Gerrie Knetemann

Gerrie Knetemann

Personal information
Full name	Gerard Friedrich Knetemann
Nickname	de Kneet
Born	(1951-03-06)6 March 1951 Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Died	2 November 2004(2004-11-02) (aged 53) Bergen, the Netherlands
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France 10 individual stages Stage Races Paris–Nice (1978) Ronde van Nederland (1976, 1980, 1981, 1986) Tour Méditerranéen (1978, 1980, 1983) Vuelta a Andalucia (1976) Single-Day Races and Classics World Road Race Champion (1978) Amstel Gold Race (1974, 1985) Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop (1977)
Medal record Competitor for the  Netherlands Road bicycle racing World Championships Gold 1978 Nürburgring Elite Men's Road Race
Infobox last updated on 1 July 2008

Gerard Friedrich "Gerrie" Knetemann (6 March 1951 in Amsterdam – 2 November 2004 in Bergen, North Holland) was a Dutch road bicycle racer who won the 1978 World Championship.

A four-time winner of the Ronde van Nederland, he also rode the Tour de France 11 times between 1974 and 1987, winning 10 stages, a Dutch record equalled only by Jan Raas and Joop Zoetemelk. Knetemann won 127 races as a professional.

Knetemann maintained an Amsterdam accent and a sharp sense of humour that made him a favourite with reporters and earned him television and radio appearances. His best year in the Tour de France was 1978, when he led from the sixth stage. Although he lost the leader's yellow jersey two days later, he won the stage into Lausanne and then the final stage on the Champs Elysées in Paris.

His career dwindled after a crash in Dwars door België in Belgium in March 1983. Recovery took months and, although he did again ride the Tour de France, there was not much left of the once sparkling star. Knetemann did however win the Amstel Gold Race in 1985. He retired from racing in 1991 and became Dutch team selector.

Knetemann died while riding his bike. He collapsed from a heart attack with friends in Bergen.

His wife, Gre Donker, was also a racing cyclist. They had a son and two daughters. Their daughter Roxane, born in 1987, has been a professional cyclist since 2006.

Teams

Knetemann raced for several different sponsored teams in his career, one of the most famous was the TI-Raleigh team, managed by Peter Post, with which he won the 1978 UCI Road World Championships.

Palmarès

External links

• Knetemann's death on Cyclingnews.com
• Gerrie Knetemann profile at Cycling Archives

See also

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

UCI Road World Champions – Men's road race 1927 Binda 1928 Ronsse 1929 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 Van Steenbergen 1957 Van Steenbergen 1958 Baldini 1959 Darrigade 1960 Van Looy 1961 Van Looy 1962 Stablinski 1963 Beheyt 1964 Janssen 1965 Simpson 1966 Altig 1967 E. Merckx 1968 Adorni 1969 Ottenbros 1970 Monseré 1971 E. Merckx 1972 M. Basso 1973 Gimondi 1974 E. Merckx 1975 Kuiper 1976 Maertens 1977 F. Moser 1978 Knetemann 1979 Raas 1980 B. Hinault 1981 Maertens 1982 Saronni 1983 LeMond 1984 Criquielion 1985 Zoetemelk 1986 Argentin 1987 S. Roche 1988 Fondriest 1989 LeMond 1990 Dhaenens 1991 Bugno 1992 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 Bettini 2007 Bettini 2008 Ballan 2009 Evans 2010 Hushovd 2011 Cavendish 2012 Gilbert 2013 Costa 2014 Kwiatkowski