Dutch glory on Alpe d’Huez: Gert-Jan Theunisse 33 years ago last Dutch winner | Tour de France

The fact that Alpe d’Huez, today for the 31st time arrival place in the Tour, is called a ‘Dutch mountain’, is due to the cycling successes from the 1970s and 1980s. In those two decades, the stage to the famous mountain top was won by a Dutchman no fewer than eight times.

In 1976 Joop Zoetemelk was the first to ensure Dutch success on Alpe d’Huez. In 1976 he beats the Belgian Lucien van Impe in a direct duel. It is not enough for the Tour victory, because it goes to his rival. Zoetemelk is second behind Van Impe.

What Joop Zoetemelk can do, Hennie Kuiper can do too. The TI-Raleigh rider wins on Alpe d’Huez and is eight seconds behind jersey wearer Bernard Thévenet. However, he will not win the Tour either. Kuiper finishes second behind the Frenchman.

Kuiper did it again a year later. In the stage to Alpe d’Huez he is admittedly second, but because stage winner Michel Pollentier is caught on doping, the Dutchman is still credited for the stage. A day later, a crash puts an end to Kuiper’s Tour aspirations. He breaks his collarbone and has to go home.

A year after Kuiper, Zoetemelk also records his second victory at Alpe d’Huez, which finished twice in 1979 (the Portuguese Joaquim Agostinho won the day before). He stays ahead of Van Impe again. Bernard Hinault is third, but does win the Tour. For Zoetemelk, who is on the podium for the fifth time in Paris as number two.

Peter Winnen surprised friend and foe when he won the stage to Alpe d’Huez on 14 July 1981 as the Tour debutant. He escapes from the leading group with favorite Bernard Hinault and arrives solo.

Just like Kuiper and Zoetemelk, Winnen does his trick again. In 1983 he has to fight it out with Jean Rene Bernaudeau. He beats the Frenchman in a sprint.

Fabio Parra tries to escape from a leading group with Steven Rooks, Gert-Jan Theunisse and Pedro Delgado, but is hindered by the engines in front of him. A little later, Rooks finds a suitable moment to slip away and wins, solo, as the fourth Dutchman on Alpe d’Huez. He finishes second in the Tour.

The last Dutch winner on Alpe d’Huez. Gert-Jan Theunisse wins – in the polka dot jersey – in an unparalleled way after a solo of 130 kilometers. Theunisse is fourth in the Tour and wins the mountains classification.

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