Ab Geldermans from Beverwijk won many competitions in his cycling career. Nevertheless, he owes his fame, especially among older cycling enthusiasts, to the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. Exactly sixty years ago, he wore the leader’s jersey for one day and he is remembered to this day. Especially now during the Tour, sometimes people spontaneously show up on his doorstep who saw him driving as a child and want to take a picture with him. “Nice, isn’t it? It wasn’t in vain,” says the living legend, who at 87 years is the oldest living ex-yellow jersey wearer.
He heard a “crack” and knew something was wrong. Ab Geldermans (87) was working in the garden six weeks ago, stumbled, landed unhappily and shouted to his wife Ilse: “Call the ambulance, my hip is broken.” A correct diagnosis. He got a new joint and is now rehabilitating, has to learn to walk again, as it were. That takes some getting used to for someone who likes to take long walks. “But it’s getting better and better, I walked for half an hour yesterday.”
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Geldermans has spread some old sports magazines and photos on the table. His cycling life criss-crosses in black and white: training with his training buddy Coen Niesten, as winner of the Tour of Germany, victorious in Menton-Rome, as Dutch champion, first in a stage in the Tour of Spain, winner of Liège-Bastogne -Liège with an enlargement of the picture on which he has to wait as a refugee in front of the closed railway barriers.
Yet again it is mainly the yellow jersey in the Tour de France of 1962 that attracts attention. Jacques Anquetil is often caught in the same image. Geldermans owes a lot to the five-time Tour winner. And vice versa. In the shadow of the leader of the renowned Saint-Raphaël team, ‘Appie’ became first lieutenant of the five-time Tour de France winner.
“I had a lot of fun with that yellow jersey”
Anyway, that Tour of ’62. Anquetil urged him to jump with a breakaway group in stage number six with start in Dinard and finish in Brest. “He rode so fast that I was allowed to put on the yellow jersey on arrival as the best classified rider. Unfortunately, I had to give it up again a day later.” But his food had been bought. “I had a lot of fun with that yellow jersey.” He is referring to his sports shop in the center of Beverwijk (run for years by his son Ab junior), which flourished on his fame. The framed yellow jersey still dominated it.
A career as a professional cyclist and then as a tradesman. And that while he was destined as the youngest of nine children to play a role in his father’s mixed agricultural company. If it had been up to him, young Ab would have milked cows and picked strawberries more often instead of training on the racing bike. “He was not enthusiastic about that. I had to work. He was a hard man.”
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His father was a model for the statue ‘De Tuinder’, known to every Beverwijker. Geldermans: “They made that very clever. I recognize my father’s face in it.”
He considers himself lucky that he has taken a different path, that of cycling. Although as a boy he was also very good at skating and playing football. “I felt that my future lay in cycling, so I made long training rides, back and forth to Den Helder and then another seventy kilometers at the end of the afternoon. Then I arrived at a thousand kilometers per week. laid for my cycling career.”
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At the 1959 World Cup on the Zandvoort circuit, all those trips turned out not to be in vain. Together with his fellow club member Coen Niesten, he is part of the leading group that remains out of the grip of the peloton due to the hard work of the two Beverwijkers. This is to the delight of André Darrigade. The Frenchman is the fastest sprinter and takes the rainbow jersey. Geldermans, who finished sixth, did not begrudge him. “Ah, I was already in French service and thought he was a nice guy.”
“I still really like going to Ajax. I hope to keep that up for a while”
His cycling life has been French colored from that moment on. He rides the Tour seven times and helps Anquetil to the overall victory as a servant four times. Personal highlight is 1962, the year of the yellow jersey and fifth place in the final standings. He sometimes wonders what would have become of him if he hadn’t sacrificed himself for Anquetil, but had ridden more for his own chance. “I’ll never know. I don’t want to think about it too much anymore. It went the way it went. I was too modest, too gentle to be a leader.”
He still likes to watch cycling. He misses nothing from the Tour. “When you see a Van Aert like that, I can really enjoy it.” And he is still a loyal visitor to Ajax’s home matches, his second love. Johan Cruijff once opened his sports shop. “I still like to come to the games. Because of that damn hip I need some help these days to get from the parking spot to the stands, but there is always someone to give me an arm. I hope so for a while to keep up.”
Two more years to wait for the ‘Ab Geldermanshof’
The Binnenduin district is emerging in Beverwijk. In the former horticultural area, a number of well-known Beverwijk residents have their own street names. There is the Marco Bakkerstraat and streets are named after the singers Annie Palmen and Rita Hovink. After the construction period, a start will be made on the construction of the houses in the ‘Ab Geldermanshof.’ The houses are expected to be ready in two years and the street sign can be unveiled.