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Peter Post

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Peter Post
Peter Post in 1977
Personal information
Full namePeter Post
NicknameDe Keizer van de Zesdaagse (The Kaiser of the Six-days)
Born(1933-11-12)12 November 1933
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Died14 January 2011(2011-01-14) (aged 77)
Amstelveen, the Netherlands
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad/Track
RoleRider
Managerial teams
1974–1983TI–Raleigh
1984–1992Panasonic–Raleigh
1993–1994Novemail–Histor–Laser Computer
Major wins
Paris–Roubaix (1964)
National road race champion (1963)

Peter Post (12 November 1933 – 14 January 2011) was a Dutch professional cyclist whose career lasted from 1956 to 1972. Post competed in road and track racing. As a rider he is best remembered for Six-day racing, having competed in 155 races and won 65. Because of this success he was known as “De Keizer van de Zesdaagse” or “The Emperor of the Six Days”. In road racing his main achievements were winning the 1964 Paris–Roubaix and becoming national road race champion in 1963. He was on the podium three times at the La Flèche Wallonne but never won. Post’s other nickname was “de Lange” or “Big Man” because he was tall for a cyclist.[1] After retiring from racing he had success as a Directeur sportif. Peter Post died in Amstelveen on 14 January 2011.[2][3]

Road career

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Post turned professional in 1956 with the small Dutch team R.I.H. He rode for the first few years with Gerrit Schulte, a track rider who also rode on the road and was an inspiration to him. Notable early career successes on the road came when he won the Ronde van Nederland in 1960 and the 1962 Deutschland Tour. In 1963 he became national road race champion as well as winning the Tour of Belgium.

Post in 1960
Peter Post in the Tour the France of 1979 at the height of his success as directeur sportif

In 1964 Post had his finest moment in road racing when he became the first Dutchman to win Paris–Roubaix. The race was run at top speed from the start and favourites Rik Van Looy, Raymond Poulidor and Rudi Altig were caught out by the fast pace and missed the decisive break at Arras. Post’s team mate, Willy Bocklant, was in the break and sacrificed his chances by keeping the pace high for his leader. Five riders entered the velodrome at Roubaix with Post winning the sprint by beating the world champion Benoni Beheyt in the finishing straight. The high pace ensured that Post was also awarded the Ruban Jaune for the highest speed in a classic, the 265 km run at 45.131 km/h. This 1964 record was broken in 2017 by Greg Van Avermaet .[4][5]

Post was delighted with his victory, but always the businessman, his delight was increased when he realised his appearance money at the winter six-day races would be increased. In 1965 Post made his only appearance in the Tour de France but he abandoned before Paris. (He subsequently acknowledged that he had doped at the Tour de France.[6]) His only other noteworthy result on the road came in 1967 when he finished runner-up to Eddy Merckx in La Flèche Wallonne although he had wins in smaller races. Post was voted Dutch Sportsman of the year in 1964 and Dutch cyclist of the year in 1963 and 1970.[7]

Track career

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Post rode his first six-day in 1956 and his first victory came in 1957 in Chicago, partnered by Harm Smits. Post had three partners with whom he had most success. In 1960 he teamed with Rik Van Looy and won ten sixes. In 1963 he formed his most successful partnership with the Swiss Fritz Pfenninger and they had 19 victories until 1967, when Post joined the Belgian Patrick Sercu, with whom he had 14 victories up to 1971 and his final and 65th six-day in Frankfurt. Post's 65 six-day wins stood as a record for a few years, beating Rik Van Steenbergen's 40 wins when at the Milan six in 1968 when partnered by Gianni Motta. However, since then René Pijnen (72 wins), Danny Clark (74 wins) and Patrick Sercu (88 wins) have all passed Post's total with Sercu as the new record holder.

Peter Post and Loek Kalis are getting married on 1 February 1965

Post won the Dutch individual pursuit championships six times between 1957 and 1963. He took 14 European track titles (mostly madison and derny races). In 1965 in Antwerp he set the derny-paced hour record of 63.783 km, beating Stan Ockers' record which had stood for nine years.

After retirement

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Stone dedicated to Post on Allée Charles Crupelandt in Roubaix

Post retired from riding in 1972 and became directeur sportif of the TI–Raleigh team in 1974. He was a former rider who knew the inside of cycling but also a shrewd businessman who could negotiate with sponsors. Post had a reputation of being hard on riders but his success with TI–Raleigh was exceptional. Post had riders such as Hennie Kuiper, Gerrie Knetemann, Jan Raas and Joop Zoetemelk (all Dutch), one of the best squads in the world for a decade. Most impressive was the 1980 edition of the Tour de France. The TI–Raleigh team won 11 stages and Joop Zoetemelk won overall.

In 1983 Raleigh pulled out of sponsorship and Post found a new backer in Panasonic. The success continued, this time with mainly non-Dutch riders such as Phil Anderson, Eric Vanderaerden, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Olaf Ludwig and Maurizio Fondriest. After the withdrawal of Panasonic, Post led the Histor and then Novemail teams before leaving cycling in 1995. As of September 2020, he is ranked as the seventh most successful director of all time by Cycling Ranking.[8] Post returned to cycling as an adviser to the Rabobank team in 2005.[9] He died on 14 January 2011.

Six-day wins

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Nr. Year Venue Partner
1 1957 Chicago Harm Smits
2 1959 Antwerp Gerrit Schulte and Klaus Bugdahl
3 1959 Brussels Gerrit Schulte
4 1959 Münster Lucien Gillen
5 1960 Antwerp Gerrit Schulte
6 1960 Berlin Rik Van Looy
7 1960 Ghent Rik Van Looy
8 1961 Cologne Rik Van Looy
9 1961 Antwerp Rik Van Looy and Willy Vannitsen
10 1961 Brussels Rik Van Looy
11 1961 Ghent Rik Van Looy
12 1962-1 Berlin Rik Van Looy
13 1962 Antwerp Rik Van Looy
14 1962 Dortmund Rik Van Looy
15 1963 Cologne Fritz Pfenninger
16 1963 Milan Ferdinando Terruzzi
17 1963 Brussels Fritz Pfenninger
18 1963 Zürich Fritz Pfenninger
19 1964 Cologne Hans Junkermann
20 1964 Antwerp Fritz Pfenninger and Noël Foré
21 1964-2 Berlin Fritz Pfenninger
22 1964 Brussels Fritz Pfenninger
23 1964 Zürich Fritz Pfenninger
24 1965-1 Berlin Fritz Pfenninger
25 1965 Essen Rik Van Steenbergen
26 1965 Antwerp Klaus Bugdahl and Jan Janssen
27 1965 Dortmund Fritz Pfenninger
28 1965 Brussels Tom Simpson
29 1965 Zürich Fritz Pfenninger
30 1966 Essen Fritz Pfenninger
31 1966 Milan Gianni Motta
32 1966 Antwerp Fritz Pfenninger and Jan Janssen
33 1966 Ghent Fritz Pfenninger
34 1966 Amsterdam Fritz Pfenninger
35 1967 Bremen Fritz Pfenninger
Nr. Year Venue Partner
36 1967 Essen Fritz Pfenninger
37 1967 Antwerp Fritz Pfenninger and Jan Janssen
38 1967 Milan Gianni Motta
39 1967-2 Berlin Klaus Bugdahl
40 1967 Frankfurt Fritz Pfenninger
41 1968 Milan Gianni Motta
42 1968 Rotterdam Patrick Sercu
43 1968 London Patrick Sercu
44 1968-2 Berlin Wolfgang Schulze
45 1968 Ghent Leo Duyndam
46 1969 Bremen Patrick Sercu
47 1969 Antwerp Patrick Sercu and Rik Van Looy
48 1969 Rotterdam Romain Deloof
49 1969 London Patrick Sercu
50 1969 Dortmund Patrick Sercu
51 1969 Frankfurt Patrick Sercu
52 1969 Amsterdam Romain Deloof
53 1970 Cologne Patrick Sercu
54 1970 Bremen Patrick Sercu
55 1970 Antwerp René Pijnen and Klaus Bugdahl
56 1970 Groningen Jan Janssen
57 1970 London Patrick Sercu
58 1970 Brussels Jack Mourioux
59 1970 Zürich Fritz Pfenninger and Erich Spahn
60 1971 Rotterdam Patrick Sercu
61 1971-1 Grenoble Alain van Lancker
62 1971 Antwerp René Pijnen and Leo Duyndam
63 1971 London Patrick Sercu
64 1971 Berlin Patrick Sercu
65 1971 Frankfurt Patrick Sercu

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Peter Post at Cycling Archives (archived) Gives nicknames and birth date.
  2. ^ "PETER POST (77) OVERLEDEN". De Telegraaf (in Dutch). 14 January 2011.
  3. ^ Fotheringham, William (14 March 2011). "Peter Post obituary". Retrieved 6 May 2023 – via The Guardian.
  4. ^ "A Century of Paris–Roubaix" Gives information on 1964 Paris–Roubaix.
  5. ^ "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same)". Cycling Revealed.com. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
  6. ^ "Home". Andere Tijden. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Palmarès : Peter Post". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). velo-club.net. Gives details of awards.
  8. ^ "Directeur Sportif 1869 – 2020".. cyclingranking.com. Gives all time rankings of director sportifs.
  9. ^ Jones, Jeff. (6 January 2005) Post to advise Rabobank. cyclingnews.com.

Bibliography

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Media related to Peter Post (cyclist) at Wikimedia Commons

Awards
Preceded by Dutch Sportsman of the Year
1963 		Succeeded by
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