Kuiper and Post: clashing characters
The farewell from Frisol is one without tears. The atmosphere within the team is indeed friendly, team manager Piet Libregts is a humane type, but he is no match for the will of director Nico de Vries. Despite the successes, especially of Kuiper, De Vries only sees one rider: Fedor. He is indeed the world’s best among amateurs, but, as Hennie rightly says: ‘Later as a professional rider, not fair to himself.’
The transition to the other team manager, Peter Post, is initially a period of mutual exploration. Kuiper and De Cauwer, who have made the transition to Raleigh with their team leader, know the stories about Post. They know that Post loves money, but they have their contracts in hand, so there is little reason to worry in that regard.
The atmosphere in the team is different from Frisol. Peter Post is building a team that should not just play a leading role in the peloton, but the leading role. This requires not only a stronger core group than at Frisol but also a different atmosphere. Cocky behavior is not uncommon among many riders in the team. The Amsterdammers - Peter Post and Gerrie Knetemann - make themselves heard clearly; you can’t say that Gerben Karstens is a modest type. And the Zeelanders - Jan Raas and Cees Priem - also leave a clear mark on the team through their often rough language. That doesn’t fit into Hennie’s vocabulary. That’s not how Hennie was raised. Never has blasphemy come from his lips. He quickly sees that Peter Post is only satisfied with one place: first. Anything else he considers a failure. Post: ‘Second places don’t count. That’s nothing, absolutely nothing.’ Winning, winning, and winning again. That’s what he demands from his riders, that’s what Post wants for himself too. Winning in every aspect, to the extreme. This becomes apparent, for example, when the Raleighs cross from a race in South Spain by ferry to the Spanish enclave Ceuta in northern Morocco to ride a stage there. The riders pass the time with cards: blackjack. Peter Post joins in and is more eager for victory than anyone else. But Hennie turns out to be the standout player. He asks for a card at the right moment; stops at the right time. He wins and wins and wins. To the growing frustration of the sports director. The ferry is already docked, passengers are asked to disembark, but Post refuses to stop. It cannot be that he, the great Peter Post, master of card games, loses to Hennie! The big boss of the Raleigh team gets more and more worked up. He despises losing with all his being. But he keeps losing. Furious, he steps off the boat. His day is ruined. Hennie is surprised: it’s just a game after all? Peter Post cannot accept defeat. Hennie puts it into perspective: ‘It also has many advantages when you have such a character.’
Tuk on money
Hennie had a top soigneur in the early months at Raleigh in the person of Gust Naessens, a man who has worked with almost all the greats of the cycling world: from Coppi to Merckx. Naessens teaches the young ambitious Ruud Bakker the tricks of the trade. He mainly works with his ‘champion’, with Hennie, for whom he has a lot of respect. Already in that phase, Kuiper experiences how keen Post is on money. Although every rider receives the basic salary and bonuses correctly and on time, extra expenses must be covered by the riders themselves. Does Hennie want an extra training camp in the spring of 1976? He can, but then he has to pay for the costs himself, Post thinks. ‘You wanted that yourself, right? Then you also settle that yourself.’ The experienced veteran Naessens is bewildered. For him, this is also a reason to leave Post, the man he knows inside out from the winter track. The team leader Post turns out to be different from the rider Post.
Kuiper wears the rainbow jersey, but does not manifest himself as such outside of the race, as he did not do after his Olympic title either. He is still the timid Tukker, who struggles to express himself. Luckily, his buddy, José De Cauwer, verbally protects him. However, on the bike, Hennie lets his legs do the talking. And those legs speak loud and clear. He finishes second in the Tour of Andalusia, behind teammate Knetemann. He is again second in the Omloop Het Volk, where he silences the Belgian critics who still do not see him as a true world champion by taking the lead during the race. During his escape in the Omloop Het Volk, Kuiper is accompanied by Willem Peeters, but he rides in service of team leader Frans Verbeeck and mainly sticks to the Dutchman’s wheel. In the peloton behind him are riders like Merckx and De Vlaeminck, who mainly have eyes for each other but not to the extent that they wear out their brake pads during this race, as Hennie puts it himself. In the spring of 1976, Hennie races at the front everywhere. He wants to show his jersey, refute the biting criticism especially from the Belgians. Not a worthy champion? He has already amassed an impressive list: second in the stage race Paris-Nice, fifth places in the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and especially fourth in the queen classic Paris-Roubaix, where he forms an elite quartet heading towards the velodrome in Roubaix with recognized cobblestone specialists like Roger De Vlaeminck, Francesco Moser, and Marc Demeyer.
In the basement of the hotel in the Spanish city of Estepona on the Costa del Sol, Hennie Kuiper is preparing on the roller bench for the 1976 season. Especially for Kuiper, team manager Post predicts a tough season: 'Hennie will have to prove that the rainbow jersey was not a fluke'.
The road season 1976 starts for Hennie Kuiper and the Raleighs on February 8, 1976 in rural Estepona - southwest of Marbella - with a training camp prior to the Tour of Andalusia
In the first major race of 1976 on Dutch soil - the Amstel Gold Race - Hennie Kuiper immediately rides attentively, as seen here behind the Belgian Luc Leman.
Paris-Roubaix 1976 enters the decisive phase. Francesco Moser opens the throttle. Kuiper follows. Roger De Vlaeminck in third position, followed by Marc Demeyer
Vuelta
After the classics, the focus shifts to the major stage races. A year earlier, it becomes clear that Hennie performs well in the Vuelta. Until shortly before the end of this prestigious stage race, he is a candidate for the overall victory. However, due to mechanical issues, he is pushed back in the standings. In 1976, Kuiper’s starting position is much better. He is part of the Raleigh team, which is increasingly asserting itself as one of the leading teams in the peloton. His German teammate Didi Thurau, who is becoming more and more the ‘darling rider’ of team manager Post, impresses by not only wearing the yellow leader’s jersey for seven days but also winning three stages before Hennie takes over the top position in the standings from the Portuguese Joaquim Agostinho in stage 17. On the penultimate day, the stage leads through a five-kilometer climb to Santuario de Oro. A group of about forty riders, including Kuiper and his teammates Bert Pronk and Didi Thurau, start the final climb. But just as the road starts to steepen, Hennie experiences the same as the year before: he breaks his freewheel.
Didi Thurau does not wait for his team leader and overall leader but continues to ride stubbornly. ‘He rode past me like that.’ Bert Pronk gives Kuiper his bike. But it’s not Hennie’s size. At the top of the mountain, he remains in the yellow jersey but his lead has shrunk to two seconds. With Thurau’s help, he might have been able to limit the loss, but the German is mainly focused on himself. When Thurau then wins the stage and brings his tally to four stage victories, there is no room for criticism. The next day is the finale: a morning road stage to San Sebastian and a concluding time trial. Kuiper becomes nervous and is tempted into foolishness in the morning stage. He - the non-sprinter - hopes to gather bonus seconds on the velodrome of San Sebastian, where the finish line is drawn, to strengthen his position in the standings. But in the chaos on the track, he gets a knock, flies with his right hip against the railing. The damage: a significant bruise and no time to recover for the concluding time trial where he goes down without a chance. For the second consecutive year, Kuiper misses out on the top prize in the Spanish tour. The fact that Didi Thurau secures his fifth stage victory through winning the time trial convinces Post that it is not world champion Hennie Kuiper but the German who is his big asset for the future. Hennie rides the Vuelta one more time in 1983 and finishes fifth, just ahead of future Tour winner Laurent Fignon.
On the right side of the road and in the final stretch, Hennie Kuiper will give it a try. But Roger De Vlaeminck is watching from the corner of his eye and sees Kuiper approaching. The eventual winner Marc Demeyer is also ready to counter, and Francesco Moser - in last position - is not going to be surprised by Kuiper either.
Power grab in Switzerland
Yet there is still hope for a leading role for Hennie in the Tour de France, when he impressively rebuffs the competition in the last important stage race before the French round - the Tour of Switzerland. It turns into a duel between Michel Pollentier, leader of the Flandria team, and Hennie Kuiper, leader of the TI-Raleigh team. Kuiper lays the foundation for the overall victory on the Gaflei, the twelve-kilometer long, extremely difficult climb near Vaduz in the principality of Liechtenstein. In that final ascent, a height difference of 1000 meters must be overcome.
Kuiper attacks, having agreed beforehand that he wants to change bikes during the climb in order to ride the final part with a lighter gear. It is so steep that his teammate Didi Thurau turns his bike halfway up the climb, sends it down and is determined to abandon the race. He is stopped by the German cycling journalist Klaus Angermann. ‘But Didi, you can’t do that. We came here as a whole team to make a report about you.’ The German turns his bike around again and starts sighing and groaning to tackle the impossible climb.
All of this unfolds far behind Hennie. He signals for the team car. Caretaker Ruud Bakker rides with Post that day, takes the other bike from the car at the agreed spot, changes bikes and pushes Hennie back into action. ‘Push, push, push,’ shouts Hennie. And the tall blonde giant puts all his strength and weight into that task. At the top, Kuiper has a 37-second lead over the second-placed rider, his teammate Bert Pronk, but decisive for the standings is the 1.17 minutes advantage over Michel Pollentier. It is his first victory in the 1976 season. It is also a majestic victory, one that befits his champion status.
Hennie still has to relinquish the jersey two stages later, but in the final time trial in Murten over 23.5 kilometers, winner Pollentier does not build up enough margin to prevent the rider from Twente from securing the overall victory. He is the first and so far only Dutchman who can add the always tough tour through the Swiss mountainous region to his list of achievements. André Romero, the unknown Frenchman who was leading in the penultimate stage, drops to sixth place in the final standings due to a mediocre time trial.
The final of Paris-Roubaix 1976 is fought on the edge between - from left to right - Marc Demeyer, Francesco Moser, Roger De Vlaeminck and Hennie Kuiper
It is certainly not typical Paris-Roubaix weather during the 1976 edition. Drought causes large clouds of sand and dust 'mist'. If you look very closely, you can see Kuiper Freddy Maertens and Didi Thurau emerging.
On May 15, 1976, in the 18th stage of the Tour of Spain, golden jersey wearer Hennie Kuiper takes the lead in the dance on the way to Santuario de Oro. To the left behind Kuiper is Luis Ocaña. To the right behind him is the later stage winner Didi Thurau.
Peter Post puts a fatherly arm around the shoulder of world champion Hennie Kuiper
Physiotherapist Ruud Bakker takes care of Hennie Kuiper's hip, where the remnants of some injuries are visible.
Hennie Kuiper makes himself prominently visible. Even the fans of Eddy Merckx are mesmerized
Hennie Kuiper lets himself roll out in the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse 1976, a race over 108 kilometers to Lenzerheide, which is won by Kuiper's rival Michel Pollentier. Kuiper will claim the overall victory of the Tour de Suisse in the closing time trial as the only Dutchman ever.
On June 12, 1976, Hennie Kuiper wins the third stage of the Tour of Switzerland in Vaduz, the capital of the principality of Liechtenstein, laying the foundation for overall victory. On the podium, he is congratulated by Crown Prince Johannes Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marko d'Aviano Pius (left, currently the Prince of Liechtenstein) and Sepp Vögeli, the race director of the 'fourth grand tour'.
Joop Zoetemelk, Hennie Kuiper, and Jos Schipper climb the Hulsberg during the Dutch championship of 1976 in Simpelveld. The Hulsberg appears no less than 31 times in the course... Kuiper is clearly ready for the Tour de France.