A fervent belief and hard work

There is nothing, absolutely nothing in his early childhood that points to a life on two wheels. Father Kuiper, together with his wife, had the farm built under architecture in 1936, right in the midst of the pre-war crisis, with two thousand guilders borrowed money. Borrowed, not from a bank, because there is little trust that the young farmer will be able to meet his obligations. Wealthy farmers from the area do contribute financially. They have long discovered in the Kuipers the unwavering will to succeed in life: an iron discipline and a steadfast belief.

Father Gerard (born 1903, died 1983, full name Gerardus Eduardus) and mother Johanna (born 1911, died 1994, full name Johanna Aleida Heerink) are devout Catholics. Hennie has immense respect for the way in which the parents, partly through faith, have guided the family through all problems. In the Kuiper family, in those years, it all starts with Adam and Eve and with the world created in seven days.

Faith is experienced more intensely in Catholic Twente than in the land of the ‘rich Roman Catholic life’, Brabant and Limburg. There, Catholicism is practiced with a wink. Made a mistake? Just go to confession, receive absolution, say five Our Fathers and Hail Marys, and off you go back to the party. No, above the rivers, faith is practiced differently. It’s about heaven, it’s about purgatory, but also explicitly about hell. And you can only stay out of there if you strictly adhere to both the Ten Commandments and the obligations of the Holy Mother Church. The priest and the chaplain are still approached with due reverence and hats are taken off for worldly dignitaries like the mayor, doctor, notary, and policeman.

War bombs fall around their house, the ground floor floods when rivers and streams overflow, and the livestock is decimated when foot-and-mouth disease breaks out. Time and time again, Hennie’s parents find solace in their strong faith.

Seminarian

Father was a seminarian for several years, but he prematurely ended his studies. What he did retain from it is a strong faith, which he passes on to his family. Seven children grow up on the Kuiper farm: six boys and one girl in the order Johan (1938), Gerard (1939), Maria (1945), Frans (1946), Bennie (1947), Hennie (1949), and Jos (1951). Not all the children that Gerard and Johanna brought into the world survived. If they had all made it, the family would have counted twelve children.

One girl, Annie, is born with an open spine in 1942 and dies shortly after. Three die shortly after the war from the effects of diphtheria; a disease that is now easily treatable. Leis (born in 1937) in 1945; Bernard (1941) and a second Annie (1943) both in 1946. Finally, in 1954, another boy is born, Theo, who dies after eight months.

It can be imagined that all these deaths had a tremendous impact especially on the parents. Father and mother Kuiper keep their grief to themselves and burden the other children as little as possible. “It was also never talked about,” says Hennie. “And they never complained.”

Our Lord must have meant it this way. Of the seven offspring who did grow up at Erve Kuiper, six are still alive. Johan passed away on May 31, 1997. Johan had received a kidney from Bennie earlier, but unfortunately it did not help.

All six boys become altar boys and continue to do so even after their puberty. In practice, this is not always easy. You have to remain sober to receive communion, and an altar boy is expected to receive the host. When serving in a Holy Mass with three priests that lasts a long time, an altar boy must occasionally step outside to get some fresh air. Sometimes things go wrong and you collapse. It has also happened to Hennie.

In the evening after the communal meal, prayers are said. Brother Bennie demonstrates how it’s done. The chair is pushed back, you kneel in front of the chair, fold your hands, and bow your head respectfully over the seat. There the family kneels around the table: father Gerard, mother Johanna, and the children Johan, Gerard, Maria, Frans, Bennie, Hennie, and Jos. Father leads the prayer. Successively the rosary, the litany of All Saints, often followed by a prayer for some calamity, such as for example the earthquake in Skopje, Macedonia. Father Kuiper gets this information from the newspaper or from the radio where every Sunday afternoon Mr. G.B.J. Hiltermann keeps politically interested Netherlands informed about events happening elsewhere through his column ‘The situation in the world.’

The six boys and daughter Maria lack nothing. Especially from the older ones it is expected that they also roll up their sleeves for farm work. Father is the conductor but due to stomach problems cannot fully participate. He is considered an intellectual, being the only one in the area with a partial seminary (thus classical) education.

Mother not only manages the household but also the farm. She works from early morning until late at night. When father has to go to the hospital for a stomach operation, mother stays behind alone. She takes care of the livestock, helps put the little ones to bed, sends the others off to school in the morning, and cycles back and forth to the hospital in Oldenzaal in the afternoon. Then she prepares dinner, leads in milking, and ensures everyone goes back to bed at night.

When acquaintances ask her if she’s not tired, she replies: “I’m never tired.” It is beneath her dignity to show that she is tired. “In many ways I resemble my mother,” says Hennie. The later cyclist Hennie can also tirelessly accomplish mountains of work without a single complaint.

The world of Hennie, his brothers and sister revolves almost exclusively around the farm and the school in nearby Denekamp. Once a year they take a bus to Enschede, 25 kilometers away, to visit family. It feels like a world trip. One uncle lives in The Hague but Hennie cannot remember ever visiting there. The Hague is beyond the imagination and budget of the family.

The complete family of Gerard and Johanna Kuiper, with their partners. In the foreground from left to right: father Gerard, brother Jos, and mother Johanna. Standing from left to right: Bennie, Trees (Gerard's fiancée), brother Gerard, sister Maria, Marietje (brother Johan's fiancée), brother Frans, brother Johan, and Hennie

The parents of Hennie Kuiper, a family portrait: father Gerardus Eduardus Kuiper and mother Johanna Aleida Heerink

Hennie Kuiper, six years old, on the farm where he spent his childhood

Hennie is a nature lover. From a young age, he prefers to play in the great outdoors. No wonder he plays here on the family farm with a pig.

In their mother Johanna's knitted sweaters, the brothers Frans, Hennie, Jos, and Bennie pose from left to right.

The first school photo of Hennie. Taken at the kindergarten in Noord Deurningen

Hennie (right) together with his brother Frans as altar boy at the wedding of brother Bennie and Thea

In 1965, Hennie poses in the yard of the farm in his first cycling jersey, made by Rika Kamphuis from Enschede, who had sewn together a soccer shirt for this purpose.

Just like any healthy Dutch boy, Hennie also enjoys playing football. Here he is kneeling all the way to the left in the front row of his street football team.

Hennie is stationed in Harskamp where he is being trained as a driver by the medics during his military service

The elements can never bother the Kuipers, as seen here during the club championships of OWC in Oldenzaal. Hennie is the one on the left with the racing bike. The other one is Ben Wigger. Further from left to right: unknown, Alfons Oortman, Ine Nolten with umbrella, Thea Bennie's girlfriend, brother Bennie, Wim Horsthuis and father Gerard Kuiper with the bike - setting a good example - by his side

In 1968 - his first year as an amateur - Hennie Kuiper is in the company of Gerrit Huisjes during the Ronde van Deventer in pursuit of the leading group.

Love without tenderness

The parents love the children very much, but they can never show it. Hennie cannot remember ever sitting on his father’s or mother’s lap. He sees it later with others, but cuddling or any other form of tenderness is not present in his family, you just don’t do that. Expressions of affection are foreign to them. ‘There was no room for feelings in our home.’ The Kuiper children were not taught this. Later, when he forms a family with Ine, the same pattern is followed. Hennie cycles, trains diligently, races. He brings home the money for the family, for Ine and for the sons Patrick (Patrick Gerardus, 1974) and Bjorn (Bjorn Hendrikus, 1979). His philosophy is: work now and enjoy later when the career is over. He does not realize that he needs to approach it differently, that he - he thinks afterwards - should pay more attention to Ine and the family. Son Bjorn describes his father as extremely introverted with his feelings. During that period, he struggles to express himself, ‘even towards mother.’

The rare occasion when some affection is shown holds a special place in Hennie’s memory. He still cherishes the journey with his father to a plot of land owned by the Kuiper family. A ditch separates father and son from the meadow.

Father takes off his clogs and socks, rolls up his pants legs, and puts his son on his shoulders. Physically, Hennie has never been closer to his father. He enjoys every moment when he is carried across on his father’s shoulders. ‘I felt like a king.’ More than half a century later, his eyes still sparkle when he thinks back on it. The boys not only sleep in the same room but also have to share a bed: Hennie with Bennie, Frans with Jos. The beds are separated by a narrow corridor. There is barely enough space to kneel for morning prayer. But no one complains. Despite their modest budget, Father and Mother Kuiper make space for all seven children, including their daughter, to study. That is exceptional. Hennie comes from a large family of over a hundred cousins, 90 percent of whom attend domestic science school or trade school. Learn a trade quickly and then get to work. After all, the household pot must be filled. It is different in Hennie’s family. They are allowed to pursue the studies they want

Speech Impediment

Hennie has a speech impediment, as becomes apparent in primary school. He is a stutterer, who sometimes gets stuck on every word in a sentence. He particularly struggles with the letter ‘k’. In the family, in the small community in North Deurningen, no one is bothered by it. Brother Frans hardly thinks it’s worth talking about. He and the other family members are too down-to-earth Twente people to see stuttering as a handicap.

At school, it’s a different story. Children can be cruel to each other: real bullying. Hennie remembers that initially he could read aloud well. A 9 adorns his report card, but things go wrong when later that school year he has a reading turn that is decisive for his report. He often daydreams about the fresh memories of everything he has seen on his walks through the fields. ‘Sometimes I would get out of bed at 6 o’clock in the morning to spot birds, hares, and pheasants.’

He then doesn’t pay attention, gets his turn to read, doesn’t know where his predecessor left off, and ultimately stutters word by word through the paragraph. He is penalized on the next report. The 9 from the first report becomes a 4 on the second. Father and mother are told at the parent-teacher conference: Hennie can’t even read properly. ‘I saw that as terribly unfair. I absolutely cannot stand injustice. That was the real starting point of my speech problem.’

Every trimester thereafter, when the day comes for him to have a reading turn, nervousness grips him by the throat. He still remembers how he experiences those moments. When the teacher announces Hennie’s turn, he turns as red as fire. The redness creeps behind his ears. The class is dead silent, you could hear a pin drop. But of course, it doesn’t work at all. He blocks.

School and parents try to help him. But he only has bad memories of the speech therapist assigned to him. Firstly because he has to cycle ten kilometers to Oldenzaal for those lessons on Wednesday afternoons off school, while he would much rather roam through the vast fields around the parental farm during those hours, and secondly because the result of those lessons is zero. The teacher does not go beyond having him read a little piece. He hears nothing about breathing techniques, self-control, or other things that could help a stutterer.

And so Hennie continues to stumble all those years when he wants to express something. Doesn’t it hurt, all those teasing he has to endure here and there? Hennie shrugs. ‘Absolutely not. Stupid people - because that’s what bullies are - cannot hurt me and intelligent people do not hurt me.’ He lets the ridicule and mockery slide off.

So often Hennie's parents do not come to the race, but when they do, they turn it into an outing right away. In 1975 they are at the GP Union in Dortmund and have a picnic from the trunk with some supporters of Hennie and Ine (right in front), the prematurely deceased wife of Hennie's brother Jos.

Before the race, Hennie, supported by his mother and father, speaks with Rokado employee, journalist, and co-organizer Wim Poot.

Mokerslag

Despite this handicap, he is still able to attend the junior high school, where he obtains his diploma. And then comes the question: what do you want to be when you grow up? Hennie has a dream. He wants to do the same thing as his older brother Gerard: teach. Because he enjoys being around young children. No one warns him that his speech impediment could be a barrier to gaining access to the teacher training college. Not even brother Gerard, who hopes that Hennie will still pass the selection and that he will overcome the problem at the teacher training college. But no. Hennie is rejected. ‘It hit me like a sledgehammer. I had never experienced a major setback in my life and now this.’

Well, what now? He is too late for the hbs. There is a student enrollment freeze. There is also no place left at the mts in Hengelo. In those years - when baby boomers are reaching high school age in large numbers - it is a struggle to secure a spot at educational institutions. Brother Gerard advises him to go to the Catholic mts in Enschede with his ‘bedmate’ Bennie. Bennie, who has lost a year because the hts was too challenging for him, has already made that decision. For Hennie, the connection to his brother is a great support. Bennie and he form a unity. They share a bed, cycle together to primary and secondary school, and are now reunited, much to Hennie’s delight. ‘Bennie knew how things worked in the big world outside Denekamp through the hts adventure.’

The distance between the farm and the school in Enschede - 25 kilometers there, 25 kilometers back - is covered by bike. In hindsight, it was a great training for his sport. Together with brother Bennie, they climb on their bikes every morning, rain or shine. A Kuiper does not give up easily. It has never been a point of discussion during all those years in high school. Hennie never cycles reluctantly. He pedals on his regular bike with a fixed and relatively small gear ratio kilometer after kilometer under the wheels, as advised by his coach, the former professional cyclist Broer Oude Keizer.

With full dedication, he and brother Bennie first conquer the Tolbult and shortly before Oldenzaal the Denekampse bult, which has a steep section with about 4 percent gradient. It is their daily dose of climbing and - in the descent - flexibility work. On the way back, the boys draft behind passing mopeds. They train their heart and lung function day in and day out. This is how farm boys are toughened. Later, in his career as a professional cyclist, Hennie benefits greatly from this. When rain lashes the riders’ backs before the start of a race, when thunder roars or when bitter cold stiffens their fingers, you see most of the professional cyclists riding to the starting line with long faces. Not Hennie. And colleague Adrie van der Poel, also a farm boy, neither. ‘Adrie always said: “Great. Half of them don’t feel like it. We’ve already lost them.”’ Hennie and Adrie don’t care. Life in the countryside has made them weatherproof.

The cycling seed is planted

When he undertakes the daily journey to the mts in Enschede, Hennie has already devoted his heart to the sport of cycling. No one in his immediate surroundings has anything to do with that sport. Yet, Hennie has been passionate about cycling since the first encounter. It happens at the ‘Meesterronde’ in Denekamp. 13-year-old Hennie squeezes himself through the crowd and becomes captivated by those men who are pushing themselves in an ‘unofficial’ round on racing bikes. He hears the humming of the chains, the whirring of the tires, the smell of massage oil, and he is fascinated by the speed. ‘I want to do that too. I’ll be there next year.’

Fate smiles upon him. A drainage canal is being dug in front of the farm. Surveyors, supervisors, and engineers from the west rent accommodation for the week from the Kuiper family. It is a grateful source of extra income for the family. The boys move to the attic, where they camp directly under the roof. If it freezes outside, it also freezes in the attic, but no one complains. The surveyors and engineers have purchased second-hand bicycles for their stay on Schotbroekweg. Hennie and his brother Bennie see their opportunity when the workers leave. They ask if they can have those bikes. They can. And so, with hammers and other rough tools, they strip off all unnecessary parts of the bike, convert the handlebars into something resembling a racing handlebar, and thus create their first ‘racing bike.’

A year after his first introduction to cycling, Hennie and Bennie ride their first race in that same Meesterronde. Bennie falls. It is the end of his cycling career. His great love is horses. As a military rider, he later gains national fame. Hennie finishes second in the Meesterronde race. The cycling career of Hennie Kuiper has begun. Although Kuiper may have achieved good results in the region and beyond national borders, he is still unknown to the Dutch cycling public. This changes at the national amateur road championship in 1970, held in Helmond. Hennie Kuiper makes the decisive attack in the final. He opens a gap, then waits for Cees Koeken to follow him, who eventually finishes second. For most of the press, Hennie is considered the new kid on the block. Fifteen, twenty journalists swarm around this still unknown Tukker. He outwardly gives the impression of wanting to hide away. He tells his story modestly. But everyone finds him nice and endearing. A true talent from Twente… Ine has known him since he was fourteen. She knows that he doesn’t like being in the spotlight. ‘Riding hard is one thing,’ she knows, ‘he can do that well, but dealing with the attention’ that is inevitably linked to performance ‘is another thing.’ As long as he races abroad - Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, France, and similar countries - he remains more or less anonymous because he doesn’t speak the language.

The race suits Hennie Kuiper better than the encounters with the microphone, as here in 1966 as a first-year novice in the Tour of Zwartsluis

The cup that Hennie cherishes the most. His first trophy. How characteristic: achieved in pouring rain. The inscription says it all: '2nd Prize Youth Race / 14-15 years / V.V.V. Wierden 11-7-'64