Cycling Pioneers #2 - Europe

Federico Bahamontes - Spain

✅ First Spanish rider to win Le Tour de France,
🏆 6-time winner of the KOM classification on the Tour de France and 7 stages
📆 Pro years: 1954 - 1965

There are very few riders that could pop in your mind when you’re looking at a type of race. You would maybe think about Cipollini or Cavendish for a sprint, well, one name embodies perfectly the word ‘climbing’: Federico Bahamontes.
Federico turned professional really late, considering nowadays standards. He was already 25 when he rode his first race as a pro. His performance during the season were already really good for a neo-pro and he got selected for the Tour de France on his first professional season. He got picked by team Spain, as the teams were national ones back in these years.
His climbing abilities were put to good use as he won the polka-dot jersey in his first ever Tour de France. He then went on to win 5 other KOM classification on the Tour and 3 others on the Vuelta and the Giro. But as much as he could climb well, going downhill was not his favorite thing to do. Bahamontes lost a few races due to this weak spot.
Trying to win the general classification was not an easy thing, and it took him a long time to reach the top spot on the podium.
It was in 1959 that he won his only Tour de France and Charly Gaul was his main competitor. After a relentless race, he finally took the Yellow Jersey and kept it until the last stage. That made him become the first Spanish rider to win the Tour de France.
He got awarded the title of best climber in cycling history, in front of Richard Virenque. Spain then won 11 other Tour de France and is one of the strongest nations in cycling.

Ferdi Kübler - Switzerland

✅ 1st Swiss rider to win Le Tour de France,
🏆 Winner of the 1950 Tour de France, 8 stage wins, 1951 World Champion
📆 Pro years: 1940 - 1957

Switzerland has had a long history with the Tour de France. After all, it’s one of the first countries to ever take part in the Tour. Ferdinand ‘Ferdi’ Kübler’s cycling history started during the Second World War, probably not the best moment to launch his young career.
At the end of the War, he took part in his first Tour de France, in 1947, and won 2 stages before leaving the race 2 days later. He tried his luck again in 1949 but the result was the same: a stage win and a DNF. This was an era when Italians were dominating the GC races, with the like of Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi.
In 1950, Kübler tried another approach to his build-up towards the Tour de France. He took part in his first Giro d’Italia, which he finished 4th, but more importantly saw Fausto Coppi slip out of contention for the next Tour de France, after a bad fall. His main competitor was then Gino Bartali, who he neatly beat by more than 9 minutes in the general classification to win the first Tour de France in Switzerland’s history.
Kübler’s career was also largely showcased through his rivalry with Hugo Koblet, a fellow Swiss rider who won the Tour a year after Kübler, in 1951. Everything opposed these two countrymen, in a similar way as the Anquetil-Poulidor’s rivalry a few years later. Kübler was viewed as a tough man coming from a traditional and conservative family, which valued hard work and dedication while Koblet was the super-talented rider who didn’t train as much and rode his bike with a lot of elegancy, coming from a rich family. A great rivalry which turned to Koblet’s advantage after Kübler retired in 1956. To this day, they are still the only two Swiss winners of the Tour de France.
Prior to his death in 2016, at 97 years old, Ferdinand Kübler was the oldest living winner of the Tour de France.

Want to learn more about Ferdi Kübler? Watch this video.

Antonio da Silva Alves Barbosa - Portugal

✅ First Portuguese to take part in Le Tour de France
🏆 Finished 3 Tour de France, Abandoned 1 Tour de France
📅 Pro years: 1951 - 1961

Among the juniors, Antonio da Silva Alves Barbosa was one of the best when he became national champion in 1950. His professional career began in 1951, in the Sangalhos team where he would remain throughout his career. His record is to be highlighted: he finished 3 Tour de France (1956 / 1958 / 1960) and abandoned 1 Tour de France (1957 during the 17th stage).
The year 1956 will be the most significant of all his participation in the Tour de France. Antonio finished 10th in the competition with good results: 3rd in the 16th stage, 6th in the 1st stage, 7th in the 12th stage, 8th in the 3rd stage, 10th in the 21st stage. Year 1956: He is the first Portuguese in the history of cycling to be in the top ten of the Tour de France!
After his career as a professional cyclist, he became coach of Benfica as National Technical Director of the Portuguese team (1975-1978 and 1989-1992), then commentator for Portuguese radio and television. Sport is a lifelong passion!

Jan Janssen - Netherlands

✅ 8 participations in the Tour de France
🏆 Winner of 1 Tour de France / Winner of 7 stages on the Tour de France
📅 Pro years: 1962 - 1972

Born in 1940, Johannes Adrianus Janssen, known as Jan Janssen, is a Dutch cyclist. He was a professional rider between 1962 and 1972. During his childhood, he first practiced speed skating and football. Amazed by the atmosphere of a cycle race organized on the Nootdorp racecourse, he fell in love with this sport. Janssen then makes two round trips daily to get to the technical college in The Hague. In view of his good school results, his father gave him a real bike some time later.

His track record is substantial. Jan Janssen was present on the Tour de France for 8 consecutive years (1963 to 1970). In his first Tour de France in 1963, after winning a stage in Limoges, he fell in the descent of Aubisque and fractured his femur.
In 1968, the Tour de France took place for the last time according to the formula with national teams. This will be the year of his greatest achievement! On the morning of the last stage, he was 16 seconds behind the Belgian Van Springel (the first four in the general ranking being classified in the same minute). Janssen surpassed himself by creating a gap over Van Springel (favorite of the Yellow Jersey) in the time trial Melun-Paris (55 kilometers). For 38 seconds, he won the 1968 Tour de France in extremis!

Perfectly French-speaking, he is more popular in France than in his own country. Indeed, Jan Jessen has spent almost all of his career with French professional teams.