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Jan Raas

Jan Raas in 1983, his final year with TI-Raleigh.
Personal information
Full name	Jan Raas
Date of birth	November 8, 1952 (1952-11-08) (age 57)
Country	Netherlands
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)1
1975–1976 1977 1978-1983 1984-1985	TI-Raleigh Frisol TI-Raleigh Kwantum Hallen
Major wins
World Championship 1979 Amstel Gold Race (5x) Ronde van Vlaanderen (1979 and 1983) Paris-Roubaix(1982 Milan-Sanremo(1977) 10 stages Tour de France
Medal record Competitor for the  Netherlands Road bicycle racing World Championships Gold 1979 Valkenburg Elite Men's Road Race
Infobox last updated on:
June 30, 2008 1 Team names given are those prevailing at time of rider beginning association with that team.

Jan Raas (born November 8, 1952, Heinkenszand) is a Dutch former professional cyclist whose 115 wins include the 1979 World Road Race Championship in Valkenburg, he also won the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1979 and 1983, Paris-Roubaix in 1982 and Milan-Sanremo in 1977. He also took the Amstel Gold Race five times and won 10 stages in the Tour de France.

Raas was a tactician and clever sprinter. He struggled on the long steep climbs but excelled on the short climbs characteristic of the northern classics.

Career

Born in Heinkenszand, near Goes in Zeeland, Raas was the son of a farmer and one of 10 children. He showed no interest in cycling until leaving school at 16 when he acquired his first racing bike and started competing as a junior category, taking his first victory in Damme in Belgium on the 21 July 1969. Further success as an amateur, including stage wins in the Olympia Tour and the national championship, prompted Peter Post, the manager of TI-Raleigh, to offer Raas a contract for 1975

The 22-year old had a good first seasonwith two small victories and fourth in the Tour of Belgium. The following year (1976) saw him become national champion, but at the end of that year Raas parted company with TI-Raleigh when he could not agree a new contract.

In 1977 he rode for Frisol. Victories in Milan-Sanremo and the Amstel Gold Race made Post rethink and Raas was back with TI-Raleigh for 1978. Raas became the influence behind the success of the team in the late seventies and early eighties. He was joint leader with Gerrie Knetemann, heading members such as Joop Zoetemelk, Ludo Peeters, Cees Priem and Henk Lubberding.

Raas’ highlights for the rest of his career included his 1979 world championship on home soil in Valkenburg, where he outsprinted German "Didi" Thurau in front of 200,000 spectators. He had four more victories in the Amstel Gold Race to give a record of five. Raas regarded the Amstel Gold as his favourite race: “The Gold Race was made for me, I had no ability as a climber, but the short and hard Limburg hills were made for me”, he said. He won Paris-Roubaix at his seventh attempt in 1982 thanks to work by his team, especially Peeters.

Raas crashed in the 1984 Milan-Sanremo, injuring his back and internal organs and was never the same, although he took a stage in the 1984 Tour de France. He found the training and recovery hard and retired on 28 May 1985 after a criterium at Hansweert the preceding day.

Raas’ know-how made for a natural move into team management and he became sporting director of Kwantum team. Raas found sponsors when old ones pulled out and the team received backing from SuperConfex, Buckler, WordPerfect, Novell and finally Rabobank.

Raas and his wife Anja suffered an armed raid on their house in March 1994 and Raas decide he could no longer spend long periods away from home. He changed from sporting director to manager when Rabobank became the main sponsor in 1995. He spent eight years in this capacity until the end of 2003, the sponsor indicating that insoluble differences prompted Raas' departure.

Major Victories

External links

• Jan Raas profile at the Cycling Website
• Official Tour de France results for Jan Raas

Further Reading and Source

• "Jan Raas" by Noel Truyers, ISBN 90-74128-45-9

See also

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

Citations

• Armed Attack - "Jan Raas" by Noel Truyers, ISBN 90-74128-45-9, Pages 39 and 40
• Sacking by Rabobank - www.Cyclingnews article [1]