From The Vault #2: Peter van der Knoop

The other Dutchman who might have won Milan–Sanremo 1985?

For the second installment of From The Vault, issue 12 of De Muur landed on my desk. De Muur is a Dutch cycling quarterly magazine, founded and edited by Bart Jungmann, Mart Smeets and Bert Wagendorp, and it remains one of the most enduring literary projects in the sport.

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© De Muur

The cover photograph is striking: father and mother Otxoa holding a framed portrait of their sons, Javier and Ricardo. The brothers, both cyclists, were struck by a car while training. One died instantly, the other succumbed years later. Journalist Edwin Winkels tells their story in a piece aptly titled De tranen der Otxoa’s — the tears of the Otxoas.

But the article that caught my attention was tucked a few pages deeper: Fred Segaar’s portrait of Peter van der Knoop.

Until reading it, Van der Knoop was little more than an entry in my database, one of those names that exist in cycling’s statistical margins. Forgotten. Until, that is, the story of Milan–Sanremo 1985.