Jan Krekels

Jan Krekels
Jan Krekels with his Tour de France bike in 1973
Personal information
Full nameJan Krekels
Born (1947-08-26) 26 August 1947 (age 77)
Sittard, Netherlands
Height1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight73 kg (161 lb)
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Medal record
Representing the  Netherlands
Men's road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1968 Mexico City Team time trial

Jan Jozef Alfons Franciscus Krekels (born 26 August 1947) is a retired cyclist from the Netherlands. He became Olympic champion in the 100 km team time trial in 1968 with Joop Zoetemelk, René Pijnen and Fedor den Hertog; at the same Games he came in 11th in the road race.[1] He also won the 19th stage of the Tour de France in 1971 and the prologue of Paris–Nice in 1970. He retired from professional cycling in 1978.[2]

Krekels won three four major races of 1968, including the Tour of Austria, to be selected to the 1968 Olympic team. In 1969 he turned professional. He turned down a contract with the French team, Bic because he did not speak French. He rode instead for a small Dutch team and his career fizzled out.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference r1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference r2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Jan KREKELS (1947, Nederland). wielersport.slogblog.nl