"If you ask me, there will never be another Dutch Tour de France winner" - Legendary Maillot Jaune has little hope for his nation's cycling future
Cycling
Somewhat surprisingly given The Netherlands' illustrious cycling history, just two Dutchmen have ever managed to win the Maillot Jaune at the Tour de France. The legendary Jan Janssen triumphed all the way back in 1968, with Joop Zoetemelk following suit in 1980. According to Janssen, the prospects of another Dutch winner in the coming years are pretty bleak.
"If you ask me, there will never be another Dutch Tour winner. I will never experience it again and I will be 100 years old," the now-84-year-old Janssen laughs in quotes collected by De Telegraaf. Janssen also doesn't see much hope for arguably the leading Dutch GC rider of the current peloton from the INEOS Grenadiers. "At the moment, Thymen Arensman is our only classification rider, but he will not win a Grand Tour with the generation of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Juan Ayuso. Riding on the podium will even be a huge challenge."
Arensman got himself on the final podium of Paris-Nice 2025 at the weekend and has a trio of top 6 general classification placings at Grand Tours to his name from recent seasons. Claiming a podium at the Tour de France is as such, perhaps not out of the question for the 25-year-old although it would take a monumental ride on his behalf to get the overall win.
Since Zoetemelk back in 1980, the closest the Dutch have come to winning another Tour de France was through Tom Dumoulin back in 2018. The time trial specialist had already taken the Maglia Rosa at the Giro d'Italia the previous year, but fell just short of a historic, second Grand Tour win in Paris, eventually finishing 1:51 down on Arensman's current teammate at INEOS, Geraint Thomas.
Janssen's doom and gloom prediction is agreed with by all either. "I'm not going to say it will never happen again," counters Hennie Kuiper, who finished second in the Tour in 1977 and 1980. "Although we have to conclude that the Tour is about to start its 112th edition and it has only been won twice by a Dutchman. The sport is evolving quickly and Dumoulin was very close, but at the moment we have no successor for him. We have been waiting for the third for 45 years now and it is quite possible that it will take a very long time. But one day there will be another Dutchman who will win the Tour."
🏆 LE TOUR DE FRANCE 2018 - OFFICIAL PODIUM 🏆
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 29, 2018
🥇 🇬🇧 @geraintthomas86 (SKY)
🥈 🇳🇱 @tom_dumoulin (SUN) + 1'51"
🥉 🇬🇧 @chrisfroome (SKY) + 2'24" #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/gzy0OwLitt
Nobody asked you and you have very little future prediction precedent. 20 years ago no-one predicted Slovenian cycling domination, Tadej, Trump, Manchester United replaced by City, the recent serial UK Tory leadership or the drastic demise of German Olympic performance. Unfortunately JJ probably won’t be around much longer so can’t be held « accountable » if wrong.
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