Jeroen Blijlevens
Jeroen Johannes Hendrikus Blijlevens (born 29 December 1971) is a retired road bicycle racer from the Netherlands, who was a professional rider from 1994 to 2004. He now works as a directeur sportif for UCI Women's Team CCC Liv, and has also worked as a cycling co-commentator at Eurosport Netherlands.
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Personal information | |
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Full name | Jeroen Johannes Hendrikus Blijlevens |
Nickname | Jerommeke |
Born | Gilze en Rijen, the Netherlands | 29 December 1971
Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) |
Weight | 70 kg (154 lb; 11 st 0 lb) |
Team information | |
Current team | CCC Liv |
Discipline | Road |
Role |
|
Rider type | Sprinter |
Professional teams | |
1994–1999 | TVM–Bison Kit |
2000 | Team Polti |
2001 | Lotto–Adecco |
2002 | Domo–Farm Frites |
2003–2004 | BankGiroLoterij–Batavus |
Managerial teams | |
2005–2007 | Eurogifts.com |
2010–2012 | Nederland Bloeit |
2013 | Blanco Pro Cycling |
2017– | WM3 Pro Cycling |
Nicknamed Jerommeke, he was one of Holland's leading sprinters in the 1990s, claiming a total of 11 stage victories across the three Grand Tours (Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia). He won a total number of 74 races in his professional career.
Biography
Blijlevens was born in Gilze en Rijen, North Brabant in 1971, as a son of a shoe sales man. In 1990, he won his first race as an amateur.[1] He scored nineteen victories as an amateur,[1] and at the end of 1993 was signed by Cees Priem for TVM–Bison Kit.[2] Blijlevens showed good results in his first years, and in 1995 was selected to ride the Tour de France,[3] where he won the fifth stage.[1] Blijlevens, not a good climber, left the race before the Alps.[4]
In 1996, Blijlevens again won a stage in the Tour de France. In 1997, he finished second to Erik Zabel in the sixth stage of the Tour de France, but when the jury disqualified Zabel for irregular sprinting, the victory was given to Blijlevens.[5] In 1998 Blijlevens won the fourth stage of the Tour. That Tour was full of doping allegations, also towards the TVM team, and as soon as the race had passed the French-Swiss border, Blijlevens left the race, as a protest against the treatments by the French police.[6]
In 1999, Blijlevens wore the pink jersey as leader of the general classification in the Giro d'Italia, after winning the third stage.[7] After the events of 1998, the TVM team was excluded from the 1999 Tour de France. The cyclists of TVM started a legal procedure to force the Tour organisers to invite them, but failed.[8] At the end of that year, Blijlevens left TVM for Team Polti.
In 2000, Blijlevens invested in his climbing-abilities, but this did not work out as planned, and Blijlevens was not as successful as before. He failed to win a stage in the Tour de France, and was even disqualified after finishing the last stage for seeking out and assaulting Bobby Julich.[9] When Polti stopped as a sponsor at the end of the year, Blijlevens signed for Lotto–Adecco for 2001.[10]
In 2001, Blijlevens rode the Giro d'Italia, where the Italian police raided his team's hotel, but no forbidden products were found. As a protest against this treatment, the cyclists refused to start the eighteenth stage.[11]
At the end of 2001, Blijlevens could not find a new team, and made plans to ride as an amateur again,[12] but finally he signed a contract for one year at Domo–Farm Frites. Blijlevens rode for a low base salary, with bonuses for victories.[13] After a year full of injuries, Blijlevens was not given a contract for 2003, and switched to the BankGiroLoterij–Batavus team.[14]
After his retirement at the end of 2004, Blijlevens made plans to break the speed record on a bicycle,[15] but failed to do so.
In June 2013 he became sports director of the new Blanco Pro Cycling team, and as part of a Dutch nationwide doping inquiry signed a statement saying he had never used doping.[16] In July he was named in a French Senate report as one of many cyclists who had tested positive for EPO during retesting of samples from the 1998 Tour de France,[17] Blijlevens then confessed that he had used EPO since 1997, and that he had lied in the investigation because he wanted to keep his job.[18]
Major results
- 1992
- PWZ Zuidenveld Tour
- 1993
- GP de Lillers
- 1995
- Draai van de Kaai
- Profronde van Pijnacker
- Ronde van Midden-Zeeland
- Trofeo Alcudia
- Made
- Tour de France:
- Winner stage 5
- Vuelta a España:
- Winner stage 10
- 1996
- Draai van de Kaai
- Trofeo Mallorca
- Profronde van Heerlen
- Tour de France:
- Winner stage 5
- Vuelta a España:
- Winner stage 5
- 1997
- Hengelo
- Veenendaal–Veenendaal
- Profronde van Wateringen
- Profronde van Surhuisterveen
- Tour de France:
- Winner stage 6
- 1998
- Woerden
- Tour de France:
- Winner stage 4
- Vuelta a España:
- Winner stages 2 and 5
- 1999
- Grand Prix de Denain
- Profronde van Pijnacker
- Trofeo Mallorca
- Nokere Koerse
- Scheldeprijs
- Made
- Profronde van Stiphout
- Dwars door Gendringen
- Vuelta a España:
- Winner stage 21
- Giro d'Italia:
- Winner stages 3 and 7
- 2000
- Mijl van Mares
- 2003
- Ruddervoorde
References
- "Blijlevens van de hel in de hemel". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 7 July 1995. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Priem lijft amateur Blijlevens in". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 6 October 1993. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens mee naar de Tour". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 26 June 1995. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens trekt zwembroek aan". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 10 July 1995. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens heeft toch zijn parel". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 12 July 1997. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Jeroen Blijlevens: een sprinter op de vlucht". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 31 July 1998. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Een tweede plaats telt niet voor mij". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 18 May 1999. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "TVM spant civiele procedure aan". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 19 June 1999. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens gediskwalificeerd na handgemeen met Julich". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 24 June 2000. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens naar Lotto". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 12 October 2000. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Politie-inval in Giro déjà-vu voor Blijlevens". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 12 October 2000. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens: 'Ik denk dat ik bij de amateurs ga rijden'". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 11 October 2001. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "'In het buitenland is nog altijd geloof in Blijlevens'". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 15 November 2001. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens naar Bankgiroloterij". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 3 December 2002. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Blijlevens wil snelste ter wereld zijn". Leidsch Dagblad (in Dutch). Regionaal Archief Leiden. 3 December 2002. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- "Moet Jeroen Blijlevens nu weg bij Belkin?". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 25 July 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- José Been (2012-11-28). "Belkin Sports Director Jeroen Blijlevens Implicated In French Senate's Report". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
- Been, José (25 July 2013). "Blijlevens leaves Belkin over 1998 Tour de France EPO evidence". Cyclingnews. Future Publishing Limited. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
External links
- Jeroen Blijlevens at Cycling Archives
- Official Tour de France results for Jeroen Blijlevens