Departure at TI-Raleigh
Cycling-loving Netherlands is eagerly looking forward to the 1978 season and especially to the Tour de France, which starts in Leiden. The team of Peter Post is now playing a leading role on all fronts. However, in terms of tactics, the sports director is not the great mastermind he portrays himself to be. That role belongs primarily to Jan Raas or - in his absence - Gerrie Knetemann.
In terms of organization, Post is unparalleled. Everything is in order within the team. The riders look impeccably groomed. A stark contrast to the 1960s, when many European cycling teams - with the exception of the Italians - were often dressed very poorly, frequently stayed in shabby third-rate hotels, and many riders lacked table manners. Peter Post changed the image of cycling and built a tightly run organization from the early days of the Raleigh team, one that you can be proud of. On the advice of Johan Cruijff, Post dresses his riders in fashionable black leather jackets. He also hires good professionals. With Jan Legrand, he has a true equipment wizard who works every winter on improvements at the Raleigh factory in Nottingham, and with Ruud Bakker, a reliable caregiver. The Raleigh organization is solid as a rock.
Farewell to Raleigh
At the start of this Tour de France in Leiden, Hennie already knows that he will be leaving Raleigh at the end of the season. Two years earlier, he let himself be overwhelmed by Peter Post during contract negotiations and signed for two seasons. Together with his ‘partner’, José De Cauwer, they decide that after those two years, the door will be closed behind the successful team.
However, Hennie hesitates at first. ‘You may want to leave, but you also need to have somewhere to go.’ But he doesn’t feel happy, mainly because of team manager Post who repeatedly undervalues the performances of his key classification rider. No, if Kuiper gets the chance, he’s gone.
During the Dauphiné Libéré, Kuiper is visited by Peugeot boss Maurice De Muer, who would like to have him on the team. Hennie reacts enthusiastically. De Muer has already had a winner in his team in three Tours. Luis Ocaña in 1973 and Bernard Thévenet in 1975 and 1977. For the French, the Tour is always the main goal. This also applies to Hennie. He is offered the position of co-leader, alongside Thévenet.
This is not without reason. De Muer has observed that Thévenet is past his peak. He has searched within French borders for a successor but found no one with the abilities to follow in Thévenet’s footsteps. The young star in the cycling world, Bernard Hinault, was someone he would have liked to sign, but he had already signed a contract with team manager Cyrille Guimard.
Therefore, he looked into foreign teams. Through rumors, he heard that at Raleigh, the relationship between leader and team manager was not optimal. Hennie Kuiper is also praised in the French press as a true attacker and a potential Tour winner. That’s why he reached out to Kuiper.
The negotiations proceed smoothly from both sides. De Muer offers a base salary that is more than double what Kuiper receives at Raleigh: one and a half tons in guilders. Compared to Raleigh’s 72,000 guilders, everyone will understand that Hennie feels more appreciated in the reward that De Muer offers him than what Post pays him.
Hennie remains super-correct. Despite all the friction with his team manager, he did not go to Post saying ‘I’m leaving’, no, Hennie wants to give Post the chance to make a counteroffer. However much Hennie talks, Post does not budge, refusing to pay even a dime more.
The rider from Amstelveen wants to know which team made him an offer. Hennie keeps his lips sealed on that matter. ‘If apparently I am worth so much to another team, then Raleigh should be able to pay me that too, right?’ He only gets the response: ‘Hennie, you don’t know what you’ll be missing when you leave us. You earn so much extra through prize money outside your contract that you won’t earn elsewhere.’
The Raleighs take the lead in the 1978 Omloop Het Volk. Hennie Kuiper positions himself at the front of the pack. On the far left of the road, Michel Pollentier rides. Behind Hennie Kuiper on the right is Gerrie Knetemann, who in turn is flanked by Gerben Karstens. In front of those two, Ludo Delcroix pedals.
Watch out, 25 kilometers before the end, nine leaders in the 1978 Omloop Het Volk are caught. Hennie Kuiper and Eric Van de Wiele try to break free from the grip of the seven other escapees earlier in the race.
Pat on the back
Kuiper once again feels misunderstood. Post is far from willing to pay him what he is truly worth. The team leader from Amstelveen never held the Twente rider in high regard. José De Cauwer has seen that often enough in recent years. ‘Behind Hennie’s back, he would often make a dismissive gesture when Kuiper’s name was mentioned. And Hennie, who senses that, then works even harder. He wants to prove time and time again that he can do it. He also shows that with results. But the reward, the pat on the back, is missing. Hennie longs for such a small human gesture. It doesn’t come, there is no chemistry between team boss and team leader.’
Also not between Post and Hennie’s buddy, De Cauwer. ‘He has never given me a compliment in all those years. And I have not only worked for Hennie, but also for the team.’ In the Tour, the third man in the stage is important for the team classification. It often happens that De Cauwer is that third man on hilly courses. Then he has first done the work of a domestique and in the finale he pushes himself to come in as fast as possible because of the daily team classification. ‘You only hear: “Allez, allez!” If I get dropped by the group, then Post doesn’t see me. The only one who shows appreciation is Jan Legrand, sitting at the back of the team car. He gives a thumbs up when he drives by. With such a gesture, I can keep going for a while.’
Post follows the teasing at the table, where Hennie is often the target. Henk Lubberding finds it embarrassing, those teasing remarks. In his first year as a professional cyclist - 1977 - the farmer’s son from Voorst in Gelderland is confronted with that situation. ‘I really felt sorry for Kuipertje sometimes. There would be some banter at the table, Hennie wanted to say something and Karstens would shout: ‘Yeah damn Kuiper, just say it… So-called joking at the expense of others. It was meant to be funny, but imagine being in Kuipertje’s position. Is it nice at the table, everyone is talking, Hennie wants to join in too, but gets stuck and then something like that is thrown in. That hits hard.’
Hennie himself felt very differently about it. ‘I really didn’t experience those teasings as such. In silence, I could even enjoy the acts that everyone personally performed.’ His motto is: the cycling peloton is a society in miniature, where all kinds of exotics find their place. Lubberding is rightly harsh in his condemnation of the bullies: ‘With Karstens, it’s at the expense of others in those days. Leo van Vliet also has a knack for it. The art is to make humor without damaging anyone because that hurts others. And Hennie Kuiper is very sensitive to it.’ Hennie himself says: ‘I let it slide off me.’
The relatively low salary at Raleigh, the lack of appreciation from Post and especially the lack of support in his attempt to win the Tour; these are all factors that lead Hennie to accept De Muer’s offer. The latter, winning that Tour, he thinks he can achieve with De Muer. ‘His way of working appealed to me,’ says Hennie. ‘In 1975 when Thévenet took Merckx out of the jersey, De Muer immediately preached attacking again the next day. And that’s how Merckx was definitively beaten. That was a good tactic by De Muer.’ He recalls Post’s tactical plans. ‘If I ride up to the team car and get as an answer: “Just do something.” What good does that do? So there was absolutely no tactical plan.’ Peter Post does everything in the weeks leading up to the start of the Tour to find out which team Hennie will ride for next year. Those involved remain silent as a grave, much to Post’s frustration who always prides himself on knowing everything first. He puts Kuiper under tremendous pressure.
In Liège-Bastogne-Liège of 1977 it is snowing. Not as heavily as in 1980, but Hennie Kuiper will not finish the race. The winner of 1977 is indeed the same as in 1980: Bernard Hinault. Here Kuiper is seen climbing the Stockeu in the wheel of the Italian Francesco Moser.
Threat
On the day before the national championship, the race traditionally held a week before the Tour, the Raleigh team stays at the Mercure hotel in Born, Limburg. Post is still furious with Kuiper and makes it known. He threatens: ‘I’ll leave you at home. You can’t come to the Tour.’ But Hennie realizes very well that Post is bluffing. ‘It’s intimidation. I am his best general classification rider and the number two from the previous Tour. I know him: he can get very angry if he doesn’t get his way.
In the Tour de France, there is an armed truce between Peter Post and Hennie Kuiper. Post understands very well that he must be careful with the rider from Twente. Since the Tour of ‘77, he has been a national idol. And you have to approach him with caution if you don’t want to turn the whole audience against you. The team racks up victories that season. Jan Raas is the undisputed king of classics and the great tactician of the team, Gerrie Knetemann is the candidate for time trials and smaller tours, and Hennie Kuiper is the Raleigh ace for the big races, the Tour de France. These men are surrounded by helpers who are also capable of taking on a leading role: riders like the winner of the Tour of Switzerland (the Belgian Paul Wellens), Henk Lubberding, and Johan van der Velde, winner of the Tour of Romandy. In the Raleigh team, there are three leaders who have a ‘personal assistant’: Kuiper with De Cauwer, Raas with Priem, and Knetemann with Van den Hoek. These pairs, along with Wellens, Van der Velde, and Lubberding, form the core of the Post team.
In the 1978 Tour, almost all of them participate. Only neo-pro Johan van der Velde has to wait another year, and Priem is replaced by Wilfried Wesemael, who Raas considers an equally dedicated helper. Gerben Karstens and the German Klaus-Peter Thaler complete the lineup that starts on June 29 in their own territory in the 65th Tour de France. It starts in Leiden with a prologue. There is immediately a lot of spectacle. When the classification is made afterwards, it turns out that four Dutch riders top the list. Behind winner Jan Raas are Gerrie Knetemann, Joop Zoetemelk, and Hennie Kuiper.
Too much Orange
That’s a lot of Orange, Tour director Félix Lévitan must have thought. The rain has caused not all riders to race under exactly the same conditions. But where are the conditions exactly the same? Lévitan seizes the rain as an argument to respect the results, but neither award the yellow jersey, nor count the times towards the standings. To the anger of the organization in Leiden; to the frustration of the riders. Jan Raas is beside himself. Furious: ‘Tomorrow only one person will win: me.’
Hennie Kuiper is very certain that there is something very different than the changing weather conditions behind the decision of the Tour director. ‘It all had to do with the main sponsor, Peugeot. The winner of the last Tour gets to wear the yellow jersey in the opening stage. By not counting the prologue, Peugeot rider Bernard Thévenet was allowed to ride in yellow through the Netherlands on the first day. He had all cameras focused on him. This way Peugeot got good publicity.’ That lasts precisely one day. Because in the first stage, Jan Raas takes his revenge in a devastating sprint. The yellow jersey he gets to wear afterwards, he considers it as his revenge on Lévitan.
Between Leiden and stage town Sint Willebrord, Dutch riders could experience how much the popularity of cycling has grown in their own country. Hennie Kuiper looks back on it with visible pleasure. ‘Banners everywhere, constant cheers, banners with my name on them.’
‘Little Kuiper,’ is extremely beloved. He is continuously counted among the group of contenders: the new French talent Bernard Hinault, Belgian Lucien Van Impe, Joop Zoetemelk who once again rides for a French sponsor and Hennie Kuiper, thanks to his indomitable attacking spirit, the most popular Dutch rider. Along the route, he hears his name chanted countless times. He thoroughly enjoys it. Ten years ago an anonymous guy from Twente; now a national hero.
‘Goosebumps,’ he says himself.
The hero falters for the public when he loses minutes to his three biggest competitors: Hinault, Zoetemelk, and Pollentier in the Pyrenees and on Puy-de-Dôme. Yet it all starts promisingly. The team has already achieved three stage wins (twice Raas, once Thaler) before a monstrous team time trial is scheduled for the fourth stage. An all-consuming ride of no less than 153 kilometers. It becomes a breathtaking battle between the Raleigh formation and C&A team, where Van Impe and Bruyère play leading roles. After 153 kilometers, there is a seven-second difference in favor of Raleigh.
Shining, Hennie Kuiper poses in the green jersey of the Tour de Romandie, which is prominently displaying large TDR initials on his left chest.
A scene stripped of all luxury. A blind couple can do no harm in Hennie Kuiper's hotel room. During the Tour of Romandie, the race leader is taken care of by 'Dikke Jos' Janssens.
In the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1978, Hennie Kuiper is allowed to wear the yellow leader's jersey on May 29 after the prologue over 8 kilometers in Thonon-les-Bains
Hennie Kuiper races through Leiden, where the prologue of the Tour de France was located in 1978. The cobblestones are dry under Kuiper. The later heavy rainfall prompts Tour boss Félix Lévitan to cancel the prologue for the classification.
On the second day of the Tour de France 1978, Jan Raas gets his revenge. After Lévitan has removed the result of the prologue (with Raas as the winner) for the classification, the Zealander still grabs the yellow jersey in Sint Willebrord, finish place of the first stage A. Gerrie Knetemann and Hennie Kuiper share in the celebration over the yellow jersey.
Riders’ Strike
The Tour is already a special edition due to the unprecedentedly long team time trial. But a riders’ strike makes the Tour de France 1978 one for the history books. Murmurs have been heard in the peloton for days. The riders are fed up with having to cover long distances after stages just to reach the next starting point. Riders, mechanics, and support staff are not getting enough rest. On three race days, two stages are ridden. This is advantageous for the Tour organization as it generates more income from start and finish locations.
Gerben Karstens is the initiator of the strike, and in the twelfth stage from Tarbes to Valence-d’Agen, he rallies the peloton. The riders decide on a walking stage; riding at a tourist pace across the width of the road.
In the finishing town, the riders dismount and, led by Bernard Hinault, walk on foot across the finish line. Hennie Kuiper is also at the forefront. An unprecedented protest that ultimately leads to the management taking into account the riders’ wishes.
The Raleigh expertise that team manager Peter Post's heart opens up to. The fourth stage from Evreux to Caen over 153 (!) kilometers is a prey for the TI-Raleigh team. In Caen, six Raleighs come in as winners (from left to right): Gerrie Knetemann, Wilfried Wesemael, Henk Lubberding, Hennie Kuiper, Klaus Peter Thaler, and José De Cauwer
When Bernard Hinault orchestrates a protest by the riders against the grueling stage schedule in the Tour de France of 1978 in Valence d'Agen, Hennie Kuiper also joins the front row. In the middle of the peloton, Gerben Karstens urges Kuiper to calm down: let Hinault take the lead as the strike leader, then the action will have the most impact. To the right of Hinault are Freddy Maertens and Gerrie Knetemann lined up. Between Karstens and Hinault in the white jersey: Henk Lubberding.
The mountainous stage of the Tour between Biarritz and Pau in 1978 is won by Henk Lubberding, who in this phase of the race has to give way to this illustrious group. From left to right: Michel Pollentier, Joaquim Agostinho, Hennie Kuiper, race leader Joseph Bruyère, Joop Zoetemelk, and Bernard Hinault
In the thirteenth stage of the Tour to Super Besse, Hennie Kuiper, Bernard Hinault, and Joop Zoetemelk test each other's mettle.
A grueling day in the 1978 Tour. The individual climbing time trial scheduled for July 14 - the French national holiday - covers 52 kilometers and leads to the top of the Puy-deDôme, the largest volcano in the Auvergne. Hennie Kuiper - in top form - conquers the climbing kilometers on a 'regular' bike.
Before the start of the thirteenth stage of the 1978 Tour, the peloton travels by train from Toulouse to Figeac. Peter Post and Hennie Kuiper have breakfast together, but Kuiper also studies the route schedule for the day with concentration.
Hennie Kuiper is exceptionally strong in the Tour de France of 1978. The family gives him a heartfelt boost in the Alps: ‘Go Hennie / Great Champion / Do it again today.’ On the right, sister Maria chalks Hennie's name on the road. In the middle of the road, niece Miriam. On the left, Hennie's nephews, Anton and Ronald Kuiper.