In his 18 year professional career (1969-87), he won many races including the 1980 Tour de France and the Vuelta de Espana in 1979. A testament to the competition at the time, most notably Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault, Zoetemelk came in second in the Tour de France six times. Additionally, he set a record by completing the course sixteen times, a mark that still stands.
ZoetemelkÂ’s two claims to fame were that he placed second in the Tour de France a record six times and that he started and finished the Tour de France a record sixteen times.
Zoetemelk was unfortunate in that he had to compete against two most dominant riders the sport has produced: Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault.
Zoetemelk suffered a fractured skull and went into a coma as the result of a horrible head-on collision with a car while training in 1974.
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