Harm Ottenbros passed away at the age of 78. The cyclist who became world champion on the road in 1969 has died in his sleep.
Ottenbros was born in Alkmaar and experienced his absolute peak in Zolder, Belgium. There Ottenbros became world champion in road cycling. Until then, he was a fairly anonymous cyclist. During the competition he replaced Jan Janssen, the tour winner from a year earlier.
The World Cup should actually be Eddy Merckx’s game. In the peloton it was clear that nobody wanted that to happen and because of that everyone rode against Merckx. As a result, no one paid attention to the Belgian Julien Stevens and Ottenbros. The duo broke away from the pack and Ottenbros was the strongest in the sprint.
In 1976 Ottenbros called it quits. He did this in a remarkable way: in the VPRO television program Het Gat van Nederland he threw his racing bike from the Zeeland bridge into the Oosterschelde. “Others hang him in the willows, I’ll throw him off the Zeeland Bridge,” said Ottenbros.