Jan Raas

Jan Raas

Raas in 1978
Personal information
Full name	Jan Raas
Born	(1952-11-08) 8 November 1952 Heinkenszand, Netherlands
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
1975–1976	TI-Raleigh
1977	Frisol-Thirion-Gazelle
1978–1983	TI-Raleigh-Mc Gregor
1984–1985	Kwantum–Decosol–Yoko
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 10 individual stages (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984) Stage races Étoile de Bessèges (1981) Ronde van Nederland (1979) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championship (1976, 1983, 1984) Milan–San Remo (1977) Amstel Gold Race (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982) Paris–Brussels (1978) Paris–Tours (1978, 1981) E3 Prijs Vlaanderen (1979, 1980, 1981) Tour of Flanders (1979, 1983) Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne (1980, 1983) Omloop Het Volk (1981) Gent–Wevelgem (1981) Paris–Roubaix (1982)
Medal record Representing the  Netherlands Road bicycle racing World Championships 1979 Valkenburg Road race

Jan Raas (born 8 November 1952) is a Dutch former professional cyclist whose 115 wins include the 1979 World Road Race Championship in Valkenburg, he also won the Tour of Flanders in 1979 and 1983, Paris–Roubaix in 1982 and Milan–San Remo in 1977. He won ten stages in the Tour de France. In six starts, Raas won the Amstel Gold Race five times.^[1]

Raas was a tactician and clever sprinter. He struggled on the long steep climbs but excelled on the short climbs characteristic of the northern classics.

Career

Born in Heinkenszand, near Goes in Zeeland, Raas was the son of a farmer and one of 10 children. He showed no interest in cycling until leaving school at 16 when he acquired his first racing bike and started competing as a junior category, taking his first victory in Damme in Belgium on the 21 July 1969. Further success as an amateur, including stage wins in the Olympia Tour and the national championship, prompted Peter Post, the manager of TI-Raleigh, to offer Raas a contract for 1975

The 22-year-old had a good first season with two small victories and fourth in the Tour of Belgium. The following year (1976) saw him become national champion, but at the end of that year Raas parted company with TI-Raleigh, looking for more freedom to race.^[2]

Raas wearing the yellow jersey at the 1978 Tour de France

In 1977 he rode for Frisol. Victories in Milan–San Remo and the Amstel Gold Race made Post rethink and Raas was back with TI-Raleigh for 1978. Raas became the influence behind the success of the team in the late seventies and early eighties. He was joint leader with Gerrie Knetemann, heading members such as Joop Zoetemelk, Ludo Peeters, Cees Priem and Henk Lubberding.

Raas’ highlights for the rest of his career included his 1979 world championship on home soil in Valkenburg, where he outsprinted German "Didi" Thurau in front of 200,000 spectators (even with the help from team-mates that push him during the climb, grabbing service vehicle, and the fall of Giovanni Battaglin caused by Thurau and Raas himself on the last 200m). He had four more victories in the Amstel Gold Race to give a record of five. Raas regarded the Amstel Gold as his favourite race: “The Gold Race was made for me, I had no ability as a climber, but the short and hard Limburg hills were made for me”, he said. He won Paris–Roubaix at his seventh attempt in 1982 thanks to work by his team, especially Peeters.

Raas crashed in the 1984 Milan–San Remo, injuring his back and internal organs and was never the same, although he took a stage in the 1984 Tour de France. He found the training and recovery hard and retired on 28 May 1985 after a criterium at Hansweert the preceding day.

Raas’ know-how made for a natural move into team management and he became sporting director of Kwantum team. Raas found sponsors when old ones pulled out and the team received backing from SuperConfex, Buckler, WordPerfect, Novell and finally Rabobank.

Raas and his wife Anja suffered an armed raid on their house in March 1994^[3] and Raas decided he could no longer spend long periods away from home. He changed from sporting director to manager when Rabobank became the main sponsor in 1995. He spent eight years in this capacity until the end of 2003, the sponsor indicating that insoluble differences prompted Raas' departure.^[4]

Career achievements

Major results

Source:^[5][6]

Monuments results timeline

Source:^[5]

DNF = Did not finish
— = Did not compete

Awards

• Dutch Sportsman of the year: 1979

See also

• List of Dutch cyclists who have led the Tour de France general classification

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jan Raas.

• Jan Raas profile at Cycling Archives

UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race
1927: Binda 1928–29: Ronsse 1930: Binda 1931: Guerra 1932: Binda 1933: Speicher 1934: Kaers 1935: Aerts 1936: Magne 1937: Meulenberg 1938: Kint 1946: Knecht 1947: Middelkamp 1948: Schotte 1949: Van Steenbergen 1950: Schotte 1951: Kübler 1952: Müller 1953: Coppi 1954: Bobet 1955: Ockers 1956–57: Van Steenbergen 1958: Baldini 1959: Darrigade 1960–61: Van Looy 1962: Stablinski 1963: Beheyt 1964: Janssen 1965: Simpson 1966: Altig 1967: Merckx 1968: Adorni 1969: Ottenbros 1970: Monseré 1971: Merckx 1972: Basso 1973: Gimondi 1974: Merckx 1975: Kuiper 1976: Maertens 1977: Moser 1978: Knetemann 1979: Raas 1980: Hinault 1981: Maertens 1982: Saronni 1983: LeMond 1984: Criquielion 1985: Zoetemelk 1986: Argentin 1987: Roche 1988: Fondriest 1989: LeMond 1990: Dhaenens 1991–92: Bugno 1993: Armstrong 1994: Leblanc 1995: Olano 1996: Museeuw 1997: Brochard 1998: Camenzind 1999: Freire 2000: Vainšteins 2001: Freire 2002: Cipollini 2003: Astarloa 2004: Freire 2005: Boonen 2006–07: Bettini 2008: Ballan 2009: Evans 2010: Hushovd 2011: Cavendish 2012: Gilbert 2013: Costa 2014: Kwiatkowski 2015–16: Sagan