australian Women's Record of 10.985" in the Flying 200m Time Trial


Twins Chow Kwong Choi and Chow Kwong Man were born in Hong Kong on this day in 1943. They rode together in the Individual Road Race and 100km Time Trial at the 1964 Olympics; Choi also rode in the 4000m Individual Pursuit.

Steve Hegg, born in Dana Point, California on this day in 1963, became the rider to win the US National Time Trial Championship three times in 1996 after winning in 1990 and 1995. He was National Road Race Champion in 1994 and won gold and silver medals at the 1984 Olympics.

Other births: Jan Plantaz (Netherlands, 1930, died 1974); Isabelle Gautheron (France, 1963); No Do-Cheon (South Korea, 1936); Emile Waldteufel (USA, 1944); Bert Gayler (Great Britain, 1881, died 1917); David Spencer (Great Britain, 1964); Juan Arias (Colombia, 1964); Francisco Elorriaga (Spain, 1947); Pavel Camrda (Czech Republic, 1968); Thorstein Stryken (Norway, 1900, died 1965); Jean-Pierre Boulard (France, 1942); Arne Berg (Sweden, 1909, died 1997); Paul Backman (Finland, 1920, died 1995); Steve Poulter (Great Britain, 1954); Kwong Chi Yan (Hong Kong, 1956).