Adri van der Poel

Adri van der Poel

Personal information
Full name	Adri van der Poel
Born	(1959-06-17) June 17, 1959 Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	70 kg (150 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road Cyclo-cross
Role	Rider
Major wins
Dutch National Cyclo-cross Championships (6 times) Clásica de San Sebastián (1985) Paris–Brussels (1985) Tour of Flanders (1986) Liège–Bastogne–Liège (1988) Tour of France, 2 stages Amstel Gold Race (1990) World Cyclo-cross Championships (1996)
Medal record Competitor for  Netherlands Road bicycle racing World Championships Silver 1983 Altenrhein Elite Men's Road Race Cyclo-cross World Championships Gold 1996 Montreuil Elite Men's Race Silver 1985 Munich Elite Men's Race Silver 1988 Hägendorf Elite Men's Race Silver 1989 Pontchâteau Elite Men's Race Silver 1990 Getxo Elite Men's Race Silver 1991 Gieten Elite Men's Race Bronze 1992 Leeds Elite Men's Race Bronze 1999 Poprad Elite Men's Race
Infobox last updated on February 3, 2008

Adri van der Poel^[1][2] (born June 17, 1959 in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) is a retired Dutch cyclist. The Grand Prix Adri van der Poel is named after him. Van der Poel was a professional from 1981 to 2000. His biggest wins included 6 classics, two stages of the Tour de France and the World Cyclo-Cross Championships in 1996. He also obtained the second place and silver medal in the World Road Championships in 1983 behind Greg LeMond and five second places in the World Cylo-Cross championships.^[3]

Van der Poel began his career on the road and during his first season as a professional he obtained second place in Paris–Nice behind Stephen Roche and second place in the La Flèche Wallonne. In the Tour de France, he won two stages; his stage win in 1988 set the record for fastest stage (since then only surpassed by three cyclists).^[4] Van der Poel also competed in cyclo-cross during the winter and obtained great results – that he turned full-time to cyclo-cross in the latter part of his career where he won the World Championships in 1996 and the World Cup and Superprestige classifications in 1997. Van der Poel retired after the 2000 Cyclo-Cross World Championships where he finished fourth and which was won by his teammate Richard Groenendaal.

Family

Van der Poel is the son-in-law of the famous French cyclist Raymond Poulidor. His sons David and Mathieu are also cyclists. Mathieu van der Poel became cyclo-cross world champion himself in the junior race in 2012 (Koksijde) and 2013 (Louisville, Kentucky) and then matching his father's title in 2015 (Tábor, Czech Republic).

Van der Poel's brother Jacques was also a professional cyclist from 1986 to 1992.

Palmarès

Adri van der Poel in 1980

See also

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists
• List of doping cases in cycling
• List of Dutch cyclists who have led the Tour de France general classification

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adrie van der Poel.

UCI Cyclo-cross World Champions – Men's elite race 1950 Jean Robic 1951–1953 Roger Rondeaux 1954–1958 André Dufraisse 1959 Renato Longo 1960–1961 Rolf Wolfshohl 1962 Renato Longo 1963 Rolf Wolfshohl 1964–1965 Renato Longo 1966 Erik De Vlaeminck 1967 Renato Longo 1968–1973 Erik De Vlaeminck 1974 Albert Van Damme 1975 Roger De Vlaeminck 1976–1979 Albert Zweifel 1980 Roland Liboton 1981 Hennie Stamsnijder 1982–1984 Roland Liboton 1985 Klaus-Peter Thaler 1986 Albert Zweifel 1987 Klaus-Peter Thaler 1988 Pascal Richard 1989 Danny De Bie 1990 Henk Baars 1991 Radomír Šimůnek 1992 Mike Kluge 1993 Dominique Arnould 1994 Paul Herygers 1995 Dieter Runkel 1996 Adri van der Poel 1997 Daniele Pontoni 1998–1999 Mario De Clercq 2000 Richard Groenendaal 2001 Erwin Vervecken 2002 Mario De Clercq 2003–2004 Bart Wellens 2005 Sven Nys 2006–2007 Erwin Vervecken 2008 Lars Boom 2009 Niels Albert 2010–2011 Zdeněk Štybar 2012 Niels Albert 2013 Sven Nys 2014 Zdeněk Štybar 2015 Mathieu van der Poel